Watcher in the Woods

The Woods outside Sarina’s home echoes old myths passed down from her mother Ammi. Myths Sarina never once believed.

But on a day when Ammi sleeps, Sarina ventures into the dark, deep unknown to find the secret hidden within the Woods.

A secret that strikes far closer to home than she ever imagined.

A fascinating fantasy short story by S. H. Miah. Read now to discover how a young woman finds inner peace in the one place she never expected.

Chapter 1

The forest, referred to formally as the Woods, outside Sarina Salem's humble abode had shaken her for the duration of her twenty-two year old life. Shaken her in terms of, of course, a little anxiety that always entered her when staring at the towering trees that wished to intimidate her more than a royal guard banging on the front door of her aforementioned humble abode, wherein she resided with her mother Ammi.

But Sarina wasn't scared of the Woods, of course. Nope. Not even a little, a tad, or a smidgen. She was not even shaken, in fact. Perhaps a little stirred if anything. And that was only on those nights when staring out of the window at the greenery turned blackery under the watchful eyes of the moon and dark skies.

During the day with a beautiful blue expanse linking cloud to cloud to sun, and with fresh rosy air to breathe here on the outskirts of the capital—pah, Sarina was more excited than scared.

One would do well to remember that. Sarina definitely, definitely wasn't scared of the Woods.

However, she was scared of what the Woods contained. For that had been a mystery since her early years, with tales told by Ammi etched into her mind from a past long ago. And every time the cloak of night and its heady scent wrapped over the Woods, Sarina couldn't help but alleviate her boredom by pondering on those stories.

“Witches who want to eat little children are in the Woods,” Ammi had said when Sarina was merely four years old. Barely old enough to understand what a witch was, let alone why evoking magic was evil in the first place.

“But why children?” Sarina had asked in that adorable voice of hers. “Why not big people like Ammi?”

“Because children—children smell very tantalising to witches, that is why,” Ammi said, spreading her hands as she spread her hoarse voice. “And you, Sarina Salem, smell the best of them all.”

Naturally, of course, a four year old Sarina had been shaken pillar to post by such a threat. But she determined, even at that young an age, to confront the witches and save all the children they had eaten.

As Sarina grew older, now able to better discern between exaggeration and truth as a teenager, Ammi developed her stories accordingly.

Accordingly to attempt to frighten Sarina further, of course.

“Lots of strange occurrings happen that way there,” Ammi had said, sitting on her rickety rocking chair with her sewing equipment on an equally rickety wooden table closeby. She picked up a needle and closed a fist around it, a wrinkled old fist. “Very strange happenings, let me tell you.”

“What kind of strange happenings?” Sarina had exclaimed, leaning forwards from her chair and clamouring her face into Ammi's. Staring eye to eye, like they were in a verbal duel. “What kind of stuff is in there? And don't you tell me it's them children-eating witches—I learnt that that's impossible, that is.”

Ammi had raised a hand, the one not closed around the needle, and threaded her fingers through Sarina's hair. She kneaded Sarina's head, as she always did, and Sarina sighed at the comforting feeling as well as Ammi's flowery dandelion scent.

Dandelions, coincidentally, grew around the perimeter of the Woods, as though a natural marker between the known and unknown. Between the light and dark. Between the frightening and comforting.

“My words have been exposed,” Ammi muttered over Sarina's head with a light chuckle, all whilst running a hand through her hair. “Yes, strange happenings indeed, but I cannot yet tell them to you, for they are not my strange happenings to tell.”

“Whose are they, then?” Sarina asked, closing her eyes as if she could just imagine the answer.

She needed to know, more than anything else, what the Woods represented. What it contained? Its innermost secrets and outermost surroundings.

Why did they live right outside a place Ammi had, very clearly, barred Sarina from entering and exploring, right from her childhood? Why did they not reside somewhere else, further into the capital, where people were neighbours and not gnarly trees and shrubbery?

Prosperity would greater follow them in the capital, where industry thrived whilst agriculture fell by the wayside. But Ammi, all throughout, had refused to budge when the topic of relocation sprung up.

Sarina knew that the house in which they lived belonged to her late father, who died before she was born, but on whose life savings they were living whilst Sarina searched for a more permanent occupation in the capital.

But…surely they didn't just live here, far from most opportunities in the kingdom, only due to sentimental value. Sure, Sarina felt a certain peace when knowing that her dear father had walked across these wooden planks and lit the hearth with his own hands.

But there had to be something deeper to the fact, and even in her teenage years, Sarina could discern that. So she didn't listen to Ammi's words as much as she inferred the meanings between them.

And the meaning was clear. Clear as the fact that Sarina was definitely not afraid of the Woods and what it contained.

The meaning that—a secret lurked in those trees and greenery. A secret waiting for Sarina to discover it.

And, at the ripe age of twenty-two, Sarina poked out one evening when Ammi was asleep, sent a prayer to God, quelled the nerves she would swear never existed, and headed down the dirt path towards the dandelions marking the entrance of the Woods.

And then she stepped, ever so easily, across the threshold.

Chapter 2

As soon as Sarina crossed the line of dandelions and entered the Woods, it appeared as if the place took on a new life that one staring in from the outside would have never encountered.

The heady-scented shrubbery tickled her skin and blouse at first, and thereafter gave way to a small clearing that was very, very dark. To the point that even Sarina's squinted eyes could barely make out what was before her.

Rather, she inhaled the earthy scent that spread across her nostrils, carried by a lukewarm wind that seemed to exude both peace and calm. A little like Sarina's heart—comforted by the wonderful scent of nature, whilst raging at the thought of Ammi catching her in here.

Sarina might have been a full-fledged adult, but Ammi's anger was something she would always be afraid of.

She breathed in deeply, closed her eyes for a second, before opening them again. This time, her vision managed to probe the darkness for details that became more apparent the longer she stared at them.

Canopies of greenery—more akin to brownery or blackery given the lack of illumination—covered the waning evening orangey sky from all sides. The thickets and branches were either guards covering Sarina from Ammi's wrath should her mother find out of her escapade, or soldiers forcing her deeper inside the confines of the Woods.

Sarina didn't know which the greenery represented. Though she very much wished to find out the truth, the entire truth. One would be prudent to note that Sarina was not scared at this point in time, or even the tiniest bit frightful. Not at all, in fact.

In the distance, all she could make out under the cover of foliage were trees, and more trees, standing tall and menacing yet oddly swaying in the wind too. Sarina stepped forwards, ignoring the crunch of her heeled boots against softening moss, and ventured deeper into the Woods.

Again, she was not scared. Not even the tiniest bit. For fear bit into the heart causing illusions to bite into the eyes—and Sarina would not allow illusions to blind her to the truth of the Woods.

The further she ventured, the stranger and stranger the place became, however. Her eyes searched the enduring darkness for some sign of life, of anything out of the ordinary, of even the smallest glimpse of something fantastical, but nothing met her vision. Though she didn't know the forest, she could tell where north lay from a snippet of the sky—finding her way back would prove no issue. Sarina was sure of that.

And if she didn't know her way, asking God for guidance served as a good backup plan.

Why a backup plan? Sarina could almost hear Ammi say. God should be your first port of call, dear Sarina, not the second or third or fourth.

And Ammi, at least in this scenario, was certainly right.

So Sarina made prayers beneath her breath as she trod through the clearings and trees, over viny logs and around thorny bushes, pushing away errant branches when they impeded on her path. Prayers for God to show her the truth of the Woods, a truth she had sought for the better part of her conscious life—that is to say, since her teen years.

And with those prayers guiding her, she pushed onwards, the darkness forming almost a barrier of black around her, such that visibility became a forgone notion. She rummaged around in the darkness, glancing back for some semblance of a light that didn't arrive. A light that, strangely, felt lost to her.

Sighing, with not even a little amount of fear of course, she scrabbled her hands across moss and dirt after kneeling down. A large branch met her fingers, the wood ridged and tickling her skin. She grabbed her trusty flint and steel—it came in handy when those lighters from the city ran out yet the hearth required a start—and lit the very tip of the branch whilst holding it at the bottom, careful not to set the whole forest on fire by accident.

That would be a disaster of otherworldly proportions. And in this impeding dark, there wasn't a chance of Sarina making it out alive.

Not that she was scared, mind you. Not at all.

Flames breathed into life before her, crackling as it birthed from the branch. Sarina held it up to her eye (not scorching herself, of course) before sweeping it in front of her, again careful not to let it catch on any leaves or bushes.

Sarina was practical, but Ammi always said she could be a bit clumsy in the intelligence department. Starting a fire in a forest…Sarina began to think Ammi had a point.

Well, a cloth would have to be sacrificed, but for the worthy cause of stopping the entire Woods from burning down.

Sarina grabbed a cloth from her pocket and smothered the little flame she had created, nearly burning her hand in the process. Remnants of the heat stuck to her hand and body like thick dough, and she continued onwards, stepping over branches with little light to guide her.

Yet that warmth across her body and hair, and that warmth in her heart from making prayers earlier—that warmth could never be mistaken, even as Sarina sensed the distant dip of sunset letting night take over the world.

Ammi would wake from her nap soon, and if she didn't find Sarina, she would begin her warpath. And of that, for sure, Sarina wasn't just scared, but terrified.

So Sarina had to be quick about uncovering the secret of the Woods, and quick about her return to home.

And so, with swift quickness, she continued treading until the first pierce of light broke the deep darkness. A surprise—and a welcome one at that—because Sarina had never expected light this deep into the Woods. Not at all.

So the excitement bubbled in her heart, and the light continued to grow the closer she got to its source, and the trees glistened a brighter shade of green, brighter than Sarina had ever seen, and the blackness around her began to shed its skin for the colours that overtook the fantastical world in which she lived.

Assortments of red, green, the whites of flowers, the deep brown of oak and moss and twigs marking her path forwards. The orange glow of the sky, turning redder and darker with each step she took.

Sarina dropped the cloth from her hand, left it to fester as a burnt rag on the moss and dirt whilst she sprinted towards the light that welcomed her with open arms, all whilst the freshest of air swooshed into her lungs and caressed her body with the gentlest of touches.

And then she was in the open, no longer crammed into tight spots by branches or bushes with thorny leaves, or logs that had dropped at just the right point to disrupt her travel. No, she was in the open, finally, in a clearing the size of a large jewellery store in the city centre, and that was when the sense of sound returned to Sarina.

Along with the wind’s breeze and the accompanying symphony of rustling leaves, the running of water beckoned her to the presence of a stream nearby. And, even though the world was entering dark as sunset soaked across its skies, the clearing appeared to bathe in the echoes of midday.

It was, absolutely and in every way, an utterly beautiful sight, and Sarina's breath caught in her throat and held itself there. The trees appeared to still, as did the wind, everything halting to allow Sarina's mind to process the utter wonder of nature before her.

Beauty, in every facet of the word, of a kind that surely none of those prissy posh prats in the capital had ever seen.

No, this was hidden in the Woods, reserved for Sarina alone. Her special secret, for her to explore the depths of to her liking.

Her mind remained as transfixed as her eyes, but eventually the urge to breathe overtook her. She sucked in the fresh, flower-tinted air, sweet as a feather, and decided to finally move.

She stepped closer to the stream, legs light despite having trodden for what felt like hours through seemingly endless darkness. The stream’s waters lapped at near-glowing rocks, as though waving Sarina closer to the edge so she could have a fresh drink.

She didn't want to disturb the grass, of a luscious green despite the waning light, so walked on small patches of dirt and moss, no longer wary of the trees towering around her. Though before the trees had seemed like tall guards ready to attack her, now they resembled the opposite—guards primed to defend her, like those guards blocking the capital's four main gates.

Sarina stepped down a little stone path, naturally formed and curving lower into the ground to the edge of the stream. Once at the edge, the scent of fresh water beckoned her hands forth, and Sarina let the small waves rub her right hand like Ammi’s caresses.

The heat from the near-burn earlier dissipated as coolness washed over Sarina, and she let out a sigh of relief.

With her hand still inside the stream, and with the water's soft peace spreading from her fingers to the rest of her body, Sarina sat cross-legged on the stone shore. Rather than hardness jutting into her body, Sarina felt as if she was floating on top of the clouds of an otherwise clear sky—light and airy.

She sat like that for minutes that stretched for so long it was as if time itself slowed for Sarina to enjoy it for longer. The air tinted itself with the smell of roses of all different colours, and though the sky was darkening, the stars beyond twinkle and sparkled.

And sparkled.

Until the soft wind dipped softer, from breeze to trickle, and something else snatched Sarina's attention.

The snap of a twig behind her.

Then a voice.

A voice she didn't want to hear more than any other voice.

Ammi's voice.

“I did always know you could find this place here,” Ammi said.

And Sarina scrambled to her feet and turned around. Water dripping from her fingers to the rock beneath her.

And this time, unlike when walking through the Woods, she was definitely scared.

Make no bloody mistake about it.

Chapter 3

Though the scenery to the sides of Sarina, of luscious green forest and gorgeous plants, still glistened in her peripheral vision, the Woods behind Ammi's standing form resembled the darkness that had enveloped Sarina on her path to this clearing.

Or maybe Sarina's mind was making it so, such was the turbulent fear hurtling through her at a horsecart's speed. And horsecarts near the capital were mighty fast, one would be wise to believe. Not that Sarina had ever ridden in one. That was only for the nobles.

“Ammi, why…why are you h-here?” Sarina asked, struggling to find her voice. She breathed in air that had lost its freshest of freshness—now, it tasted rather stale as it slid down Sarina's throat.

Ammi merely stepped closer, shoulders sinking as though with resignation. “I did always know you could find this place here,” she repeated, thereafter sighing. “Well, it is my fault, I suppose, for inciting that curiosity in you from young. A child should not be blamed for merely following a parent's finger.”

“What…what are you talking about?” Sarina asked, that fear within her not quite yet subsiding. Ammi could feign calmness sometimes, whilst a storm brewed in her heart. Sarina had been on the receiving end of that many times, in fact.

But in this situation, with the surrounding rustling forest and darkening sky and rocky shore of the stream—Sarina didn't think Ammi was holding down anger.

In fact, the emotion Sarina would pinpoint…it was guilt.

Which didn't much make sense to Sarina, but in the place where the wind howled and whispered and tickled at the same time, not much did make sense.

“This place here is something special,” Ammi said, lowering herself slowly over the line that separated rock from grass and dirt. She leaned forwards, that old-age curve in her back ever-present, and approached Sarina.

“Special?” Sarina asked.

“Indeed. Let us sit and I shall tell you why.”

Sarina's brain was frazzled, scrambled, whisked like eggs when being prepared for a noble’s breakfast.

But she found a small boulder on the far side of the stream—or rather, Ammi pointed to it, whilst Sarina led her there to sit and talk about…whatever on earth it was Ammi wished to speak about.

“What's special about it?” Sarina asked again, curiosity bubbling up as it always did. “I don't understand. It's…a beautiful place, not a mistake about it, hidden like nothing else. But special…why? I thought witches did their business here.”

Ammi chuckled. “I'm sure you have aged enough to know that story is a child's tale. Truly, the Woods is a place of intrigue, and strangely secluded. That is why our neighbours and the rest tell their children to fear of it.”

“But what about when people become adults? Would they not then explore and find out about this place?”

“Only a person as brazen as yourself, my young Sarina, would do such a thing. For those who are not aware of the Woods and its paths, they will become lost and consumed by it, definitely.”

“But I made it here, somehow,” Sarina muttered, feeling awfully proud of herself in that moment. She’d made it through the darkness, and into the light, and even though Ammi had caught her, that swell of emotion in her chest was hard to stop.

They paused near the edge of the boulder, and Sarina leaned down and helped Ammi up onto it. Then she sat down herself, shoulder brushing lightly with Ammi's, whilst the little light left filtered through the leaves to swathe the stream and Ammi's face as she spoke.

“This is where I first met your father,” Ammi said.

Sarina's breath froze at that, as did every molecule in her body.

She had heard little of her father whilst growing up. Ammi had told her, throughout her childhood, that her father had passed when she was little, barely older than a baby, and that the house belonged to him and that it was his land off of which they lived.

Sarina was grateful for that, of course, since who wouldn't be? But she’d yearned to know more about the father she had never met. Wanted to hear all the details she couldn't witness first hand.

But Ammi had never offered more than that, despite Sarina's pestering. Until Sarina became twelve or thirteen, and her mind had matured enough to realise that Ammi would never give answers to her endless questions.

But now…for some reason…Ammi was opening up. In a manner Sarina could have never anticipated.

“How did…did you meet him?” Sarina asked, shifting her weight on the boulder to find some comfort against rock.

The stream before them both dappled in the wind's dance, and light reflected off the water to shine Ammi's face.

“I come from a place far from where we live,” Ammi said, staring at the scenery around them. “Travelling to the capital is tiresome, but my father and I had business there. But we got lost along our journey.”

“Guessing you got lost in this place here?”

“Right in one, dear Sarina. It was perhaps as dark as it is now, that night. And my father and I would have succumbed to the elements had it not been for the young man who arrived right here, on this side of the stream.”

“Did you love him at first sight?” Sarina asked, heart clamouring for details.

She'd always wanted that mythical, enduring love for herself, after all, despite having not found it yet.

“Love is like a flower—it must be planted and tended to, and then it will grow to the skies. At that time, I am certain the seed of love had been planted. Only thereafter did it blossom.”

“What happened next, then?” Sarina asked, unable to contain the child-like giddiness in her voice.

“He led us back to his home, which is the same house we live in today. He handed my father and I new clothes to wear to the capital, fed us from his own table, and gave us a spare room to sleep in to save the coins we'd brought for an inn.”

“But what kind of person was he? Not just what he did, but his personality?”

“Handsome,” Ammi said with a laugh, eyes shining as the leaves rustled their tune. “He was principled most of all, I think I would say. If he held something dear to him, he would cherish it for nothing else than because he loved it. He was lonely too, a little at least.”

Sarina hadn't expected to hear that, because loneliness was a little strange in a village where everyone knew one another, so she asked Ammi how her father could be like that.

“I guess it is just the mere nature of some,” Ammi said, glancing over at Sarina and smiling. “Whilst you and I are the most chatty of them all, your father was quiet and composed most of the time. But when you came into his life, that was when everything changed in a way even I could never have foreseen.”

“What do you mean?” Sarina asked, nearly clambering over to drag the answers out of Ammi, whilst they both sat on that boulder.

“He was lonely, and quiet, that is for certain. But as soon as you came into his life, dear Sarina, it was as if a fire lit under that man. He became even more handsome, and he cuddled you within an inch of both your lives, trust me, and he worked the land harder than I had ever seen him.”

Ammi chuckled, and Sarina could imagine the memories floating across her mother’s vision as they stared at the darkening greenery around them. Yet, despite the dark skies as the sun had fully set now, the world appeared brighter.

“You gave him something to live for again, Sarina,” Ammi said. “For many men, their family is their purpose, and there is nothing more to life than serving them. Without that foundation, many men suffer. Your father was very much like that, and when you were born, dear, that only increased his motivation in multitudes.”

“I wish I could have…could have seen him,” Sarina muttered, eyes downcast, head drooping.

Ammi leaned over and reached a hand across. It was warm, and Ammi’s arm wrapped over Sarina’s shoulder.

“You shall see him again, in heaven, if God wills it so.”

Sarina wiped her eyes before the tears could fall. She’d shed many tears over not knowing her father, not knowing the person that was behind so much of Ammi’s life, and her life too…but today, she wouldn’t shed tears.

Today was a happy day, because she’d finally stumbled across something related to her father, this clearing in the Woods. A place with history, with charm, with breathtaking beauty. And finally, she’d gotten her mother to open up about her father.

No, Sarina wouldn’t let sadness pierce her.

For she felt a joy she had never felt before.

And it filled her up like a hearty meal infused with Ammi’s love.

“Can we come here again?” Sarina asked.

Ammi just glanced over at her, her smile unwavering, before lowering herself to the ground without Sarina’s help. Then, reversing the earlier situation, it was Ammi who held a hand out to Sarina and helped her down to the rocks again.

“Of course,” Ammi said. “We shall come here many times, and probably find your own husband walking along this little shore before the stream.”

“Ammi,” Sarina groaned, wishing she could bury her head in the water and never have to face that smirk from Ammi again. Trust Ammi to bring up marriage at a time when Sarina was thinking about completely unrelated topics.

Gosh, Ammi was obsessed with the idea of grandchildren. And Sarina wished for a love like her parents had, but all in due time, according to God’s plan.

They stepped off the rocks, and onto dirt and grass again. The rustling of leaves comforted Sarina’s ears now, and the trees guarded over them from above like individual watchers in the Woods, and the air smelt as fresh as a new beginning, as fresh as the morning dew of spring.

“Thank you, Sarina,” Ammi then said, leading her out through a different path that apparently led to home much more quickly and without the pain of encountering foliage they couldn’t see. A path only known to Ammi and Sarina’s father.

“For what?” Sarina asked.

“For helping me.”

And Ammi merely left it at that.

And as they walked across the line of dandelions separating the Woods from civilisation, Sarina leaned into Ammi’s side.

“Thank you, too,” Sarina said.

“Why?”

“No reason.”

Ammi laughed, and Sarina laughed with her, and they both entered the house her father had built with the sense that they had grown closer than ever.

And it was a feeling Sarina wanted to cherish for the rest of her life, and for the next life too, where she would reunite with her father once more.

JazakAllahu Khayran for reading!

Feel free to read any of my other free short stories, or click the all fiction tab above for info on where to find my longer works.