Elwan sensed that he neared the witch's lair, he could feel the hair on his arms crawl against his skin. The deathly quite this deep in the forest made the beating of his heart deafening in his ears.
The trees stood towering above him like solemn giants, their branches wove together to form a dense ceiling high above allowing very little light to reach the forest floor causing an eerie, grey gloom around him. The tanglewood became so think that he had to use his greatsword to hack through the vines reducing his progress to only a few feet at a time.
As much as he tried to shake the feeling, fear began to take seed and sprout within him, sending shivers up and down his spine and sapping his strength. Elwan forced himself to think of the reason that brought him to this evil place, to kill the witch and avenge his wife's death. He could still hear his wife's screaming as she burned at the stake falsely accused as the witch that he now hunted.
His wife had been stripped shamefully in front of townsfolk by the royal guards at the command of the king, his very own father, who would show him or his wife no mercy. The townsfolk cursed and spit at her. They beat her with fists and sticks as she was forced to walk to the stake while he watched helplessly bound, tied, and gagged.
The only thing that made this act of injustice worse was that only a few days earlier she had confided with him that she was pregnant with his child. He would have sacrificed his life for hers, but instead he was forced to watch his own wife and his unborn child burn at the stake. His hands tightened around the hilt of his greatsword, the white power of good that glowed from the white steel blade diminished as his hate gradually turned into blinding rage
The rage that guided him was fueled by the evil of the place and through the blindness or his rage he did not see the thick vines constantly moving and changing path in front of him and then closing off any attempt to escape behind him.
The forest around him turned dark as the trees and tanglewood grew even thicker. Elwan moved cautiously now, as there was now a clear path in front of him.
Elwan stopped suddenly at the sound of a menacing growling. Two large black hounds stood in the path ahead. Close behind the hounds, stood the witch.
The witch did not move, her face was stretched taut and expressionless, as she watched him from behind unkept and tangled grey hair. Suddenly the witch lips curled up into a crooked smile, as she said mockingly "Well prince, it's about time, you hacking and slashing could wake the dead" and then she abruptly cackled "perhaps you will meet your dearest wife after all!"
Blood rushed to his face as Elwan lifted the point of the steel blade that now shined bright white. He could feel the power of the blade surging through him. Elwan sprang forward. All the muscles in his arms bulged and flexed as he swung the greatsword down over his head with all of his might
The witch took a stop beck and with the wave of her hand the hounds sprang through the air. The razor sharp teeth of the first hound bit painfully around one of Elwan's wrists prying the greatsword from his hands while the other knocked him off balance onto the ground.
Tanglewood vines slithered out from all directions binding his arms and legs to the ground. In an instant it was over, Elwan struggled against the vines that held him and looking helplessly up at the witch that stood above him with same crooked smile. She scoffed, "You fool! Did you really think you alone could simply invite yourself into my home, where my powers are strongest?"
The witch kneeled down next to him and pulled out a small knife from out of her black robe and quickly cut away his clothes, leaving his completely naked and exposed. Furious, Elwan struggled futilely to free himself from the vines that bound him to the ground.
Once he realized it was no use, Elwan gave up his struggle and spit in the witch's face and warned "Witch! You and your heathen kind spread your evil way. Evil must be destroyed. If you kill me, my father will send more to men to follow in my footsteps..."
The witch cut him off with a sharp and piercing voice liking the spit from her face with her long snake like tongue "Rest assured, dear prince, I will kill you...but not yet. Alive you are still useful. You and your royal family have sent many to hunt us and now only a few of us remain. We now live our lives alone and in hiding in the most remote places, no...I doubt more will come, and if they do, the only thing they will find is what is left of your bones that have been cleaned of flesh and scattered about by the creatures that keep me company in this place."