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THE BONES IN THE WOODS
('The Curse of the Raven' fragment)
By Roger Vilar
Frequently at two in the afternoon, I left my work as a writer, and became explorer the woods. I discovered new paths, mysterious new sights between the trees that looked like natural temples to an ancient and forgotten deity. The twilight sun was still rising from behind dispersing clouds, but seemed unable to light up the immemorial forest. It was seemed that the sunrays had never touched the brown, withered growths moss in the older branches.
For a month, I did not hear the croaking of the raven. I remembered hardly the strange appearance of this bird in my window; but one afternoon, when I was sitting next the river, I noticed noises behind me. These were not the characteristic sounds of squirrels, birds, or foxes; not, it was the noise of a heavier body moving in the undergrowth. Would it be a bear? I regarded it possible. For decades, the grizzlies had inhabited the area, but I did not feel that this body was a bear. I had the sense of a human being lurking me. Would it be a human being? Was he a missing explorer?
“Who's there?” I asked.
As the only answer, I heard again the scream of a raven. The cry brought me to the chilling dread that pervaded me the first day in the forest. I was very scared. With cautious steps, I began to scuttle along. The raven squawked once more time. I hurried my run. Like every day, at that hour, the mist awoke from the ravines, climbed between the trunks, and began its slow risen, up to cover the whole forest. I could reach the house before the darkness were complete. I thought that a monstrous evil had once dwelt the woods and now it was coming back to capture me. I believed hear dark whispers that came from a one vague place.
I ran up the path, and then I saw the raven. The bird flew over me several times, screaming brooding. Now I saw him clearly. He perched on a branch in front of me. I found him very old. His black eyes were scrutinizing me. I stopped for a moment, bewitched by his presence. I listened again to the heavy body moving in the woods. I ran once more, tripped over a rock, fell and rolled down. My legs were bleeding, but I rose up and looked around.
I was in a deep hollow; above me, the crow followed flew noisily, but his squawks were sounding far away like they fall down from the higher part of the sky. Despite the growing fog I realized that opposite me, very near, stood a vague human form. It was strange, but this did not scare me. The raven squeaked as inside very high trough clouds. I walked toward human shape, and brushing aside the hanging branches as I went, I began to discern something grim about it. My hands touched something human head form, but it was as cold as a piece of ice. My smartphone lantern lighted the shape of the shadow; then I knew the truth and gasped with a baffling mixture of emotions. It was a human skeleton, and it must have been there for a very long time, because the bones were covered with moss and cobwebs.
