Role

Chapter 3

Ronas traipsed through the bracken and ferns that littered the forest floor with his
eyes wide and his axe held ready in his hands. He was so focused that not even the
lonely distant 'hoot' of an owl distracted him. Darkness that was not usual was in the
woods this night and he would need to keep his wits about him.

As he passed the great oak the locals called 'Green Noah' he suddenly smelt it. The
unmistakable smell of charred and burning flesh. It filled his nostrils and his eyes
watered as the stench seeped into his senses. He followed his nose, cautiously, to
where he felt the stench was rooted.

As he approached the smell thickened in the air and he was horror struck at the sight
that lay before him. The circles, the drawings, the bloodso much blood, the burning
bodies and there in the middle of it all, a tree so black it stood out in the already dark
woods. It was like nothing he had seen before and it all just felt wrong to him.
He cleared the area and piled the bodies into a small pyre to burn away the evidence
of what had happened and he would tell nobody about it. Nobody should come here
again.

With the task completed he turned and ran back to his dwelling and the relative safety
provided. He would tell his wife that it was youngsters from the nearby village being
fools and that he would see their parents in the morning and make sure their arses were
tanned with a flexible birch branch. He closed his eyes as he lay in bed that night and the
horrifying images remained, etched on the back of his eyelids it seemed.