It was early morning when you got separated from your group. A dense, near impenetrable fog had rolled in from the ocean and it made following the trails impossible. You had stopped to adjust your stirrups and without even noticing that you had stopped, the rest of your group had passed along without you. You quickly dismount from your Trotter, gathering the reins in one hand and pulling your map from your jacket to check it and try to find out where you are. You shine your flashlight around the woods surrounding you and give a few shouts out to see if you can find your group, but no one else called back to you. Your fear began to mount as you realized you had been left stranded, but you were determined to find your way back without having a mental breakdown and seeming weak to the other and more experienced riders, and Camp Nightwing staff. You could find your way out of this.
You pick a random direction and began to walk through it, occasionally calling out, carefully picking your way through the trees and dense undergrowth, though you do hopelessly realize that you're in the middle of nowhere and you aren't on one of the trails. With no other choice you trudge on and eventually find a very old and overgrown trail that still had a little bit of gravel on it. Relieved, you begin to follow the trail, checking your map as you and your horse travel on, but you couldn't find a trace of this trail anywhere on the map. As you walk with your eyes down to pick your way through and walk over the tree roots without tripping and going flat on your face, you see two sets of hoofprints walking side by side and you begin to smile, calling out again for your friend in your group, and the group leader. Still, no sounds came back to you.
You shortly reached a 'clearing' of sorts, or at least it had been a clearing of some kind, a large space of The Dark Woods Den's trees had been cut down some time ago and some younger trees had begun to sprout and flourish. Your horse startled over something, jerking back and to the side, which made you jump and snapped you out of your concentrative phase. You quickly regained control over them, holding onto the reins tightly with one hand and patting them gently with the other, talking to them and telling them it was okay, but you wondered what they had found worthy to spook over. Ahead of you, there was a large machine of some kind, you couldn't really identify it but it kind of looked like a dump truck, that sat in it's rusted resting place, seemingly not having moved in many, many years, which could be the culprit for your loyal steed's worries. The paint had long since peeled and chipped away and it was more rust than machine now. Your flashlight scans through the dense fog the beam slowly finding more old machines and things, wagons, tracks, and mine carts rusted into their final places. As you reach the end of the clearing, a wooden entryway stands ahead of you, with the messages 'DANGER' and 'KEEP OUT'' written in very clear and bright red paint on various falling down boards. Your flashlight beam finds a couple of dead trees reaching out with their picked clean arms towards the sky, and more concerningly, a large patch of graves with simple wooden or steel crosses sitting by each side of the mine entrance.
Finding the graves more than chilled you a bit, there was no mention on the map of this place, and no one had ever brought up a graveyard on the grounds, but due to the less than stellar history of this camp you supposed it made sense. You recalled in your memory from your first trip that a lot of bad things had happened in the Dark Woods... But seeing it really drilled it home in your head. You wanted desperately to leave this place, but the hoofprints in front of you seemed to be going directly down into the mine. You braved approaching a little more to the entrance but you did worry a bit about the entrance collapsing down on top of you and your horse's heads. You call out again into the mine a questioning greeting and nothing but an echo and reverb of your voice comes back to you. You sigh out heavily, and your flashlight begins to flicker and flit out. You slap it a few times against your palm as it flickers, and after a few seconds it went out entirely, your only light abandoning you in this forgotten about place. You begin to quickly back away from the gaping, pitch black darkness of the entrance, and without your light you're able to see something far and deep down into the black corridor, which might as well have been the mouth of some enormous beast. There's a light down there, a fire, it seems, it moved and flickered gently, an orange, yellow, red light that meant fire. Your horse begins to dance a little in place, and even lifts up from their front legs in a small, protesting rear. They want out of this place, and so do you, but your curiosity is still getting the best of you.
As you stare at the light, blinking your eyes and making sure that you are in fact seeing it, when a few voices calling your name snaps you out of your trance. You all but run away from the entrance and take your horse who was also eager to get away from there, clumsily mounting up into the saddle as your horse begins to carry you away without waiting for you to be fully on and settled from the mine without any direction from you, carrying you back to the safety of the group by sound and sense.
You pick a random direction and began to walk through it, occasionally calling out, carefully picking your way through the trees and dense undergrowth, though you do hopelessly realize that you're in the middle of nowhere and you aren't on one of the trails. With no other choice you trudge on and eventually find a very old and overgrown trail that still had a little bit of gravel on it. Relieved, you begin to follow the trail, checking your map as you and your horse travel on, but you couldn't find a trace of this trail anywhere on the map. As you walk with your eyes down to pick your way through and walk over the tree roots without tripping and going flat on your face, you see two sets of hoofprints walking side by side and you begin to smile, calling out again for your friend in your group, and the group leader. Still, no sounds came back to you.
You shortly reached a 'clearing' of sorts, or at least it had been a clearing of some kind, a large space of The Dark Woods Den's trees had been cut down some time ago and some younger trees had begun to sprout and flourish. Your horse startled over something, jerking back and to the side, which made you jump and snapped you out of your concentrative phase. You quickly regained control over them, holding onto the reins tightly with one hand and patting them gently with the other, talking to them and telling them it was okay, but you wondered what they had found worthy to spook over. Ahead of you, there was a large machine of some kind, you couldn't really identify it but it kind of looked like a dump truck, that sat in it's rusted resting place, seemingly not having moved in many, many years, which could be the culprit for your loyal steed's worries. The paint had long since peeled and chipped away and it was more rust than machine now. Your flashlight scans through the dense fog the beam slowly finding more old machines and things, wagons, tracks, and mine carts rusted into their final places. As you reach the end of the clearing, a wooden entryway stands ahead of you, with the messages 'DANGER' and 'KEEP OUT'' written in very clear and bright red paint on various falling down boards. Your flashlight beam finds a couple of dead trees reaching out with their picked clean arms towards the sky, and more concerningly, a large patch of graves with simple wooden or steel crosses sitting by each side of the mine entrance.
Finding the graves more than chilled you a bit, there was no mention on the map of this place, and no one had ever brought up a graveyard on the grounds, but due to the less than stellar history of this camp you supposed it made sense. You recalled in your memory from your first trip that a lot of bad things had happened in the Dark Woods... But seeing it really drilled it home in your head. You wanted desperately to leave this place, but the hoofprints in front of you seemed to be going directly down into the mine. You braved approaching a little more to the entrance but you did worry a bit about the entrance collapsing down on top of you and your horse's heads. You call out again into the mine a questioning greeting and nothing but an echo and reverb of your voice comes back to you. You sigh out heavily, and your flashlight begins to flicker and flit out. You slap it a few times against your palm as it flickers, and after a few seconds it went out entirely, your only light abandoning you in this forgotten about place. You begin to quickly back away from the gaping, pitch black darkness of the entrance, and without your light you're able to see something far and deep down into the black corridor, which might as well have been the mouth of some enormous beast. There's a light down there, a fire, it seems, it moved and flickered gently, an orange, yellow, red light that meant fire. Your horse begins to dance a little in place, and even lifts up from their front legs in a small, protesting rear. They want out of this place, and so do you, but your curiosity is still getting the best of you.
As you stare at the light, blinking your eyes and making sure that you are in fact seeing it, when a few voices calling your name snaps you out of your trance. You all but run away from the entrance and take your horse who was also eager to get away from there, clumsily mounting up into the saddle as your horse begins to carry you away without waiting for you to be fully on and settled from the mine without any direction from you, carrying you back to the safety of the group by sound and sense.
More to come...
Posting and marking is okay
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