Into The Spring

Chapter 3

This area of the forest Abbey found herself was different from the rest. She was surrounded by rather large hills, much like the one she fell down. It appeared to be closed off from the rest of the world. The branches from all the trees weaved in and out of each other like someone had done a poor job stitching together a piece of cloth. It made the area almost completely dry from the rain, not to mention invisible to human detection as well. There was a rather deep looking spring only a few feet behind where the raven was standing, and a medium sized waterfall pouring into it from above.
        Abbey figured that this was the end of some stream that branched away from the St. Allison River, which ran along the back-ends of town. She inched closer to the bird getting closer and closer, then she lunged at it. The raven, cunning in its own right, took flight seconds before Abbey could get a grasp on it. It flew right into the waterfall and disappeared, taking her grandmother's flute with it. Perplexed at how it could just fly into a rock and vanish, Abbey decided to take a closer look at where the water was flowing. She examined where it was coming from. The water was crystal clear with the strangest glow despite the lack of sunshine. She could easily see that that the land the water sunk into was almost endlessly deep.
        "Hmm, I wonder why this spring doesn't overflow?" She asked herself, She began to think of all the books she read about underground tunnels and water reservoirs in school. She looked at the place in the waterfall where the raven disappeared. Nothing. Not a trace of him. As the mystery continued to baffle her, there was enormous rustling in the bushes coming from where she rolled down the hill. It frightened her and almost made her lose her balance. When she caught her herself, she almost sighed with relief. If she had fallen into the water, it would have surely been the end.
        She turned around to find whatever was rustling in the background jump out at her. It was only a squirrel but it surprised her to a point where she felt her body stumbling back towards the water. She was right on the edge, and tried to keep her balance but she wasn't so lucky. As she fell, she could feel herself being pulled down. She wasn't wearing anything heavy, so for her to be weighed down in such a way was quite strange. She began to feel her consciousness fading. She couldn't move, she couldn't breathe and she couldn't speak. She knew this was the end and she began to regret passing up on swimming lessons when she was younger. As she dropped deeper and deeper, her eyes were fixated on the surface. She saw a white light and it got brighter as she sank further. Then, total darkness.
        Abbey didn't know how long she had been out but her eyes opened half way. A gust of wind blew by her cheek told her she wasn't in the water anymore. Considering the water ran underground, it would have surely seemed impossible for her to be on dry land, much less alive. Had someone rescued her? She opened her eyes and looked around. She scanned the area and noticed that the forest she was in was completely different. The trees, although in the thrusts of winter, were green and plentiful. Not only the landscape was strangely different, in how the hills were shaped and the fact that the watering hole was now a giant stream that stretched across the area, but also the place was blanketed by a blistering snowstorm. She managed to get herself to her knees.
        Wherever she was, she could sense that she was farther away from home then she had been her whole life. The sky was grayish dark and flakes of ice fell onto her cheek. She rose to her feet and began to walk. The crunching of the snow beneath her shoe echoed around her and bounced off the trees and waking the wildlife that lived in the surrounding area. She had nothing warm to wear and with every step she shivered more and more. Soon enough, she came upon a small dash of hope: a small dirt road. Thinking it would lead her to someone who could help her get home; Abbey reluctantly followed it. Besides, what choice did she have? It�s not like she could survive in this forest on her own. The road twisted and turned almost as much as the one that had brought her to the entrance of the watering hole. Strange sounds came from every direction and she swore that she could feel the eyes of others in the brush watching her.
        After about five minutes of walking and watching her back should some wild creature jump out at her, she breathed a sigh of relief. She finally came upon another human being and it appeared to be a woman. The woman was wearing a black silk dress that seemed to flow down her figure like a tapestry; she contrasted drastically with the falling snow and lush forest that surrounded her. She was walking in the same direction Abbey was and a black veil covered her face, as if she was in the far reaches of mourning. In her hand, she grasped the dangling chain of a golden heart shaped locket.
"Excuse me, miss?" Abbey asked in her kindest of voices.
        The woman stopped but didn't turn around. There was a moment of awkward silence. Considering that they were at a standstill, Abbey wondered if she had said something she shouldn�t have.
        "C-Could you help me, please? I've been having the worst day and-"
The woman raised her arm, as if to tell Abbey to stop talking. It was a rather rude way to interrupt someone, she thought. But then the woman spoke, her soft and elegant voice seeming so comforting, yet so stern all the same.
        "Dear child, you need not tell me what you seek."
        Abbey immediately presumed that this woman knew that she was lost, although why she didn�t seem interested in helping baffled and appalled her. She also didn�t have time to dwell on the matter because suddenly out of the woods, the giant raven that Abbey was chasing flew from a nearby tree. It perched itself on the woman�s shoulder, still carrying the flute case in its mouth. It stared a hole through the young girl that could have shattered her heart like a rock hitting a glass mirror.
        "I can feel it in the wind. You seek the instrument, you seek its power." The woman continued, her voice beginning to dance with anger. Abbey became suddenly confused by what she meant by power. She figured the woman meant the flute unless this forest happened to be some magical junkyard where everyone�s lost instruments and tools ended up when they got lost Abbey chuckled under her breath at the thought of that, there were no other instruments here. The bird dropped the case, allowing the woman to quickly catch it. She held the locket in her other hand and despite it looking so gloomy it seemed to glitter with the greatest of shines.
        "Power? What do you mean?" Abbey asked, trying not to offend the woman anymore than she thought she already had. There was another awkward pause. The woman turned and looked at her. Despite the dark veil, her face was clearly visible. She was young and her skin was so fair, almost as pale as the snow at her feet. Her dark hair stretched down her shoulders and seemed to wave as the snow and the wind latched onto it. But one thing stood out more then anything for Abbey and that was her eyes. Oh, how could you not miss such terrible things! They glowed right through her veil in a fiery red. It was as if she had stuck two candles under her eye sockets and lit them.
        Chills bolted down Abbey's spine, the sight of this woman made her want to take a step back. She could feel herself shaking violently from head to toe. The chattering of her teeth increased beyond the tiny clicks of being unbearably cold to echoing crunches that could wake and disturb everything within a five-mile radius. She didn't know who this woman was, but one thing was obvious and that was that she was clearly some incarnation of evil. Abbey tried to run, to go back to where she woke up, through the spring and on back home again Her mother was probably pulling her hair out at the thought of her being missing anyway.
        Suddenly her mind was put in its place, as she realized she had a bigger problem: she couldn't move. Her legs had become numb, paralyzed, and stiff as boards. She tried as hard as she could to move them, but with no luck. Then she looked to the woman, who oddly enough, seemed to be talking to herself. Her eyes were closed, those pillars of flame shut away for the moment and she seemed to be mumbling things under her breath as her locket swung back and forth in her hand. Abbey didn�t know how, and the whole thing was impossibly shocking as it was, but she just knew that woman was doing something to her.
        �Hey lady!� She yelled, her throat hoarse and partially taken by the bizarre spell.
        �Enough with the witchcraft already, I-�
        Her yelling soon stopped as a cloud of thick black smoke had begun to roll in around her, making eye contact between her and the woman almost impossible. It got so thick Abbey began to cough mercilessly.
        "Where did this come from?" She asked. She had begun to wonder if this was some kind of poison, or worse, if it had some sort of 'magical' effect on her. Images of her with terrible acne that turned her face into a thousand red puffy balloons or being turned into a large ugly platypus came to her clearly. Yet, surprisingly, nothing happened and for a brief moment, things got quiet.
        Had the woman left? That seemed rather unlikely, considering the smoke was still shifting to the point where it was impossible to breath, but if she did, what did she want with that old flute anyway and how in the world did she even know about it? These questions were certainly pondered, but she could come to no conclusive answer. Her thinking was suddenly interrupted, as a loud and rather abnormal sound shattered the serene quietness of the woods.