Aerimir headed back towards the group of men and filled them in on what had happened.
They all decided that it would be best if the search party they made would split up into two groups once they arrived at the forest.
Hilgur, the village blacksmith had sent a few of the men to ready the horses while some of the men bid their wives a quick goodbye, stating that ideally, the group would be back before the twelfth hour and to have the fires ready along with the evenings supper; as they hadn't had much time to sup before heading back.
Aerimir looked back at the huts and looked towards Beth and Rem’s. It somehow seemed shabbier than it usually did.
The other houses of the village were also thatched and worn, but at least there was a glow from within as the women had lit their candles and started gathering the supplies for dinner.
As he looked up, the sky’s colors were beginning to split; casting an orange and red glow as the sun started to set.
It was eerily calm, he thought. A breeze caressed his face and he sighed deeply.
It was almost enough to make him forget the reason He and the men were headed to the forest, and that it wasn’t the rabbit for the spring stews they were hunting; but a person. Beth.
He heard crunching behind him and heard the familiar sound of his horse’s snort.
He turned around and saw Eric, the smaller of two brothers that had joined them last fall.
As Aerimir looked around and did a head count, he had noticed that most of the party he returned with had gathered back to complete the search with the exception of two of the other hunters that came back. Most of the men here were of younger stock and could most likely make it back before it got to be too terribly late.
There were 14 in total, leaving seven heads for each group to cover either side of the river in case Beth had fallen in and may be unconscious on either side.
As they descended into the forest, a crow cawed in the distance and the sound of a rustling in the thicket caused his heart to do a little “jump”. He knew that the old wive’s tales that he had always been told by the nans of the village were nonsense and that they were made to scare unruly orphans like himself. But there was still always the association with it, and the affect it had on his mood.
As they had reached the beginning of the clearing, the bushy clusters of the forest trees that surrounded the outcrop made the time of evening appear a few hours darker than it actually was.
The air already seemed cooler and there was a slight gurgling noise of some of the river’s runoff in the distance. Most of the men stomped forward, some hacking away at the thickets wrapped around the trunk of the many trees to see if there was any trail left behind from the day before.
No one knew why, but the thickets if cut down, grew back the next day.
There were many old tales as to why the forest did this, but he himself figured the only one who really knew the reason was the forest itself, - not that it would tell anyone. As He was lost in his own thoughts, he had noticed that near the edge of a thick nest of dry grass and foliage it looked as though there was a break in some dead vine on the forest floor.
Aerimir looked further down and seen that it led into an imprint in the damp soil of what appeared to be a small crescent.
The crescent of a heel.
His breath quickened and he felt anticipation fill his lungs. He turned his head to try and call out for the others but their figures were now shadows bobbing in and out of view between the trees as they moved ahead.
He looked forward to where the heel print was and thought that maybe she could be just up ahead, and if so, he could pull her up and out of whatever hill she may be laying at the foot of, the floor of the forest being comprised of much uneven ground.
He grabbed the base of a skinnier tree and scooted one foot down. He then gave way to some loose soil and wriggled his feet down with lumbering steps, careful to grab the vines that seemed thickest as he made his way down the earthen hill.
Once on more even ground he looked up at where he just climbed down from and wondered if maybe it had gotten dark and Beth had lost her footing. Which, to him seemed unlikely considering that she had known this forest as well as he. Unless, she was tired that is.
All knows, Beth could have had the same fever as Rem and didn’t let on, which seemed much like something she would do.
He squinted his eyes and leaned forward to see if there was any more foot prints on the hill he had just walked down other than his own.He didn’t see where any footing could have trailed off other than where he had placed his own.
He carried his gaze over to the path in front of him which seemed damper than the ground they had set foot on back at the clearing. He listened closely and then heard the same gurgling before at the top of the hill, but there was now also a light dripping as well.
He looked ahead and saw the path, a mixture of hard and loose, damp, soil and brush with little thickets and rocks surrounding them; But he also saw thin veins of water seeping through the ground and trickling over stones that were scattered in the rough dirt.
Aerimir looked forward and didn’t see anything too out of the ordinary and decided to follow the water in hope of finding its source. The river was up ahead he knew, but he had judged it to be much farther up.
Maybe It was because of his arrival back after the long hunting trip, or maybe it was the darkness caused by the trees obscuring what little light there was left. Or maybe, it was that damn crow spooking him earlier. He didn’t know.
He stomped forward, taking care to look for signs of something that may have come through here. He knew it had to be the foot of a person. He was a hunter for fuck’s sake... he would have been able to tell if it was the hoof of a deer or any other animal that came through here.
He treaded forward and seen that where there were veins of water traveling through rock that now there were small pools, and it appeared that up ahead, those pools tuned into smaller channels where the gurgling was now louder.
He looked forward away from the water and seen that the path he was on was now gradually widened into a much muddier and less dry bank at the edge of what appeared to be a run-off of the river which was pretty wide to begin with.
This smaller river seemed as wide as two of the best mares he had seen widths, and on the other side was a bank similar to the one he was standing on except it ended at the bottom of hilled uneven forest floors. The river though not as wide, seems to have small swirls that indicate deceiving; whirl-pooled currents.
Aerimir walks to the water’s edge and looks down, but there isn’t enough light yet to see his reflection on the surface as he suspected.
He tries to make out if there is any sign of Beth or her presence having been here at all but then begins to feel as though his judgement may have caused a foolhardy mistake.
A mistake that could have scraped precious time off of Beth’s life, him breaking free of the group to search on his own.
He hoped that the men had found her or caught sight of her while he may as well have been chasing imaginary rabbits. He could at least try to see if maybe she might be down a way’s before heading back up to the main path he decided.
“Beth!” he called out. With another bellow, this one deeper than before.” BEEEEEETHH!” He continued forward carefully stepping around the more slippery parts of the bank. “BEEEETHHH!” He rang once more.
He stopped for a moment to gather how deep he was in this part of the forest while keeping a watchful eye at how far he had traveled; and noticed that the river he had been adjacent to was now considerably wider than before and the trees much thicker.
He tried to take his positioning in the forest into account and began to wonder what direction he was now in. He thought he had been in every part of the forest, but then again, it was usually day when he made his rounds, and if at night he could usually at least see the stars or where the moon is in the sky.
As far as he could tell, he may as well be on a completely different side of the forest.
He picked up a stone and lashed out at it, throwing it into one of the many pools of water that were spinning in the center of the river.
As soon as it splashed off of it, He heard a hum that struck him as the loudest noise he had ever heard. It was a ringing that bordered between nausea and a buzzing that hit him with a wave of vertigo.
He was knocked on his knees and felt the wet soil seep through his breeches where his knees dug in. He clenched his stomach and tucked himself inwardly while covering his ears as he tried to maintain his sense of up and down, it was like his head was splitting all while remaining grounded.
As the ringing tore him apart from the inside, he grits his teeth and opened one eye to try to find the source of the noise if not in his own head.
He looks, his body racked with shakes and sees that the pool he had thrown a stone into was now frothing, the water’s foam pulsating in such a way that he could see that this was the source of the dreaded noise.
Each wave sending a ripple through the water that jolted him with a shock.
The sound somehow gets louder in his mind, changing from something that rocks his body with the most confusing and unrelenting pain he had ever felt in his entire life to something else, - something...Wrong.
The ringing turned from a crippling, hellish, pain into something that felt very, very, wrong. Dirty, even ... this wasn’t a sound.
This was an invasion.
As he tries his best to focus in on the rippling puddle he sees what looks like long, gold strands of hair pool at the center of the frothing whirlpool.
It's sloshing, watery bubbles huddled around the strands like a warped crown as what looked like a head emerges from the surface.
Its skin is warped and mottled with decay, the flesh is pale and bruised as blue veins stretch across the creature's temple and stop just at the edge of the whites of its upturned eyes... Beth’s eyes...
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