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Gem was taking her broom to the floor, again. She had only lived in the old cabin for four days so far, but it seemed like she found more animal prints and broken wood every time she woke in the morning.
She hadn’t heard any animals in the cabin since she moved in, so the prints couldn’t be any newer than a week. And yet they kept appearing as if she hadn’t done any work at all.
There was fur everywhere, and the pawprints were worn into the wooden floor. She’d have to replace the whole thing, at this rate, and chopping down trees wasn’t exactly her specialty.
She’d have to make the trek into town, which she dreaded wholeheartedly. The hike would take an hour at least, and the trail was overgrown and winding.
Gem sighed to herself. “I mean, I’ll have to go back eventually, if I don’t want to starve to death when I run out of food.” She glared at her shelves, which she had already stocked with her supplies. It’d hold her through until the next spring, but the possibility of animals getting to it worried her slightly.
“All I can do is keep watch, I suppose.” She paused her sweeping, glaring down at the little pile of wood pieces and fur. Was that moss in there?
At least moss wasn’t going to steal from her and wreck her cabin.
“I know this place was abandoned, but it can’t have been that long ago, right?”
For whatever reason the idea of living somewhere that hadn’t seen anything but wildlife made her uneasy, but she wasn’t sure why. Gem loved walking through the woods, she always had, but this place felt different.
It was almost… haunting? She assumed that would be the right word for it.
Gem leaned her broom against a wall with a sigh, walking over to and opening the closest window. The gentle breeze ruffling her hair relaxed her, at least a little bit.
All she had to do was fix-up the cabin, make it livable, and then her worries would go away… she hoped.
She didn’t really believe her own thoughts.
“Agh!” She pulled a tuft of grey fur from her sleeve. “Oh, gods.” She groaned, walking back over to retrieve her broom.
Bdubs peered through the leaves and branches, grinning to himself. He knew it! There was a new witch in the Cabin! He couldn’t wait to tell Pearl and Etho the news.
The Cabin had been abandoned for seasons, and it had been a common stomping ground for many a spirit and fae, though Bdubs still didn’t know why the original witch had left in the first place.
Ah, who cares about that old thing? There’s someone new! And the Moon’s highest point is only a few days away!
He cackled to himself, watching the newcomer through the open window.
Now, all I need to figure out now is the best way to string my little tale.
Bdubs leaned back against the tree’s trunk, humming a bird’s melody. He ran his fingers through the new sprouts on his cloak as he daydreamed, thinking up all the ways to dramatize his discovery.
Ooh, I could bring Etho and Pearl to see for themselves! Then we’ll have some real fun.
He chuckled mischievously as he climbed down the tree he had lurked in, eventually dropping to the forest floor with a soft thud.
The ground behind him came to life with flower buds and wild sprouts as he ran through the woods, scrambling over any boulder that happened to block his way.
He knew the path back to the den well. Loop around the cottonwood and dash across the opening, cross the stream, and nab a rose petal for luck and protection.
Bdubs had spied and visited the Cabin many a time over the hundreds of seasons he had existed for, and all throughout the forest never changed, a still haven against the passage of time.
He couldn’t wait for the new witch to discover all of the Forever’s secrets.
He picked his rose petal, crossed the stepping stones in the stream, and then he was in sight of the den. The path in was well worn by wolf prints, and Bdubs breathed in the familiar scents of cottonwood and night sky.
His mossy cloak was quickly growing a thin layer of milkweed, and he carefully picked through the buds and flowerheads. He knew how much Etho hated the sticky sap from the plant’s stem, and Bdubs chuckled to himself as he brushed past the hanging vines and properly entered the hollow.
He only needed to be stood there for a moment before a large fluffy form bowled him over.
Bdubs laughed as he tried to push the giant wolf off of him, only barely succeeding (he escaped all on his own, and did not have to wait for Pearl to let him go herself).
“Pearl! Mistress of the Moon! I have exciting news!” He grinned mischievously, and the wolf raised her head in interest, towering over him. Bdubs glanced at a shape watching from the shadows. “And I assure you that it will be worth it.”
There was a disbelieving, guttural snort from the back of the den. Bdubs attempted to not be insulted that Etho didn’t believe him, even after all the wonderful adventures they’d had together. He succeeded, and only frowned a tiny bit.
“The Cabin! You know– by the cottonwoods– has found a new occupant! Or victim! Or … owner.”
The last word rolled awkwardly off of Bdubs’s tongue, sticking in his teeth like a pebble in a perfectly delicious bunch of wildflowers. But that’s how the old witch had thought of it anyway, as if the Cabin hadn’t been graciously allowing her to stay. He imagined the audacity to think that a whole space belonged to you alone, without even negotiating a partnership or leaving offerings or anything. There was something wrong with humans. Even the magic ones.
Pearl stretched, her limbs flexing at jagged angles, her torso narrowing and twisting, her paws bursting and separating into clawed fingers. Within a moment, she was more or less a woman.
“I knew it!” Pearl said happily, her tail enthusiastically wagging through the air behind her, “I told you the Cabin was feeling especially empty these days.”
“We should visit,” suggested Bdubs, “Tonight maybe? Give her the proper Forever welcome.”
“Now that is a wonderful idea.”
Pearl clapped Bdubs on the shoulder and then paused, confusion blinking across her face as she smeared her hand across the milkweed sap.
“Why are you sticky?”
“Because he’s a rascal and a nuisance.”
Etho finally stepped out from where he was lurking– needlessly ominously– in the shadows. He’d transformed into his more humanoid form as well, shorter than Pearl but equally wild looking, with shock white hair and a jagged scar slashing across his left eye.
Bdubs gasped in offense.
“That’s not– that’s not true!” he sputtered, “I’ll have you know that this is revenge. For my horse.”
Etho’s ear twitched, “That decrepit thing wouldn’t have lasted five moments alone in this place. I was doing it a favor.”
“By killing it?”
Etho shrugged.
“Why you…” Bdubs trailed off into a series of grumbling noises as he attempted to find the perfect insult that would prove, once and for all, that he was the brains of this partnership.
“Boys,” said Pearl cheerily, “No fighting in the den. I’m sick of tearing you two off of each other.”
“Sorry, Pearl,” said Bdubs.
Etho looked down at the earthen floor and crossed his arms with a guilty huff.
“Why do we even need a new witch?” he asked sullenly, “I like the Cabin being empty. It’s an excellent sleeping spot, especially if you’re kind enough to offer it some of your fur.”
“Stop being such a grump,” Pearl said kindly, “This is why you don’t have any friends.”
“Yeah Etho!” agreed Bdubs, “This is why you don’t have any friends!”
“And if we wanted to give her the proper Forever welcome, shouldn’t we wait until Moonheight anyway?” he continued, completely unbothered.
Bdubs grinned, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet.
“Oh, Etho!” he proclaimed, “You’re a genius!”
Pearl hummed non committedly.
“That would be fun,” she said, “But wouldn’t it also be– I don’t know, a little mean?”
The concern on her face was worryingly human, especially for an avid trickster like Pearl. Bdubs wondered if she was trying to befriend the townsfolk on the edge of the wood again. He wondered if it was going poorly.
He made a mental note to spend more time with Pearl. Especially whenever Etho was off hunting or running off into the furthest depths of the woods for his experiments. He didn’t want one of his best friends to be lonely, after all!
Etho snarled, the sound rumbling in the back of his throat like a curse.
“If she can’t handle us ,” he growled, “Then she has no business being anywhere near the Forever in the first place. Better for her to find that out now than to only realize when something starts draining her blood for some inane ritual or another”
“That’s… a fair point actually,” nodded Pearl.
“So it’s decided!” exclaimed Bdubs, “Ooh I can’t wait!”
There were only a few days to prepare after all, and Bdubs had to put his all into ensuring that he made a lasting impression.
Gem was being watched. She knew enough magic to know that the feeling was more than paranoia, and she’d even caught glimpses of the culprits. Large, moonlike eyes glinted yellow at her from the tips of treetops. Something with red sclera stalked through the underbrush.
Gem warded her cabin, along with the small strip of land by the entrance she was beginning to think of as her garden, against beasts. And fae. And then humans for good measure.
Still, despite her unease, the forest was beautiful.
Gem spent her days exploring, following the deer trails and trampled grass in an attempt to acquaint herself with the area. The paths tended to be labyrinthine, doubling back on themselves and crossing in patterns that she was sure she would be able to understand if she could only look upon them from above. She took to carrying chalk to mark her way. Just in case.
The foraging was wonderful, especially for so late in the year. Oyster mushrooms and chicory and pine nuts. She couldn’t wait to see what grew in the spring. Of course, she’d have to survive winter first.
The forest was also impossible. Plants that shouldn’t have been growing in the same continent, let alone the same thicket, thrived next to each other. Shrill birdsong echoed through the trees, bouncing off the leaves until the chirps sounded like wailing human voices. It was the unnatural, more than the brutal threat of nature, that kept Gem running from the dark.
Being caught outside after nightfall felt like a death sentence.
And so on the night of the full moon, Gem was safely inside her cabin, humming to herself as she baked persimmon cookies. She’d picked the fruits earlier that day, and would maybe even have enough for canning later. That would be nice.
There was a knock at her door.
Gem fell silent. It should have been impossible for anything outside to come this close to the cabin without her express permission.
She cautiously approached, raising her eye to the peephole she’d been smart enough to carve into the door’s wooden frame.
A monster stared back at her. It filled the whole doorstep, a mountain of grey fur and protruding claws and teeth that may or may not have been bloody. Its red eyes matched whatever had been skulking through her underbrush.
Gem staggered backwards, pulling a poker out of the fireplace and brandishing it in the direction of the monster as she retreated towards her kitchen.
There was another knock. It was surprisingly polite.
Gem was just contemplating putting down her weapon and maybe even trying to answer the door when something small and fast and green came hurtling through her window and latched itself onto her face.
She screamed. The thing on her face squealed.
Gem furiously shook her head from side to side and then, as the thing refused to give up purchase on her hair, instinctually began to shift. Brown fur burst from her pores. Her limbs stretched, her hands and feet hardening into hooves. Her lungs expanded, and for a second her panicked breaths brought some relief. She threw her body to the side, bucking, and the green thing went flying into the wall.
Gem froze. Her little cabin was not meant to comfortably house a deer. She was trapped in a small, enclosed space. A predator lurked on her doorstep, and by now it surely knew she was here. The flimsy wooden barrier of the door wouldn’t hold for long.
But Gem was fast. Especially like this.
She took one last nervous breath, cleanly jumped out of her broken window, and bolted into the night.
Bdubs pulled himself unsteadily off of the wall and onto his feet, groaning and swaying as he moved. He blinked, rubbed his eyes, and took in the state of the Cabin.
He’d shattered its window, and bits of glass were scattered around the floor of the kitchen. A bag of flour had been upended during the struggle, along with an assortment of bowls and spoons and odd looking utensils. There was a newly Bdubs shaped dent embedded into the wall . As he watched, the lumber pushed itself back into place with an annoyed sounding creek.
“Oops,” Bdubs said apologetically.
He took a step forward, into the mess, and immediately felt a splinter dig into his largest toe.
“Ow!” he complained, even though he probably deserved it.
Gem galloped into the forest, hooves digging deep into the loam. Her breath came in ragged bursts, white puffs curling into the moonlit air. Branches clawed at her flanks, the silver-filtered light dancing across her fur as she ran with every ounce of instinct screaming run, run, run.
She didn’t stop until she reached the creek.
The same one she’d crossed earlier that week, collecting rosehip. Now it gurgled mockingly, slick stones gleaming. Behind her, the woods had gone silent.
Too silent.
She shifted back with shaking hands and dropped to her knees, panting. Her antlers hadn’t fully retracted, and one caught on a low branch as she tried to get her bearings. “What in the gods’ names was that?” she whispered.
Talking was a mistake, and Gem knew it immediately. Her voice, even as hoarse and quiet as it was, seemed to echo through the forest.
From behind her there was an ear splitting shriek. Gem spun around. Something huge and looming charged towards her, snapping the trees in its path like kindling.
A blur of grey leaped over her head and crashed into the rushing mass. There was a haze of motion and violence, followed by a cacophony of growls and sharp animal yips of pain. Gem squinted, cursing her human eyes for their inability to pierce through the darkness.
Eventually, there was silence. Gem braced herself for the winner of the confrontation to turn its attention back towards her, and she began gathering the energy to shift.
Something stumbled through the treeline.
The monster from the door stood calmly across the stream, fur haloed by moonlight, body covered in bloody scratches and an oily black ichor. It wasn’t chasing her. It made no aggressive movements at all.
In fact, it was... sitting. Tail wagging. Like a dog.
Gem blinked. “What.”
A second figure appeared beside the creature. This one was short and stout, glowing faintly green, sprouting moss and milkweed like a half-grown meadow. His grin stretched too wide for a human face.
“Oh good, you ran toward the creek. That’s my favorite part of the forest,” he said brightly, as if this were a tea party and not a potentially fatal confrontation. “I told you she’d be interesting.”
Gem clenched her fists, a slight tremble in her arms. “Back. Off.”
“Okay, rude,” he said, taking a very exaggerated step backwards. “And after Pearl just saved your life and everything!”
The wolf-thing, still sitting, tilted its head. And then began to change.
Gem stared as the creature’s body warped, fur sliding away, limbs lengthening, until a woman with striking red eyes stood before her. Pearl. The name felt oddly familiar.
“Hey there,” Pearl said, “Sorry if we scared you. We didn’t mean to make a mess of the place.”
“You broke in ,” Gem said, chest heaving. “You attacked me.”
“That was a misunderstanding,” the green one piped in.
“Etho’s fault,” said Pearl.
“I didn’t even go inside!” came a shout from somewhere deeper in the woods. A man with a black cloth covering the bottom half of his face and the loping walk of something more comfortable traveling on four legs than two strolled out into the moonlight, casually taking his place behind the others. “Bdubs was the one who flew through the window like a pixie with a sugar high.”
“It was dramatic!” the green one—Bdubs—protested. “You can’t say it wasn’t effective!”
Gem took a step back. “What do you want from me?”
“Nothing,” Pearl said softly, “It’s Moonheight. The forest celebrates, and so do we.”
Etho crossed his arms, “We wanted to see if the new witch was worth keeping.”
“Keeping ?” Gem echoed.
“As a neighbor,” Pearl amended quickly. “As a… friend, maybe. Eventually. If you want. Or, y’know, not.”
Bdubs, being too short to reach Pearl’s shoulders, threw an arm around her waist instead. “It’s a tradition! Kind of a test, kind of a party, kind of a... forest’s rite! We welcome you, you survive, and then we officially don’t eat you.”
Pearl rolled her eyes.
Gem’s eyes narrowed. “What would’ve happened if I hadn’t survived?”
“Then we’d have eaten you,” Etho said, deadpan.
“Etho!" Pearl and Bdubs snapped in unison.
He shrugged.
Gem looked at the strange trio—Pearl, calm and radiant in the moonlight; Bdubs, who seemed made of cheer and moss and something far older; and Etho, silent and pointed as a knife. Despite their earlier welcome, there was no malice in their faces. Just curiosity. Wild, sharp-edged, but not cruel.
Gem thought about the effort it had taken to usher herself so far away from other people, only to be nearly immediately confronted with the residents of the forest she had chosen to hide in. And then, despite herself, she laughed.
Just a little.
Etho’s ears flattened against the side of his head in something resembling offense, Bdubs clapped his hands together, and Pearl smiled sweetly.
“I’ve still got cookies in the oven,” Gem said, “Would you care to come back with me?”
And so they returned. Through winding deer paths and moonlit shadows, Bdubs chattering all the way. Pearl walked in lockstep with her, a guard against the creatures of the night.
The cabin door swung open before they even reached it.
Inside, the cookies were slightly burnt, but Bdubs declared them the best thing he’d ever tasted (he had never had cookies before). Pearl cleaned the broken window with a spell Gem didn’t recognize, and Etho slunk to a shadowed corner and began sketching something in the dust with a claw.
When the moon reached its highest point, they danced. Even Gem, eventually. Especially Gem.
And outside the Forever loomed large and dangerous and beautiful, just waiting to be explored.