Witch, Wolf, Woods

CHAPTER 34: INSIDE THE FOREST

"Could there be some sort of disease affecting the forest?" asked Katja. "But then why isn't it infecting everything living here? We've only seen the black lines on some things. And isn't the Waldkonig supposed to heal anything that gets sick in the Schwarzwald? He's the caretaker of the forest, after all."

"All excellent questions," agreed Wolf. "Perhaps we can ask him when we meet him."

A rush of fear flooded Katja's stomach at the thought of standing before the Forest King, and she reached up and touched the wolf necklace for comfort, smiling when she realized what she'd done, but glad to still find a sense of security from the jewelry that had changed her life.

They continued on, and Katja laughed watching squirrels leap over pinecones before chasing one another around trees. Sunlight glinted off spiderwebs, and dust motes floated through the air. The occasional feather dotted the ground, adding a streak of blue or yellow to the forest floor, and the droning of insects provided a steady background hum.

Grateful when Wolf announced it was time to stop for a break, Katja walked up to a tree whose trunk was covered in tiny strips of curling bark, marveling at how the slim trunk grew sideways, as if it was reaching for the neighboring tree, allowing the upper branches of both to intertwine and form an archway of sorts.

"I always thought trees only grew straight up," she said, admiring the swooping curve of the delicate branches. "I suppose they're growing towards wherever the sun shines the most, but it looks as if they're reaching for one another, trying to be close on purpose."

Giving the trunk a pat, Katja stepped beneath the arch of tree branches, then walked a few more feet before she stopped and glanced around.

Something was wrong.

The forest looked different all of a sudden, and she quickly tried to place what, exactly, had changed. Something with the trees, perhaps...the colors were different, and the ground was uneven and littered with rocks rather than covered in a thick layer of pine needles and dirt.

Turning around, she was shocked to find herself alone.

"Wolf?" she called, turning in a slow circle, waiting for him to appear.

But there was no answer, and her best friend wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"Wolf!" she called again, her heartbeat speeding up. How had they been separated?

Katja stumbled forward a few steps, the rocks making for difficult footing, and when she reached the end of the trees, she gasped—she was standing on the edge of a ravine, looking down into a heavily forested canyon. The sound of a waterfall could be heard in the distance, and a hawk cried out nearby. The wind was cooler here, and Katja shivered, quickly making her way back inside the shelter of the trees.

Where was she? How had she gotten separated from Wolf? And most importantly, how did she find him again?

Katja tried to remember exactly where she'd first emerged in this new location, but as she studied the trees around her, they began to look more and more similar. Working to keep her breathing even, she did her best to make sense of what had happened.

The simplest explanation seemed to be she'd walked through an archway of tree branches and somehow ended up in an entirely different part of the forest. She had no idea how she'd done such a thing, and there was always the chance she hadn't done anything at all, and the forest was simply playing a trick on her. It seemed in keeping with everything she'd heard about the Schwarzwald, even though she hadn't sensed anything sinister in her communication with the woods thus far.

Touching the wolf necklace for luck, Katja began to explore the immediate area, searching for anything she might have missed, something that would explain what had just happened. When nothing readily presented itself, her stomach tightened.