Night Forest

I had always wondered what the forest was like at night.

My father would be one who took me out on hunting parties with his friends and their sons as well. He would always inform me of the dangers of the forest which had surrounded our village before my father was a boy. He would preach the benefits of walking around in pairs and never going too far beyond the village unless an adult was present.

I simply understood this as ‘the rules’ and I never really saw a reason to break them. Once I grew into my later years, I began to doubt my parents’ authority over me. I began to ask myself “Why can’t I go out into the forest alone?”

Of course, I never really brought it up to any of my parents. I was afraid that doing so would result in a good few harsh lashings and a lecture about to never go into the forest. But I think it was that decision to keep that thought bottled up inside that led to my deathly curiosity of the “Night Forest” as I came to call it.

During the day, the forest held wild beasts that we’d hunt and kill. Then we’d use the meat of these beasts to feed ourselves and my mother would use the pelts to make our clothes. However, the Night Forest could have been filled with anything. 

I needed to know what it was like.

One night, I packed my things in between completing my daily chores around the house. Once I was certain that my parents were asleep, I gathered up my pack and skinning knife (for my personal protection) and crept through the house and out the door. Then, I made a break for the Night forest. 

My heart was pounding and I could feel it in my ears. But I knew (I should really say felt) that I was on the right path. I was finally becoming independent of my parents and exploring the wide open world on my own. 

Once I got to a small cliff where we’d frequently patrol for game during our days out hunting; I used my knife to carve an ‘X’ into the trees. That way I could use them to redirect myself back to the village. I was brave, but I wasn’t stupid.

Once I made the first X, I adventured deeper into the Night Forest. My notebook in my off hand and my lead in the other. I had hoped to jot down anything I could find in this new land quickly. I wasn’t sure what I’d see, but I was excited to find out. 

Then I saw something odd.

In a bush, I saw a bright blue light. After making a quick note of said light, I took light steps closer towards it. I watched it and my steps closely. Attempting to not make so much noise as to possibly disturb the source. Once I was inches from the bush, the light flew upwards towards the sky.

I yelped and stumbled backwards. I nearly fell on my rear, but I was able to catch myself before I permanently stained a pair of trousers my mother worked so hard on. Once I regained my composure, and a piece of my pride, I turned towards where the light had gone.

The source of the light was a small blue orb. That continued to emit the light that was in the bush. However, the light seemed to be attached to this orb. The light and the small orb moved as one. Then, a thought occurred to me: “What if this was the light?” What if the thing standing about twenty feet in the air, was a small ball of light?

As I asked this to myself, the light began to move. It moved to the left. Then to the right. Then in a spiral motion downwards into another straight shot upwards. The light began to repeat this pattern and I quickly jotted down the pattern. My notebook now littered with my hurried chicken scratch.

One the rise of it’s fourth cycle, the light stopped at the apex. This was the moment where the light was supposed to fall and repeat it’s pattern. Then the light began to glow brighter. Then I saw another orb of light, in the same color, approach the one I had been observing for the better part of two minutes now. The first orb began to move towards the second, and I followed trying to not trip on any loose tree root.

Once the two orbs of light met, they began to glow brighter and grow dimmer at random intervals. Then the first orb moved closer to the second. The second orb then flew around the first and spun around it. It was hard to tell, but I believed that the first orb seemed to be following the second’s movements. As it tried to do so, it later moved like the orb was… Dizzy?

Then the second orb moved up and down rapidly. Like it was… Laughing? The first orb then followed the second’s strange laughing pattern. I tried to listen closer but the orbs stopped moving as I decided to tune my ears. But I did not hear laughing.

I heard singing.

But the singing did not come from the orbs. I heard it deeper in the forest. I, and the orbs, looked towards the faint singing. The orbs moved, in unison towards the rough direction of the singing. The orbs were already miles away before I noticed they had left.

Then I began to chase after the orbs. Forgetting all sense of subtlety as I clamored my way through the forest. Stepping on every kind of leaf that was falling in time for the autumn season. As I ran, I saw more lights at my sides. Each one in pairs of two or four. Were they fairies? I had heard about them in my mother’s fairy tales but I never thought they were real. Their behaviors seemed to align with them. Maybe they were pixies?

Regardless, the orbs moved faster than I could. They weren’t limited to the ground and weaved without issue through the trees. The singing grew louder, I had lost the original pair of orbs I was tracking and was now just after the sound. I hoped I would find them again but given the situation, that seemed unlikely. Then I came across a clearing of trees that held a large lake in the center.

This lake spanned across the entire clearing and there were little clouds of these blue lights all above the water’s surface. There were so many it almost hurt my eyes to look at them. As I turned my head to write this in my notebook, I caught the sight of a small boulder placed in the center of the lake.

It didn’t seem like a sharp rock. But it was large enough that I could see it from a distance. The rock wasn’t what caught my attention. It was the small waterfall that was forming down it’s backside that drew my eyes towards it. Baffled by this strange occurrence in nature, I stepped closer only to be taken aback by what laid on top of the rock. Which was also the source of this beautiful singing.

There was a woman on the rock. At least, I thought she was a woman. The figure that sat on the rock, legs crossed, was made entirely of water. It was difficult to make out any features from the distance, but the silhouette the figure showed reminded me of a woman. The woman’s hair fell behind her shoulders and was causing the unusual effect of water running down the rock’s backside. The woman’s hair was a small waterfall.

The woman sang deeply. It reminded me of when my mother would sing to me and my younger sister to get us to sleep. It was calming. The woman looked up towards the clouds of lights and reached her hand towards them. Moving her hand into a flat angle to make a small platform. 

Then, multiple pairs of lights began to move towards the woman’s hand. Only about three pairs actually made it to her hand. The rest, that weren’t fast enough it seems, returned to the cloud. The cloud then suddenly erupted into a swirl of lights that moved in beat with the woman’s singing. The woman slowly moved her arm towards her, keeping her hand flat for the lights that found their way towards her hand.

I was too mesmerized by the scene to write anything. I was taken aback by both the woman’s featureless beauty and the light show that was currently on display. The notebooks slipped from my hands and landed with a small crash on the grassy floor below.

Suddenly, the singing stopped.

The woman turned to look at me. I was able to briefly see the fear that glazed across her face when our eyes met. Then, once I blinked, the woman was gone. I heard the brief splash of water before I realized it.

“Wait!” I yelled to the mysterious woman before picking up my notebook. As I ran towards the lake, the thousands of lights that surrounded the lake had also vanished. Leaving me in a now dimly lit lake area. It was too late. The mysterious woman was gone. 

I returned to my home. I furiously wrote every last detail down into my notebook about the whole event. My hand was still shaking from the shock I felt from the whole thing. The experience moved me in a way I never really felt before. It made me feel… at peace. 

I was lucky to return to my village before the sun rose for the next morning. I was able to return to my bed in silence, without waking my parents. As I sat in my bed that night, I could only wonder what that woman was. I didn’t sleep a wink that night. Haunted by the many questions I had left in my mind as to what that woman could have been.