Fiddling in the Woods

My parents’ fear of the deep woods infected my kid brother Ryan a long time ago. He won’t go near them. But I was intrigued by their fear. “What’s out there?” I asked myself again and again and again. I tried asking them what was out there, but they wouldn’t say a word of it. They said, “It isn’t something little girls should be talking about.” And they left it at that. The old folks always said things like that: “little girls shouldn’t go where they’re not supposed to. Little girls shouldn’t wrestle with boys. Little girls shouldn’t go into the woods alone. Little girls shouldn’t be talking about the deep woods.” Blaw blaw blaw and other things like that.
They said the woods were haunted, and that lost souls go wandering through them at night. I was never sure whether I believed that or not. I knew that such things existed; I just doubted that they were here, in these woods.

I’m not exactly what you’d call a good girl. I get in trouble a lot. People said it wasn’t proper for a girl to be playing in the mud, but I did anyway. People said it wasn’t proper for a girl to pick fights with boys, but when they had it coming, I gave it to them. And people always said it wasn’t proper for a girl to go places where boys wouldn’t… Well, that rule I didn’t break until my eleventh birthday.


I was curious to know what was out there in the woods that scared my parents so much. But I wasn’t stupid. I waited until I thought I was grown up enough to go off and explore it. Other women were made mothers by twelve, so I figured I’d be ready by eleven. On my eleventh birthday I set out to answer the question.

That was the day that I saw him, well, night I saw him. It was almost a full moon, which worked out well because I could see without bringing a torch or candle.

I was walking on an overgrown path that went far into the woods. After I had walked about three and a half miles I heard music. Someone was playing a fiddle in the middle of the woods. I followed the music off the path and came upon a man standing in the middle of a rather small clearing, playing a fiddle with great vigor and even greater concentration. The clearing was odd. It was almost an exact circle with the man in the center, and it was only far enough from the path so you couldn’t see it easily, even in the daylight. I watched him from behind a tree for some time. He wore regular clothes, a bit dirty, but well cared for. The playing became a bit softer. I felt as if it was time for me to step out from behind the tree, and so I did. He played very softly, and then stopped.

“Like my playing do you?” He said, still with his back to me.

I nodded. He turned around and had an odd smile on his face.

I guess that proper girls are supposed to be afraid all the time of strange people. Well, I’m not a proper girl.

“Aren’t you scared?” He asked. He seemed surprised.

“Of what?” I asked.

He laughed a bit. “Of me of course. There are a lot of very bad people that wander around, and if you meet one of them… bad things could happen.”

“I’m not afraid of anyone.” I said defiantly.

He chuckled. “That is stupid and could get you into a lot of trouble. For instance, what would you do if I, right now, jumped on you and tried to kill you?”

I thought for a moment. “I’d run I guess.”

He shook his head and frowned.

“I’m Jack.” He said at last.

“I’m Sara.”

“Well Sara, do you really think you should be out here at this time of night?”

“No, but I don’t often do what I’m supposed to.”

“Well,” he said. “It’s been nice talking to you, but I think that you’d best be getting back now. You’ve gone far enough into the woods for one night. But come back any time, I’ll be here.” He smiled again.

If it had been my parents or someone else from the town, I would have told them no, or I would have said okay, left, and then doubled back. But there was something about this… Jack. I don’t know what it was, but for some reason I agreed with him and started back home.


The next day I was filled with curiosity once again. Who was that Jack fellow I met in the forest? And I still hadn’t answered my original question. What were my parents afraid of?
After my chores that morning I went to find old man Milgade, the oldest man in our town. I called him Uncle Ernie. He and I had had a running friendship ever since I was six. I figured that if I could talk to anyone in the town about the forest I could talk to him. He was in his house when I found him. We sat on his front porch and talked about the people in the town, and about old stories, and we gossiped about this and that. By and by I got around to asking him what was on my mind.

“Uncle Ernie, why are my parents so afraid of the deep woods?”

He had been smiling, he liked talking to me, but now his smile faded. He looked off into the distance, then sighed and turned back to me.

“I suppose you’re old enough to know, and I suppose that if you don’t hear the story you’ll go scampering off into the woods looking for trouble.” He looked into the distance as if he would see the story being played out before him on the distant mountains and the clouds in the sky.
“Many years ago you mother was the prettiest young woman in the village, and she had many many suitors…. people who wanted to marry her.

“Anyway, one night she was carried off into the forest by this evil creature, ‘familiars’ they’re called. She was carried off by one of them in the middle of the night. The next day there was a whole lot of fussing over it. Everyone was fearing the worst, after all, familiars are only owned by witches and wizards and the sort…”

“Do they really exist?” I asked skeptically.

“Aye, they do.” He replied. “They and werewolves, and demons and ghosts too. Don’t be fooled darlen: jus’ because they don’t show themselves to everyone don’t mean they don’t exist.”

He stopped and took a breath. “Now then where was I? Ah yes, they had just taken away your mother. That day your father, her bravest suitor, went into the woods looking for her. None of them others went though, they were all too frightened, but your father went in with nothing more than an ax a pair of torches and a knife and flint. He was gone for two days and there were some that said he died. People were getting ready for his funeral, but then, just after dawn on the third day he came stumbling out of the woods, without his knife or flint or torches, but with your mother in his arms and his bloodied ax hanging from his belt. The other suitors were put to shame and your mother and father were married a few days later.”

There he stopped talking. I sensed that there was more to the story since Uncle Ernie hadn’t yet said what had happened in the forest, but he just stopped.

I decided to find out what had happened. “So what happened in the forest though?”

Uncle Ernie looked uncomfortable telling this. “No one really knows. He never talked about it, her either, and whenever asked, they outright refused to tell anything about it. My guess is that he had to fight something horrible to get her back, and the shock of it makes them not want to remember the experience.”

That explained why Uncle Ernie was uncomfortable: he doesn’t like admitting that he doesn’t know something.

That didn’t satisfy my curiosity as to why my parents were afraid of the forest, it just made me more curious. Why did they still refuse to go in there? Was that thing that father fought still alive? I’d need to go exploring to find that answer. And I was still interested in finding out more about this Jack fellow. So I made my decision: I was going back again, tonight.
I was going to see Jack again, but this time I would also go further.


The afternoon took an eternity to get through. I had to be with my normal friends the rest of that day so no one would be suspicious. Supper was rabbit stew and milk.

I waited until everyone went to sleep, then I watched the stars through a window. After about an hour I decided it was time to leave. This time it didn’t seem to take quite as long as last time, to get to the point where I heard the music.

I found him in the same place, just as he said he would be. He saw me and gestured for me to sit on a log on one side of his fire-less fire pit. The full moon was out so we didn’t need a fire just then. After pleasantries I asked him the main question that was on my mind. I’d heard that only witches and wizards and unnatural creatures lived in the woods, so I had to know.
“Are you a wizard?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Old man Milgrade said that wizards live in these woods.”

“Oh.”

There was an uncomfortable pause as he tried to avoid answering my original question. So I asked it again.

“Are you a wizard?”

He made a face of disgust. “Yes and no. I suppose you could call me that because I can perform magic, but I just don’t like that name. Call me a fiddler,” he raised his fiddle for me to see, “because that’s what I am.”

“But you can do magic?”

“Yes.” He said. He seemed proud that he could say that.

“Well, do a spell then!”

Jack laughed. “It’s not like that.” He went on to explain. “I don’t cast one particular spell or another. Everything has a spiritual energy about it, but only the energy in people can truly be called souls. I understand this energy, and through practice I have learned to use my own soul to manipulate this energy the way anyone else would use their hands to manipulate a piece of wood or a stone. The effect is called magic.”

I was excited, and confused. I hadn’t completely understood what he said, but I knew that it meant that he could do something. The things that wizards could do went through my head. “Manipulate something then. I know! Why don’t you turn my brother Ryan into a toad! Or you could…”

“No I can’t.” He interrupted me. “I can’t turn anyone into toads or rabbits or anything, and I can’t make fire come down out of the sky, or any of that nonsense. Think of what your father can do with just his hands, not much. But if he puts a tool in them he can do a lot more. My fiddle is a tool to help me do magic, but asking me to turn someone into a toad is like giving your father a hammer and telling him to build a castle.”

I was disappointed. “What can you do then?”

He thought for a moment. He looked up. The full moon was giving us more than enough light, but we could still use a fire. He gathered some sticks and twigs and dried leaves together from the ground around him. He put these things in the middle of his fire pit. With a look of concentration, he put his hands over the fire pit. They began shaking; then suddenly I saw a spark in the fire pit, then another, and another. With the fourth spark the leaves and twigs lit and soon we had a warm fire.

“Wow.” I said.

“I thought you’d be impressed.”

“What else can you do?”

“Many things. Would you like to here some fiddle music?” He took his fiddle out and began rosining the bow.

“Sure, yeah. But then will you show me more magic?”

“Maybe.”

He began playing. It was a slow song with a beautiful melody. I found myself being absorbed into the music; it was very relaxing.

I slouched down and let the music flow through me. After what seemed like an hour I looked up drowsily and saw a dark figure right behind Jack. In an instant I was wide-awake and sitting bolt upright. It was Ryan. My 10-year-old brother must have followed me out there.

“Relax,” said Jack. “He was watching from the bush behind me. I heard him move just after I lit the fire.”

I looked at Ryan’s face, it was blank and expressionless. He seemed to be in a trance of some kind. I started to settle down. Jack turned to look at him.

“Why don’t you sit down?” He gestured to a rock on the ground near the fire pit. Ryan sat obediently.

“What is your name young man?” Asked Jack.

“Ryan.”

“What did you do to him?” I asked, curiously.

“He is in a trance. While in this state he will do anything I tell him to do, unless he really doesn’t want to. If I were to tell him to jump of a cliff for instance, he would just come out of the trance instead.”
I looked back at Ryan’s blank face while Jack went on.

“But it is good for interrogation and for altering peoples’ memory. Now then Ryan, why were you watching us?”

“I saw Sara leave the house, so I followed her to see what she was doing.” Ryan said in a flat voice.

“What did you see?”

“I saw you do magic to light the fire and I saw you put Sara into a trance.”

I was shocked. He put ME in a trance? But Jack quickly turned to me and said, “I can’t control who is effected by the music and who isn’t, sorry.” He turned back to Ryan. “You didn’t see anything. You didn’t see me. You didn’t even see her leave. Now you will go back home because it is cold, and you will go to bed not remembering a single thing that happened here. Once there you will fall straight to sleep and will not come out of this trance until morning.”

Ryan nodded, and Jack finished. “That’s all. Go now.” Ryan stood and left.

I waited until he was gone to speak. “My parents hate these woods, they fear them or something.”

“Yeah, a lot of people think they’re haunted. But I happen to like the woods. Sleeping out in the open, under the stars, is comforting.” He sighed, “even so, I think I’ll go into town tomorrow. I do have to eat now and again after all.” He grinned and I laughed.

“You should go home now,” he said. “Need to get your sleep.”

I nodded, got up and left. I’d forgotten completely about my plans to explore more of the woods.


The next morning was like every morning: it made me remember why sleep is good. But there was a problem this particular morning: my brother wouldn’t wake up. My parents were frantic. Father had tried to wake him to help out with the fields before sunup, like he did every day. Only Ryan wouldn’t wake up.

“Wake up! Son WAKE UP!” He said, shaking Ryan.

Near the doorway Mom, on the verge of tears, crossed herself and said, “dear Lord, please let nothing happen to my son.”

“Danielle,” Dad called to Mom. “Stay here! I’ll go, get the priest!” He ran out of the house to get the carriage.

“Sara, come and help me.” Mother called. She had a bucket of water in her hands. “Go and get a cloth so we can drip water on his face, maybe that’ll wake him up.”

I went obediently to get the cloths, but I doubted it would help. I knew what it was that was keeping Ryan asleep. It was the trance Jack had put him in, it had to be. Jack told him not to wake up until morning, so Ryan was sleeping until sunrise. It made perfect sense. But how to tell mother, that was the real question. I found the small cloths near the cupboard, and was on my way back when Mom began calling me. I quickened my pace.

“Child! WHERE ARE Oh, there you are. What took you so long!? Here give me those!” She took the cloths from me and dipped them in the water. She then dripped water on Ryan’s eyelids. “There now. Wake up dear. Wake up.”

The sun rose high enough to shine light into the room and birds started chirping. Ryan blinked a few times and opened his eyes. Mother was ecstatic. She hugged him and kissed him. He pushed her away and said, “What’s all this about?” He looked at me.

I said, “You wouldn’t wake up.”

He looked out the window. “I slept in?”


Father, returned with the priest about ten minutes later. They had some trouble pulling Mother away from hugging Ryan, but after they did, the priest began to examine him. The priest inspected Ryan all over and could find nothing at all wrong with his physical being, or his spiritual one.

Breakfast was good: ham and bread, and milk to drink (we had cows in addition to the fields that Father tended). The priest ate with us, afterward he suggested to Father that maybe the thing with Ryan was just something that had to do with growing up. Father didn’t look very reassured.

After breakfast Ryan went to help Father in the wheat fields, and I helped Mother with doing the chores around the house. We washed clothes, churned butter, and swept out the house. All the while I was thinking of Jack. What a strange man he was. At times I found myself just staring into space, thinking. Mother told me to snap out of it. She jokingly guessed that I had met an interesting young man.

Lunch was much less tense because mother and father hadn’t seen anything else wrong with Ryan. Also because they had had time to cool down from the excitement this morning. Actually, it was the most relaxed meal I had had with my family for a long time.

That afternoon I went with my friends. I’m probably the only girl in a hundred miles that keeps boys as friends. We aren’t really kind to each other. We fight, we play dirty tricks on each other, but we are always loyal. Nobody rats anybody else out, ever. Even so, I wasn’t sure I could trust them with my secret, so I dared them to go into the deep woods with me without telling them that I’d already gone.

“But we aren’t supposed to be there.” Jared said. He was the fraidy cat of the group. We usually had fun by doing stupid things, but making him do them first. Even so, nobody went into the deep woods for fear of spirits and goblins and the sort. Even the woodsmen only cut down timber from the woods near town.

Michael was 13. He was the most adventuristic and usually our unofficial leader. He was also the only one that I would count my equal. All the others seemed to share the same feeling as Jared, though not through fear of getting caught, through fear of what creatures might inhabit the deepest region of the wood and what its reach might be during the daytime. Michael objected to going into the woods, but for another reason.

“Nah. I’ve already been there. There’s nothen’ to see.”

This seemed to reassure the others. But now they didn’t want to go because there was no point to it. Only, I wanted to go see Jack again, and I wanted to show him to the others. “What if I knew where to find someone in the woods?” I said.

Some of them gawked at me, the rest looked surprised, and Michael looked interested. Now that I think back on it I realize that they weren’t very surprised at all, but they were still somewhat surprised. Now that my secret was out, I knew giving out the details wouldn’t matter.

“Where did you meet this person?” Michael asked.

“About three and a half miles into the woods, camping out in a very small clearing.”

We looked around at the others. They seemed willing to go.

“Okay then,” said Michael. “Take us to this mysterious someone.”

“I don’t think this is such a good idea.”

We all looked at the source of the objection: Jared. We all rolled our eyes and someone said, “Jared, shut up and come on.” We left.


I took them on the same path I had taken the other two times. It looked different in daylight, but I found my way eventually. The others came with me; they were reassured after Michael told them there was nothing in here. Eventually we got to the spot where Jack was always camped out, only he wasn’t there. I groaned. I had forgotten that Jack said he’d be going into town today. The others took the fact that I’d stopped to mean that we had arrived.

“Where is he?” Someone asked.

“Who are we here to see?” Said someone else.

I didn’t say anything. I looked at the ground, hoping to find a fresh footprint to indicate that he had left this spot recently.

“Ah. She was just fibben'.” Said the first someone.

I didn’t find a footprint. Michael came up to me.

“Where is this someone?”

“He must have gone into town.” I said.

“Maybe that’s where we should be.” Said Norman in a shaky voice. He was looking past me into the woods farther beyond. We all followed his gaze and saw a dark shape lurk out from behind a tree and move in our direction. We were frozen in place as we watched it. It looked like a shadow in the shape of a raven, only, much bigger. It flew slowly in our direction.

Then I heard a strong, evil voice that sounded like it was right beside me.

“You’ve tempted the fates a bit too often my dear!”

Suddenly the raven grew to the size of a bear and sped toward me. Most of my companions were already fleeing the scene. Michael grabbed my arm and tried to pull me out of the way but he was too late, and I was still frozen to the ground by that invisible force. The raven hit me and encompassed me. I was scared now. It became a tornado around me and hurled Michael away. I tried to get out but it threw me back inside and I fell, my feet still frozen to the ground. I heard someone scream for me.

“Sara! Sara!”

I turned to look at where it was coming from. I couldn’t see anything through that black twister around me. Then there was something pale coming through it. It was a hand, and above that hand was a face. Jared! He was reaching through the twister for me.

“Grab onto me!” He shouted. I tried, but before I could get a hold of him the twister threw him away and closed in around me. The walls of it came closer and closer. It was suffocating me, sucking all the air out of my lungs.

I was terrified! I panicked. I batted my hands at the blackness, loosing strength with each passing second. I was filled with horror, my life flashed before my eyes.

And then there was blackness.


As you might have guessed, I survived. I couldn’t very well tell this tale if I’d died there. Well, I did live. I awoke on the wooden floor of a very old hut. I didn’t know where I was. I tried to stand up, but found that my hands and feet were bound. Looking behind me I saw that this hut was built right next to a tree, there were countless roots coming out of the wall across from the door. It was these roots that were binding me. I tried struggling against them, but the more I struggled the more they tightened. Eventually I gave up. I just had to wait it out.

After what seemed like hours the door opened and in came the giant shadowy raven with my brother in it’s beak and a shadowy wolf with my mother on his back. Both my mother and brother were unconscious. Behind the shadowy animals entered two women clothed entirely in black, there was even a thin black cloth that hung from their hats, covering their face. They went to a cauldron in the middle of the wall behind me and began putting odd plants in it.

Suddenly I got a flash of something, a memory. I thought back to it. I got it again. This time it was a vision. I was sitting with Jack on opposite sides of the fire. I recognized the place. It was the small clearing I had met him in. He looked me right in the face and started talking.

“You are being given this message while in a trance. You will only remember this message when you see two witches. If you have seen them, stay away from them, they want to kill you and your family. If you need me to help you with them just smash the charm on the end of the necklace I have put around your neck. You will only be aware of the necklace once you receive this message.” He turned around and made a gesture to someone. Then he turned back to me. “You will come out of this trance when you see your brother by the firelight.”

The vision faded out of existence and I could feel a small weight in my blouse that had not been there before.

Some black cats came into the hut as the witches were arguing about ingredients while looking through a recipe book. One of the witches made a sound of joy when she saw the cats and the other witch looked at them over the top of the recipe book. The cats looked at my mother and brother. The cats looked like they were concentrating. Suddenly more roots came out of the wall and they grabbed Mother and Ryan and bound them the way they had bound me.

I thought for a second. I had to get that necklace out and smash it. I needed to free my hands to do that. I remembered the roots though and how they got tighter the more I pulled my hands out of them. Then I had an idea. I pushed one of my arms farther through the roots and they loosened.

Excellent! I kept pushing until I sensed I had enough room for me to pull the other hand free. I pulled and the roots tightened, but they didn’t get tight enough to catch my hand before I had it free. Quickly I pushed myself into a sitting position and reached for the charm. The witches noticed and tried to stop me, but they couldn’t reach me in time. I yanked at the necklace so its rope broke off from my neck, and then I smashed the charm on the floor.

The smash woke my mother and brother and they struggled to get into a position from which they could survey the situation. The witches started speaking in what seemed like Latin, and more roots came out of the wall and wrapped around me while pulling me back to the wall. Soon I was imbedded into the wall eight inches from the ground.

“What did she do?” One of them asked.

The other one picked up the broken pieces of the charm, a seashell, off the ground.

“She called someone.” Replied the other one.

“Hrmmm…” Mused the first one. “We must fortify the door.” She took a vile of dark purple liquid out of her robes and tossed it to the other one.

The other caught the vile and poured it between the door and the wall next to it. Wood grew in the space where she poured, to seal the door in. Then there was a loud thud at the door. I smiled because I knew who it was. Ryan and Mother started yelling for help, and they tried to explain how the witches had sealed the door. Then there was a CRACK as the cutting edge of an ax blade came through the door. Jack didn’t carry an ax. It must be father, I decided.

The witches looked at each other and seemed satisfied. One of them looked at one of the cats. The cat stared at the door, which swung wide open. Father charged in, ax in hand, but the wolf caught him and knocked him to the ground. It stood on top of him, pinning him down. The door closed again and resealed itself. Mother and Ryan were still cheering for Father, still encouraging him, but it was too late now.

“We have been waiting for you Samuel.” One of the witches said to Father.

“Yes,” agreed the other witch. “Why, you are just in time for stew. We were hoping so much that we could have you for dinner.” They laughed together.

Once their laughter died down a slur of fiddle notes, low to high, came to my ears and the door fell in with a crash. Jack stepped in. Even though I couldn’t see their faces, the witches seemed angered at his entrence.

One of them pointed at Jack and said, “Get him!” The shadowy wolf leapt at him. Jack played three or four notes on his fiddle and the wolf disbursed into the air. The other witch said, “It’s her,” as she pointed at me. “He only came because of her, KILL HER!”

The giant raven swooped over to me, but a high note from Jack cut through the raven like a knife, it disbursed like the wolf and I was only hit by cold air. The witch closer to the door took a vile of greenish liquid from her robes and splashed it on Ryan.

The roots that were binding him untwined and he stood up, his hair grew long and horns started coming out of his head. He smiled at Jack with long, sharp canine teeth. Jack began playing his fiddle vigorously and the deformities disappeared, then came back, then disappeared again. The two witches began chanting, and the deformities came back. His horns started growing even longer and greenish pimples appeared on his face. The fiddle music sped up and the horns began to shrink.

The witches chanted more and the horns started growing again. Then Jack played five notes in a short melody. The witches cringed and stopped chanting for just a moment. But that was long enough. Jack played vigorously and the horns simply vanished. As soon as they were gone Ryan was released from the spell. The other deformities disappeared and he fell to his knees.

Jack stepped farther into the hut and started playing a moderately fast piece that used all the chords the fiddle had. The witches looked as if it hurt them. Then the one farthest from the door threw a potion at Jack’s feet and the floor in that place burst into flames all around Jack. Most people would have been repelled by flames five feet high, but not Jack. He played a soft, soothing melody that apparently made him immune to the fire. He stepped out of the fire and got back into the piece that hurt the witches. They cowered against the far wall, their cats clawing at it, trying to get out. And Jack let them out. A quick five notes blew a hole in the wall and all four of the evil fiends fled through that hole.

Mother screamed. The fire was now out of control. I only mumbled because there was a thick root covering my mouth.

Father got back on his feet. He grabbed his ax and chopped the roots binding Mother. Jack’s fiddle work was useful in loosening the roots holding me but Jack couldn’t get them to let go. With the fire coming ever closer Father simply began hacking away at them.

The fire spread to the walls and the fireplace where the witches’ half-finished stew still sat. The recipe book on the ground caught fire and began to bleed (it was the witches’ recipe book).

Father kept hacking away at the roots, but they weren’t coming loose. The fire was getting closer. The smoke was suffocating; and everyone, even Jack, was coffing. Finally, Father gave one last whole-hearted chop and the roots holding me all came loose at once. I was free and Father carried me outside.


Ryan and Mother were already standing a dozen yards from the burning hut as we joined them. We all watched the hut burn in the twilight.

“Jack,” I said. “Who were those witches?”

“The Whirly Sisters. They are sisters of the witch that kidnapped your mother twelve years ago.” Father was looking at Jack in wonder now. Jack turned to him. “You shouldn’t have killed that witch, you should have just defeated her and let her go. Just like I did to these two. Witches take blood fudes very seriously.”

“Who are you?” Asked Father.

“My name is Jack. I am a fiddler.” He raised his fiddle to Father just as he had done to me the night before.

“Jack, you said that magic isn’t particularly spectacular.” I pointed out to him. I was wondering why he said he couldn’t do much, but the witches could.

“I said I couldn’t do anything truly spectacular. I know what you’re thinking. These were witches. They take energies of different types and shapes and then have their cats manipulate the energies to turn them into spells. Then they just boil the whole mixture down and bottle it.”

“But… those shadowy animals…”

“Familiars.” Answered my father. “They are called ‘familiars’ Sara, and they can be either very weak or very powerful.” Then, still watching the burning hut he asked me, “So, when did you meet this interesting young man?”

“Two days ago Father. I went into the woods on my birthday to try and find out what you and Mother were afraid of.” I saw the frown on his face and added, “I’m sorry Father."