The Huorn and the Woodchopper
As Halgast could tell you in person, his father was a very stubborn man. Always set in his ways, but nonetheless hardworking. When Saruman started working his evil in the tower of Orthanc, the plains of Rohan grew ever more dangerous. As keeping a herd left them vulnerable on the open fields, Hammund was amongst the first to decide to build a village, bringing their nomadic lives to a halt. Settling in a village didn't only make them less vulnerable, it also provided them with a new way of life; growing crops aside from living off the hunt gave them a steadier income of food to last the cold winters, but it also meant chopping more wood.
When first they built the foundations of their farmer's village, the wood they chopped came from a nearby body of trees, standing in the waves of green grass like a solitary island. It provided enough strong lumber to build the houses and offered a fair share of malleable wood for new hunting bows and timber for warm fires every night. As time passed, however, the place that had once harbored fine oaks and pine-trees was now just another patch of dry grass, which too they took to strengthen the roofs above their heads.
Thus time passed and as the piles of timber they had gathered diminished, woodchoppers like Hammund were forced to seek their timber elsewhere. While there were some groups of trees here and there further to the south, it was a fact that their village lay not far from the borders of Fangorn Forest, or Entwood as they called it. The villagers had all heard the stories about that place, and none dared to venture there, unless in great need. And if that need would arise, they would only take the fallen branches and twigs to keep their fires going. Ever would they hear a faint rumbling echoing from bark to bark as they picked up what they needed.
With the rumours of the treachery of the wizard came stronger winters, and the villagers filled in the gaps of their suspicion that the two were somehow related. It so happened that one winter they had used up most of the timber in an effort not to freeze to death. Hammund decided in the spring of that year that travelling further south for wood from distant forests or trading what little they had for wood from the east was starting to become a fool's errand. Thus he took it upon himself to face the fear of the village for Entwood and he rode there with some other brave lumbermen to chop a mighty tree that they knew stood at the outskirts of the ancient tree line.
Carrying his best and most proud iron-wrought axe, Hammund approached the tree they had set their thoughts on but were met by the same rumbling they had heard before, only this time it seemed more aggressive. The other men stood watching the branches of the trees, wary of any sudden movements. But Hammund was not so easily swayed by an old wives' tale, and in all his stubbornness he swung his rohirric axe mightily at the bark of the big tree. The rumbling started to sound louder in the background and birds started to flee their well-crafted nests here and there. The horses grew restless and so did the men. But Hammund did not heed the warnings of his fellows, nor the sounds of the forest behind him and thus he chipped off more of the tree's thick bark, now laying bare the bleak colour of its trunk. Splinters covered the ground below Hammund's feet as he prepared for another mighty swing of the axe.
One of the men shrieked as he swore he saw one of the tree's roots move, and surely it did. One of the horses was caught loose and fled the scene. The tree, who was no tree, unearthed more roots from under the ground below him and its bark cracked as it tried to withstand the biting edge of Hammund's blade. As the men turned back they realised that they had fixed their gaze for far too long upon the tree who came to life and hadn't noticed how others had already surrounded them, moving slowly towards them like a pack of hungry wargs. Yet Hammund did not stop, and he continued to chop the tree with all his might until the ground under his feet started to move and he lost his balance. The axe fell on the floor and Hammund and his companions disappeared between the suffocating embrace of the malicious Huorns of Fangorn.
Now, several years later, his son Halgast seeks the truth behind his father's disappearance. Having grown up to be a fine and strong woodcutter himself, and already having more experience in swinging the axe than his father before him, Halgast is steadfast to discover the secret behind his father's presumed death.
Meanwhile the Huorn that took Hammund's life is still unherded by ents, resting deep in the forest and still recuperating from the bite of the axe. Will Halgast find out the truth and discover the secret of the mythical forest that everyone is so afraid of?
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Picture found on: deadliestfiction.wiki.com
