Discovery

She was there and she knew she shouldn't be.  She was in the forest.  The forest ruled by her Dad - the God of steam and lightning.  The sun had set and any natural light had given way to the black velvet of night.  She could no longer contain her curiosity.  She knew what was in that forest.  She had heard the stories of the other children and she wanted to see for herself.  She had to find it.  She was eight years old and had no understanding of fear.  Fear to her was as unknowable as the color blue to a blind man.

That night as she passed the entrance into the forbidden lands she felt a slight cold and clammy mist over her face like the strand of a spiders silk.  And she thought she heard the hiss of a snake or some kind of reptile.  To somebody that understood, this would raise the hair on the back of their neck.  To somebody that understood, this would cause a shiver followed by cold then numb feet.  To somebody that understood this forest.  That somebody would turn around without hesitation, leave the forest, and not look back.  These feelings and thoughts were completely absent in the young girls being.  She continued deeper into the woods.  The darkness sucking her into the womb of night.

The once solid hard ground gave way to a soft and spongy moss covered earth.  Every once in a while there was the squish of water underneath followed by the suction when she pulled her foot upward.  At other times the spongy earth would feel hollow underneath and she could hear the dead air of decaying life being expelled from the ground followed by the smell of decaying vegetation and flesh. She could barely make out the silhouettes of the trees that were becoming thicker and now had vines hanging from them. There was no sound except for that of a slight continuous hiss.  There was no sound of running water like that of a stream or brook.  There were no insect sounds like crickets or the high pitch buzzing of millions of mosquito wings.  Every once in a while against the back drop of silence she could hear and feel the pitter patter or thumpity thump of a small animal scurrying over the moss covered forest floor.

Invisible in the darkness the howls and viscous barking erupted and came at her from every direction.  Stopping just short of her she feel the panting of warm damp air as the barking terror settled into restrained growling.  She could barely make out the muzzles of teeth loaded with flesh and blood that stood within inches of her body.  The smell of decaying and rotting flesh filled the black air.

She looked without understanding what she was seeing and continued on.  Immediately as she moved her first foot the frenzy of barking and the snapping razor teeth resumed as the animals descended into her flesh to tear her apart. But as each muzzle and fur covered face went in it evaporated into nothing.  The rest of the animals followed.  Wave upon wave the were sucked into her body until nothing was left.