The warm spring breeze flew throughout the field and wood. The horses neighed and birds chirped. I just finished my chores when Uncle Ecgbald arrived, luckily, as I wanted to spend the whole afternoon with him. Father sent me to my room for a moment before I could say hello to Uncle Ecgbald, I don't know why, but probably because he knew he wouldn't have that much time to spend with his brother. Uncle and father both came in my room. Uncle was smiling while father frowned. "Now you aren't to go into the woods you hear me, dangerous things prowl and live there, whatever you do. Don't. Go. Into. Those. Woods," father said these words with just something I hadn't seen before, was he scared of them, or did something happen to him when he was a child? I didn't know at the time. Uncle and I decided to take a walk in the field. We talked and talked, about how he was doing, how I was doing, how my siblings were doing and the like. I didn't really add that much to the talk while we were walking until I I started to think why we couldn't go into the woods. "Uncle, why won't father let us go into the woods?" Uncle didn't answer for a couple moments, but when he did, he spoke with a hushed tone and a manner if he was scared to say, "I'll tell ya a tale lad. Back when your father and I were about your age, we went walking into the woods, against our mother's words.
We called out and taunted the forest, as we were foolish young boys back then. Something heard us, and apparently was stalking us the entire time. Sigered saw something watching us. The piercing, heart-stopping, yellow eyes tracked us from within the shadows of the trees.Sigered called out, ran, leaving me still confused why he did. Seldom did I just stand when something would scare someone, no matter what it was, but I did. I was confused. I didn't see the yellow eyes, but Sigered certainly did," I frowned, I didn't know that this happened, nor did I think I was supposed to. We decided to take a break at the edge of the forest. We broke away from the talk of what they both seen, and decided to eat in peace. I finished eating first, as I didn't talk too much, not as much as uncle did. He was talking to me about how I was doing, but I didn't notice. I was scared, confused, and worried. I saw the exact same piercing, heart-stopping, yellow eyes as my father did before I. Was this just my eyes playing a trick on me? or was it real, I didn't hesitate to cry out. Uncle quickly noticed what I was seeing, and told me to run, we did.
We ran all the way back to our house. We told father and mother, Sigehelm and Burgwyn, however, they didn't believe us. Only father did. Uncle stayed with us that night, then bid his farewells the next morning. Seldom did I listen to things of legend or tale, and really take heed of them, but tales from my uncle or father, I would listen so carefully. Tales of large wolves, or rather, large wolf-like things, were all about our home, spread by my rumor-spreading brother of course. I couldn't help but believe them, father never lied, nor did uncle, at least to me, plus, the eyes in the woods looked exactly as how uncle described them. Dinner was a good distraction from thinking about those eyes, but it didn't stop me fully. Father wished to speak to me after it, as he wanted to know what uncle and I did while we were out in the fields. Regret and hesitation grew into my mind, gnawing at me like a wolf with his bone, I wasn't sure if I should tell him of the encounter near the edge of the woods, but I did. Regret left my mind. Father sighed, scolding me, but was glad that we did not attempt to pursue the eyes. It was a warm night, luckily, it helped me sleep better. Though the sleep was not the best, for a nightmare occurred.
I was in the woods, wandering around with a lantern. It was dark, pitch-black, but the moon lit a dim, but seeable, path throughout the woods. I followed it, until I was stopped, in place, like I was overcome with some kind of sorcery. I looked around, frantically, hoping for a slight miracle that I could run, walk, just move in general. But no, nothing happened. It was just silence, silence in the dark, until I heard growls, loud, menacing growls. Those same yellow eyes stared at me, piercing my very soul, almost like it gazed into my mind, gaining a glance of my weaknesses and strengths. A miracle did come, I was able to move, run, walk, cry out. I cried out with fear so loud, but no one heard me, nothing in the woods even moved, only the eyes. Swiftly I ran, but to no avail, I couldn't leave the forest, it was like there was a immovable wall, that you couldn't climb or run around. Behind me I heard growls, sounds of movement in the shadows, all around me. It was there, at that moment, that I saw it. A Warg, a large, wolf-like creature. It went closer and closer to me, until it turned back. I left the forest in a hurry, thank Bema that I was able to survive. I went back to sleep. I woke up the next day and did my usual chores, but I didn't tell anyone of my dream.
