|
A Forest King Goes Hunting
 |
The
shadows from the
mountain forest stretched out like talons across
the village as Waldkon lay back in a bed of moss and ground his teeth
in frustration. He’d managed to kill nearly an entire village
and
the plague had been set to wipe out many more. Than a Hawthorn Tree had
fallen in love with a human girl. Who could have expected such a thing?
Surely the tree could see at least some of what he saw. Surely he must
know it would spell the death of the forest to allow the humans to
live. The Forest King growled in fury as he thought of another way to
kill the humans.
The wolves let out a chorus of howls as the moon started to rise into
the sky and Waldkon smiled a feral smile. |
It was time to take his new
packs of wolves hunting. Not for sheep as they had been but for the
shepherds and woodsmen. He rose from the bed of moss and let out a howl
of his own calling the wolves to him. The woodsmen and shepherds would
be returning home now. Easy prey.
The Old Männlein Saves the Wood Cutters
 |
Only
the moonlight could
show what was in the darkness beyond the
woodsmen’s lamps light as they made their way quickly down
the
forest paths amidst a chorus of howls. They glanced nervously into that
shadowy realm within the trees where they could see the wolves
following along side them. In a heartbeat the wolves were all around
them. Another howl closed the circle of wolves.
The woodsmen scrambled up into the trees to escape the wolves teeth as
the animals set upon them. Thinking themselves safe the woodsmen
watched the wolves snarl and growl below them.
|
The moonlight bent, attracted to another shadow which emerged from the
forest his eyes glinting coldly.
Waldkon smiled as he watched the men hiding like frightened squirrels
in the trees they’d sought to cut down.
“Lower your branch’s,” Waldkon told his
grandchildren
and obediently the trees bent down to the ground towards the wolves
which were waiting below.
First one than another of the woodsmen were pulled from the bending
trees by the pack of wolves. Their screams sending an added chill into
the village below where people debated whether they should enter the
dark forest to help. Wondered if they could help, for on that night
they sensed the Forest King in full fury.
Rumpelstiltskin, the ancient Männlein could hear the woodsmen
screaming long before the night had begun and so he rushed through the
stillness of the forest to arrive just as the trees bent low to give up
the humans huddled in them.
“Stand tall!” the Männlein ordered the
trees using his
force of will to make them comply against the desires of their king.
Waldkon flew into a rage and like a storm descended on the
Männlein, who hopped quickly through the forest luring the
King
and his wolves from the woodsmen.
The Forest Kings Realization
Waldkon watched the villages which lay along the cost from atop the
clouds. The Männlein had tricked him away from the woodsmen.
It
had been easy to do for he realized now that he lived simply on rage.
He realized that rage, that the death of a few woodsmen could never
stop the humans. To stop them he would need to manipulate them. To
corrupt them from within the way a tree rots until it collapses in on
itself.
It shouldn’t be hard the Forest King whispered for the
Männlein’s own manipulation was leaving him an
opening.
First, however, he would need to plan more and to corrupt the fairies
which protected the villages, starting with the one they called
“Little Red Hood.”
|
Sponsors
|
|