Chapter 1
Rune
My feet fly across the soft ground, away from the footsteps that chase me.
With a pounding heart and my skirt gathered in my hands,
I dodge my pursuers and run into the haunted forest.
There is just enough time to squeeze myself under a low
branch, and while the pines are thick enough to swallow my
small frame, my heart beats a painful rhythm against my ribs as
a boy no older than me inches closer to the edge of the path-
closer to where I hide. Sap-coated needles glue themselves to
my cheeks as I hug the closest branch and peer out. One of
the boys, the fearless one, raises an arm to signal the direction
he believes I've gone. But while his expression is hard, he
doesn't dare venture too far from the path; the trees are dark
and foreboding, even for a determined ruffian with a fistful of
pebbles.
"She's gone," he sighs.
"You mean vanished?" The second boy has joined him.
His eyes are wide as he scans the sky, as if I have taken flight
and disappeared altogether.
Blood trickles a thin line of red down my ankle where
one of the small rocks nicked me, but this childish witch hunt
does not frighten me. I am hidden-having outrun them,
outsmarted them, like I always do. They call the forest black for
a reason, and today it has proven true, hiding me well within
its cage of branches, safe behind the fear it breathes and the
animals who scream their devil calls.
Soon enough, the boys give up their chase and head back
toward the village. When I am certain they cannot hear me, I
pull myself free from the camouflage and stretch my limbs,
noting the small welts that dot my arms. This is not the first
time the boys have been cruel. After all, I am the strange girl
who lives in the forest, apprentice to the one they say is a witch.
The boys' backs become shadows as they cross the hedge,
leaving me alone in the wild, dark space that borders the
village-until something warm and unbidden kisses my ear. I
turn quickly, spying nothing but the endless stretch of forest.
Then it comes again-a whisper, a faint touch against my skin,
the gentle glide of fingers through my hair. The trees are still.
No breeze sweeps past, yet I am certain I am not alone.
Rune... My name carries on the air, its breathy tone so clear
YOU ARE READING
FOREST OF WHISPERS
Teen FictionRaised by an old fortune-teller within the dark veil of the Bavarian Black Forest, Rune has learned two valuable lessons: only take from the forest that which you can use, and never, never look anyone in the eye in the village. For something terribl...
