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Giant of the Black Forest (Part 1)
A village girl stumbles into the dark forest where a giant lives.
Twisted among itself, dry and crackling underfoot like the bare bones of anemones, catching your throat in its thick vines, darkness overtaking in broad daylight under certain copses and bramble-thickets, it was a wild and yet unnatural place, where silences spring up like mushrooms after rain, and sudden cacophonies of birds and beasts make the ears cower. Even the grey-bearded hermit did not go there. Even the most audacious children did not dare one another into it.
After the incident, some whispered that the forest may have desired it, that it allowed only the chosen inside. One fool tried then and was crushed by a falling tree in the most uncanny style. This only strengthened the belief, for how else could such an exuberant little darling desire to enter, and much less, survive? Unless the crow lied. It would be like a crow.
I would like to tell you that Nell entered the forest for love – searching for a plant to cure her ailing brother, perhaps, or even heartbroken and wandering into intended doom. But it is my duty to tell the truth, so I shall.
Once upon a time, when the sun was still falling, a strawberry-haired, scatterbrained Nell went for a walk along the old wall. This crumbling landmark…
