Lain in the crystal hall of the most erudicate towers, lie what at the peaks of the abyssed can’t be found. At the center of the temple lie freedom from the flesh. Many times I doubted myself and my effort toward this will. Many times, walking the eternal paths I found myself lost and confused. Many times since I abbandon the abbey I have been called an heretic and a forsaken. I don’t wish to deny it, I am proud of what I am, yet there is something that I have to tell.

I have travel where no human feet has arrived, I have seal seas that no man has ever sail. I saw the frozen waters of the north, the vast desert of the south, the giantic dead creatures where the sky is down. I have seen the most sacred and the most profane of things. Life live to the fullest. I don’t wish to tell yourself this. Too many men have already returned home old bringing tales of the most strange and mythical of places. What I wish to tell you is my story.

It was near the coast of Ireland, at that time the entire island was in chaos and war. Lord against lord, pagan against christians. And between false smiles and plot there was me, a simple traveller and curious. The more one went inside and far from the coast the more things changed. Cities became fewer, people became poorer, churces less frequent. Travelling through this vast planes and forests one had the sensation of still feeling the last celtics. Pagans from another time, now strangers and outsider. In certain towns it was not rare to found some small remanence to this old faith that neither priest or raiders managed to eradicate.

I came to a village, a small one of much bad fame. Where thiefs prospered and church were burn down by the local. The wood palizate outside barrely managed to keep animals out of the houses, the few houses were poor. And people were openly practing pagan rites in full view of priests. The place for me.

I begin asking shamans about the local legends, and between golden eggs and mythic cows there was one who particullary got my interest. They told me of a creature, an ancient one older than their grandfathers, who lived in the woods and took the losts. A creature wearing green tunics and blue velvets. A strange being that no managed to eliminate in all those years. Priests just tolded me that it was all bullshit.

Still, having nothing to do, I begin to explore the vast woods outside the village. Living in the wild was something which I was habituate to do. Listening to nature sound, a hymn to lfe and death. A beautiful symphony embodied everything. But yet days passed and I didn’t see anything strange or unsual, so I decided to return to the village convinced that this was a simple legend.

While returning I saw black clouds rising high and a smell of ashes. I went there with all haste to see what was going on and I find a mass of corposes and people outside the small gates. And a priest on top of the watch tower sending insults and curses to the people. All shamans were in full view. On a pire, their corpse burned. New guards and soldiers of christian faith were there, there were determined to make of that place a christian place, no matter the cost.

I don’t like getting involved in those things, as I already said I am a simple traveller and explorer, not an adventurer. Also this gave me a perfect opportunity to see lost people in the forest.

Many persons starved, not habituated to the way of nature. Others managed to reach other villages and, atleast if not living a decent life, not starving. And others decided to start a new village not far from there, despite the lack of resources and water. They will die, I am sure, they know a damn about building and managing.

Some, a group of childrens wandered deep into the forest. I followed them in the darknest hour of night. One of them died, eaten by wolf. Another succumbed to the cold night. But some survived, and in the first lights of the morning, while following them, I heard a strange sound. They didn’t noticed of course, but I did. Then a strange smell, a light smell of pink perfume and dark ink entered into my nose, the lights started being a little distorted. The atmosphere became one of supreme peace, a surreal one, a picturesque one. Between the trees a tint of blue and green could be seen. I quickly hide behind a tree where I could see the whole action better.

The childs noticed that something was strange, they begin looking around, wandering were all the animals and cold had gonne. In the blink of the eye a blue and green cloacked figure with two deer horns appeared before them.

The childs were confuse and paralyse by fear.

“Don’t fear childs I don’t wish to hurt you” he said with an insect like voice “I am here to protect you”

“Protect us” one of the childs said “how?”

“Come with me. In my home you will be safe”

“Where is your home?”

“Not far from here, come with me”

The child redunctly listened to him. He detailed them a magnificent home, one in which they could play in nature all day and be free. One in which there was no famine or thirst or war. A garden of even in short. The more the childs listen to him the more they became convinced.

“Oh I nearly forgot you must be hungry” he gave them some fruits. One after the other the children began following him deeper and deeper into the forest.

I was thralling behind them, being close but far.

At a certain point a monolith appeared, and by a gesture of his hand a mass of grass and herb opened revealing a passage somewhere. “Enter child, there you will be safe.”

“Safe from what?”

“Safe from people like him.” he said pointing a finger directly at me. I quickly took full cover behind the tree.

“Who is he?”

“A person who did nothing seeing you suffer and die. A person who seeing you desperate for help used you for some legend. Is useless that you hide behind a tree, I can see everything in this forest.”

I hidded away. When I came back there was only him, no childrens. I slowly leaved the cover of the trees and revealed myself “what are you?” I said to him from up a tree. He looked at me and didn’t responded, fading away in the forest.

I entered the passage, and found myself into a cave, of a type that I never saw before, the walls were not made of mud or dirty, it was made of plants, plants that looked like flesh. Plants that at traits appeared to be moving and dropping a strange liquid. At the end of it I was much confused and disoriented; Guarded by halls of thorns and spines there was a grave, a white grave with a rose on it. I tried many times to reach it but the terrain to was to dense and spinous. The other rooms and passage leaded no were, the only roots and plants! Then nearly by error I looked better at those plants and trees and recognize a familiar shape, a familiar face. They were the childrens, they were being absorbed. I looked at their eyes, checked their heartbeats, touched their skin, they were still alive, still conscious. What horror was this?

“My home is this forest, I am the forest, the only way to enter into me is to become a part of me.” I turn back, there he was at the entrance, blocking it “I normally don’t capture people, you will be an exception. You have seen too much.”

I tried to move but my feets were blocked my roots and plants, my hands paralyse, wood was entering into my veins. It was bringing me deeper and deeper into the tree. Deeper and deeper into his home.

The end