Into the Great Green Wood

The company followed Blacktongue into the wood. The forest loomed over them, tree trunks thick and gnarled, covered in grey green moss and lichen. Wet, fertile under growth and leaf litter filling their nostrils with a musty bouquet of flower, sap, and decay.

There was a life force here, the air was thick with it. Older than man, older even then the men before man. It had seen men climb down from its branches and grub in caves, then watched as they had moved into the open and built thatched dwellings from its very bones.

Though usually indifferent, today it seemed hostile. The weight of its anger bore down on Hagendar and his companions as they ventured further towards its dark green heart.

Each step was hard going. There were none of the usual game trails one might expect, or the rough paths that woodsmen often hacked when they were about their work. The forest resisted with the weight of leaf, twig, and branch. Men were not welcome here.

Blacktongue still moving ever onward, his head and arms twitching in strange ways, the cold haunted voices of the dead slipping thorough his cracked lips, became a vague figure ahead. The company pushed hard to keep up, but it seemed as if the forest just let him in. By the time the group realised what transpired it was too late. Blacktongue slowly disappeared into the gloom and all they could do was struggle in vein and watch their friend be carried off by the ghosts.

"Now what", 

Muttered Lugh the rogue.

"We are without our wizard. How shall we find the beast?"

Hagendar stopped. All eyes in the group turned to him. He thought briefly and smiled.

"The creature is no friend of men, an neither is this wood. I think they conspire. All we need do now is wait."

Olrun frowned looking ahead into the trees.

"What of Blacktongue?"

Hagendar made a good effort to hide his concern.

"What of wizards? Who can say what the gods have in mind for him? I have known him long and he has returned from greater danger and mystery than this."

Olrun and Lugh could hear the worry in his voice, but the pantomime was good enough to bolster the guardsmens' crumbling morale.

"Here is as good a place as any to make our stand. We prepare and wait. Olrun and Lugh, you know your duties."

Hagendar's companions nodded wordlessly and went about their preparations. The Monster slayer fixed his gaze upon the Thane's men, who had now clustered together.

"You men, I want a look out in the trees, the rest of you clear a space for the fighting from the brush and lay snares, thick ones mind you, at the perimeter."

He began to move about the site, marking the earth for the placement of outward facing stakes.

"We know not what we face, but we will be ready. We are not villagers surprised in the night. Follow my lead, keep a cool head, and we may yet live and have a mighty tale to tell."

Hagendar's thoughts extended into the wood. His senses sung with the presence of the thing, it was near. Raising Brightshaft and planting it firmly in the rich loam of the forest floor he waited.

I am ready damn you. 

Come.