02 Loggers: Chapter 1 - Why Not?

Chapter One - Why Not?

"Are you sure this is a good spot to camp?" asked Jake. He didn't much like the idea of camping, but since they were on private property, it was the only way they could get the bulk of logs away from the forest in the time they had.
"Sure," said Ed, "Why not? Don't tell me you're scared of the dark!"

The others laughed. Since the old man, Billington, had died, and there was no one at the homestead, nothing was stopping them from getting a massive amount of logs from the forest now. Billington had never given them permission, but since the inheritor of the estate was an out of towner, he wouldn't know any different.

"There are owls out here!" said Jake. "I never did like this forest. We were always told it was possessed."

Once again, the others laughed. "That's complete nonsense," said Mikey. "They told us that to keep us out."
"Well, it worked," said Jake, still unsure if they should be there at all.

The giant oak tree that they intended felling tomorrow was a magnificent specimen and would make some beautiful furniture, though Jake was a little nervous about cutting into its trunk. He had looked up at the oak with an almost apologetic stance, and the others had laughed at him.

Ed was the leader, and he was not going to miss this opportunity to get logs that were big enough to provide furniture for the rich folks in town. Their own forest was depleted of large oak trees, and they had trouble getting anything of any value these days. Billington's forest was an opportunity of a lifetime, and Ed knew it.

The campfire was relatively low as they didn't want to attract attention to themselves, and the embers caused ghostly shadows upon the bark of the trees that surrounded them. Jake could hear something like muttering in the wind but didn't dare mention it to the others. They would only laugh at him. He lay in his sleeping bag and looked up toward the sky, and then he noticed it. There was a face in the bark of the tree above him looking down on him in a disapproving way. He tried to ignore it, although when he looked again, it had definitely changed expression. He could not tell the others. They would not believe him. In fact, they would continue to tease him, and, during the last few years, he had experienced nothing but teasing from the crew. He was the youngest, the most sensitive, and perhaps he only saw something because he believed in it. He closed his eyes to the world and tried his best to sleep. In his sleep, he would be safe from the mischief of the forest. In his sleep, he didn't have to fear the ridicule other people put him through.

The light from the fire was dimming, though the warmth was enough for all of the crew to sleep comfortably, unaware of what fate awaited them in the aftermath of cutting down one of the most amazing trees in the forest. Only the Dryad of this forest knew for sure that someone had to pay for such a crime.