Chapter 4
Morning soon arrived. Birdsong filled the previously quiet forest outside. He sat up and stretched, taking draught of the cool morning air. He sat on the side of his bed for a moment, inspecting the rune on his wrist. It didn’t look any more faded than it had a few days ago. It was a good sign, Leoric would rather not have to fix the rune. A few years ago, when he first inscribed the rune on his wrist his visions and nightmares were at its strongest, sometimes he had difficulty determining whether he was dreaming or not. He didn’t trust ink to stay on his wrist for any longer period of time, so he took a knife and cut the rune into his flesh. The pain was near unbearable and it left a nasty scar—precisely what he wanted. But now the scar looked old and faded, as if it had been there for many more than only a few years. He traced it with his fingers, somehow feeling the texture of the scar comforted him, as if touching the runes empowered them (even though he knew it didn’t). After a while he got up and left his room. The front door was open and Dreia was sitting outside on its steps. A small wooden bucket laden with seeds and tiny berries stood snugly beside her. Crows and ravens of all sizes stood and strutted all round her, some more cheeky ones attempted to eat directly from the bucket before they were promptly told off by Dreia and received a slight tap on the beak, as well as some disapproving tutting. Leoric slowly came closer as not to disturb the birds, but they seemed not to even notice him, their minds were much preoccupied.
He leaned on the inside of the doorway for a while before Dreia spoke up: ‘I have thought long and hard about this curse of yours. I might be able to help somehow, but as I said last night, I will need you to run an errand for me. I must warn you though, it will be rather dangerous.’
‘How dangerous?’ Leoric asked carefully.
‘You will have to go deep into the forest and retrieve someone for me.’
‘What do you mean by &qout;retrieve?”‘ Leoric did not like the sound of that at all, he knew the stories of the Old Forest and the many dangers that lay within. All sorts of beasts and monsters were said to live there, and some said even the dead do not rest under the darkness of the canopy.
‘A companion of mine was captured, by a beast of some sort.’
‘The tales of the Old Forest do not bode well. I suspect this captor is no mere beast?’ asked Leoric. The thought of having to fight some dark beast (alone) did not at all amuse him.
‘Not quite,’ Dreia said shaking her head, ‘he names himself Buramog, it means “forest king” in the ancient tongue of Toads. Yes, he is a large toad, quite large indeed. In fact, the last time I saw him he was about as large as my cabin. I should not be surprised to see he has grown larger still.’
‘And how am I supposed to free whoever it is from this beast? If I am not mistaken, the ancient Toads are a cruel and ruthless kind. I do not fancy being squashed by his giant body, much less swallowed hole,’ said Leoric with a sigh, sitting down beside Dreia. The nearby birds quickly flew off in panic before slowly strutting their way back to get more food.
‘In the old days perhaps. But there are few of them left, much too few for them to be bold and brash as they once were lest they be hunted to extinction. I do not think you should fear death by his hand—or tongue—at least until you anger him; he has a short temper. But he is not all-together brash, he can be reasoned with.’
‘And why do you not do this yourself?’ Leoric asked, thinking it a fair question.
‘Because he cannot stand the sight of me. I will not bore you with the details, but for a while he had been making advancements on me. One day he even asked for my hand in marriage. Obviously I refused. He did not take kindly to that, and so—probably to get back at me—he kidnapped one a companion of mine.’