[ WP ] The Deep Woods are a fearsome place , filled with screams and lights and terrible magic . But in the depths of the forest lives an ancient dragon who constructs all the sounds and sights to keep people away , because he just wants to be left alone .

The Deep Woods were n't kind to visitors. The muddy, peaty soil underfoot sucked and dragged at travellers' feet. Horses disappeared in bogs. Roots twisted and turned, the trees groaning their displeasure at having a stranger in their midst. It was said they walked when the moon was high. Paths became goat trails, and puddles became paths. 
 
 
 Travellers and wanderers returned with white hair; eyes wide with fear, and the echoes of screams still echoing in their ears. The green, mossy canopy overhead muffled sounds. Even the birds were silent. An oppressive air hung on the forest, sure as a panther settling into a crouch before springing. The cries that rebounded from the thick, dense wood, and the burning smell of magic that kept people away. 
 
 
 
 No one had ever praised Maggie for her navigational skills, and it was no surprise that she found herself lost in the Deep Woods. The market town miles away, Bess the pig was starting to slow down, despite Maggie's best efforts to drive the beast forward. With mud on her boots, Maggie was hopelessly twisted around. Hunger rolled in her belly. Determined to keep going, Maggie spotted a familiar looking tree ahead and aimed for it, tapping Bess lightly with the switch. 
 
 
 
 `` Come on, pig,'' Maggie said. `` We've got to get you to town.'' Selling Bess would bring money. Money that meant the difference between a winter growing fat on oatcakes, salt fish and pumpkins, and a winter spent huddling together for warmth eating straw to fill bellies. 
 
 
 
 
 Light flashed beneath the canopy of the trees as Maggie hurried forward. Long tendrils hung from branches, covered in a winding, parasitic moss. They wavered slightly in a breeze Maggie could n't seem to feel. 
 
 
 
 
 `` We should n't be in here,'' she told the pig. Bess rolled her eyes. It should never have been Maggie who took Bess to market, but coincidences being what they were, she was here. Wandering off the path in search of a place to rest had been a bad idea. Continuing past the sign that read: *Death awaits all ye who enter here, * had been a worse one. 
 
 
 
 
 A scream filtered through the trees. Like chalk on a blackboard, it scratched at Maggie's teeth and she shuddered. At the corner of her vision, a fallen tree seemed to move. She turned round to it, and Bess seized the opportunity to drop down into a boggy, wet, mulch patch. 
 
 
 
 
 `` Get up,'' Maggie said desperately. The tree's bark was unusual. Though brown, and covered with moss, it had a copper sheen to it if she looked hard enough. There were no roots protruding from the end; it only snaked into the darkness of the Deep Woods and disappeared. 
 
 
 
 `` Get up Bessie,'' Maggie tried again. Bess categorically refused. Her trotters were tired. 
 
 
 
 The fallen tree moved, this time in a way that was completely un-tree-like. It slithered, dragging across the ground. Saplings and shrubs bent beneath its weight, and Maggie felt the tremble in the ground. 
 
 
 
 
 `` Who goes there?'' The voice that spoke was old as gravestones. It seemed to rip the sanctity of the forest in two. The moss quivered. 
 
 
 
 
 `` It's me,'' Maggie said shyly. `` Maggie. And my pig, Bess.'' 
 
 
 
 
 `` What brings you to the Deep Woods?'' 
 
 
 
 
 With horror, Maggie realised the tree-trunk was a tail. Thick as an old oak, it curled around her like a careful embrace. From the boughs above her emerged a head, large as a house. It ducked to look her, held her in its gaze with one, golden eye. Yellow as honey, it drew Maggie in until she felt herself go weak at the knees. 
 
 
 
 `` Mostly a mistake,'' she said. `` I got lost. I need to get to Market town, so I can sell Bess.'' 
 
 
 
 The golden eye blinked. A path appeared beneath Maggie's feet, the forest parting like a flock of birds to show the market town glowing beneath the distant sunset. 
 
 
 
 `` There's your way out,'' the voice said again. `` And if anyone asks, tell them I terrified you.'' 
 
 
 
 
 `` You did terrify me,'' Maggie said indignantly. Bess had fainted into the mud. 
 
 
 
 
 `` I am not terrifying,'' the beast ducked back into the boughs, fading into the brown of the trees once more. `` Not compared to what I am hiding from.'' 
 
 
 
 
 

