The result was another huge Tales of Omphalos: The Shadow Forest story about a young Leiwell. Here is the first part...
Hiking up the hillside dragged at his ankles, his feet as always. It was as if the rising ground reacted against Leiwell, sensing somehow that he didn’t belong on it.
He gritted his teeth and took another step. To be a part of this world, he had to live in it, eat its vegetation, learn to move with its ways. At least this was what Map, his mother was always telling him.
“Such pretty foolishness. Why do you insist on going the wrong way?”
Leiwell turned, sliding down the slope a bit to land in front of a patch of moss, facing a steep rise he couldn’t possibly climb.
A raven flew down to land at his feet. It strutted around with smug lightness before fixing a sharp, beady eye upon the boy. “You’re a halfling, aren’t you? Not quite human, half something else.” Its searching gaze took in every detail of Leiwell’s small face, his shabby tunic, and scuffed boots. “Slopes and rising ground take a keen dislike to your sort, yes, they do. Or perhaps they simply try to challenge you?”
It let out a caw, which sounded a lot like a mocking laugh.
“Who are you?” Leiwell studied the raven in turn, the way its beady eyes took anything while darting around, avoiding the boy’s gaze.
“Ah, ha, caw! Names are not something I offer lightly.” The raven flapped its wings, rising in midair, so its beak was at the level of the boy’s eyes. “There’s something else I can give you, something you’ll find much more interesting.”
The raven fluttered a short distance away to land at the sheer wall, drawing attention to the indentations in the rock, which wasn’t rock. It was wood, with grooves carved into it of distinctive shapes. There was a door embedded in the green, a door with serpents and spiders etched across, crawling across bones and roses.
“Now you see it?” The bird bobbed his head with vigorous enthusiasm. “Aren’t I clever to show you this? Wouldn’t it be easier to simply go through the hill than climb to the top?” The raven began to hop on one foot. “Thank me, pretty one, praise me.”
“Thank you, but I was trying to get to the top of the hill.” Leiwell didn’t like the look of the door at all. Something about the spiders was familar, like the creak of a door where a shadow that’s always been watching awaits.
“Why would you want to do that? To get that decrepit ruin of a tower at the top?” The raven let out a derisive caw. “Trust me, all you’d ever want to see in that old pile of rocks is deep underground…and right behind this door.” The bird nodded again at the sheer wall behind him.
Leiwell was trusting this bird less and less, yet his words, “a pile of rocks” made the boy curious. His mother, Map used almost the exact words to descripe the ruined tower on the hill. He disliked the look of the door, but it was curious. What was so familar about that pattern, especially the spider?
He wouldn’t learn anything more about this mystery if he turned away from it.
Leiwell lay his hand against the side of the snake, rather than the spider, searching for a door knob, some way to open the passage.
Empty air greeted his hand until a cool grip seized him, pulling him forward.
At first the boy dragged his heels, expecting to hit the door, but he passed through the wood as if it wasn’t there.
Of course. It hadn’t been an ordinary door at all, but a Door, a portal to another world, or perhaps a place that didn’t exist except in someone’s imagination.
The raven’s mocking laughter pursued him. “Ha! Ha! Caw! Here’s a pretty little fool for your hungry pleasure, Master!”
To be continued...
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