//random short stories//

Murmurs

The trees are silent. The leaves dangle soundlessly as if being excessively careful not to collide. Even the tiniest creatures hidden in the darkest, dampest nooks of the trees are quiet, waiting. In the dark, the forest watches.

I watch.

From a place in the distance, dissonant crashing is approaching. Thwack, crunch, crunch, thwack.
Dead leaves crunch like brittle bone under leather boots, fevering the forest. A shadowy figure moves through the trunks, loud and inelegant. From a high vantage point, a moment-long glimpse of his face can be seen in a sliver of moonlight. His features are pale and masculine, with low cheekbones and a grazing of stubble. Jaded flints like broken glass shimmer in his eyes.

The moonlight also happens to catch the long blade of polished steel hanging from his belt, running from its hilt like silvery water.

The leaves begin to murmur.

Unsettled beetles begin to fuss in their bits of bark; I shush them with a gentle breeze that sings and makes them sleepy once again. The burrow of wild rabbits are harder to keep quiet.

Confident as the trespasser's gait seems, he looks almost war torn. His body is severely emaciated under the obviously oversized folds of his clothes. Red marks infringe on every exposed section of skin - the dirt wriggles uncomfortably as blood drips from him in a trail.

From far off, the sound of a horn erupts into the night sky, bellicose and impossibly loud. The leaves begin to riot, slamming about in a frenzy. All the animals share a single panicked mind, screeching at one another over the big dangerous sound.

A patch of strangled voice is emitted by the man. A moment later he is sprinting out of the forest, with nothing to mark his existence except the echo of the forest floor and a trail of blood running thin near the end.

It takes all night, but I finally manage to caress the forest back into order, just as the sky is lighting into a grey-blue. Sleepy clouds clutter around the Eastern side of things as the day begins to warm, with no sign of the stranger and no pursuing noises. With a quick kick up of leaves, I conceal the man's footsteps, and within a day the forest had forgotten.