Legend of the Stonewood Footprints

This contains two samples of how a story could go using the same prompt, the same sort of thing as my very first entry: "I would pick 'Wishing Well.'"

1.

The group of bundled, hooded soldiers came to an abrupt halt when their Captain stayed them with his hand and stated, "Men, it looks as though the legend of The Stonewood's Footprints may be true after all."

 

Palian, the soldier closest behind the Captain, peered ahead to the narrow path before them.  Having to walk in a line, he was the only one who could see what the Captain was seeing, and his stalwart heart skipped when he spotted it.  The deep impression had created a puddle they would have to trudge through, and it bared the unmistakable sign of half of a Stonewood’s characteristic shallow four-branched root system.

“Those - are the north and east root branches,” Palian noted, forcing himself to speak through the chill of goose bumps and raised hairs on his neck. 

“It’s headed north,” Captain nodded.

“How can you tell?” Palian’s brother Chenick asked from over his shoulder.

“Their roots grow in the four directions North, East, South and West,” the Captain spoke so that the closest soldiers could hear.  “Legend says they walk, but only in those four directions.”  He nodded toward the puddle in front of them.  “The branches in this footprint reach north and east.  The Stonewood’s other foot has the south and west branches of its root.  In this print, the deepest part is the north root, which means it pushed the dirt down with that root as it stepped to go up the mountain with its other foot.”

“So it’s passed?  We’re safe?”  The man behind Chenick had taken his hood down in order to hear.  Palian reached around his brother and nudged the man, gesturing to put it back on his head.

“We’re not safe,” Captain glared at the careless soldier.  “Our identities need to remain hidden.  We need to be as unnoticeable as possible.  The Stonewood forest hasn’t been breached by soldiers since our grandfather’s time, and we will never gain the Elder’s help by behaving disrespectfully.”

Captain tugged his hood closer around his face, shrugged to adjust his pack strap, and made a full-armed motion for the company to proceed.

 

 

2.

The group of bundled, hooded soldiers came to an abrupt halt when their Captain stayed them with his hand and stated, "Men, it looks as though the legend of The Stonewood's Footprints may be true after all."

 

            The men grouped behind the Captain and looked at the ground in front of him.  There were indentations filled with water, but after looking a moment Palian pointed-out, “Those are footprints, alright.  But it’s just a man.”

            The Captain glanced back at the prints, and then looked at Palian.  “They disguise themselves very well.  Of course in order to not be detected they will create man-like footprints.”

            A voice called from in the group, “Then how can you tell these aren’t simply a man’s prints, and not the Stonewood’s at all?” 

            The rain had turned into a drizzle, and Palian noted the Captian’s hand stealthily move to his sword, but then relax to his side.  Was he feeling defensive about his stand on the legend, and would fight those who didn’t believe?  “The prints are very deep-set,” he muttered in answer to the question.  “It was either a four-hundred pound man, or a Stonewood.”

            Palian was nudged to the side as Chenick, the soldier everyone barely tolerated, pushed through and stood over the deeply-set print, as though to peer in and see what had dropped into it.

            “A large man carrying an injured man could have done this.  There is no reason to believe the legend is �"“

            With a rumble, and sudden crash of breaking twigs and rustling leaves, a giant boulder bounded out of the woods.  Palian noted, as it appeared from behind the trees, that it had protrusions knobbing out of its surface.  In an instant, it plowed over Chenick who didn’t even have a chance to scream, and the roar of stone scraping stone overcame the rumble of weight crushing nature.  The Stonewood boulder rolled into the trees of its path, and Captain and Palian led the group to Chenick’s side.  He was dead, and his chainmail was pressed into his chest.  Upon inspection, the skin held the red imprint of what could have been a man’s foot that trampled him. 

            Everyone looked at one another, eyes wide and concerned.  But Captain shook his head as though saying, “he should have believed,” and walked away. 

Each of them stepped over Chenick and proceeded down the path with stronger respect for the legend that had just come to life.  Palian trudged as he replayed the scene in his head, recalling the roar of stone-on-stone. He wondered how that sound could have happened with only one stone in front of them.  As though reading his thoughts, the distant scraping roar echoed through the trees around them once again, stopping the troupe in awe and with a sense that they’d just been warned.  Then with a far-off snap and rustle, the Stonewood Forest quieted once again.

Author's Note

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