Collaborative storytelling - The Enchantress of Tanglewood (Part III - Conclusion)

This is the last of the three-part collaborative storytelling experiment, where you, the reader, helped choose the way the story continued.

To read PART I of the three parts, read HERE.

To read PART II of the three parts, read HERE.


WINNING VOTES from Part II resulted in "Fight the Enchantress and Interrupt the Spell" (The last paragraph of Part II is repeated for continuity)....


THE ENCHANTRESS OF TANGLEWOOD ~ Part III

(Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay)

The Enchantress waved her birchbark hands, whispering arcane words in a chant. A fog formed around them both. As Tarynn looked into the fathomless eyes of the entity, she began to feel a tingling sensation inside of her and knew she was changing.

"No!" Tarynn yelled, and slapped the Enchantress with the yolky mistletoe.

The Enchantress cried out with the voices of a hundred animals in pain, her face falling apart like splintered wood. The spell had worked.

"You're not in league with the Green God!" Tarynn yelled. "You're a liar!" She grabbed the Enchantress's outstretched arm and spun her around, slamming her into the trunk of a fir tree. The body of the Enchantress fell apart, the leaves and bark and lichen that composed falling to the ground.

But from all around her, Tarynn heard the woods come alive. Myriad beasts moved in the underbrush and among the boughs. A wind cropped up. And on the wind came a furious voice. "You have wronged me, child! Now you must pay the price!"

Tarynn turned a circle, unsure of which way to go, as the animal noises grew louder, closing in.

Dusk had come. And as Tarynn looked about her, her heart pounding in panic, she saw something that gave her hope. A bright star shone brightly through a small gap in the canopy. No, not a star. The planet Venus. It was a guide. She now knew which way was west, and from that, which way to get out of the forest!

And then the creatures emerged from the shadows. Birds flitted, angry chirruping and swooping down at her. Squirrels and chipmunks ran down the trunks and across logs. Then, from the darkest shadow, came a deep and perturbed grunt as a massive black bear emerged. Tarynn shrieked and backed up.

But she had one last card to play. She reached into her bag and pulled out the butane lighter.

"You're made of the woods, bitch!" Tarynn said. "So I'll burn you down!" She knelt and lit the litter on fire.

"Noooo!" the voice of the Enchantress wailed. The wind picked up, but it only seemed to fan the flames.

The animals cried out as one and ran from the fire. Tarynn ran as well, as the flames grew quickly behind her. She crashed through ferns and over logs. Tripped. Caught herself. Fled as fast as she could through the foggy wood.

The air whooshed as, behind her, the wall of flame grew like a wall, catching the dense undergrowth.

Tarynn ran as fast as she dared, over a hill and down into a vale until, at last, she careened out of the woods. She emerged into a field near the outer subdivisions of town.

Tarynn didn't stop until she reached a road. Then, turning, she watched as the wildfire grew. Within hours it had encompassed the entire forest in a conflagration unseen for a hundred years. She could still hear the wailing of the Enchantress.

A week later, after fire teams had extinguished the fire and it has smoldered and grown cold, Tarynn, dared to return. Only one slim area had been untouched: a narrow gorge with a stream gurgling through its center. And there, just over the tenuous banks, on a ledge of overgrowth, was a patch grown thick with chanterelle mushrooms. She cut all but a dozen. A peace offering to the Enchantress, just in case. The woods would grow back, after all.

Cheers and happy reading!

Collaborative storytelling - The Enchantress of Tanglewood (Part II)

Rules: Read the episode below. Then VOTE in the Twitter poll, linked below, with your choice on how you think the story should continue. To read PART I of the three parts, read HERE. VOTES from Part I tied for having the main character "Use a Wiccan Spell" and "Appeal to the Entity" (The last paragraph of Part I is repeated for continuity).... THE ENCHANTRESS OF TANGLEWOOD ~ Part II

(Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay) A fog formed around the thicket and coalesced around limb and leaf. The corpus of an entity emerged, its long limbs reticulating from downed wood. Its skin and breasts composed of the bark of trunks. Its long hair was formed of moss and lichen. And then it opened its eyes. Portals of darkness that swallowed Tarynn's attention. With words that spoke with the whisper of wind through the canopy, it said, "You have trespassed," and reached toward Tarynn. But Tarynn was prepared. No stranger to the paranormal, she had grown up in the ways of Wiccan practice, her mother a high priestess in the local coven. Quickly Tarynn reached into her pack, rummaged past her mushroom bag, snacks, and a butane lighter, and produced a robin egg and a branch of mistletoe. She cracked the egg and let the yolk run upon the end of the mistletoe. Using the mistletoe to flick the yolk toward the entity, then rotating to each of the cardinal points of the compass, Tarynn called out, "By the Horned God, he who is the Holly King, I entreat protection from the forces of nature that threaten me. Protect me, my God!" She flicked the mistletoe again, and continued, "And to the Mother Goddess, she who is maiden, mother, and crone, come to my aid and protect me! Envelop me in your light!" As she chanted, Tarynn kept a wary eye on the entity. The entity did not retreat. It stood there, her lichen hair waving in a breeze that Tarynn could not feel. But its mouth moved in a smirk as Tarynn called to her gods. Tarynn finished her spell, then stared at the entity. All fell quiet. She no longer thought of mushrooms. She only wanted to escape the entity and its woods. "I … I  demand passage out!" Tarynn finally said. "You may demand nothing," the entity rasped. "I am the Enchantress of Tanglewood." It stepped closer, its woody legs and feet crackling as it moved, lithely stepping across the forest floor until it was face-to-face with Tarynn. "What makes you think I am not in league with your horned god, girl?" Tarynn held her breath, unsure what to say. She dropped the mistletoe and decided to change her approach. She got down on one knee and bowed her head. "Forgive me," Tarynn said. "I did not realize I had trespassed. I ask your forgiveness. I only wanted to hunt for mushrooms." She looked up to the entity. "Will you show me the way out?" The Enchantress leaned over and placed a soothing hand upon Tarynn's cheek. "Your spell was not in vain, child, for I AM in league with your horned god. Here he is the Green God. But I have my own price for you to pay before you achieve your freedom. I shall transform you into the likeness of a mountain lion, and you shall do my bidding!" The Enchantress waved her birchbark hands, whispering arcane words in a chant. A fog formed around them both. As Tarynn looked into the fathomless eyes of the entity, she began to feel a tingling sensation inside of her and knew she was changing…. How should Tarynn respond in the conclusion of this story? Let the Sorceress transform her and do her bidding Fight the Sorceress and interrupt the spell Make a run for it Use her butane lighter to start a forest fire  --> Cast your vote HERE by the end of the month.

Collaborative storytelling - The Enchantress of Tanglewood (Part I)

Rules: Read the excerpt below. Then VOTE with your choice on how you think the story should continue.

The Enchantress of Tanglewood -- Part I

No one goes in the Tanglewood. But Tarynn dared, and she would come to regret it.

(Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay)

Mushroom hunters are an odd bunch. Part amateur mycologists, they can rattle off scientific names and quote cryptic ecological literature. Part forest rangers, they traverse difficult terrain as if born there. And part secret agent, they engage in espionage to find the clandestine mushroom hunting grounds of others while keeping their own secret.

It was this last quality that drove Tarynn to explore the forbidden forest. The first Fall rains had come. Prime time for chanterelle hunting in the drizzly woods of Oregon's Coastal Range. Cantharellus cibarius was easy to spot – a perky orange-yellow poking up out of the mossy and drab brown forest floor, its fluted stem rising several inches to a vaguely-oyster shaped cap. And if she was lucky, she might even come across king boletes.

The decades were replete with stories of missing hunters and hikers who wandered into the Tanglewood. Of bizarre and gruesome screams from its depths. Of strange mists that seemed to transport those who entered its margins. And children's tales of witches and devils wandering its dense foliage. But the lure of those delicately delicious fungi, sautéed in a bit of butter or put into a cream sauce, and her own personal patch to harvest, was more than enough impetus to challenge the spirits of the wood.

There were no trails. And after several hours of climbing over downed fir trees and wading through thickets of sword fern and wild rhododendron, Tarynn found herself lost. Worse, the day was waning fast. She had the distinct feeling of being watched with increasingly predatory eyes as the quiet woods seemed to close in on her.

Tarynn stopped and drank the last of her water, the hair standing up on the back of her neck. She turned at the crack of a branch. "Hello?" she called out. Only silence answered. Long shadows grew in the waning light filtering through the thick forest canopy and bramble.

Then the shadows moved. There was no breeze, yet the leaves fluttered. The limbs bent. The woods came alive as if a tempest roared.

Terror gripped her. She ran, but within minutes was stopped by a thicket so dense she would have to crawl and squeeze to get through.

Tarynn turned, her pulse beating in her neck, and faced a sight she could hardly comprehend.

A fog formed around the thicket and coalesced around limb and leaf. The corpus of an entity emerged, its long limbs reticulating from downed wood. Its skin and breasts were composed of the bark of trunks. Its long hair was formed of moss and lichen. Then it opened its eyes -- portals of darkness that swallowed Tarynn's attention. With words that spoke with the whisper of wind through the canopy, it said, "You have trespassed," and reached toward Tarynn.

How should Tarynn react?

1. Fight for her life
2. Appeal to the entity
3. Make a run for it
4. Cast a Wiccan spell

--> Cast your vote HERE.