The Ghost in the Trees by PC Nottingham

Author:PC Nottingham
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798823206518
Publisher: The Little Horsemen
Published: 2024-10-16T14:05:26+00:00

For the rest of the day, they only stopped once to eat. Risu found mushrooms she called “forest chicken” and told them to eat while she scouted from the nearest Gnaverwood. In between bites of orange-yellow puffy mushroom, Marsvin nudged Itansha, confident Risu was too high to hear.

“How many Gnaverwoods are on the island?”

Itansha cocked his head. “Many. Dozens. Hundreds.” His expression softened. “Father makes me read philosophy. I’ve read these so-called wiserodents complain we haven’t even mapped out the entire Sea of Trees. Why do you ask? Do you have an exact count on Mausfjord?”

Marsvin nodded, chewing the stringy mushroom and wishing for a sweet drink to have with it. He held up a single finger.

Itansha’s incredulous look returned. “Only one?”

“We call it Varldstrad. If I translated, it would be ‘world tree.’ It’s holy. I can’t understand how your island has so many. Da told me we didn’t have a word for Gnaverwood until we made contact with other islands. What’s strange to me is ‘Gnaverwood,’ the word, sounds like something from my language. Are they holy to you?”

Itansha chewed on his mushroom and sucked a squishroot they’d found. Passing the root over, he said, “Not in my religion, no. The commoners,” he gestured in Risu’s general direction, “think the Gnaverwoods are gods. Or spirits. I never understood. But the word doesn’t sound like anything else in our language, I suppose.”

Marsvin nodded. “Risu’s grandma kept telling her things about the guardians of the forest. They let me listen.”

Itansha harrumphed and shook his head.

“They aren’t holy to you?” Marsvin asked.

“They’re trees.”

“But not truly.”

“Fine. They’re half the size of mountains, and their bark is like rock. But they’re still trees. Moss and mushrooms,” he waved the forest chicken in his paw, “grow on them, just like normal trees.”

“They’re older, too. Do your philosophy books say anything about them?”

“I skip over the natural history parts. Except for the excerpts about silkworms. Those are fascinating. Anyway, these books mostly deal with sword fighting, which is why Father makes me read them. Speaking of, care for another lesson?”

Despite the aches, Marsvin agreed, reaching for the axe.

Rising, Itansha removed his sheathed sword from his belt. “Try and deflect this strike.”

Marsvin watched the end of the covered sword and raised his axe.

“I’ll do this first one slowly.” Itansha brought it toward his right side in a downward slash, which Marsvin pushed away. “Good. Do you feel my weight shifting as you push? A skilled warrior uses that to his advantage. You could use another weapon or force me off-balance.”

“Makes sense.”

“But be aware your opponent has a longer tail, so pushing me off-balance will be a greater challenge. Let’s try it again at half speed.”

Marsvin nodded. He must not know the word ‘half’ as well as he thought because Itansha’s sword came down like a blur. Instinct moved his arm to catch and deflect the strike.

“Good.” The swordsrodent slashed at the same speed from a different angle.

They did five more cuts like this before Marsvin wondered where Risu was—a blunt force hit him in the shoulder, knocking him to the ground.

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