“Thank you.”
The man looked me up and down with a clinical eye, like a doctor, not an ogre. “What kind’o ferrest stuff you need?”
“Better than this.” I waved at my current outfit of leggings, red shirt and sneakers.
“Ye huntin’?”
“No, no, nothing like that. Walking. Hiking. Exploring. That sort of thing.”
“O’coarse. This way.”
Lightweight but sturdy feeling pants made their way into my arms, followed by two shirts, and a vest studded with pockets. A jacket of stiff fabric completed the ensemble.
“Thank you.”
“Yer gonna want sum socks too,” he said, digging in another box. “What kind’o pertection do ye wants?”
“Per … what?”
“Pro-tec-tion.” The shopkeeper sounded it out formally, his face twisting even further as he did. How much had that cost his pride?
“Protection? What do you mean?”
His sigh was heavy enough to shrink me by several inches. The look of utter contempt that followed, as if I was the biggest imbecile he’d ever seen, didn’t help much either.
“Them woods r’nt natural. Ma’am.” He shook his head heartily, strands of thinned hair bouncing. “Nope. Not’t’all. Them wolves in there, they big ones. I seen more’n a few o forrest in the army. Nuttin like this one. I ain’tever see nothing like it. Somethin’ different about it. You don’t want to get caught in there alone.”
He said the last words in perfect, unfiltered English. Probably so I would actually pay attention without having to work to understand him through his accent.
“Take pertection.”
“Uh, sure,” I said, thinking about the bear with red eyes. “Probably a good idea. A knife, maybe?”
“Good call. I’ll git ye that. Some spray too. Incase ya dun wanna look it in the eyes.”
“Right.” I let out a breath I hadn’t known I was holding and then inhaled, trying to steady myself.
Easy. It’s just stories.
The wolf in my mind turned its head, gold and blue eyes burning bright.
When everything was piled on the counter, I had to fight back second thoughts. This was insane! I wasn’t going to war. I didn’t want to hurt or kill anything in the forest.
Not having it was even less sane, however, which is why it all got rung up on my credit card after all, and not tossed back into whatever pile it had come from.
“I’ll help ye carry it out.”
“Oh, it’s okay. I can do it myself, you don’t … okay, thank you.”
He’d already scooped up the accessories into his arms and come around the counter. Apparently, it wasn’t an option. I hurried to open the trunk, thanking him again.
“Nonsense. Jus’ me job. If there’s anything else I kin do, jus say.”
I nodded and watched him go. Then an idea came to me.
“Excuse me,” I said, hurrying after him.
He paused.
“Do you know anything about local legends? About the forest. Have you ever heard the words heart or darkness used to talk about it?” I swallowed my embarrassment and continued. “Or maybe … a guardian?”
It felt incredibly stupid to throw that last one out there, but I had to know. Had to see ifanyone knew what it might mean.
The shopkeeper looked up, as if considering. Then his eyes narrowed. I turned, following his gaze, just in time to see a huge eagle or falcon soar overhead. Right behind it was another bird of prey. And another, all different. A flock of birds raced by over them.
All flying in the same direction.
Somethingclopped nearby, and a deer came scampering down Main Street, appearing from behind the next buildingover. A rabbit paced it with two more coming hurriedly after them.
“Well,” the shopkeeper said dryly, “that’s not something you see every-“
Screams erupted from farther up the street, accompanied by a dull rumble that quickly escalated into a roar.
“What the hell?” I took two steps away from the shopfront to see better.
At the same time, all hell broke loose.
Animals came pouring down the main strip. Normal-sized wolves and raccoons raced past slower porcupines and squirrels. Foxes ran in tandem ahead of a bear. Deer wereeverywhere.
Then the moose appeared, their giant forms towering over the rest of the wildlife. Smaller animals, rodents, were perched on the backs or clinging for dear life to the sides of anything they could.
“Inside!” the shopkeeper bellowed in a loud, commanding voice. “Move it, move it, move it!”
“Yep, good idea!” I cried as we raced inside before the wave of animals washed over the cars in the parking lot.
Overhead, the sky abruptly darkened behind black, impenetrable clouds that hadn’t been there before, boiling up swiftly out of nowhere and casting a shadow over the entire town.
“What the hell is going on?” I hissed, the door rattling as the stampede went on by. “Is it normal for the animals to run a 5K down Main Street?”
“Nope. I never seen sumthin’ like this. Darndest thing.” He shook his head. “Curse of the woods, it is, I tell ye.”
Curse of the woods?
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