Page 4 of Whispers of the Elderoak

My sweet Sarah passed. Her body couldn’t fight the cancer any longer. I will tell everything to Ava soon. Her mother wanted me to wait until she was truly old enough to understand the prophecy and responsibilities she must shoulder. My poor daughter. I will miss her so.

Prophecy? Ava chewed her lip as she wrapped her arms around her knees, still holding the journal in her hands. It sounded like her grandfather’s usual paranoia. Prophecies weren’t real… right? She flipped through the rest of the journal, but the remaining pages were empty. As if he had given up and just stopped writing.

Frustration boiled over as she thought about her family; angry that those she trusted most in the world had been so secretive. Ava never knew where they came from, never knew why her mother could perform magic or what was lurking in the forest beyond the flower fields. The forest her grandfather was always watching and warned her never to enter. She wanted answers. Needed them. It was one of the reasons she decided to move out here.

She rubbed her temples. Should she ask Eleanor? She had been around when Ava’s mother performed magic and had spent hours playing with her on the farm, aware of her grandfather’s oddities. Though it was so long ago, maybe she would remember. Ava hoped Eleanor didn’t think she was crazy.

Rising from the floor, she placed the journal on the desk and finished cleaning up the mess. She tried to attribute the strange journal entries to dementia or some form of madness, her mother’s death pushing him even further away from sanity.

But she wasn’t very successful at convincing herself of this. Something felt off.

She wished her mother were here to comfort her. She always knew the exact thing to say when Ava went too deep within herself, lost in her thoughts and anxiety. Her mother had been tough. The rock on which she stood. An unbreakable force.

Whenever Ava struggled as a child, she could always count on her to be a steady unwavering presence, pushing her to face her challenges head on.

“Crush them,”she used to say when her insecurities tried to win.“All the obstacles that stand in your way. Crush them, Ava.”

She wasn’t sure she knew how anymore.

Asters,daisies and lobelia swayed beside Ava as she meandered through the fields, their botanical scents floating on the breeze. Honeybees were hard at work inside bright red blooms, gathering the last bit of pollen before the first freeze urged them into hibernation. The conservationist in her warmed at her grandfather’s fervor to preserve as much native flora as possible while tilling land for his business. It was something they had all been passionate about, protecting local plants and animals.

She entered the flower fields through a wooden archway covered in climbing red roses and as she walked up and down the neat rows of flowers, she spotted several of her favorites. Dahlias, zinnias, and sunflowers stretched as far as the eye could see in a rainbow of color. She buzzed with excitement as she imagined herself spending time out here, nurturing and harvesting her bounty.

She stood in silence, hands on her hips, appreciating the view. This land, this homestead. It had always felt like home more than anywhere she’d ever lived. It called to her. Whispering her name on a crisp fall breeze, filling her soul with tranquility.

She longed to find peace. Hoped her heart would be healed through this connection with mother earth. After years of uncertainty, of moving around the country and repeatedly starting over, maybe she could settle. Build a life here. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, taking it all in and letting the subtle gusts of wind caress her very spirit.

She changed course and ventured into the woods. She wasn’t a child anymore and she wanted to explore. Needed to. As if it was drawing her in, begging for its secrets to be revealed. Despite the childhood warnings, she pushed on. If her family wanted to keep her out of here, they shouldn’t have died and left her all alone.

Ava followed a path which wove through towering pine and fir trees and eventually vanished under the overgrown brush and vines. Leaves crunched beneath her feet as a squirrel chattered overhead. Sunlight waned as the canopy grew denser and she picked her way deeper into the wild, stepping over fallen logs smothered with viridescent mosses.

As she hiked through the grove, she felt as though she was being watched. She paused, muscles tense as she evaluated her surroundings, searching for the source of her unease. Squinting, she peered between the trees, trying to focus her vision inthe dim light. She wrapped her arms around herself as she began to wander again, still aware of the mysterious sensation.

Moments later, the feeling intensified and this time she stopped and looked more closely, scanning around her with sharp attention. She inspected the grove, landing on a pair of dark eyes gazing at her from between the shrubs.

It was a doe. With soft brown fur and white spots, its large ears moved about as it listened for predators. It didn’t appear scared and drew closer as she spoke with it in hushed tones. She’d always been abnormally gifted with animals and held out her hand as the deer stopped and sniffed her fingers warily.

She stretched her hand out further, but quicker than she was able to make sense of, the deer turned, searching the forest behind it. It bounded off into the woods as if something else was lurking just beyond the shadows, leaving Ava behind. Leaving her alone.

A chill went down Ava’s spine.

The forest had gone quiet, no longer chiming with the songs of birds or the squeaks of chipmunks. Even the breeze ceased, as if the forest held its breath, waiting. Ava took a few more uneasy steps when the rustling of leaves sounded behind her. She turned toward the sound, and a flurry of animals flew past. Birds darted through the treetops as rabbits and more deer rushed around her in a frenzy.

The small stampede was gone within seconds, the forest silent yet again. Though she knew it was time to go back to the house, she felt a tug. A thread pulling her further into the woods. Into the dark. She took another step toward it when something moved in the corner of her eye.

Ava whipped around just in time to see a tall shadow disappear behind a tree. Warning bells pealed in her head, and she turned and ran out of the forest, racing the sun as it set behind the trees.

Heart pounding in her ears, she broke into the open field ofthe farm and doubled over with her hands on her knees, panting. When she checked her phone, she saw that three hours had gone by. Impossible. She had only been in there for an hour at most, she was sure of it.

As she caught her breath, a twig snapped from just beyond the tree line and she could have sworn she heard breathing behind her. Taking no chances, she took off in a run all the way back to the house, not even sparing the forest a second glance.

3

Ava hummed to herself as she cleaned up the flower field, pulling the spent plants and tossing them into her wheelbarrow for composting. Eleanor was coming over for dinner tonight and though it seemed silly, she wanted the farm to look the way Eleanor remembered it from her grandfather’s care.

Smiling at the thought of having a close friend, she didn’t notice the truck driving down the dirt road until it pulled in front of her house.

Rocks crunched under the tires as it inched up the driveway. Ava shielded her eyes from the morning sun, watching it approach. It was a run-down truck, blue paint flaking along the hood, and the rumbling of the engine ceased as the owner turned it off.

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