Hollows are probably the most strange and confusing creature to inhabit our delightful forests, considering that they are not trying to find new novel ways to kill you. They appear humanoid to a degree. Their skin and flesh looking like a combination between wood and baked clay. Probably their most notable feature is having a hole where there face should be, revealing insides that (how could you have possibly guessed) are mostly hollow. They tend to be filled with bright flowers and odd fungi spilling out of the hole where their face should be. Each one has a uniquely coloured flower and an array of fungi. I don’t know how to put this, but, their general personality and demeanour is more than a little pre-occupied. I doubt they would even look up if a planet sized asteroid was about to hit them in the face. They go around doing frivolous tasks that seem to have not much rhyme or reason. Whether it be getting a handful of sand from one side of the continent and then spending twelve years just to get it to the other side, and then to endlessly repeat the process until the sun burns out, or creating odd totems and rather unearthly churches to some obscure gods. I would ask them what the hell they are doing, but considering they don’t have vocal chords, getting a reply might be slightly difficult. And even if they did, getting them to care enough to give one would probably be impossible. In my opinion they have survived on just being too boring and not threatening enough that nothing is bothered to pay attention. They are made of something like wood so they are not exactly edible by most creatures’ standards. They are not remotely dangerous enough to be a threat, and don’t exactly have some fantastical resource that everybody wants. They just endlessly pursue idle tasks with no rhyme or reason. I got someone to interrupt one going about their unfathomable duties. Admittedly I didn’t think he would go that far…. Setting a church one had built on fire. And then all the hollow he/she/it did was stand around, for hours and hours until eventually wandering off, coming back with a bunch of wooden lumber and starting from scratch. It’s hard to tell they don’t exactly have faces, but I can’t help but think he looked a little offended. Some have been taught in a more civilised part of the world. To go around doing repetitive menial tasks. It might take forever to get the idea into their empty heads but, once it’s there they will pursue it endlessly. Whether it be filling street lights with lamp oil or polishing a floor. This may sound neat but in the case of the one polishing floors, the constant scrubbing eventually led to so much erosion the house collapsed. And our hollow standing in the middle of it looking a little confused and sad. And even when the people have long gone, they will go around their silly routines lighting streetlights in long abandoned cities. Maintaining stately homes where not a breath of human life has been there for hundreds of years. They’re odd to say the least.

Some say if you are infected with oak rot, and if your will is strong enough, instead of turning into a tree you will turn into a hollow. Lily seems to be a walking dictionary when it comes to the insanity that is this world. She would normally give me a segment of notes on the creature I was currently inspecting. But it turned out she couldn’t be bothered. If it is not trying to rip someone’s face off it doesn’t exactly peak her interests.

I’ll leave you with this. It always confused me why they are called hollows. At first they look like empty wooden shells. But if you have a chance to peek inside, you will find they are filled with bright colourful life.