room14/IntoTheWoods

 14.1.2023 : ROOM 14 : INTO THE WOODS

The first thing you observe about the Forest is the sound of more birds than you ever knew could exist in one sky. You see them, it is not so much a flock as a cloud. There are many flocks each bigger than any flock you saw on Earth. Millions of birds and more. They make the most beautiful shapes above the forest as you approach it. It is one of the most inspiring sights of your life. 

The forests edge grows gradually from the plains with more widely spaced younger trees rising up before you enter the shades of the forest proper. Sometimes the way into the forest is blocked by spiky bramble bushes of a species similar to those back home have berries which you gorge on in a feast of hunger. They are delicious. 

Deeper in you find a mossy drystone wall several feet tall. Once this wall marked the forest edge however it is now being swallowed by nature with no sight of the plains behind you. Despite the wall having crumbled in places to allow access through for ground animals, you decide to walk alongside it as far as possible. You feel grateful in this strange place for any sign of someone once having made herculean effort toward imposing a sense of order on the chaos especially after your last few days. 

Eventually you come across a somewhat overgrown dirt track road, in one direction to the plains and the other, into the forest. 

If you wish to return to the plains, now is the best time to do so.

Otherwise continue into the ancient trees. 

Although the trees are similar to those of your homeward they are also different. It is as though nature has filled the same ecological niches entirely independently from the evolution of species in ecologies of your planet. You have observed by now the daylight has a slightly different quality to it, days and nights do not feel the same length of time although you have no way to measure that. You are not entirely convinced it is not your mind playing tricks on you. Due to the permanent cloud coverage it has been impossible for you to see moon and stars. You are not entirely sure this is an entirely different world to your own or perhaps simply another time in history. Of course you have heard legends dating back to medieval times of wars, plagues, and mythological monsters. 

The forest in its primal state is lovely and unlike the dry plains it is densely populated with animals. The canopy of birds overhead sing continuously, a great orchestra which you find to be at once both maddening and exhilarating. To continue along your way you have no choice but to get used to it. 

On the side of the path is a broken down, rotting wooden wagon cart with what once were large wooden wheels. Examining it you realise the people of this world had a level of technology which although unrefined in its resolution was superior to anything you could easily put together with your own hands. Never having had to learn skills sufficient to craft such a vehicle by hand, you frown as you recognise the limitations of your own knowledge for any such practical task here. 

After an hours walking you come to a crossroads. The dirt track you have travelled extends onwards to the East. Running across it is a wider cobblestone road running North-South. Unlike the path from the plains, the main road is wide enough there is open sky above it. 

Do you turn left and go South on the main route?

Do you turn right and go North on the main route? 

Do you continue East along the dirt-track? 

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