Massive appreciation to NewOldGuy77 for his editing support!
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"Don' ya go inna dem Nor' Woods," Nana always used to say. "No'one leaves dere da same. An' most ne'er leave t'all."
She would say it the same way she told me to brush my hair or Brownies would collect it for their nests, or that I should put a ring of salt round the bed to prevent the Far Derrig from playing their tricks. But, when I didn't brush my hair for three days, no little fae came to cut it off. And when I swept the salt from the floor, the rat boys never appeared.
So, forgive me for thinking it was the same with the North Woods.
"C'mere lass. Ay need some o' ta brown 'shrooms, ya know wi' ta blue freckles? Off wi' ya now. Don' come back 'til ya 'ave a handful." Nana said.
"Nana!" I whined, "Tis Sah-win an' ay don' wan' ta spend it huntin' 'shrooms. 'Sides, ay'm grown now an' can do as ay wan'!" I whined.
I'd been looking forward to Samhain for weeks, and now Nana was ruining it with chores.
"Silly lass. So, ya all growed, huh? Ya ken tha' mean ya can disobey Nana?" She waved her broom menacingly at me, illustrating the threat.
I sighed. I was grown up, sure. But until I married and moved to my own house, I was still under Nana's thumb. No one in the village would blame her for beating me, even now. And then no mother would choose me for her son, if I was seen to be unmanageable. So, if I ever wanted to leave home, I had to do as I was told.
"Ay'll go a huntin', Nana," I said wearily, waving my hand in resignation.
I grumbled to myself as I went out to the fields north of our farm where the mushrooms grew wild. It would take hours to find a handful of the tiny fungi, especially as Nana had just had me harvest some last week. I'd emptied all the regular spots already. I wanted to spend my day preparing for the bonfire tonight, not tromping all over on a mushroom hunt.
Samhain was the best festival of the year, and this would be my first time enjoying it as an adult. There would be dancing, the story men would tell their tales, and the food! I'd spent a week on my festival mask, and I had just a few pieces of my guise left to finish before tonight.
I eyed the North Woods speculatively. I always saw the glint of the speckled shrooms in there when I got close. Surely, it would be quick to collect them. I'd never gone in the North Woods before, mindful of Nana's warning. But I was an adult now and too old to pay heed to this last of my childhood tales meant to make me behave as Nana wanted.
Confident of my plan, I walked towards the woods. The massive trees had thick trunks as wide as I was tall. They had dark, deep brown bark that was rough and cracked. Dozens of crooked branches that sprouted glossy dark green leaves created a canopy of shade overhead.
I could already spot a circle of the small, but brightly colored, mushrooms just beyond the line of trees the marked the edge of the forest. I took one last look around the grassy knoll just in case there were some of the mushrooms on the right side of the trees. But there were none.
Cursing my fear for superstitious nonsense, I took a deep breath and stepped into the woods.
I marveled at how quiet and peaceful it was. I had never noticed before how beautiful it was here. Unexpectedly, my sex pulsed with arousal as my skin prickled and the hair rose on my arms. There
was
magic here!
My pulse beat wildly as I stood just inside the threshold of the forest. Maybe I should leave. Maybe this one time, Nana's warning had been true.
I stepped back. My foot struck a root and I fell down. The woods, so peaceful and beautiful a moment before turned dark and frightening, as if a cloud had passed over the sun. The soft sound of laughter tinkled through the air.
Terrified, I staggered to my feet, turned back towards the farm, and ran. But, instead of being on the edge of the woods with the fields only a step away, I saw nothing but trees and more trees.
"Nana!" I shouted, even knowing she could never hear me. "Help!" I cried, even knowing no one ever came to these woods.
The road to town had been built skirting the wood, out of superstition, I'd thought. Or, if the men had been practical, then because the underbrush was too thick and the trees too close. But now I knew myself for a fool. The roads went around the forest because Nana was right. The North Woods were a place of magic, and the magic had only needed one step within to work.
I ran, still. Because what else could I do? All around me there was the echo of girlish delight. And, then I saw the flashes, glimpses of something, some things, running with me. They were running through the trees, chasing me, and they were joyful.
My skirt caught in a low branch as I ran, and it tore away. My shirt was caught and torn. Piece by piece my clothes were torn from me by the forest until I was running naked. My bare feet throbbed from their unaccustomed exposure to the rough ground. My legs and torso and arms and chest were bruised and cut from my wild run. And still I ran.
But the forest never ended, and my cheerful pursuers never tired. I ran until I collapsed, my legs turned to jelly, and my lungs were on fire.
I stared up at the leaves which filtered the glorious light of day. The laughing stopped and, in its absence, the silence was ominous and cold. A shiver went through me, and again, through my vagina and clit. My nipples hardened in the cool forest air.
The branches of the trees shifted in the wind and looked like hands, waving and groping. One branch waved lower and lower and touched me with its delicate waxy leaves. The tender gentle feel of those leaves running over my exposed pussy and stomach sent a tingle through me.
More and more branches descended lower and caressed me with their leaves. I shuddered at the exquisite sensual feel of it. I opened my mouth and moaned, abandoning myself to the arousal that flooded me with each delicate stroke of a leafy branch.
A gentle leaf poked into my open mouth like a probing tongue. Tilting my chin back to grant it access, I licked the intruding foliage. It tasted of mint and sugar. I closed my lips around the leaf and suckled it, savoring the precious taste of it, forgetting all my fear.
Branches found their way under me, poking into my sides and back and butt as they filled the space between me and the ground. And then I was being lifted. Branches wound under and over me, binding me in place. Every one of my injuries was pressed with a soft waxy leaf, and a cool balm spread from each spot.
I was lifted up and up until I looked down and could no longer see the forest floor. I was among the trees now.
My bed of branches arranged me until I was no longer parallel with the ground below but was now perpendicular to it. I had been brought close to a huge tree trunk which filled my vision. Even at this height, the trunk was wider than our small cottage. The pieces of bark that covered it were each as wide and thick as my thighs.
My arms and legs were held outstretched. My thighs, knees, ankles, waist, wrists, shoulders, and each breast was encircled with branches. They pulsed and writhed against my skin, their rough bark abrading me harshly.
My pussy was wet with need, my clit throbbing. I wanted, Nana help me, I wanted to rub my pelvis into the trees until I came, and then do it again and again. I wanted to impale myself on one of these probing branches and fuck it, in and out.
