Abandoned - Deadwood - Story 73

[Abandoned]

Intro


  This is the 73rd story in the Smallville Series and tells about another settlement of Elves who were not happy about a railway's plan to expand into their forest.  The railway they planned to stop was the one built in the northwest town of Iron Ridge story 50.  The Elves' settlement is in the small forest at the south end of the Iron Ridge Mountain Range south of that railway town.  These are not Wood Elves like the ones back east in the Green Woods, no, these are Dark Elves, and they plan to use dark magic to stop the railway's expansion.  The story begins in year 60 SVT but is being told in approximately year 78 SVT.


The map seed   #  843226638     Valley,   Small,   Fair,   Disasters Off,   Easy-  8 Families, deer,duck,bear


Mods activated for this map and load order are:

Map Changing and Starting Mods:   Banished UI Maps, Labor Window, RK Minimized Status, CC Light Rain,  Fairy Pine Terrain (new, testing), Kid Tree Replacer Deco, Kid Tree Replacer Fairy Pines (new, testing), Maritimes Riffle,  New Flora Edit,  Wildlife Start

Tweak Mods:    Better Fields, Fishing Dock +25%, Hunting, Hunting Season, Increased CC, 1:1 Alternative (Voeille), override Black Clothes, Rocks Respawn, Tiny Smoke

Major or Must Have Mods:    An Empty Square, Nomads (Kid), Storage Crates,  Jinxie Festival Park, Kid Abandoned Places SE,  Kid Fairy Garden, Kid Forest Deep,  Kid Workplace

Supporting Mods:   Campfire, Choo Choo Deco Tunnel, Creepy Cemetery, Kid Coven, Kid Deadwood (new, testing), Kid Deco Magic Mushroom, Kid Deco People, Kid Deco Wreaths, Kid Farmyard, Kid Fruit and Nut, Kid Hedgerow, Kid Home Grown,  Kid Mist, Kid Traveling Trader, Kid Work Shop, Kid Tiny Chopper


Mod note:  Kid Deadwood includes previously released Kid Tree Bridge, no problem to use both but the separate tree bridge is not need with Deadwood enable. The mod is still under Kid Deco but a matching fishing tree has been added.  There are numerous deco dead trees and logs.   Kid Tree Replacer Fairy Pines is all pine trees, I have added a few maples from Kid Tree Replacer Deco mod and of course Deadwood Deco trees.

Story note:  The storyteller is not physically on this map. This story is being told at the start of a another story in a different town that is not yet written or on the map.  That story, part 2, will be posted at a later date.




Well, weary traveler, I am convinced that everything happens for a reason and what is meant to be will be.  It's a good thing that the future is not ours to see or good things might not be.  I can't tell you about the future but I can tell you how I saw the past through the eyes of a child back in Deadwood.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 1


  Deadwood was a Coven settled by 3 sisters, Phylicity, Ofelicity, and Babetter, who were witches. It was called the Coven of Three.  They came with 5 other families from some canyon in the east, I don't know exactly where, I wasn't even born yet.  I only know what I was told.  Anyways, they came west to escape the witch hunts.  There were 16 adults with 16 young children and 2 newborns. 

  The 3 sisters and their families build 3 big houses in the clearing a ways west of where they had a stock pile and supply carts.  The first thing they built there was a magic school and a conjurer's workshop.  Several children including my big brother were about to reach school age.  Later, the Coven debated where I should be allowed to go to magic school.  The 3 sisters were the Coven's elders and they thought I might be a throwback to some Wood Elf relative because of my connection to trees and animals.  I already knew some magic before even starting school.  The Coven was a coven of Dark Elves who used dark magic, only purebred Elves are taught magic.

  Anyways, 2 families built smaller coven houses by the stockpile and big storage barn.  One of the families was related to the family that lived next to us across the river, Wanet and Herlinett were twin sisters.  I don't think anyone else was related, we weren't related to any of the others, but we called the other kids cousins.  We lived across the stream in a really cool tree house.  My parents were the youngest of the Coven members.  I had a big brother Nest and a big sister Lorrine when I was born.  My brother's best friend, Carney, lived in an even cooler mushroom house east of us in the low-lying area by the duck ponds.  He often picked on me and laughed at me because the baby ducks would follow me around.  He pushed me in the pond several times but my big brother always fished me out and sent me home to mama.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 2


  I didn't know at the time that some of those ducks would be dinner, the deer and bear I played with too.   My mama was the best cook in town.  There was plenty of good food in Deadwood.  The pond gave us duck meat and eggs and the hedgerow pond provided more eggs, mushrooms, wild oats, and had a walnut tree.  There were walnut trees and an apple tree by our neighbor's tree house.  The hedgerow in town had hazelnuts, corn, and sunseeds.  I always got laughed at or scolded when I picked some to feed to the birds and the little wild creatures.  I was told they could feed themselves.  I said ya, they did, right from my hand.  Then I was told I was impertinent.  I didn't know what that meant.

  Anyways, the three sisters had a special farmyard that grew corn, squash, and beans.  Those 3 vegetable were called the three sisters by the Native tribe that had a hunting grounds near here.  They gave the three sisters the seeds and told them a Native Legend about three sisters that helped each other.  The three vegetable were named in honor of them and a reminder to help each other.  I only had one sister. 

  One of the three witch sisters had a gathering hut and lots of baskets to gather lots of wild foods with.  In summer and fall we kids got to help.  We probably ate more berries than got put in the baskets.  I always made sure to leave plenty of wild oats and berries for the wild creatures.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 3


  Our woods had lots of wild creatures besides the deer, bears, and ducks.  There were lots of little forest creatures we didn't eat like foxes, rabbits, squirrels, and chipmunks.  I really liked the chipmunks and they really liked those sunseeds.

  There were many large herds of deer and they found enough to eat in the woods.  The bear sometimes visited the duck ponds and river looking for fish.  The witches often cast a calm creature spell to keep everyone safe from the bears especially when they had cubs with them. 

The river had lots of fish that were caught from the deadwood trees that had fallen and extended out into the water.  The water was really swift moving, there were rapids in the main river to the west of our valley.  The chances of any riverboats coming this way were slim.  When the boys were old enough to be taught how to fish, we other kids always laughed when they caught a branch or tree that came down the river carried by the currant. 

  The witches had a Coven Hall built in town west of the school where they had coven meetings and where they kept track of all that good food we had to eat.  They also kept track of the town statistics like how many people the town had and how old they were. The town had 16 adults, 7 students, and 13 young children.  I was the first newborn recorded in the town records.  I was born that year. 

[Abandoned]

Chapter 4


  The fallen trees were not just used for fishing, they were also used to cross the streams.  There was one that we crossed to get from our house to school.  We often saw an owl in one of the dead trees just like the owl in the tree by our school.  There was another tree bridge that my brother's friend Carney took from his house by the duck pond to get to school.  We often met on the way.  There was another tree bridge upstream from his house and another west of our house and our neighbors house.  Our neighbor, the hunter, always had a campfire burning to roast meat.  Sometimes we sat on the logs by the fire just to keep warm, especially in autumn after we were out in the woods collecting branches for firewood.  There was a cool eerie mist that rose from the streams in autumn. 

  The dead trees were hornbeam trees that were also called ironwood trees because they were so very hard to cut.  When the 3 of us, my brother Nest, Carney, and me, went to collect branches I gathered the small branches and the boys gathered the larger ones.  They always competed to see who could break the thickest branch. Those dead branches were really hard to break, they were as hard as iron.  We kids took the carts to the stockpiles and the parents unloaded the branches.  Maybe those deadwood trees were the reason they named the town Deadwood.

  I really liked going with the boys into the woods to collect branches in fall.  It smelled so good from the pine needles and fallen autumn leaves, and it was so pretty.  Our evergreen trees were pretty colors all year because of all the iron in the soil.  Iron Ridge mountain was just to the north of us.  There were also some maple trees that were real pretty too and they had leaves that would fall and we would make piles of them to play in, Carney usually pushed me into the pile before we were done building it.  Nest always pulled me out.  The autumn sun felt warm and the wind whispered through the trees.  We could hear the little wild creatures running through the fallen leaves.   The forest was so magical especially in autumn.  Even our treehouse changed to pretty fall colors.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 5


  The forest was very pretty in winter too but sometimes the snow was too deep to get through.  The little creatures struggled to find food.  I brought them some corn and sunseeds. 

  That winter a frock maker tree stump was set up half way between our house and the school.  My father would teach both girls and boys how to make coats.  My sister was too young yet, she would not start school until the following year.  I was even younger but I didn't see much point in it.  All you had to do was cast a conjuring spell to get coats, or tools, or whatever.  I would rather spend my winter having snowball fights with the boys or feeding the animals in the forest.

  I must have dropped a lot of corn and sunflower seeds because we had a patch of sunflowers come up in the forest behind our house and there were sunflowers and cornstalks coming up all over the place.  There was also a patch of sunflowers in town by the hedgerow where I got my seeds from so maybe that was how that patch got planted.  So when the crows started showing up for the sunseeds, it was not all my fault. 

  The witches saw those crows as an omen of change.  Those who believe in dark magic know the crow is a seer of the past, present, and future.  Not much has changed since the witches and other families came here so the change is yet to come.  They were even more sure that something was about to happen when the ravens showed up.  Raven could be telling them that a spell was about to backfire.  Dark magic was not something to be taken lightly.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 6


    The witches took the arrival of the ravens as omen of evil to come.  It could be warning of illness to come, our overall health was down slightly.  The witches immediately built a herbalist healer behind the coven hall.  There were a lot of herbs in the untouched forest there.  By the time the first snowflakes fell in late autumn, everyone was again perfectly healthy.  There was not much else that could be done but be watchful and wait.

  The wait ended in spring of year 7 when Deforces the fisherman spotted a group of people and a covered wagon across the river.  They kept their distance from shore because of the bears gathered there trying to catch fish from the rapidly moving river.  The witches did not hesitate, they had a makeshift bridge built along side another fishing tree where it would be somewhat protected from being swept away.  The three sisters crossed the bridge and cast a calm creature spell and then a banishment spell on the bears before confronting the newcomers.  The bears left the area peacefully.

  The newcomers, 4 adults with 3 children, were left with little doubt they were talking to witches.    The adults were really old, older than my parents.  They said their donkey was really old and could not continue to pull the heavy wagon or cross another river.  They came from the east and joined a wagon train but got separated from it and lost.  They lost the other wagon and donkey crossing the last river.  The newcomers seemed a bit leery but not afraid of the witches which was a good thing I suppose.  They agreed to stay on that side of the river.

  They were not afraid of hard work either and soon had a stockpile set up and a small pasture fenced for the old donkey.  They built a nice house with a porch looking out over the river.  They had supplies on the wagon but our workers set up a market area and brought an assortment of goods for them to use, it would be winter soon.  The newcomers set up a chopping block for firewood and built a hunter workplace.  A second nice house was built closeby.  The newcomers seemed to be no threat, they seemed friendly enough.  They did not mind that I brought corn to feed the old donkey, I really liked that donkey.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 7


  The 3 witches thought a little fear instilled in the newcomers was not a bad thing.  They first built a small cemetery by the Coven Hall.  It had an iron fence and gate that made eerie sounds when opened and closed.  The mist made it really creepy.   Next they built 3 crypts for themselves and their families over near their witches' houses.  The crypts would have the same iron wall and fence around them that the creepy cemetery had.  The crypt cemetery was creepy too with the same eerie mist.  My brother, Nest, said the stone and iron got cold overnight and then when it was warmed by the sun the mist formed, nothing creepy about it.  Well, I thought it was creepy no matter what my brother said.  He thought he knew everything cuz he was 12.  The crypts were in plain view of the bridge going to and from the newcomer's side of town. I bet they thought it was creepy too. 

  The newcomers had been busy too.  They planted a big garden to grow some of their own food.  There was corn, pumpkins, Brussel Sprouts, carrots, potatoes, and sun seeds.  They brought some of the pumpkins, Brussels, potatoes, and carrots over to us to repay for all the food they got from us.  I think they knew some magic.  I told Nest I thought I saw a little fairy in that garden when I went to visit the donkey.  He said I was imagining things.  Well I didn't imagine the guy back in the trees gathering fairy dust from that big purple plant. 

  The oldest boy in that house got to go to our school but he would not be taught the magic, he was a Human.  He was the same age as my sister, Lorrine, who was now 8.  She liked him.  She would be going over to his side of town to learn from their tailor how to make warm coats.  They asked if they could use the down from our ducks and set up a tailor workplace under the tree by their wagon to make the coats.  Their hunter got some duck down too.  Warm coats would be nice.  They brought us some.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 8


  The Humans also brought us something for the garden that they called compost.  They made it from plant debris they cleaned up from their garden, put into a compost bin, and let sit awhile before returning it to the garden.  We were impressed by the size and quality of their vegetables, especially the pumpkins.  Our natural hedgerows and fruit and nut patches did much better than our planted gardens.  The Humans said it was probably because we were so close to Iron Ridge mountain and our soil was so full of iron.  The compost would improve the soil and make things grow better.  It was not magic, it was something they learned at a Hobbit harvest festival back east.

  More crows had arrived and the Humans built a scarecrow for their garden and for ours.  They also brought a few decorative fall wreaths they made from wild flowers.  When they saw the ravens by the witches' houses and the Coven Hall, they brought some strings of garlic to ward off evil.  It was not the ravens that were evil it was what they warned would come.  That evil apparently was not the Humans, they were always friendly, kind, and generous.  But more ravens did come and this group gathered north of our tree house by the mountain ridge on the border.  The three sisters and a few of the men went to investigate.  They heard distant tapping sounds coming from the mountain.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 9


  When the Humans heard about the tapping sounds coming from the mountain, they brought information to the witches that they thought we should know.  It seems there was a railway being built on the other side of the mountain ridge.  A railway was carts on tracks with an engine that pulled the carts from one town to another hauling resources and merchandise and even people.  It was noisy and building it destroyed the forest.  The tapping we heard was probably the Dwarves digging a railway tunnel in this direction.  This then must be the evil to come.

  The pumpkins did well with the compost and soon there were plenty of pretty orange pumpkins decorating our town.  Ethelmur, the Human boy that my sister Lorrine liked, even brought some of the pumpkins to our treehouse.  I think he liked my sister too. 

  The Humans had something else to show us they learned at the festival.  They placed a pumpkin in the clearing on this side of the river near the bridge, not far from the witches' crypts.  They gave the pumpkin lots of compost and water and it soon began to grow, bigger and bigger.  It grew so big they made a house out of it.  It was a sight to see.  We were all amazed, this had to be magic.  Arman, the son of one of the witches, moved in with his new bride.  He was now teaching magic at our school.  He knew of no spell that could do this to a pumpkin, must have been the compost.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 10


  There were several more children ages 12, 13, and 14 who would soon finish school and want homes of their own.  Another pumpkin house was built closer to the main part of town, it was finished by spring of the following year.

  Also finished was the mountain tunnel.  The witches had men watching and listening all winter long.  The tapping sounds had gotten increasingly louder and the ravens had been raising a ruckus for several days.  It was only a matter of time before the tunnelers broke through the mountain.  The witches were there waiting.

  I had been out in the woods following a young fawn that wandered away from its mother, so I saw the whole thing.  There were 5 men, maybe a 6th back in the tunnel.  I could not hear what was being said because of the ravens but there was an exchange of words before the men turned and fled back into the tunnel.  All except one who just caught sight of me as I bent to pick up the fawn before it could wander further into harms way.  Just then a small cloud of smoke arose as one of the witches cast a spell.  She created a small thicket of deadwood trees blocking the opening of the tunnel.  There was no way any Dwarf even with the sharpest ax was ever going to get through that thicket.

  And then the witches were gone and the ravens were gone but one man still stood there, a man of wood.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 11


  The raven's warning had come true, a spell had backfired.  One of the men, the one who saw me with the fawn, got caught in the spell and had been turned to wood.  I put the fawn down, it ran off to its approaching mother.  I slowly approached the woodman.  He just stood there.  His clothes were like the bark on the deadwood trees but he was not dead, somehow I knew he wasn't dead. He was in there somewhere.  I turned and ran to town.

  On my way to the witch's house I noticed the ravens were gone from the tree by the Coven Hall, they were gone from the tree by the witch's house too.  I went to Phylicity's house first, she was the one who cast the spell.  She said what was done was done, she would not undo the spell.  The other witches would not help either.  My mother said she could not believe I had the audacity to go to the witches.  I didn't know what that meant.  It didn't sound good.  My father said stay away from that woodman and my brother, Nest, said the same.  I did not stay away.  The woodman was still standing there in summer, and in fall, and in winter.  When the snow began to fall, I brushed the snowflakes away from the woodman.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 12


  No one I spoke to knew of any spell to help the woodman.  I spent more time at school, studying the spell books.  I found no spell but at least my mother was finally pleased with something I did.  I noticed the coven members were not as friendly towards me as they once were.  Even Carney's mother seemed a bit cool when I went to visit the ducks.  I really liked the ducks.  I always went to visit when Carney was not around, he was still mean to me like when we were younger.  He came and threw snowballs at the woodman and he said maybe he would carve him into a puppet for me to play with because nobody liked me anymore or wanted to play with me.  When I asked Nest why Carney was always so mean to me he said it was because Carney liked me.  Well, that made no sense. 

  I no longer gathered branches with my brother and Carney.  I worked with my sister, Lorrine, after school.  She said Carney was the cutest boy in school.  I think she liked him.  Anyways I always went to spend time with Woodman after chores were done.  At first I just said Hi to him but more and more I began to talk to him and tell him my troubles.  I often sat on the log and fed the birds and other little forest creatures.  More sunflowers began growing there.  My brother came often to check on me, he thought I should not spend so much time talking to a dead tree.  I said again the Woodman was not dead, he was still in there.  He was warm and alive.  Nest said he was warmed by the sun just like the other dead trees.  He said no more just kept coming to check on me and when some crows came, he helped me build a scarecrow.

  Several attempts had been made to rescue Woodman.  Some men came through the tunnel and tried to cut the trees.  The first time they called to Woodman if he was there but I was too far away to make out the name they called.  Every attempt failed, those trees could not be cut.  Somehow the witches must have been made aware of the attempts because suddenly 2 very large vultures appeared in the trees on either side of the tunnel.  The attempts stopped and then the vultures were gone.  The deadwood thicket was left in peace again and time moved on.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 13


  The following spring Carney came to me by the deadwood thicket and said a new giant mushroom had sprouted not far from his house.  He wanted me to move into it with him.  I said I couldn't marry him because I was only 9 years old.  He said he didn't want me to marry him he just wanted me to move in with him,  I might as well because no one else would want to marry me, I talked to dead trees.  I said no and I cried when he left.  I heard the sound of groaning like a tall tree swaying in the wind.  I thought the sound came from Woodman but when I stopped crying to listen the groaning stopped too.

  A new treehouse was carved not far from the thicket and I hoped that Nest would move into it, he was 15 and out of school.  Instead one of the witches' daughter, Madalina, and her new husband moved in, maybe to keep an eye on the thicket.  She came to talk to me a few times.  We became friends even though she was older.  She said Carney asked her to move in with him, apparently he had asked a few other girls too. Madalina had a baby boy not long after she moved into the treehouse.  She asked me to watch him a few times while she worked.  I kind of thought the baby looked like Carney.

  Nest moved into the pumpkin house near town when Hobartly moved out and into a new coven cabin that was built closer to the fishing tree where he worked.  So even though Nest was living farther away I still got to see him often, he would stop by the school while he was working.  I sometimes thought it was more to see Carney's sister, Caldonald, then it was to see me.  I must have been right because as soon as she was old enough they were married and she moved into the pumpkin house with him.  She was still a student.  Her brother, Carney, was still alone and living in the new pumpkin house that was grown near the witches' houses.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 14

  It wasn't long after brother Nest moved out that I got a new baby brother, neither the baby or my mother were doing well.  Even after a year the child still cried a lot at night and my mother was always tired.  I was given more and more chores to do, it was always "do this" or "do that".  Well, I was tired too.   In fact I feel asleep on the log by the thicket when I went to visit Woodman one afternoon after school.  I started gathering branches there to save time, I also gathered some wild onions that were always in short supply.  I only sat for a minute but lay down and dozed off.  It was tree groaning that woke me.  The sun was setting and it was getting dark and chilly.  The groaning stopped when I approached Woodman.  I was sure it was Woodman that had been trying to wake me up.  I thanked him and bid him a quick good night and hurried home to make supper.  One of my new jobs was to do the cooking. 

  It was my sister Lorrine's job to go to the Fairy Garden market for vegetables, leaving me to collect the branches alone.  I always reminded her to get onions if they had any.  I think she was too distracted visiting Ethelmer, he's the one who always brings her pumpkins in autumn.  Apparently she didn't see enough of him in school.  They would both be finishing school soon.  A new small nice house was being built not far from where he lived with his parents.  I think he hoped he and my sister would someday be living there.

  There was a Tree Hall built near the fairy garden market.  It had an upper level and nice view of the river and area.  There were now inventory records kept there too.  Carrots and potatoes were in short supply so another fairy garden was planted across the river by the pumpkin house.  Finally I would have enough vegetable for the soups and stews I was making.  I actually got a compliment from my father, he said I was as good of a cook now as my mother was.  My mother said nothing.  I was not surprised.