Sam laughed at Levi's soft tap, though raised a brow at his sister's question. He glanced down at his own stockings to see what sort of condition they were in before glancing back up at Mary. "Tuffy was Nate's toy, not mine." He chuckled at his nephew's comments on stockings and his "compromise".

"He has the right of it - far as I can tell, that's Sam," Mary confirmed to the others. "'Twould be unnatural knowledge if he knew."

Her son laid his small stockings in an awkward ball on Sam's thigh. Sam's own were utterly scratched about by holly, spikes and brambles and stained with mud, dots of blood from unheeded thorns and some nameless dark stuff that had probably been pooled in the place of bones he'd fled through. Levi looked up through his mop of brown curls at his uncle. "Have we found you now?"

Then, after a pause, "Are the other ones still hiding, or did the witch eat them really?"

Sam nodded at his sister. "Yes, it's really me. I understand the concern, but I'll be fine," he chuckled as his nephew placed a sock on his ankle. "Aye, lad, you've really found me. I'm sure the others will be out of the wood any moment now - I doubt that the witch ate them."

Maggie stops her call, discouraged at receiving no response. Her throat's sore, too.

"Did ye hear our hullabaloo, Sam? Did it help guide ye out?

"What happened in there?" She nods toward the dark forest looming nearby"
This message was last edited by the player at 19:11, Mon 21 Mar 2022.

"Did you see this witch? The one that you doubt ate them?" Martin asked curiously.

Sam turned his head to face Maggie and Martin. "No, I didn't see the witch - the only thing I saw was the stag," he explained, glancing back at the wood for anything. "Aye, it did help - thank you," he said to Maggie. He continued explaining everything that happened once again to her.

"I simply hope that the others could hear you - I'm sure that they could."

"You don't see her," Sam's nephew told the Doctor, very earnest in importing information of import. "She hides in the trees. And...and then she catches you and eats you all up!"

Levi mimed this bit of sudden violence and almost overbalanced himself backwards off the log, reeling back giggling. Behind him the wood was silent in the absoloute, only far-off branches stirring with the wind.


"Well, if it helped him, that's all the more reason to get along, calling," Mrs. Criddle made shooing motions at the rest. "If Samuel's not a boggart that's eaten them, then most likely they've come out somewhere else. Go on, go on with ye. Halloa the Wood!"

"Are you all right to come along, or should I see you back down to Dad's or somewhere?" Mary asked her older brother.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:22, Mon 21 Mar 2022.

Andrew let out another pair of sharp whistles, his eyes drawn, in spite of himself, to the treetops, unconsciously looking for any dark shapes that might be lingering among the branches.

Sam’s reassurance brought a mixture of hope and fear. Perhaps the others would appear momentarily, or was it that they could hear, but could do nothing to respond?

08:41, Today: Andrew Sexton rolled 8 using 1d100.  Luck.

Martin complied with Mrs. Criddle's request, and switched from his low, but pleasant sounding tunes from which he had substituted a number of more socially appropriate words in certain places - to just a general call.

"Fox, Bees, we're out here!" It almost sounded as if he was talking to the fauna of the Wyzenwood, naming two particular sorts of creature.

He would go around, calling that out very loudly, hoping to draw the attention of the lost members of the group.

Maggie takes up her hallooing again.

In reply to Levi Whitlock (msg # 28):

Sam chuckled at his nephew's description of the witch, extending a hand to help the lad up when he fell. "I see. Well, if I hear her rustling in the trees if I go into the Wood again, I will be cautious." He turned to face his sister, saying, "I'm alright to come along - though I'd like to make sure Master Fox and Master Bees make it out before I leave. Worst I dealt with was torn up stockings," he chuckled softly.

"If you go in again she'll definit'ly eat you," Levi told his uncle with conviction, allowing himself to be scooped forward and set on his feet as Sam rose to come along.

Mary beckoned her relatives onwards, since it was clear enough no man was going to emerge here, if any were to make it out of the woods at all. Shouting at the trees set up no birds and caused no stir, as though all living human sound was muted beyond that invisible barrier of the edge. No bees and no fox heeded Martin's invocation, though the hares sat and watched far out in the top field.

---

The group wended their way along, and looked, and called out, seeing nothing of note and hearing nothing until at last they were somewhere above and behind Yendale farm, the building itself hidden by the undulations of the Wood. There came a distant cry, then, in answer to their yelling, though it came from around the outer edge of trees, not within:

"Hoi! Doctor? Mrs. Criddle? We've got them!" Kit appeared around that edge and waved for their attention, catching his breath as a slighter figure who'd also been running uphill slipped past him.

Robin Yendale ran up to those engaged in the search, throwing an almost-smile to Maggie and a nod to his master before settling on the Doctor as the person he ought to address as Authority. He was still a little marked by blood spatter from that morning and the rending of a calm time that seemed months past.

"They come out the woods, sir, come out an' Long Tom was fit to drop an' Master Fox was all over blood but he said's it wasn't his and they've gone home, sir-" Robin finally stopped for breath, gulping it in all at once. "I mean, Master Fox went home, with Sir's mother - with Widow Sexton - and Mistress Criddle, for she feared he was dead and wouldn't let go of him, nor he her, so they went together. Long Tom was going down to the inn, if you wanted to see him there. Says he saw...he saw something in the Wood."

"Thank you for that information. Well, if they've gone and left already, I suppose there's no point sticking around here. Might as well head back to the inn." He looked at the others to see if they agreed.

"Aye," says Maggie, "Belike we can get a pint to moisten our throats after all this shouting." She hopes someone will stand her to an ale.

Mrs. Criddle thought she ought to follow after her daughter and almost-son-in-law and Mary volunteered to be her witness, heading over: the village women seemed to have closed ranks smoothly and rapidly at the news of a wandering killer. Levi was a little loath to leave his uncle and the doctor - an adult not focused on his siblings or giving him tasks and a proper gentleman that had talked to him - but was persuaded along by the prospect of seeing the Fox stables and his Aunt Thea, who might slip him offcuts of candied angelica if he was lucky. Sam decided to go down with the rest and see for himself that Long Tom was all right. Kit and the carpenter came with them, the latter wondering, still, at how and why a beast that had been reluctant to even defend itself until touched could become aggressive enough to send three men running for their lives.

---

Long Tom was walking in from the coachyard with his sister and the landlord when the higher search party came in - several of the lower had repaired to the inn, and Arnie was on his knees fussing Dockie in Bart's corner, trying to repair her spirits.

Polzeath was by the bar, and having just re-seated himself from greeting the Vicar got up again with some relief to see his master and tried to look attentive. Nancy put a generous bowl of turnip mash with gather greens at the side out for Tom, giving him a look that said that was as far as her sympathy for him extended at present before returning to the kitchen. The young beekeeper was about as scratched about as Sam and considerably dirtier.

Thomas left the offered food not willing to risk what the woman had done to it. As he entered the bar he said "Someone fetch Goodie Westcott, and be quick about it she had questions that need to be answered."

He found a pint of ale and was drinking it when Sam did arrive, Thomas spied his through the window and he dashed out to greet him "Sam, Sam I did not expect to see you.... and Mr Fox was found as well, such a relief..." He offered the man his hand.



-

In reply to Thomas Bees (msg # 37):

Sam nodded at Master Bees, shaking the beekeeper's hand. "Aye, can't exactly say I expected to see you here. Are you and Master Fox alright? I just had to keep going to get out... I'm glad you made it out as well." He took a seat across from Thomas and bought a beer as well.

"Yes Mr Fox did not look any worse then the two of us and was in reasonable good sprits considering what had happened. I actually found him to be much perked up once he was out of those woods."



-

"There was considerable more blood on 'im," Lucy Bees put in, having annexed the abandoned meal - free food was free food, after all, and she had some opinion of the landlady's honour even if she'd known of her brother's quarrel - and drifted up to the table. "Though he said not to trouble the Doctor and all."

[[Andrew and Maggie, if you're still outside you can Spot me a Hidden if you like. Oh, and you've still got Robin at heel, though Kit will head around to check out what the stable staff have been up to in his absence if not called back.

Sam, the offer of a free meal from compassion stands for you as well, and would have been offered at the bar - given the lad last ate some bread around 5a.m. and has been doing various high-energy activities since, he's probably pretty famished. There's mash, leftover curry and rice to be had at present.]]
This message was last edited by the player at 06:25, Tue 29 Mar 2022.

Coming in through the kitchen, trailing Robin behind her, Maggie looks about for any victuals and drink as might be available or offered. She goes on through to the common room and joins Tom at table.

"What's this about blood?" she asks, "What'd ye get up to in woods, Tom Bees. An' whatever possessed ye t'go in? Are ye daft all of a sudden?"

Andrew drifted toward the conversation, gratified to see that Thomas was alive. He said nothing for the moment, curious to hear anything more the beekeeper might say about the Wyzenwood.

"We found a path that may or may not of had Polly's foot prints, either way we had to see. We were unsuccessful and thought for a minute we had lost poor Mr Fox. Thankfully he left just before us and other then the odd scrape and scratch is no more worse for wear then the rest of us."

"Did you find any other signs of her ?"


-

"But that's not what you-" Robin trailed off, abruptly aware he was speaking against a youth the others would consider an adult, and him a child. "I mean, you didn't tell us that part of the story before, Master Bees: you said you saw the Wizen Tree and the Devil speakin to the animals, sir, and that you were chased by the stag."

"Did you see the Devil, Master Hartman?" he asked Sam, aware of making a mess of the conversation but unwilling to pipe down at once.

Lucy was frowning in puzzlement, too. "How could she be walking if she was murdered...they said you said as she was murdered," Tom's sister said to Maggie.

"We followed a trail to the edge of the woods and assumed it was her and followed it in after walking for sometime we did indeed see a pond and a large old tree and something else....."



-

In reply to Robin Yendale (msg # 44):

"Aye, that was what I believe th' ground showed. She was throwed down an' straddled an' strangled. So I believe. So help me God."

Maggie's voice is most bold and her demeanour most solid on this.