Hara and the Witch

Chapter 2: The Bluebell Woods

They'd been in the forest nearly two weeks and Hara had practically decided they'd been tricked. Still, there were worse places to find yourself lost in.

'Plim?' She looked into the dense tree cover overhead, trying to pick out the flitting body of her companion. Plim wasn't often difficult to see but when she got in a mood she would switch out her bright plumage, shades of green and yellow and blue, for a palette that made her practically impossible to see. Usually Hara admired this and often wished she was able to simply disappear into the world when it was too much, but at the same time she couldn't help the fact they were lost in a forest.

Except she could, if she'd accepted the witch's help.

'Plim, please come down,' Hara called, but she couldn't pick out the familiar movement of her sidekick in the dim. 'I'm sorry we are possibly, accidentally a little bit lost - I am!' Silence. 'Plim? Plim, are you alright? You don't need to speak to me, just let me know you're alright? Just with-'

Plim shot out of the treetops into Hara's face, all indignation and...

'Plim!' Hara saw the berry juice dripping from her beak, but she was too delighted to ask about it. Gingerly she gave the dove a kiss on the head. 'I'm sorry,' Hara repeated, glad Plim stayed at her side instead of returning to the trees. 'I'm sure we'll find our way soon. We've been through worse than this, haven't we?'

Plim coughed, sounding unconvinced.

'The water vole?' Hara said referring to their second adventure that had certainly been worse than this. 'And what about all those leaches we found in the caves last month? This,' she gestured optimistically at the forest, 'is nothing on that.'

Looking at her raised hand Hara noticed a large leech clinging to her wrist and quickly removed it before Plim could see.

Hara had been on many adventures since leaving the small town she had grown up in and each one had been shared with Plim, the two of them coming together almost the moment Hara stepped beyond her past. They had been through almost four years worth of excitement, but it had only taken a day for them to become inseparable. Now Hara didn't know what she would do without Plim, much less where she would be.

Dead, probably.

'If we die in here, I will blame you,' Plim said, taking up residence on Hara's shoulder and looking out at the forest before them. Plim didn't speak a whole lot, often most comfortable with singing her feelings, but whenever she did speak it was sure to be pointed.

'I...' Hara couldn't think of anything to say to that. 'Hmm. Plim?'

Plim chirruped, flitting away to snap up a bug before returning to Hara's shoulder, crunching it loudly.

'I think this witch has sent us on a wild troll chase - wait wait wait! Just think it through with me! We're sent into the Bluebell Woods to find a troll, right? Right. She wants to come with us, right? Maybe she has a secret cottage inside the woods to trap poor questers - that's us... fine, that's me - in and... trap them. Or maybe the cottage on the edge of the woods is like a sort of guardhouse and she sends brave souls in to their doom!'

Plim didn't even dignify this with a chirrup.

'I think it's possible.'

'It's possibly the most stupid thing I've ever heard,' Plim said.

'That's rude.' They walked on for several minutes until the forest got too quiet (and Hara came up with a response). 'Well then, what? Why send us in here? Her map was rubbish, she didn't pay us and... ok, perhaps that's all completely normal. Maybe I just always do this. But I mean, if you're hiring someone to do a revenge mission for you then maybe people should be a little... bit... Plim?'

Plim let out the smallest chirrup imaginable. She fluffed up her feathers and in a swirl of blue and green flew onto Hara's head, cooing. Very, very softly.

The silence of the forest, a silence that had fallen without Hara realising, without her even stopping to think (although she really, really should have) was broken by a dull, rumbling thud.

A leaf, golden orange and sharp as broken glass fell to the ground before their eyes.

In the moment it took Hara to hesitate, a dozen more followed it.

There was something in the forest and it was getting nearer.

-

Hara sped through the trees, grabbing onto low branches to pull herself forward, crawling under overhanging limbs and running through shrubbery and prickling, flesh shredding brambles. When Plim chirruped she altered her course, heading off the animal paths and into the denser, tighter growing forest. Still, no matter how fast she moved the thing gained on them. It was hard to tell where it was heading, its range seeming to spread out behind them in every direction, and even though Hara doubted this loud, angry thing knew of their presence, she also doubted it would do them any good to be discovered by it.

'Hara?' Plim screamed over the sound of a tree crashing to the ground behind them; a small rabbit shot past, eyes wide when it looked back at the two, fear sending it away in the blink of an eye.

'Yes?' Hara yelled, jumping over a rotting stump and sliding on a patch of slick leaves.

'I think there's something in here,' Plim screeched, her words instantly familiar as a lullaby known throughout the lands, 'in this magical forest!'

'PLIM! Now is not the time!' Hara gasped, foot catching on a rock. She fell briefly but was up and running again within seconds.

'A troll or an ogre or a pixie or a human!' Plim continued once Hara was running again, hopping back and forth across her shoulders, anxious yet still quite able to finish her tune. 'Best keep your distanceeeee!'

'Maybe when we're not on the run, Plim!' Hara suggested, her voice echoing loudly in the sudden, inexplicable silence.

Looking up, Hara tried for some glimpse of the sky, to see the thunder she could hear rumbling beyond, but it was impossible.

'Maybe the storm... frightened it off?' Hara panted. 'Or your song?'

Plim had only time to peck Hara's earlobe before a thud behind them made it clear whatever "it" was, it had not been frightened by Plim's lullaby. Plim, still attached to Hara's ear, was so startled she fell off her shoulder and dangled mid air, sharp beak clamped onto Hara with cutting determination. Hara, surprised by the sound and the sudden pain, screamed and tried to make a run for it, grabbing Plim's small body in one hand and her sword in the other, but before she could even hope something grabbed her about the legs and she fell, throwing Plim away from her so she wouldn't be crushed.

Hara landed flat on her face, her nose making an uncomfortable popping sound and her arm whacking into a rock as her sword flew across the forest floor and out of her reach. She felt sticks and small rocks pressing into her body and something larger jammed against her hip and she couldn't hear Plim, couldn't look up to see her because whatever had grabbed her was pulling her back, dragging her by the legs through the undergrowth. She tried to lift her head and look around, pick out Plim's darting movements and reassure herself that she was ok, that she hadn't been hurt, but then something smacked her over the back of the head and as she gasped in anger she passed out.