The clearing in the woods

“As far as I’m concerned, these treks we make are as much use to the king as a crown made of pig-shit to set on his shiny golden head.” Without rest Conn complained, as only he could and stomped through the wet mud ahead of Lucan, who trailed not far behind. His back was bent and his shoulders sagged, Conn was not an impressive looking man and standing so close to Lucan’s stature did him no favors.

“I don’t know Connie, if they send us this way than surely there ought to be a good reason?” Lucan was merry this morning, as he was most mornings. He had been sent on a scouting expedition away from the camp along with his best friend, Conn. Together they were tasked to seek the location of a woodland witch, who was said to live in the forest they were struggling through. Why they had to look for this witch was not told to them and Conn was absolutely convinced the witch did not even exist. Magic was a ridiculous fantasy, thought up by men with nothing else useful to do. Lucan wasn’t so sure, he had not met a witch yet, but his mother used to tell him a story about a witch and her fairy servants, all living in a hole in the ground where from they protected the land and its many creatures. It had been a good story, one of his favorites. Lucan was excited to meet the witch.

“Oh you hopeless bag of meat and muscles, if Cormac told you to retrieve a cloud from the sky you’d be jumping before he had chance to tell you which one. Thank the gods for your strength, your brains aren’t worth shit.” Connie could be rather short with him sometimes, but Lucan always forgave him, it was just the way he was. A lot of people were like he was, angry, annoyed, sometimes mean. Lucan never saw the use in it, he was happy to be happy.

For a few hours now they had been traveling through the thicket, spotting no sign of any life, besides some animal dropping in which Conn of course had stepped. “Perhaps we should head back? The night’ll be on us before we know it and we’ll never find our way back in the dark.” Lucan wasn’t a fan of the dark, though he wasn’t planning on telling Conn that.

“We can’t come back too soon, Cormac will have our heads. No, we’ll hike on for another hour or so and then follow the river down south back to camp. Besides, I think I see a clearing up ahead.” Conn spoke true, as the two of them pushed through the brush a clearing in the trees suddenly appeared. Quickly Conn hid behind a tall oak and signaled for Lucan to do the same. Clumsily Lucan ran to a tree besides Conn, which seemed tall enough to hide him, but no matter which way he turned, Lucan’s shoulders always poked out. Conn shook his head angrily, motioning him to stay quiet. Carefully Conn poked out his head and looked from behind his oak at the clearing in the forest. T’was a big circle of bright green grass, with daisies growing in abundance. There were no signs of felled trees and no recollection of anybody scavenging for wood so deep into this particular forest. Lucan could not hold his curiosity back any longer and stuck his head out from behind his tree. The place he saw seemed to glitter like no other patch of the forest did, as if the sun had decided to shine on it specifically. It looked warm and welcoming, the perfect place to lay down one’s head and rest for a while.

Without any further hesitation Lucan bounded towards the grass, a smile bright on his face and made his way right to the middle of the clearing. He could hear Conn’s cursing and saw his eyes shooting daggers into his direction. Lucan was about to waive him over to him, as he was certain there was no danger to be found. Yet before he could think to move a muscle, the world around him suddenly went dark, as if all the light in the world ceased to exist. After that Lucan was not sure what happened, nor how long it took him to wake up again.