The Western Gate

Annia lived in the village by the ‘Waning’ stream on the outskirts of Hadeans Wood, she was a fair child albeit a little shy and yet a little curious, perhaps, it were only in the company humans where her shyness came to the fore as amongst nature and the animals of the wood she was quite at home and in her own company, fearless.
It was Lady’s Day, The beginning of February, the village would hold its annual fayre during which all the households would bring food and drink, presents and song to share during the day. Spring was soon to come. The Earth and Nature renewed again.
Annia often wandered through the woods to see her grandmother, an eccentric and often ridiculed old lady with a fair knowledge of the medicinal properties of every plant, bark, root and flower that grew in the woods. It didn’t help that she wore upon her self the hefty coat made from wolfskin, a wolf that had died in her company, and be it said of old aged, for grandmother would no more hurt a fly than swallow a horse, let alone kill the wolf that protected her homestead deep in the woods from boars and bears, adders, badgers and the trespassers from other villages intent on causing misery and derision. Which they did. Perhaps this is where Annia inherited her deep disdain of humans.
Annia loved her grandmother, and wore religiously the beaded necklace, crafted from bone and crystal, and also the ring, of beaten metals that grandmother had gave her, so too the beautiful little brooch of the Wren. “They are but trinkets,” grandmother said, “the time may come when they are lost or stolen, or need to be sold or bartered, what cannot be taken are the gift of love with which I bequeath them to you….be fearless as the little Wren “
Annia clutched at the necklace, it was as if Grandmother knew, the gifts were temporal, and that she should not fret at their loss. The Heirlooms given in life, to show they were given in love.

  Now that Annia was of age she was to participate in the ‘spring hunt’, which was little more than a stupid game of kiss chase through the woods, this to celebrate Spring, the rabbits, bees, the blossom, the scent alluring, that nonsense. To call Nature, to let her know that it was time to renew. that nature would see the theatre and emulate it…
Annia, would rather not indulge in pretending to run from some daft boy, but customs being customary and rites being ‘right’ and tradition being expected, she knew, though dreaded, that she would have to play some part in the dance.
“Annia”, said her mother, “you cant wear that Red shawl in the game, you’ll be spotted as soon as you run into the green woods.”
It was not considered a good omen especially for, whoever that first girl was, the one easily trapped, easily snared, easy game… and it was well imagined that such sort of woman, couldn’t possibly be a lady.
Well, Annia knew the possible outcome, but cared not whether she’d be the first to be caught, over and done with, at least she could stop the silly game, and end the eagerness of the daft boy chasing her. And, if the villagers gossiped and pointed their wagging fingers and whispered in hushed tones as she walked by, so be it. She cared as little for them, as they did for her grandmother.
  However !…. for her mothers sake she tied the red shawl around her waist under her clothes, though vowed to herself she’d cover her head again when she was out of sight from the villagers in the woods, and thus, be easy prey for whichever dribbling oaf came running after her.

The day came and begrudgingly Annia took her stand amongst the line of girls, all of them eager to participate, Annia eyed them, pathetic.
They awaited the call, the great ‘Horn of the Hart’ would be blown, a thunderous roar and off they’d run into the thicket of the woods, and then, some time afterwards the double call, which would signal a dozen or so daft boys running into the woods in pursuit of the merry, and the one- not so merry, maiden/s.
Annia looked to her mother on the off chance she may allow her not to indulge in this folly, but her mother ushered her forward excited her girl was to embark on the first journey of womanhood. The ritual of passage, that all the females in the villages had participated in since time and tales were a blur.
The Horn of the hart bellowed across the village and off they ran, Annia trotting towards the wood immediately lagging behind by some distance. She had only traipsed over the outer skirts of the woods when the Double blow of the great bugle sounded.
  ‘Gatik’ a puffy faced lad with ill fitting clothes raced immediately to the area where he saw Annia run, she had taken a route away from the other girls, and she was so slow he would catch her first. And, being unfit and uncaring about which girl to pursue the best option was to tackle the sloth of the herd.
 Within the woods, now bustling with activity , the animals scattered away to hide and Annia reached for the scarlet apron around her waist that became at once her head scarf again, the ‘beacon’ that would define her and end this stupid game. She stood in the thickets like a berry on a holly bush. A target for the hawk.
There was no approaching footsteps, and in fact as she stood there awaiting the approach of the rabid boys, the whole sound of the woods seemed different, strange. An eerie quiet as if the sun had dipped over the horizon or an eclipse of the sun had commenced. She scoured all around for the approaching boys, to see the other giggling and dispersing girls, for the animals ! and. …There was no movement at all, no breeze, no rustling of the trees, the waning stream itself, heard day and night likewise a deathly stillness.
 She removed her scarf and all at once the noise returned, the trees motioned, the birds flew overhead and through the trees she could see someone approach. Her heart felt heavy as she saw the dribbling runt Gatik running towards her.
For a moment she he heard him shout, ” I can see…” but in that instant, knowing she had been found the scarf was tightened back upon her head and in the gap between the trees she saw Gatik cast like stone, completely still, one leg astride leaping over the fallen branches.
Her first troubled thoughts were that this was a ploy, part of the game, part of the rules that only the boys knew but as she ventured closer it was obvious Gatik, and everything that should be moving was frozen in time, except Annia.
Again she removed her scarf, but, this time there was no change, she, however still inhabited the world of a timeless parallel and this now caused panic. The only movement she could distinguish was behind her, the sunlight seemed to be fading, but as she turned, the light was clear, no movement, but now, again, behind! She felt the darkness, and whichever way she turned, the darkness seemed to be creeping from behind her like a shadow that the eyes couldn’t see, but knew was there.
It were only when the darkness was in her peripheral vision that she knew for certain that an awful blackness was enveloping her, and slowly it drew a cast over the whole woods such that she could have been there in the dead of night.

The silence was foreboding.
“Tepi,” came a whisper. She turned to face the source of the voice but there was nothing there, “T !!” came the sound agian.
“Who’s there?” she cried fighting back tears and creeping terror.
“Tepi?” asked the voice and immediately adding “T !!”
Annia now walked hesitantly towards the voice, her fear being subdued by the anxious want of knowing, “who is there, where am I ?”
At once and again came the call, ” Tepi- T !”
In front of her she could see the formation of what looked to be a great mound, and faintly within, there emanated the diffused aura of light, it was to this beacon that she now quickened her pace, fearless, and with an overwhelming rage of curiosity.

” Ab !” cried the dwarf standing at the entrance to the cave holding his palm aloft to signal her to stop.
Annia could but stare, there had always been tales of the Seven Fae, dwarf like creatures in the woods whose were guardians of the sacred throne of ‘Mab’ the queen of ‘Elphame’.
The dwarf had piercing bright emerald eyes that stared deep into Annia, he muttered words that she could not understand and seeming to realise her confusion spoke again, ” A- Ha! The trial thus begun for you, art thou chosen first maiden. I am Neri, the guardian of the first trial, pass me and the way is towards the eternal, fail me and back to the illusion you fall.”
Annia, for the life of her couldn’t question, argue or for that matter speak, the dwarf took three steps forward and one to the right and then spoke.
“What hides you, and yet also makes you known?”
Annia thought, she were not sure what the illusion meant, the fate she would be condemned to if failure were the result, she felt sure the dwarf meant the normal world she had come from, she had nothing to lose, but what hides her and yet …. “My headscarf!” she answered. It was indeed to hide somewhat and yet, in the stupid game, would make her easily recognisable.
“Remove your scarf and place it upon the floor!” demanded the dwarf.
She did so, without question or challenge and the dwarf stepped to the left and took three backward steps inviting her to enter the cave.
Annia hesitated, the dwarf impatient beckoned her forward and she shuffled close to the creature, the dwarf at once merged into a darkness, as if he was never there.
In front of her now illuminated by the soft glow of dimming torches another dwarf stepped forward, it had a contorted nose that seemed broken and the hunk of nose withered upon his face as if at any moment it would fall off like a rockface on a cliff edge.
” I am MesPer” it announced, there was an inquisitive sneer about this dwarf as it eyed Annia up and down, behind she felt that tangible darkness, she could not retreat.
“Around the guilty is justice seen, around the innocent is it adorned with beauty, what is this?”
The guilty in the villages, dependent on the crime were either ‘stock-bound’ or, hanged, and “the necklace or the noose ?” she offered.
Mesper seemed at once disappointed, it squinted at her but just as Annia was about to offer another answer it held its hand up, ” Remove the necklace and forward be.”
Annia again hesitated, the voice of her beloved grandmother repeating, ” one day you may need to….. part with it …. fret not……. cede,…. “
She laid the necklace upon the floor and as she looked up there stood a different dwarf whose smile were welcoming were it not for the most hideous decayed set of teeth she had ever seen, rotten, warped, skewed and broken, ” Behold this doorway,” said it, “I am Bek.”
Annia moved forward, and it asked, ” Upon this threshold, you have the choice, to cross even with fear in the heart, or to resign, upon your heart, how does it fly?”
At once she replied, “I cross…” but then she stopped, upon her heart, the small gift from her grandmother that secured her coat, a brooch fashioned as the little Wren, so named the king of the birds, that without fear challenges all that would be its adversary. ” I cross,” again she spoke more determined…. “as the Wren, without fear.”
” leave the brooch upon the threshold Tepi-T!”
Annia questioned, “Tepi-T ?”
The dwarf simply stepped aside and gave no answer to her question, it gestured her to move into the cavernous and looming space beyond.
” I am Negau!” came a cry as a forth dwarf walked forward materializing as a fish jumping through a waterfall, “Tepi-T, the first maiden to the threshold,” It answered, his chin grotesquely prominent as a jaw line that jutted out like a scythe, “what is formed in beauty and is hidden in modesty, or what is formed as strength and displayed with pride”.
Annia knew the answer, though she was not sure what she would have to leave upon the floor.
” The breasts,” she stuttered, “of woman or man”
At once defensively she crossed her arms to shield herself, the dwarf seemed nonchalant, indifferent to her modesty.
“Remove Arrogance and Pride, Lust and and your Anger, and hesitate not, remove thy shift that covers that which is cast in beauty or in strength.”
It were a direction that required immediate action, and that is exactly how she acted, removed her top to reveal herself. The dwarf, was vacant, it mattered not to it, who or what she were, whether beauty or beast, king or pauper. Negau merged into a shimmering blackness and at once a more fearful looking dwarf, whose skin seemed the pallor of turmeric now took its place, the dwarf bowed and declared, ” I am Shenti Recki and also Andvari and also many names, I am that which hoards the folly of desire.”
Annia inched ever closer and the closer she moved towards the dwarf the less he seemed to shine. That she were naked from the waist up figured not in her situation, it were only the wait for the riddle that seemed to matter.
” What is it that I gain?” said the dwarf of many names.
Annia, immediately began to answer, the follies, the desires of people, which are ???
“Treasure, Gold, the purses of men, all that we do not take in death,” came Annia’s reply, it were as if she had remembered a dream, something lost from long ago, an insight that must have been implanted long before she could remember.
“Remove that foible upon your finger said the dwarf, and cast it into the circle ‘pon which I stand”
As Annia loosened the ring there was almost a moment of objection, the ring were alike the brooch a gift from her grandmother, and as she removed the ring from her finger she remembered again what grandmother had told her, “It is not the object that matters but the reason, take this… and if it is lost, remember that the reason I gave it is never erased.”
As the ring spun towards the dwarf it shattered a shimmering curtain invisible and with it also the dwarf was gone.
There was a rumbling within the cave, a murmuring and a groan and as she looked around for the direction of the noise she immediately came face to face with a sixth Dwarf, it were a hunched over spectre, a fearsome looking dwarf that arched its crooked back towards her and pointed its clawing finger.
” Smati!” it said abruptly, “Hold up thy hands and show me the measures of your toil.”
Annia did so, it was a pose of surrender, of submission, of mercy, a sign to both obey and be humble.
The dwarf eyed the palms of her hands saying nothing, twitching from one hand to the left, stopping for a moment to think, then back and forward it looked.
He motioned for Annia to lower her hands and then offered her the riddle to pass, ” Know this, what walks on four legs, then two, then three? “
Annia was startled, it was an oft repeated riddle, a riddle so well known the dwarf may has well asked her her name as a more difficult challenge.
Annia was about to answer and offer the solution, but simply said, ” a human being”
The dwarf sighed, for a moment she thought, is it a trick, a lure but then it spoke, ” That which is known, as I said, is written, fate alike that path we are condemned to, as we choose, or else we fly as the crows, those whisperers to the Gods. Your fate is clear.”
A pain increased in Annias hands and as she looked at her palms she saw the the skin on them was smooth, as she clenched there was a sharp pain as the skin folded, creased and with each movement the creases within the palm returned slowly, though more defined than before, she looked up to the dwarf but in its place were a new figure, with it an awful stench of sweat and grease and bog, of shit and piss and stale off meat.
” I am the last doorkeeper of this passing,” it announced, ” I am Akhenti, the question is simple and the answer is not written, what do you know?”
Annia thought of the old fables, the classics, the folk tales, the mystery plays, the sign above the temple of Delphi, man Know thyself.
The answer is not written.
“I know that I do not know?”.
It was the first time she had answered a riddle in a manner suggestive of a question itself.
For a moment, a dread moment all was still.
The dwarf then beckoned her closer and said, “I am ari Enpet, and yet I am not, for As above I am below, I beg you pass but first ye must yield yourself of all vestiges and clothing, undergarments and sandals, crowns and rags.”

It mattered not to Annia and she untangled and unravelled the waistskirts and scarfing about her, the sandals and the tieback in her hair. Through the curtain of her hair she saw the dwarf direct his hand to the way she should go and into the cavern she wandered now alone.

The ceilings and walls became narrower and the height smaller, at times she crouched and stooped. The whole area seemed to glow in some radiance which neither came from behind, above or in front, as if the walls and floor and ceilings themselves were the source of illumination.
The walls themselves seemed to be made of fossilised tree root, fibres and tendrils, fingers and claws twisting all over the surface, hardened and calcified. Some figures amidst the tangled web of rock looked almost human such were the undulating and merging twines that formed anything the mind crafted to see.

She now stood in a magnificent open mouthed cavern, it was enormous, the rocks still glowed pink, and red, bronze and blood red.
In front a waterfall cascaded from an unseen mouth into the large pool of pure crystal water before her. She stepped forward and the waterfall was so smooth and gentle it appeared as a mirror into which she saw herself staring back. As Above, so below, reflective.
The walls seemed for moment to dazzle and then the radiance that had been her torch dimmed somewhat, yet the waterfall now was a beacon of light, the mirror that beheld her. She saw herself, but in the mirror she was not naked, but clothed in fine royal garments, and people bowed towards her, clapping and cheering, flowers thrown before every step she made. This, queen, sat upon the grandest of thrones and was handed two objects which she crossed over her chest before a beautiful crown of every jewel, gemstone and metal was place upon her head.
Annia recoiled, she did not like the image, the grandeur, the wealth, the acclaim, the fame. She would rather spend her days in solitude, in the darkness of this cave. The image in front faded, the waterfall slowed and parted as a curtain at a theatre, and there filling the space a fearful shadow …
Its voice was angry and full of rage and lust, “is there nothing that would tempt you away from your path Annia?”
Annia felt the world around her spin, and felt herself falling into the maelstrom, and knew that she were now completely paralysed as she fell upon her back.
    She looked up and saw above the trees of Hadeans Woods, the leaves fluttering as the noise of waterfall, she was dizzy and her head felt a sharp pain, she tried to get up but was held firmly down by the figure of Gatik looming over her, his stench of sweat and uncleanliness, that sickly palour of skin, his back arched over her forcing her into the floor of the woods, his teeth, those rotten teeth and his broken nose and those eyes that pierced into her vulnerable soul, his grimace multiplied into a grotesque snarl by that jutting jaw….
“Mine !” he snarled, “mine!”
Annia realised at once her clothes were ripped, she were near uncovered and as Gatik reached down to claw at whatever garment was clinging onto her body a swift swish,and crunch, and then silence.
Gatik’s body fell across Annia his head split wide open and behind holding the autumn scythe, Grandmother cut a menacing figure, clothed as she were with the Grey Wolfs coat.
“Quickly, go Annia”
Annia ran and turned quickly just to see Grandmother claw at Gatiks heart….

They found Gatiks body eventually, a huge gash upon his skull and the breast devoured and torn apart, the heart taken, two small fangs were left in the cavity. “It were a wolf.” They said.

Annia was the last girl to be found in the hunt. They called her the shadow.