CHAPTER VI

The dreamer walked away from the house. Gazing at the forest, he paused. He almost turned back, the girl's words had disturbed him so much. He tried promising himself that he would try to help her when he came back from the forest, but somehow he knew that a promise like that would have no value. Because it seemed impossible that he would ever come back. And so he stood, gazing at the begining of the forest, for a long time, not yet daring to enter it.

"Hey you!" Said a voice behind him. He turned around, and saw the girl walking toward him, smiling, and holding the key in her hand.

"The key worked!" He said, and then looked away, ashamed.

"It's okay, I'm not mad at you anymore." She said. "At first, I was so angry that I wanted to take the key just so I could throw it in your face. But even hate wasn't strong enough to break the curse. In the end, I just let go of everything, and took the key, and unlocked the door."

"I should have at least tried to do something..."

"Maybe." She said. "But your faults are for you to worry about, not me. Anyways, you were right. That's the sort of thing, the White Queen would do, make it so only I could free myself, to taunt me with my own weakness. But I guess she underestimated me."

"Maybe she did the same with me." said the dreamer, looking at the forest. He didn't feel very confident.

"Why do you have to find the crone of the forest?" Asked the girl.

"The white queen has imprisoned my friend in the tower, and she will not release her unless I can convince the crone of the forest to give me a flower."

"Alas, you are doomed, if you seek the crone of the forest! She is more terrible and ancient than the black worms that gnaw at the roots of the tree of life! She is more terrible even than the white queen. She was formed from the spittle of Atropos, who cuts the thread of life, and the clay of the world in it's dawning, and the wind that was hunger itself, and the blood of the gryphon it sought to devour. None has ever seen her and lived to tell of it. If you find her, than surely, you shall die. Stay instead, and live. For what the White Queen wishes to keep, she keeps."

"What about you?" Asked the dreamer.

"That's different." She said. "The White Queen put me here to forget about me, I think I remind her of things she would rather not be reminded of. You will be safe, if you stay here with me."

"And abandon my friend? No, I must go at once." He turned, but she grabbed his arm.

"Just wait a moment." She said. "Go if you must, but don't go off so foolish and unprepared. My people know many things about the crone of the forest. Just stay long enough for tea. I haven't had any company for so long. And then, if you still want to go, I will tell you a secret that may save your life."

"Well, I suppose..." Said the dreamer secretly relieved to have an excuse to delay his journey a bit longer.

"But first I have to clean my house a little bit." She said. "It's not suitable for company. Just wait under that tree for a bit."

"Well, okay..." Said the dreamer. He sat under the tree and waited. It was impossible to tell how much time had passed, because the sky was so bleak and empty. Maybe time didn't pass at all. Every now and then she would call out to him "Just you wait and see what it looks like when I'm done!"

Finally she walked out and led him inside the house. His sense of time became utterly confused, because the inside of the house looked nothing at all like it had been when he peered through the window. It seemed like it would have taken days to acheive such a transformation. The table was set for tea."

"Here, have a cup of tea" She said, as he sat down. "The White Queen put a spell on the cupboards so that they would always be full. I don't know if the spell will last now that the curse has been broken, but we may as well enjoy it while it does."

He tried one of the many mysterious little dainties that were set on little platters, and was surprised that he could taste it. It was delicious. They sat talking for quite a while, avoiding the subject of the crone, until finally the girl said;

"Now that you see how nice it is wouldn't you rather stay?"

The dreamer struggled to find some reply to this question, finally saying, rather weakly, "I'm surprised you want to live in this place that was your prison for so long."

"But what about the world you came from?" She asked "If you succeed, won't you return there to bring to it the dreams and beauty you found here?"

"It never occured to me that I would have a choice."

"Trust me, there's always a choice."

"You're right." He said. He had been so close to deciding to stay.

"You'll go into the forest." She said, with a sigh. "I knew you would, but I had to try anyways. It was such a lovely little dream."

She led him out of the house and whispered in his ear the four secret names of the crone of the forest and the manner in which they are sung to the four directions. The dreamer walked away, and just before he entered the forest, he turned back one final time to see her waving goodbye to him. Then he stepped under the trees.

The forest grew darker the further he walked, and the trees grew so tall that he could not see the top of them. They grew chaotically in every direction, he was surprised that many of them did not collapse under their own weight, but there was no fallen wood to be seen, and none of them blocked, or even crossed, the Road.

There were strange insects, and spiderwebs all about, and strange vines covered with thorns. But the only berries were of the belladonna, and there were no flowers to be seen. And the further he walked, the larger grew the spiders and their webs. The silence was so heavy it seemed to drown out the sound of his own footsteps. But as he walked on, he realized that the silence was alive, that it was the whispering of the shadows of the trees, and they spoke of him. And the trees themselves spoke, but in the motion of their branches, and the spiders spoke with the weaving of their webs. The forest had a drowsy air, and he began to feel sleepy, but was kept just barely awake by an overwhelming sense of dread, and so he walked onwards in a trance.

Suddenly he came upon a most surprising thing. There was a signpost, and on it were the first colors he had seen since coming to this world, except for a certain icy blue that he had glimpsed for a single terrifying moment in the eyes of the white queen, and also, strangely enough, the eyes of the woman he had just met. The sign on it was a yellow arrow, with a red border around blue letters that spelled out, "REFRESHMENTS FOR THE WEARY TRAVELER"

This seemed promising enough, so he turned off the road onto a small path lined with cobblestones. It lead to a little house, a tiny rustic cottage with a sign over the door that read, "Welcome."