Preface

Midnight had come early. Even at it’s deepest and darkest, the forest wasn’t usually this dark at midday. Something had vacuumed away what little light the massive trees let in. The forest floor was pitch black, erasing any signs of the small trail that ran along and in between the rocks and outcrops. There was only black.

“My aching back,” whispered the darkness in a deep rough brogue.

“Hush,” whispered back a different patch of nothing.

Silence came again. The only way you’d know it was even a forest is if you were standing in it before the light went away, or if someone told you.

“Think the donkey is ok?” whispered the second spot.

“You JUST shushed me,” came back. “The mule is fine. You froze it so it’s standing on a branch, so stiff it could crack. Just like my back.”

“We’ll be down soon enough-” the second spot started to clap back but stopped itself.

In the distance, a small ball of light poked through.

A man-sized bonfire walked up the path.

The blazing crackling fire stood on two feet and pulsated with roiling fire. It was a beacon of light but even it’s light didn’t get far in the fake night. The fire’s light licked the trees at the edges of the path, going the briefest outline to it’s immediate surroundings. but didn’t illuminate passed that the way a fire should.

“Why blanket the forest but send a hothead?” asked the darkness high above the trail.

“I already said hush!” shouted the second voice in a whisper.

The bonfire stopped right underneath the voices. Heat rose up and ruffed the leaves. Loose embers flew up but vanished early.

A massive monster stepped close to the fire. Just the outline of it’s size and, what might have been a pigs nose, caught the glint go the inferno in front of it. It gave a grunt of impatience, or disgust, or annoyance, at the heat and the bonfire jumped before stating to walk again. As soon as it took two steps, the darkness erased the giant.

The fire walked down the path and around a rocky crag, which might have been huge, then disappeared itself.

“A three person team,” said the second spot, not as softly this time. “A faun to blanket the forest, a fuegoman to draw your attention, and a monster to swat you.”

“I don’t know what’s worse,” said the first voice, “sweating from the heat, or the stench of the pogre.”

“Come on, and help me down,” said the second voice.

“As if my back didn’t hurt enough.”

“Har,” said the second voice, “har. We have to move quickly to get the donkey down before the light comes back. If it sees the ground from way up here, they’ll be able to hear it for miles.”

“And I could go for some tea.”

“Well, yes. Of course.”