Chapter Three

     Unable to break free from her mental paralysis, she remained there, a pale figure dressed for mourning, enclosed by the icy giants she and her husband had long ago sworn to protect - the trees. All that remained possible was an attempt to regain breath, and a frantic turn about in the center of the moonlit clearing.  She figured her pursuers had outsmarted her plan of escape, and so she was left with a focused feeling of panic and trepidation.

     “Please, help us…” she whispered aloud, her eyes following the tall trunks upward until finding the circle in which their peaks met. She closed her eyes and listened, taking in the wrestling pines as a breeze weaved through.

     Her husband had once said to her that the trees were unique…

     “They’re more alive than you think. In fact, they can hear us right now, every word. This forest is alive.” He was smiling at her, arms outstretched as they stood there together somewhere within the depths of the peaceful forest.

     She laughed, taking his hand. “What are you talking about? Thankfully I found you before you completely lost your mind.”

     He smiled again at her, but it wasn’t his usual content and mischievous smile, it was a sad smile, a crushed one. After all the years he spent in the forest, he had finally found someone to share his secrets with, the ones that kept him isolated here, yet even that wasn’t enough to free him.

     Her vision blurred as tears filled her eyes. She collapsed to her knees, quivering with fear, watching the sleeping child that lay bundled in her arms. The trees remained silent, towering over her with a frozen indifference.

     “Please…”

    

 

Reviews

[SilentVerses]

Short yet poignant, you can imagine snow flakes drifting upon the breeze of cold hardened silence, the memory a bitter-sweet one that holds an air of mystery, liking the story, intrigued. One small point, not sure if it was meant-if it was I am sorry for pointing it out- but in the third line the capitalized T on The, following a colon rather than a full-stop, and after the dialogue with the husband the full-stop could be replaced with a comma, and carried on with the sentence about smiling, however, if this is not how you want your dialogue to go then take no mind of me! Well done, wonderful writing.

[EMF]

Oooh. Too short. I love this bit. I know something is going to happen, but not what. This bit has me chomping for the next bit.

[Truth]

I really like it so far! Though I think you could have made these last four chapters into two. Since most of this happens, really, within a very short amount of time, breaking it up into many chapters disrupts the flow a bit.