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This was incredible, Nayome thought, as she frantically scribbled notes.
Nayome jotted a quick sketch in her notebook, with some approximate measurements. Her photos wouldn’t be able to capture the real scale to do this scene justice. As she circled the clearing, she was drawn closer and closer to the ancient tree in the center. Its trunk had the characteristic layers and branches of a yew. This had to be centuries old, maybe even older than the famous Fortingall Yew, which was thought to be over three thousand years.
Taking out one of her last remaining empty vials and a penknife, Nayome kneeled at the base of the tree, resting a palm against the rough grain of the trunk. As a ray of light pierced through the overhead canopy, thanks in part to the relative spacing the clearing offered. Nayome was buzzing with anticipation as she was haloed in sunlight. She could almost feel the energy emanating off the tree. As she began scraping at a small piece of bark, she felt a twinge of guilt as she marred the surface of such an ancient living thing. She resolved to keep her sample small and the damage minimal.
As she pried at the small piece of bark she had loosened with the knife, an icy breeze blasted through the clearing. Nayome’s unruly curtain of auburn hair blew back off her neck as those small remaining rays of sunlight disappeared. Chilled, Nayome glanced around and felt a prickle of unease. The temperature had dropped considerably, and she could swear she heard thunder in the distance. Rubbing at the goosebumps on her arms, she tried to finish with the sample so she could high-tale it out of there. If a storm was rolling in, her hike back was going to be miserable. At least she had packed some rain gear.
The idyllic forest clearing had taken on a darker tone. The hairs on the back of her neck raised as if the air was electric. Ah, there it was—the piece of bark tore free, and she quickly sealed it in a small vial.
In the split second between sealing up her sample and reaching for her bag, Nayome found herself flat on her back. Blown back bodily by a force so strong, the glass vial in her hand shattered before it hit the ground, slicing open her right hand as it came apart in midair.
The blast was accompanied by a blinding flash of light, and a deafening peal so loud it left Nayome’s ears ringing.
As her head made contact with the hard packed earth, her vision shifted alarmingly. Pushing down the panicked lump in her throat, Nayome reached up and gingerly patted the back of her head. She could feel a lump forming already, and the wet, sticky feeling of blood as it slowly seeped into the ground and matted in her hair.
Well…wasn’t this just perfect? What had that flash been? Lightning? Had she been struck by freakinglightning?!
Pushing down a wave of hysteria, Nayome tried to push herself into a seated position and felt her vision go black at the edges as she attempted to sit up.
Not good.
As she tried to right herself again, more slowly this time, her vision faded again.
Dark shapes crept in from the four corners of her peripheral, until there was just one dark, blurry silhouette in the center of her field of vision. Blinking her eyes to get them in focus, she could almost make out the shape of a man leaning over her.
No…she was miles from the city. That couldn’t be right. Nayome’s vision clouded over and her eyelids became too heavy to hold open. Her last thought before she blacked out was that this must be a hallucination, that shehopedthis was a hallucination, as the dark shadow that resembled a man closed in on her.
