In a Dark Wood

His eyes fluttered open, the smell of the campfire stuck to his clothes, the dense canopy of the forest hindered what motes of midday sun escaped through the obstructing dark clouds above, and what pitiful light graced the forest floor revealed only underbrush, no shelter from the weather, no clearing of foliage fit for resting, no ashen remains of a campfire, and no signs of his friends or an indication he had ever occupied this space any sooner than his eyes laid upon it. The darkness from the night before made finding any differences or similarities in the forest he fell asleep in to the one he was in now difficult. If he looked long enough and hoped hard enough, he was able to fool himself for short moments that the two forests were the same; but the longer he looked and the harder he hoped the more certain he was to the contrary.

The forest he and his companions had traveled as the sky darkened into night was no different than one would imagine; sturdy trees, lush green foliage, and the sounds of the animals that called the forest home. The forest around him had been blackened, features not noticeable at a glance now leapt out at him. The more he willed himself to see similarities the more he noticed the irregularities. The brown tree bark now black, the green foliage ashy grey, and the sounds of the creatures of the forest absent, all he could hear was the pounding of his heart in his chest. The obscuring canopy and diffusion of light by the dark clouds prevented the traveler from knowing his own location and the winding forest growth made no attempts to assist him in finding a path well-traveled. He called for his companions once, twice, three times with only the deafening silence of the forest answering. He waited, turning his ear desperately each direction praying to hear any familiar voice calling back to him. He let out a desperate wail, pleading to the sky and the ground to not leave him alone in this unfamiliar land. His throat burned, the pressure behind his eyes muted by the pain in his chest as his heart threatened to break free of his rib cage. His surroundings blurred as he spun rapidly, mistaking the thrum of blood in his ears for the voices of his companions and the sound of footfalls in a dense forest before falling to the ground. As the spinning forest slowed to a stable image the traveler gathered his composure. He was not equipped to traverse the forest in search of his fellow travelers but he mustered the courage to press onward to their next resting location in hopes he would find their familiar faces waiting for him. He retrieved his compass from his bag and pressed onward.

While his compass guided him, he prayed beyond hope that he was traveling in a direction that would see him soon delivered beyond this wretched forest. As he moved, the sun appeared fixed in place along with the clouds that prevented an accurate gauge of its position. Hours passed and the light in the forest was as bleak as when he awoke that morning but the forest continued twisting and winding. Each clear path he found ended abruptly into dense growth prohibiting travel and the trees he passed became more warped and alien in shape, limbs twisting from tree to tree, jutting through each tree before plunging into the ground, creating walls out of their limbs and trunks as if to tell the traveler to not stray beyond his path. The longer he traveled and the more the forest inhibited his movement, the more he saw the forest’s attempts to keep him on his path as malicious, a means to keep him within its mangled structure forever. The deeper he traveled into the forest, the less light he had to ensure his path as the twisting and winding of the trees steadily blocked not only his movement but the sun’s light from reaching him.

He could hardly see beyond his own reach, slowing his movement greatly otherwise experiencing the consequences of running through a dense forest with no light. He came upon another wall of trees blocking his path but these trues were unusual even for this forest; their branches and bark were white as bone, twisting into elegant shapes and patterns foreign to the grotesque shapes of the blackened forest he had grown accustomed to. He pawed about in the darkness, but the wall of ivory trees appeared to encircle him. He pulled a lighter from his bag and as he struck light into the darkness his heart dropped to his feet. The ivory trees surrounded him but on one edge the branches twisted into a helix that formed an archway roughly half the size of a doorway. The traveler knelt to shine the light further in, but it stopped short of passing beyond the boundary. He nervously edged closer to the entrance; the intricacies of the design would be considered beautiful if not being viewed by a man desperately focused on his survival. He sunk to the ground and hesitantly crawled through the space that devoured his light.

Beyond the wall of darkness the light from the flame carried hardly beyond the traveler’s face. The floor he crawled on was smooth and chilling, the only signs of a forest were the ivory branches that formed the ceiling of the cavern he crawled through. The flame from his lighter flickered for a moment, the traveler stopped moving and held his breath. He watched as a soft breeze flourished the flame in front of his eyes before it dissipated. He hurriedly attempted to strike the flame again and as the light flowed through the narrow cavern something caught his eye. He blew out the lighter and there it was, a faint light in the distance. He felt his heart jump into his throat as energy surged through him and he rushed for the source of that light. As he crawled closer to the light the cavern began to narrow and the branches above his head snagged on his bag and ripped it open. He turned about and struck his lighter. His bag had been emptied onto the smooth floor of the cavern and its contents strewn about.

Pictures of his fellow travelers, small hand tools, and a few packages of food laid about the smooth cavern floor. The man looked over the items as his gaze fell upon the packages of food. He was certain he had walked for hours, if not days, but had yet to touch his food. The rational explanation was that he had lost a proper sense of time while wandering about the twisted forest. He gathered the food in his arms and continued toward the light, focused entirely on the salvation that awaits him on the other side. The cavern had shrunk to scarcely larger than he was as he reached the opening that contained a near blinding light.

 He squeezed himself through the opening and was greeted by the warmth and light of the morning sun. He pulled himself to his feet and for the first time in what he previously believed had been days was able to see beyond a short distance in front of him. The sight of his hands caught his attention. He had been scraped and cut all over in his exploration of the blackened forest. Underneath his torn clothes the small wounds formed patterns of swirls and interconnecting lines that created intricate designs across his body. Small droplets of blood pooled at the edges of some of the deeper cuts and left black streaks on his skin as they ran down his arm. As he took in his surroundings, he found himself in an odd forest. It was full of strange brown trees, mysterious green foliage, and peculiar sounds of creatures in the distance. It was a noisy and bright environment, nothing like the black forest he knew.

As he marveled at the perplexing state of nature in this area he heard voices in the distance. As he moved toward the voices the ground beneath him crunched and snapped with each step. He drew closer to the voices and noticed the faint smell of something smoldering. He came into a clearing and saw a group standing around a still warm fire. He was met with concerned and confused looks from the people around the fire. As they approached him they made remarks about his wounds and his whereabouts. He was surrounded by mysterious individuals in a confusing forest and these people faked concern and pretended to know him. The name they referenced him with held no familiarity, but their faces held an eerie similarity to the people in the photos he found while crawling through the narrow cavern.