Gold in the Wood, Chapter 1

Cairn Realplay Literary Adaptation

Chapter 1

Mannog Abernathy grew up as the most promising hunter in all of the Valdwood. He was taller and stronger than other children his age, and skilled at each thing he tried. Mannog towered over other men well before he fully reached adulthood. His stern, square jaw communicated dependability, and it was easy for him to gather support from others. The wild creatures of the forest did not frighten Mannog, nor could they outrun him, and he was so skilled at hitting game with his sling that he never had to learn how to shoot a bow.

In truth, Mannog did not learn all sorts of useful things, because he was very resourceful and could usually solve his problems by himself. At some point, Mannog had decided that listening to others was not worth his time. The only person he did listen to was an old hermit who lived by herself in a cabin deep in the forest.

Mannog would sit in the wicker chair on her front porch and she would talk for hours about strange plants and ferocious beasts and about heroes from far off lands. He would drink her tea and imagine himself as a Flaming Monk or a Knight of the Seven Hills and ended up missing most of the morals as well as the practical advice.

The time came when an especially dry winter and very stormy spring caused the forest to change unexpectedly. The elder trappers fidgeted with their pendants and charms and proclaimed it a ‘False Gnome Spring’. Most of them traveled away from the Valdwood in search of more promising hunting grounds.

Mannog lived alone in his forest camp, and so he did not hear of the False Gnome Spring, and did not see the trappers leave. He prepared the lures and snares for his summer hunt as he had taught himself to do. Mannog expected to find his traps flush with game within the week, but when he checked, the lures were uneaten and the snares were undisturbed. Mannog set his trickiest traps and then devised new traps. He returned to his favorite spots over and over, crouching in the brush, unmoving. He would wait all day and through the night until his eyes crossed and back ached, but still he could not catch a thing. Mannog was very proud of his reputation as a fine hunter and was reluctant to reveal his failure to anyone, lest their impression of him fade. Eventually, he began to starve.

In Mannog Abernathy’s time, the lands abutting the Valdwood were not as wartorn as they had been or would soon be again, and the commonfolk rarely locked their barns and workhouses, or even their homes. It was so easy for Mannog to begin stealing food, and the harvest pies and flaxapple roasts were much too delicious to resist. A summer heightened, Mannog found himself relying on stealing for some, and then most, of his meals.

A plowhand eventually spied Mannog fleeing the fields with an entire savory pie, swiped from the windowsill. It was not long before a cohort of disgruntled farmers arrived at Mannog’s forest shelter and pointedly accused him of thievery. Looking down the sharp end of a turnip rake, Mannog Abernanthy thought quick. He told the farmers that he had in fact seen the pie, had smelt it from his shelter as it was carried off by a pack of feral skunkbeetles. You must remember that Mannog had a natural talent for appearing trustworthy. He offered to eliminate the guilty creatures, and the farmers were so grateful that they left Mannog with additional food in recognition of his efforts.

As the summer weeks dragged on, Mannog's traps remained empty. He was apprehended by different farmers several more times, and each time Mannog told an increasingly outlandish lie, with each new culprit more ferocious than the last. Mannog concocted tales of flying worms with poison suckers and of lumbering beasts with massive fangs and tiny eyes that killed without needing to touch their prey. He spun tales of fish with legs and birds with hands.

At summer’s end, the farmers all convened for the Fruit Day harvest festival, and they had the chance to swap stories about Mannog. That night, he was woken by the biggest and angriest mob yet. With a torch held in his face and his hands pinned behind his back, Mannog lied anew. This time, he said that the old hermit in the woods had forced him to tell the tall tales by threatening him with witchcraft. She was the one who had stolen food from the farmers, Mannog claimed, for she was raising a brood of evil beasts. The mob rushed to the hermit’s house, but when they arrived, they found nothing but shrubs and roots and an especially territorial woodpecker. As the cabin had apparently vanished, the farmers begrudgingly concluded that Mannog must be telling the truth. They trudged back to their farms to get to bed before dawn.

Mannog thought that his troubles might finally be over. He took a vow to steal no longer, and began preparations in hopes that the Fall would bring the return of the good hunting. He set his traps in the brush and waited.

As Mannog hoped, he had not been not waiting long when he heard a trap spring. Unfortunately, it was not a fawk or sneagle in his snare, it was a flying worm with poison suckers. Mannog ran to the nearest farm to show them the creature, to warn them and to prove the truth of his former lies. But by this time, he farmers’ patience for Mannog had grown thin, and they turned him away without a second glance.

Mannog hurried desperately from farm to farm. As each one refused to give him audience, his claims about the flying worm became increasingly dramatic and incendiary. He said that it could grow in size and turn invisible, and that it spat lightning. He said that the worm came back to life each night, was actually a demon in disguise. He even claimed that the worm had broken Mannog's leg and pretended to limp pathetically. He was desperate to peak the attention of the commonfolk, but it was no use. That evening, he returned alone to his shelter with his dead worm and his head hung low.

The next morning, Mannog awoke to find that the worm was gone. He also found that he could not walk. It was then that Young Mannog Abernathy began to realize the severity of his curse.

Link to Prologue - https://gnomestones.substack.com/p/gold-in-the-wood-prologue