Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 328

Chapter 328: Little trinkets
Ford’s heart raced, and he remained still, trying not to panic.

These creatures hadn’t hurt them before. He had no reason to think they had suddenly taken umbrage to the humans’ presence in the forest.

“Hello,” He said, softly enough not to wake anyone.

There was no reaction for several seconds as Ford stared upward. One pair of eyes slowly descended from the trees, climbing down to the ground to observe the man from a short distance away.

Ford clenched his teeth but held still, holding a gaze he hoped was steady and confident yet nonthreatening.

It was a balance he wasn’t sure he could strike.

The creature shuffled closer into the circle of firelight. Legs and arms, a long tail that flicked back and forth with something akin to agitation. A face with intelligent brown eyes that watched Ford closely.

He noticed the pupils of the creature were lighter than the irises, almost milky.

“Hello,” Ford said again, and tried to smile.

The creature’s lips parted, revealing teeth the color of syrup. It was off putting in the extreme, but not a show of aggression… he thought.

“You haven’t come down before,” Ford observed.

A stare was the only response.

“Do you want this?” The man held up his crude carving, and the strange eyes fixated on it.

Ford was near the fire, and between him and the creature, Seth lay, asleep. He didn’t like the idea of the older man suddenly waking and doing something rash because he was startled. He also didn’t like the idea of leaving Mia’s father so vulnerable with an unknown being nearby.

Thankfully, the creature seemed equally wary of the sleeping Seth, and edged its way around the group until it was closest to Ford.

He smiled again, and held out the carving towards the creature. It wasn’t finished, but it was a loose representation of a tree. A bit on the nose to carve a tree out of wood, but he wasn’t exactly spoiled for inspiration in the forest.

Slowly, it crawled forward, eyes on the carving, moving on hands and feet. Remembering how Mia had taught him to feed treats to the horses, Ford opened his hand to have the thing resting flat on his palm, fingers together.

The long, prehensile tail snaked out like a whip and snatched it from his hand, after which the creature turned and darted into the forest. A faint chittering accompanied its departure.

“Oh. Ok. Bye,” Ford looked down at his empty hand and shrugged. He turned to pick up another piece of wood to begin carving again. “At least I can confirm it’s you lot who’s interested in whittling.”

As he set his knife to the wood, he glanced up into the trees again. Had even more eyes appeared? He dropped his gaze. It was unnerving.

“Who are you talking to?”

Ford jumped at the whisper. Daniel had woken and was looking at him with wide eyes. The man pressed one finger to his lips and then rolled his eyes upward towards the crowd of onlookers.

“Oh,” Daniel breathed sleepily. “Is this a dream?”

“Nope,” Ford smiled tightly.

A rustle in the leaves sounded, and both humans watched as a second creature descended. It looked much the same as the first had, but was bold enough to come closer than the last. Lurking just inside the firelight, it eyed the small pile of carvings the men had made.

Ford reached down and picked up a second, then held it out on an open palm like the last. This creature shuffled closer still, its nostrils flaring as it observed the conscious humans.

“You can have it, if you would like,” Ford offered in barely a whisper. The beings seemed to have at least some level of understanding of human language, so he tried to be as friendly as possible.

Reaching forward with a seven-fingered hand, the brown eyed creature carefully plucked the carving from Ford’s palm.

“We can give you all of these,” Ford tilted his head towards the pile. “If you can let us out of the forest tomorrow? Are you keeping us here?”

“Here?” The faint echo of his word from the mouth of the being made Daniel lean forward with enthusiasm.

“We’ve got places to go,” The child said brightly, his voice growing loud enough to risk rousing the others. “We’d like to go, but we wanted to give you presents. Can you help?”

“Help,” The word accompanied a rustling as half a dozen other pairs of eyes skittered down the trunks of trees to stand behind the one facing down Ford. The man gulped.

Not wanting to be approached by all of them, he picked up objects from the small pile and tossed a carving gently towards the feet of each creature in turn.

The first two snatched their prizes and disappeared. The rest lingered, tilting their heads first one way, then another as they looked at the humans, clutching the gifts.

“Please?” Ford stared back. “We would like to go away from here, to mountains and then caves. Can you help us?”

There was no repetition of words this time. Ford took the last few carvings and pushed them closer to the nearest changer… wight… whatever it was. It rose up on two feet, seeming to grow larger as it did. Ford’s eyes widened as the once small-seeming being now stood larger than a man.

Ford swallowed and heard the subtle sounds of waking behind him. The strange eyes moved slowly between each human before it nodded its great head twice.

“Help us,” It finally intoned.

Several more of them raced down to snatch up the remaining carvings before skittering back into the trees. As Ford looked up, the pairs of eyes disappeared one by one, until the night was absolute and quiet once more.

“Well done, Ford.”

Grandpa’s whisper deflated Ford’s bravado, and his shoulders slumped.

“I’m glad you think so. I’m not sure I accomplished anything.”

“I suppose we’ll see tomorrow,” The old man’s voice held a smile. “But I’m hopeful.”