The Trespassing of Souls by M S C Barnes

Author:M S C Barnes [Barnes, M S C]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy, magic, teen, fairies, elves, dryad, doubt, stone circle, ogham
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

You Decide

It was only when he got outside the door, letting it click shut quietly behind him, and stared up the dark, winding staircase that Seb wondered if he had been foolish. He had turned his back on his only group of friends. But what did they matter? No one mattered. Not even I matter! he thought, staring at the jewel-spattered walls. This is all pointless.

He climbed the steps, his footfalls thudding on the cold stone, and tentatively picked his way round the spiralling staircase. Just as he was about to call for flamers he was relieved to see a thin shaft of light and trotted quickly up the final turn. He pushed the door open against the drag of the overhanging tapestry.

He packed bare essentials, clothes, some meagre food supplies and a bottle of water and then walked out into the crisp, bright morning.

The slight chill in the air gave a promise of autumn. He hadn’t a clue where he was going, he just knew that he wasn’t staying among the teachers who had brought nothing but disturbing thoughts and devastating revelations.

He ignored two large shadows that swooped and flitted in the sky above him, past caring what any of the strange between world creatures around him were and, looking down, watched his canvas pumps eat up the ground. In thirty paces he was under the tree canopy. In thirty more he had lost the path. Stopping to get his bearings he stood in a twilight darkness created by the interwoven oak branches, whose leaves allowed only the smallest of sunlight splashes to reach him as they blew in the wind. Sounds were muffled, rustling, the skittering of some small creature in the nearby bushes, the odd creak of the tree branches. Nothing else; no road noise, no urban sounds, not even birdsong, he noticed.

About to tramp back the way he had come, Seb felt the hairs on his neck stand on end. He could hear breathing, snorting, quite close by.

“Flamers,” he whispered. A few friendly orbs on a low-hanging branch lit up beside his head. Relieved at their presence he tried to shake off his fear and then heard a considerably louder snort to his right followed by a whimper. Seb recognised the sound – Cue!

Frozen on the spot he waited for the wolf to pounce. After a few startled seconds Seb slowly turned to look at the beast who was simply sitting, staring at him, drooling. It whimpered again, then sneezed, shaking its huge head and spraying saliva and snot left and right.

“What is the matter with you?” Seb said, taking a step back. Cue whined.

After standing silently with the wolf-stag for several minutes, Seb decided the creature was no threat. He looked around expecting to see the teachers, his friends. There was no sign of any of them and now he was fed up.

“Well, I’m not spending the rest of my day standing here!” Cue licked his nose and waited. Seb picked a direction where the woodland was least dense.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.