Chapter 9 Part Nine: Deception Spirits and Deception

That night David slept in the forester's bed.The bed smelled of dried berries and pine cones, and the fur of the forester.The forester dozed in his chair by the fire, the ax at hand, and the flames of the dying fire fell on his face. It took David a long time to fall asleep, despite the forester's assurances that the house was safe.The slits in the windows were covered up, and there was an iron plate with little holes pierced in it, halfway up the chimney pipe, to keep people or animals from the forest from getting in here.The forest outside is so quiet, but not tranquility or the stillness of sleep.The foresters had told David that the forest changed at night: once the dim light finally faded, half-formed creatures and life from the depths of the earth colonized the forest, and most nocturnal animals would either Die, or learn to watch out for prey even more than before.

The boy felt several emotions intertwined.Fear, of course, and pangs of regret, not being foolish enough to leave the safety of my own home for this strange land.He wanted to go back to the life he knew, no matter how difficult it was, but he also wanted to know a little more about it, and he hadn't found an explanation for hearing his mother's voice yet.Does this happen to the dead?Or have they passed this place and are now on their way to another place?Is mom stuck here?Could it be a mistake?Maybe it's because she doesn't want to die, so now she is waiting here, hoping that someone will find her and bring her back to the person she loves.No, David can't go back, not yet.There was a mark on the tree, and he could find his way home if he found out about his mother and the relationship between the world and her.

He wondered if Dad still missed him, and the thought brought tears to his eyes.The crash of the German plane would have woken everyone up, the gardens might have been cordoned off by the army or the Air Raid Prevention Team, and it would not take long to find out that David was gone.They might be looking for him right now.His absence would make him more important in Dad's life, and the thought of it gave him a sense of satisfaction.Maybe Dad worried more about him now than about work and codes and Rose and George. But what if they didn't want him?What if life got easier because he disappeared?Dad and Rose would probably form a new family, stop worrying about the dead man's belongings, and just look at them once a year, say, around the time he disappeared.And later, when even this thought no longer exists, he will be almost forgotten, and he will only be remembered in passing, just like Rose's uncle Jonathan Talway, only when David asked The memories about him only occasionally come back to life.

David pushed those thoughts away and closed his eyes.Finally falling asleep, he dreamed of Dad, Rose, and his newborn half-brother, and things that had burrowed up from the ground, waiting to be given shape by someone else's fear. And in the dark corner of dreamland, a shadow danced, throwing its crooked hat into the air, happily. David awoke to the sound of the forester making breakfast.At a small table against the other wall they ate hard white bread and drank strong black tea from rough teacups.David thought, it was still very early in the morning, so early that the sun hadn't even come out, but the forest guard said that it had been a long time since he had seen the sun, and the world had always been this bright.This made David wonder if he had somehow come to the far north, a place where the night was dark for months in winter, but even in the North Pole, besides the long and dark winter, there was no summer. The restless day balances it.No, this is not the Northland, this is somewhere else.

After eating, David washed his hands and face in a bowl, cleaning his teeth vigorously with his fingers.After washing, he begins his little routine of touching and counting.It wasn't until he became aware of the silence in the room that he realized that the forester was sitting on a chair and watching him quietly. "What are you doing?" asked the forester. This was the first time anyone had asked this question, and David was at a loss for words, trying to provide a reasonable explanation for his behavior.Finally, he intends to tell the truth. "Here are the rules," he said simply. "It's my routine. I started doing it to keep my mom from getting hurt. I thought it would work."

"So, is it useful?" David shook his head. "No, I don't think it's working. Or maybe it's working a little bit, just not enough. You must think it's weird, I guess you think, I'm weird doing this." He dared not look the forester in the face, afraid of what he might see in his eyes.So he stared at the bowl and saw his reflection twisted on the water. Finally, the forester spoke. "Everyone has his routines," he said softly, "but those routines are useless unless they have a purpose and produce results we can see and take comfort from. Without them , these programs become the endless pacing of caged animals, and even if these programs themselves are not a manifestation of madness, at least they are the beginning of abnormality."

The forester stood up and showed David his axe. "Look here," he said, pointing his finger at the axe, "every morning I make sure my ax is clean and sharp. I look over the house, check that the doors and windows are secure and secure. I tend my land, I take care of the weeds, Make sure the soil is moist. I walk through the forest and clear the roads that should be open. Wherever a tree gets hurt, I try to patch it up. These are my routines and I enjoy doing them well. " He put a hand lightly on David's shoulder, and David saw understanding in his face. "Rules and conventions are good, but they have to satisfy you. Can you really say you get satisfaction from touching and counting?"

David shook his head. "No," he said, "but I'd be scared if I didn't. I'm afraid of what might happen." "Then find routines you can do that make you feel safe. You told me you had a newborn brother, so go see him every morning. See your dad, your stepmother. Take care of the garden flowers in the garden, and in pots on the windowsill. See if there is anyone more vulnerable than you, and comfort them in whatever way you can. Let these be your routines, and the rules that govern your life." David nodded, then turned his head away from the forester to prevent him from seeing what he was thinking.Maybe the Ranger was right, but David couldn't bring himself to do those things for Rose and George.He'll try to accept some other relatively simple responsibilities, but keeping the intruders in his life safe is a little too much for him.

The forester took David's old clothes—a torn nightgown, soiled pajamas, a muddy slipper—and put them in a coarse sack, which he carried over his shoulder. , open the door. "Where are we going?" David asked. "We will send you back to your own place," said the Forester. "But the hole in the tree disappeared." "Then we'll try to make it appear again." "But I haven't found my mother yet," said David. The forester looked at him sadly. "Your mother is dead. You told me yourself." "But I hear her! I hear her voice."

"Maybe it is, or something more like her voice," said the forester. "I'm not pretending to know all the secrets of this land, but I tell you, it's a dangerous place, and it's becoming more and more dangerous every day. Dangerous. You must go back. Narupleroy is right about one thing: I cannot protect you. I can only protect myself. Come on, now is a good time to walk, for the Night Beast is sleeping and the The daytime bad guys haven't woken up yet." Davy, realizing that he had no choice in the matter, followed the forester out of the house and into the forest.Again and again the Ranger paused to listen, and raised his hand to signal David to keep quiet.

"Where are Lupu and the wolf?" David finally asked after walking for about an hour.The only living things he saw were birds and insects. "I'm afraid it's not far away," replied the forester. "There are other places in the forest that are less dangerous. They will go there to feed, and sooner or later they will come again and steal you away. So you must leave here before they come back." ." David shuddered at the thought of Leroy and his pack pounced on him, tearing his flesh with jaws and claws.He began to understand the price he might pay for coming to this place to find his mother, but sending him home seemed to be a decision, at least for now.He could always come here again if he wanted to.Don't forget, Shenyuan is still there, if it was not completely destroyed when the German plane crashed. They came to the clearing surrounded by tall trees through which David had entered the world of the Foresters.As he got closer, the Ranger stopped so abruptly that David almost ran into him.He looked cautiously behind the Ranger to see what had stopped him. "Oh, no." David gasped. Every tree, as far as the eye could see, was marked with string, and every string, as far as David could smell, was painted with the same foul-smelling stuff that the forester used to The thing that keeps animals from biting the rope.It was impossible to tell which tree was the gateway between David's world and this world.He walked closer, trying to find the tree hole from which he had come out, but every tree was similar, so the bark was smooth.It seems that even the hollows and burls that can be used to distinguish them have been added or altered.The path that once wound through the forest had disappeared, so that the ranger had no direction to follow.Even the wreckage of the German plane is nowhere to be seen, and the marks on the ground when it fell have been filled in.David thought, no matter what, it would take a lot of people and hundreds of hours to complete this task. How could it be cleaned up without a trace in just one night? "Who would do that?" he asked. "The Trickster," said the Woodsman, "a crooked man with a crooked hat." "But why," David asked, "won't he just take the string you tied to the tree? Wouldn't the effect be the same?" The forester thought for a moment, and then replied, "Yes, but then he wouldn't find it funny, and he wouldn't be able to make a good story." "Story?" David said. "What are you talking about?" "You're part of the story," said the Ranger. "He likes to create stories, he likes to store them up and tell them. It makes for a good story." "But how do I get home?" David asked.Now that his way back to his own world was gone, he suddenly wanted to go back there, although when the forest guards tried to drive him back against his will, he wanted nothing but to stay in this new world and find his mother .This thing is so special. "He doesn't want you to come home," said the forester. "I didn't do anything to him," said David. "Why does he keep me here? Why is he so mean?" The forester shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "Who knows?" David asked.He was almost screaming in frustration.He began to wish that there was someone beside him who knew a little more than the forester.Although the forest guard is good at beheading wolves and giving advice that people don't want, he doesn't seem to be able to keep up with the changes in this kingdom. "King," said the Forester at last, "the King should know." "But, I think you told me, he's out of business, and he hasn't been seen for a long time." "That is not to say that he is ignorant of what is going on," said the Forester. "They say the king has a book. It is his most important possession. He keeps it hidden in the great hall of the palace. I heard that the book contains all the knowledge the king knows. Whenever he encounters trouble or doubts, the king will turn to it for help. Maybe the answer to the question of how to send you home is in the book Woolen cloth." David tried to read the expression on the Ranger's face.He did not know why, but he had a strong feeling that the Forest Watcher would tell him the whole truth about the King.Before he could ask any more questions, the ranger threw the sack full of David's old clothes into a bush and started walking back in the direction they had come. "It's going to be a drag on the road," he said. "We've got a long way to go." Taking a last longing look at the forest of countless nameless trees, David turned and followed the forester back to his house. When they left and everything was silent, a figure emerged from the winding roots of an ancient tree.It was hunched over, with crooked fingers and a crooked hat on its head.It flew quickly through the undergrowth of the old tree until it came to a bush dotted with plump berries, sweeter after frost, but it ignored the fruit, and instead took a fancy to the one lying in the leaves. A rough, dirty sack.It got in, picked up David's pajamas, laid its face on it, and took a deep breath. "Lost boy," it whispered to itself, "a lost child." With that, it grabbed the sack and disappeared into the shadows of the forest. Chapter Eleven: The Children Lost in the Forest and What Happened to Them David and the Ranger returned to the house without incident.At home they packed food into two leather bags and fetched two jugs of water from the river that ran behind the house.David saw the forester kneeling by the river, examining some marks in the wetlands, but he said nothing to David.David glanced at it in passing, and thought it looked like the footprints of a big dog or a wolf.There was still some water in each footprint, so David knew it was not long ago. The forester had his axe, and besides a bow, a bag of arrows, and a long knife, and he was fully armed.Finally he took a short-bladed sword from the locker, paused a moment to blow the dust off it, and handed it to David with a sword strap.David had never held a real sword before, and the most he knew about swordsmen was playing pirates with sticks, but with a sword in his hand, he still felt extra strong and just a little bit braver. The forester locked the door, then laid his hands flat on the door and bowed his head as if in prayer.He looked so sad, and David wondered if for some reason the Ranger thought he would never see his house again.Then they entered the forest, heading northeast, at a steady pace, illuminated by the faint light called Day.As the hours passed, David was exhausted.The forester allowed him to rest, but only for a short while. "We must be out of the woods before dark," he said to David.The boy need not ask why.He was already frightened by the howling of wolves and Lupu who broke the silence of the forest. David took the opportunity to observe the surrounding environment while walking.Although some of the trees he saw looked familiar, he couldn't name them.There was one that looked like an oak tree, with pine cones dangling under its evergreen leaves.Another kind was the size and shape of a large Christmas tree, with silvery leaves and clusters of red berries at the base, but most of these were bare and fruitless.Occasionally, David can also see the "baby-faced" flowers, their eyes are wide open, very curious, although once they sense the forester and David's approach, they immediately shrink their leaves to protect themselves, and tremble slightly until the danger is removed. "What are the names of those flowers?" he asked. "They have no names," said the forester. "Sometimes children leave the road and get lost in the forest, where they are never seen again. They die there, eaten by wild animals or killed by bad men, and they The blood soaked the ground. Later, there were flowers of this kind, often far from the place where a child died. They gathered in groups, just like children when they are frightened. They are forest memorials, I think. The ways of the children. The forest has a feeling for the children's disappearance." David had already figured out the ranger's temper. If you didn't talk to him first, he usually wouldn't open his mouth. So it became David asking questions, and the ranger gave the best answer he could.He tried to give David a little idea of ​​the geography of the place: the king's castle was a few miles to the east, and the area between here and the castle was sparsely populated, and the occasional settlement disturbed the view.A deep ditch ran between the Forest of the Wardens and the lands beyond to the east, and they had to cross it before they could go on to the King's Castle.To the south is a wide black sea, but very few people dare to sail far away.This is the domain of sea beasts and dragons, and it is often attacked by storms and waves.There are mountains to the north and west, but no one has climbed them for many years, and the tops of the mountains are covered with snow. On the way, the ranger told David a lot about Lupu. "Once upon a time, even before Lupu came, the wolf was a palpable animal," he explained. "Each pack, rarely more than fifteen or twenty, had its own Territory, where the wolves lived, preyed, and reproduced. Then Lupu appeared, and everything became different. The wolves began to grow and formed a loyalty mechanism; the territory expanded, or the territory no longer made sense at all; cruelty began to rise. In the past about half of wolf pups died, they were small so needed more food than their parents and if food was scarce they would starve to death. Sometimes they were killed by their own parents but only after they showed birth This is only the case when they are sick or crazy. In general, wolves are not bad as parents, sharing prey with their cubs, protecting them, giving them care and attention. "But Loop brought them a new way of treating their young: only the strongest were fed, two or three in a litter, sometimes not so many. The weak ones were eaten. That way Well, the wolves themselves have remained strong, but their nature has changed. Now, they attack each other, and there is no loyalty between them. Only the rules of Loop can control them. Without Loop, I think, they It will be like before." The ranger taught David how to tell the difference between a female wolf and a male wolf.Female wolves have slightly narrower snouts and foreheads, thinner necks and shoulders, and shorter legs, but when they are young, they move faster than male wolves of the same age, so they are also better hunters and deadlier enemies.In a normal pack of wolves, the female wolf is usually the leader, but in the same way, Lupu has rewritten this natural law.There are also she-wolves in the pack, but it's up to Leroy and his lieutenants to make important decisions.Perhaps this is one of their weaknesses, the Ranger suggested.Their arrogance has caused them to ignore millennia of maternal intuition, and now they are driven only by the desire for power. "Wolves don't stop hunting," said the ranger, "unless they are tired. They can run ten to fifteen miles more than a man can walk, and they will run faster again just before they stop to rest." Five miles. Loop slowed them down a bit, because they chose to walk on two legs, and they weren't as fast as they used to be, but our feet still can't match them. We must hope that tonight When we got there, a herd of horses could be found. There were people grazing there, and I had enough money to buy us a horse." With no way to follow, they had to rely on the forest knowledge of the forest ranger, although as they got farther and farther away from home, the forest ranger stopped to find the way more and more, he had to observe the growth of moss on the trees The imprint left by the wind to ensure that they do not stray from the direction.On the way they passed only one house, and it was in the midst of brown ruins.It seemed to Davy that it had melted rather than collapsed in disrepair, and that all that remained was the stone chimney, darkened but intact.You could see its melted drips on the walls where they had cooled and hardened, and you could see the warping of the windows as they collapsed in place.He followed the route he had come to far enough to touch the frame of the house.It was now clear that there was a lighter brown substance, much of it, embedded in the walls.Rubbing his hand on the door frame, and then chiseling a few times with a nail, David recognized the texture and faint smell of the thing. "It's chocolate," he exclaimed, "and gingerbread." He broke off a large piece and was about to taste it when the forester knocked it out of his hand. "No," he said, "it looks and smells sweet, but it's poisonous inside." He told David another story. The Ranger's Second Story Once upon a time, there were two children, a boy and a girl.Their father died, and their mother remarried, but their stepfather was a bad man.He hated the two kids and hated them living in his home.Later, when there was a famine, he hated them even more because they ate precious food that he could have kept for himself.Even if he had to give them some vegetarian food, he couldn't bear it. When he felt hungry, he began to propose to his wife that he should eat the two children so that they would not starve to death. Anyway, when the living conditions were better, she would still able to have children.His wife was terrified. She was afraid the new husband would do something to the children when she wasn't looking.But she also knew that she could no longer support them, so she took them into a deep, deep forest, left them there, and took care of herself. The children were terrified, and the first night they cried until they fell asleep, but soon they got to know the forest.The little girl was smarter and braver than her brother, and it was she who learned to set traps to catch animals and birds, and to steal eggs from bird nests.And the boy likes to wander around, daydreaming, waiting for his sister to bring back something from the hunt to eat.He misses his mother and wants to go back to her.He wanted to go back to the old life and never tried to adapt to the new one. One day, when his sister called him home, he didn't come back.She went out to find him, and left flowers along the way, so that she could return to the place where the food was kept, until she came to the edge of a clearing and saw a strange house.The house is all made of chocolate and gingerbread, the roof is covered with thick pieces of toffee, the glass in the windows is transparent sugar, and the walls are embedded with marzipan, milk fudge and fruit preserves.Everything represents sweetness and enjoyment.When she found him, he was eating nuts from the wall, his mouth black with chocolate. "Don't worry, no one's home," he said, "Try it, it's delicious." He offered her a bar of chocolate, but she refused to take it at first.The younger brother's eyes are half-opened and half-closed, completely intoxicated by the deliciousness of this house.My sister tried to open the door, but it was locked.She peeped in through the glass window, but the curtains were drawn and she could see nothing.She didn't want to eat it because something in the house disturbed her, but the taste of the chocolate was so appealing that she allowed herself a small bite.The taste was even more delicious than she imagined, and her stomach growled louder, so she and her brother ate together.They ate and ate until at last they ate so much that they fell asleep. When they woke up, they were not lying on the grass under the forest trees, but inside the house, imprisoned in a cage suspended from the roof.A woman was lighting an oven with wood, she was very old and had a foul smell.A pile of bones lay on the ground at her feet, the remains of other children she had preyed on. "Fresh meat!" she was saying to herself, "fresh meat for an old woman's oven!" The little boy started to cry, but his sister told him to be quiet.The woman walked up to them and watched them through the bars of the cage.Her face was covered with black warts, and her teeth were decayed and crooked like old tombstones. "Now, which of you will come first?" she asked. The boy tried to hide his face, as if he could hide from the old woman's attention.But my sister is very brave. "I'll come," she said, "I'm fatter than my brother, and I taste better when roasted. You can eat me and fatten him at the same time, so that when you roast him to eat, he can eat a little longer ." The old woman giggled happily. "Clever girl," she cried, "but not clever enough to avoid my old woman's plate." She opened the cage, went in, grabbed the little girl by the neck and lifted her out, then locked the cage again and led the girl to the oven.The oven is not yet hot, but it will be ready in no time. "I can't get in," said the girl, "it's too small." "Nonsense," said the old woman, "everyone bigger than you was put in, and they all baked well." The girl looks in disbelief. "But I have long arms and legs and a lot of meat on them. No, I'm never going to get in this oven. And if you force me in, you can't get me out again." The old woman grabbed the girl by the shoulders and shook her. "I misread you," she said, "you're an ignorant, stupid girl. Well, I'll show you how big this oven is." She climbed onto the oven and thrust her head and shoulders into the oven opening. "See?" she said.Her voice echoed in the oven. "I'm more than enough inside, let alone you little girl." The old woman was about to turn around when the little girl rushed at her, thrust her into the oven, and slammed the door shut.The old woman tried to kick the door open, but the little girl was so quick that she bolted the stove (the bolt was on because the old woman didn't want the children to escape after the roasting started), and she was trapped inside.Then, the girl added firewood to the stove, and slowly, the old woman began to be roasted. She was in extreme pain, screaming, wailing, and threatening the girl.The oven was so hot that the oil on her body began to melt, and the stench was so foul that the little girl felt sick.The skin was roasted from the meat, the meat was roasted from the bone, and the old woman was still struggling until she finally died.The little girl took out burning logs from the stove and scattered them around the house.The house melted down, and only the chimney stood tall. She took her brother and left the place, never to return. Over the next few months the girl became more and more merry in the forest.She built a shed, which after a while became a hut.She learned to fend for herself, and as the days passed, she missed her old life less and less.But her younger brother was never happy, always longing to be back with his mother.One year and one day later, he left his sister and returned to his old home, but his mother and stepfather had long since left, and no one could tell where they were.He went back to the forest, but not to his sister because he was jealous of her and hated her.He found a road in the woods, cleanly cleared of roots and thorn bushes, and the bushes beside the road were thick with berries.He walked along the road, eating the fruit as he walked, without paying attention, the road under his feet disappeared behind him. After walking for a while, he came to a clearing, where there was a beautiful house with ivy on the walls, flowers growing outside the door, and a wisp of smoke coming out of the chimney.He smelled baking, and there was a piece of cake drying on the windowsill.A woman appeared at the door, bright and jovial, much like Mother had been.She waved to him, beckoning him over.He passed. "Come in, come in," she said, "you look tired, and berries are not enough for a growing boy. There's something soft on my stove for you to rest on. You Stay as long as you want, I don't have kids, and I always wanted a son of my own." The boy throws away the berries in his hands.The road behind him completely disappeared.He followed the woman into the house, where a cauldron was boiling on the stove, and a sharp knife was waiting on the cutting board. He was never seen again.