Wight Fright: "Fog on the Barrow-Downs" RPG

[Mithalwen]

"Well he would say that wouldn't he?" said Jessamy, thinking aloud as much as she was talking to Karl. She helped herself to a biscuit and dipped it in her tea before letting it dissolve deliciously in her mouth. She broke off part of the remaining half and slipped it to Jumble, who had stayed behind and had joined Jessamy on her bench, reckoning perhaps that his rightful place was nestled in his Willem's cloak even if his master wasn't wearing it.

"Maybe he isn't allowed to say he's a wizard - like Bryn can't really say he's a blacksmith 'til he has finished his apprenticeship" Jessamy paused realising that the idea of a man who seemed about the age of her father being an apprentice was a bit silly but wizards in stories were very old with long grey hair and beards so maybe it wasn't so daft. "But he clearly isn't ordinary is he? What was that he said about ordinary folk not knowing which of the barrows were safe, as if he were talking about other people but not himself? And he has this magic potion from the Elves that has made Edwin better - ish"

She could look at him now he seemed to be sleeping normally. Karl stared at her seeming a bit bewildered and she supposed she was talking nonsense. She finished her biscuit and looked instead out of the little window next to her - it was lighter than before outside - the clouds had cleared enough to let the new risen moon refect on the carpet of snow. She thought for a moment she saw something move out there but turned away. She had fancied enough terrors for one day. What ever Willem was she felt safe here now. And he had worked some magic on her ankle even if it had been the everyday sort. Her mother could not have been more gentle - indeed might have been a lot less so, since a quarter of a century of patching up five children had left her with a fairly brisk approach to minor injuries - and Willem hadn't felt the need to accompany his treatment with a reproachful commentary on her clumsiness. No adventuring 'til it's all right again? She hardly needed to promise. She doubted she would ever be allowed out again and would be lucky if she weren't chained up, she rued.

But with Jumble providing an extra source of heat and her foot at ease Jessamy started to feel warm and comfortable enough to feel a bit sleepy. It had been a long day and her eyelids felt heavy. They started to close but then opened wide

"Willem will freeze - I still have his cloak!"

[Mithalwen]

"Jessameeeeeeeee, Jessameeeeee, where are you?". All three of her brothers were calling much the same thing but none got any response, save that of their own voices echoing among the stones. The light from their lanterns and torches weren't making them look any more friendly. The trio had ventured off the road at the point they thought parrelel to where they had heard Jessamy scream. Sometimes one thought they saw a light glimmering but never for long enough for them to hold a course on the wandering paths of the Downs.

Bryn took the lead but never went far ahead of the cart.. his horse was reluctant to leave the company of the others and he himself wasn't overly keen. Their progress was slow, even though the snow had stopped, and they were losing confidence that they were getting anywhere - some of the rock formations they passed looked too familiar.

Then the moon rose and showed both their proximity to the Old Forest and that they were following an all to recognisable set of tracks.

"So I think we can safely say we are going round in circles" said Silas,"and there's not a trace of Jessamy". It seemed a long time since they heard the scream and while that had been proof that she was alive it was also proof that she had been terrified.

"Yes but at least the moon is up now we can navigate by that" pointed out Bryn.

"Doesn't tell us where Jessie is though does it" said Seth gloomily "and that Forest IS too close for my liking I'd swear the trees are moving.. or something is moving in them"

"Don't Seth - you are as bad as Jessamy for imagining stuff. We have enough real problems as it is without you making them up"

"I'm not making this up - I tell you I saw something" insisted Seth to his elder brother "Look!"

"I can't see anything .. but oh there are some more tracks". Silas pointed to where the snow was patchy in the lee of the too close trees.

Bryn rode ahead with his brothers following close behind "So are they ours? asked Seth.

Bryn looked at his brother as if he were an idiot .... "Well no ... look there is just the one set of hoof prints..."

" Could be your horse..." Seth interrupted.

"Only if Willow and Hazel had learnt to walk on air .... by my anvil, Seth, I know you are worrying about Jessie - we all are - but you have really lost your wits, if it isn't walking forests it's floating ponies..." He shook his head in wonderment. This horse is smaller than mine but larger than Silas'and pulling a waggon of some sort, out of the forest and faster than we have gone I guess - I think we would have remembered going throught the forest. I don't think the trees move THAT quickly".

"Oh alright Bryn, I only got a quick look... we aren't all obsessed with horses' feet .... can you see where they start again..." he scanned the breaks in the snow field.

Silas had got down from the box and was examining the ground a few yards away and his face was pale under the torchlight. "Um.... Bryn .. maybe Seth hasn't lost his mind, come and have a look at this".

Silas was looking at fresh tracks in the snow. "Don't even think to say they are from a dog ... those are dog tracks over there but no dog has feet that could make these and if it did it would be the size of a horse".

"But it can't be" said Bryn... "of all the tales of the Forest I never heard that - there haven't been wolves even round here since the Fell Winter".

All three brothers straightened as one and gazed nervously in to the shadows of the forest. And over their shoulders to the Downs. The barrow ghosts might haunt their minds but this was almost worse.

[Envinyatar]

There were things in the forest, Willem knew, that wished nothing but ill to those who entered beneath the old trees’ boughs. His intent was just a quick patrol to make sure they would be safe should they stay here for the night. He had gone some distance when his ears picked up the sound of voices calling loudly, to his right.

Now who are these, looking for Jessamy? he wondered, padding silently closer to the group.

The long, lean, brown bear lifted his snout and took a deep sniff-in of the three men. They smell alike, he thought, and like a heavier version of Jess’ scent. And a little afraid, too, though they work hard at hiding it.

Were these the brothers she had mentioned?

He watched as they examined the ground and then made ready to begin their hunt for their sister again.

They'll never find her! They're facing the wrong way.

Willem gave a low, reassuring growl, hoping the horses would understand he bore them no ill will. Within the shadows of the trees, he loped from one side of the trio, around them on the east, to the other side and back again, growling low in his chest – hoping to drive them in the direction of the caravan. The horses whickered and pawed the ground, the bear’s feral, dangerous scent conflicting with the more amiable message he had vocalized. In the end they were cajoled into taking the course the bear urged.

[Mithalwen]

"Well Jessamy isn't here and I am not sure I want to be" said Silas.. "what ever it was that made those prints... the horses don't want to hang around either" . He had resumed his seat on the waggon to better control the fretful ponies - docile beasts who normally needed no more than a twitch of the rein to restrain or guide them. Bryn's horse was equally restive, flicking his ears back, hearing things his master couldn't it seemed.

Seth had the sharpest hearing of the three brothers; he didn't spend his working life filtering out the sound of hammer on anvil or saw on bough. He heard, was sure he heard a soft growl from the forest behind them and saw a long low shadow passing through the trees. It was enough for him to grab the reins off his brother and let the ponies have their head. Hazel and Willow needed no encouragement and set off at a canter with Bryn riding hard at their heels.

On the box of the waggon Silas had taken back control and was berating his brother "What do you think you were doing, back there?"

"Getting us away from a bear - don't try and deny it, you saw the tracks as clear as I did, and I heard a growl - and so did the horses. "

"But a bear.. how can there be a bear in the old Forest and no one heard of it?"

"Not many folk go in there do they? Only rangers and the like and they don't talk much" replied Seth, before a too hideous thought crossed his mind " What if it was that that made Jessie scream?"

"Then Silas is going to have to explain to Mum and Dad that Jess has been eaten by a bear" said Bryn, now alongside..

"That's what I love about you Bryn, your unfailing optimism... and why do I have to be the one who tells them? " replied Silas.

"Because you're the eldest!" chorused his brothers. Silas had played that trump card too often in earlier times.

The path jinked back between two mounds and revealed what had previously been concealed. The horses were halted as the brothers gaped in amazement at the strange sight. There in the midst of the bleak snowcapped barrows and stones was a brightly coloured caravan, lit up inside and with the remains of a small fire glowing near it. A pretty little grey mare whickered into her nosebag nearby and their own horses answered.

"Woudn't be my choice of campsite but it explains those other tracks... " noted Bryn as they drew closer, wondering who would choose to linger in this forsaken place. He had no time to ponder more since first a large dog sprang out, barking, from under the wagon and caused his horse to shy and then the door to the caravan burst open to reveal a figure, small, but somehow regal - the thick folds of the borrowed cloak draped elegantly from her slight shouders, her hair was a backlit cloud of gold around her head. Less elegantly a mug was clasped in her hand.

"Jessamy!"

"Nnnnnnnnghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhllll" Jessamy squealed happily. With a cookie clamped between her teeth she stumblled down the steps to cannon into the nearest of her brothers which happened to be Silas. He had happily passed the reins now to his brother, leaving him to cope with the joyous assaults of Duke who bounced around barking happily having some inexplicable fascination with horsedrawn vehicles. Bryn consequently had an easier time to master his own horse and take some amusement in the plight of the brother who, in family tradition, was "the one with most skill with animals".

"Is she alright?" he called returning his attention back to his sister.

"Alright? She's drinking tea and eating biscuits!!" Silas' relief manifested itself as anger and he found himself shaking his sister "You little fool, have you any idea what you have put us all through you ginger-pated ninny - fog, and snow and bears. What did you think you were doing?"

"Leave her alone Silas," Seth, having calmed horse and hound, pulled her away from his elder brother and half crushed her against his chest "I'm sorry I was horrid to you, Jessie, I'll make it up to you, I promise" .

The world seemed to be slipping away from Jessamy... she must be dreaming she had never seen Silas so angry and Seth.. why was Seth apologising to her? She couldn't believe it but her superior, sardonic brother seemed to have tears forming in his dark eyes while Silas' blue ones glittered in his wrath. Jessie started to cry as her eldest brothers vented their anxiety in argument. But there was Bryn, on his own feet now, solid, even tempered Bryn. Bryn who picked her up easily and gently and sat her back on the waggon steps.

"You alright half-pint?", Bryn straightened her cloak and ruffled her hair.

Jessamy nodded. "Karl found me...I hurt my ankle but Willem has bound it up"

"Willem? Who is Willem" Bryn asked gently wiping away her tears.

"Someone Karl knows - this is his caravan. He is really kind. So is Karl" She looked up to where her rescuer lurked awkwardly in the doorway...

"And what about Edwin? Is he here too." Jessamy nodded

"Inside.. he got too cold or something" she elided "He seems to be getting better now" Jessamy wasn't going to lie again but she didn't see the need to tell the whole truth at the moment. "Willem gave him some tea with honey and stuff in it."

"This Willem sounds quite a character - where is he?"

"I don't think he has gone far .. he was just taking a look around I think, make sure we were safe" . Bryn nodded and standing turned his attention back towards his elder siblings.

"Do you think that you could manage to be pleased for a moment that we have found Jessamy safe and more or less sound? And not kill each other? You know the whole point of this effort was that we ended the day with the same size family as we started it ...and we are going to have to go through all the whys and wherefores when we get home so lets leave it for now. The main thing is that Jessie is safe, thanks to Karl and Willem - whoever he may be".