autumnwoods – Page 3 – Bear Witness

12. Fox Rogue (Autumn Woods)

November 1, 2024November 4, 2024jstueartLeave a comment

Emil the Fabulous was the first to note that the orcs had help. A wolf.

A wolf who might be able to know that the illusion deer had no scent, the fire no heat, no ash.

A wolf in captivity.

A chained wolf.

A bit of a brutish handsome wolf.

But a wolf who could track down them all, and who could lead the orcs right to their door.

So many magic users crowded into one enchanted forest had always been a security risk, Emil had long said. But they liked each other and this was home. Many of them had found it difficult to live anywhere else; their skills made them targets.

They couldn’t all be fabulous rogues and slip around stealthily wearing gorgeous cloaks.

This fall collection handsewn Stealth Cloak made him feel not only invisible to the orcs, but threw shade at the trees around him. “You never looked as good in leaves as I do,” he winked at the oaks.

Looking good was important to Emil, despite rogue tendencies to wear black (is this always a funeral??) and to want to blend in. Sometimes blending in meant being obvious or loud. No one suspects the brash, coquettish, witty fox with the unusually small right front paw to be the pickpocket, the eavesdropper, the trickster. Slinking around in the shadows was too obviously villain. Tres gauche.

Today, Emil wore one of Garna the Alchemist’s potions around his neck to mask his scent. He now smelled like fungi and rotting leaves. Oh the tragedy of a bad scent.

He was lucky that his cohort on this mission, Ramsaur, liked the smell. “Dead things are very aromatic,” he’d said.

Ramsaur would never be a social climber though, so his quirks didn’t matter.

They were off to contact the Great Owl at the edge of the woods to get Their wisdom on what they should do about the orcs since fire nor floods nor glowing deer had been effective. They at least could offer some reconnaissance.

“Now we know they have a wolf guide,” Emil whispered. “You need to go back and tell the others. I’ll continue on to consult Old Biddy.” He looked at the massive wolf bound by the chain in the orc’s hand.

He might even free that wolf.

Pick a lock. Make a friend. Who knows?

They might have an ally, and the orcs would lose their nose.

Go to Chapter 13

“Protect the Autumn Woods!” is an illustrated story by Jerome Stueart in 33 short flash fiction chapters. The story features D&D-inspired magic-using forest animals who fight to protect their homes. This story was at first a response to a prompt list created by Jenn Reese and Deva Fagan for an October Art Challenge in 2021. You can now read all 33 parts of the story, “Protect the Autumn Woods” with the search term, #AutumnWoods. “Protect the Autumn Woods!” Art Show at the Dayton Society of Artists (48 High Street, Dayton, OH) from November 1 — December 15 2024.

“Protect the Autumn Woods!” is adjacent to a larger show of amazing Dayton Artists, “Small, but Mighty.” Come see all of the art, any weekend, Friday 12-5, Saturday 12-5 to experience the art yourself.

11. Turtle Druid (Autumn Woods)

November 1, 2024November 4, 2024jstueartLeave a comment

Madrijolpur, a druid of the ponds and marshes, saw that the orcs were not following the deer or veering from the fire. They could sense the illusion. But they were close enough to him. They thought they stood on dry land.

With magic in his old leathery pads, and by the runic marks on his shell, he used his powers to raise, raise, raise the water table.

The dry land became wet from beneath, and the orcs began to sink. This was no illusion.

The druid enlarged the area of the pond exponentially as he marshed out the surrounding land, causing the orcs to sink, to fall backwards as they scrambled to find a dry path.

The only path he left them was the path out.

Not even the way back would hold their weight.

He looked around him, Isn’t this what he’d always wished for? A little larger pond, a little wider stream? The woods could sustain a larger area for pond life. Yes. But the downside was that the ponds and marshes contained thirty orcs now and getting them to move forward by sinking the trail behind them was not sustainable.

He could not do it on his own.

He tried to maintain stillness in the water. He didn’t want to be seen.

If he used all his power to sink them slowly in the muck, he would have little energy to stop them from breaking a shell if they saw him. Three orcs were already waist deep in the mud. The others crawled forward to the path. He could take three of them down at least. But 27 of them would soon reach the encampment where the others hid if he did not keep widening the pond. Too much, too much. Too much. Too wide. How beautiful it was to see so much water. So glorious! But he felt so dizzy now and he slowly sunk beneath the sustaining ripples.

Go to Chapter 12

10. Conjure Deer (Autumn Woods)

November 1, 2024November 4, 2024jstueartLeave a comment

Xini told them that a fire illusion to push the orcs out of the Autumn Woods was not enough. She would also create something they wanted, something to follow. “Fear may not be enough to motivate them, but coupled with desire, you give their minds two incentives to follow our path. Three– if you count the barriers the beaver crafters have already built. The deer will show them how to escape the fire as all creatures know the way out, and also be the target they want to catch.” She made the deer glow a soft purple so that the orcs wouldn’t miss it. There it stood on the edge of the fire, waiting for the moment the orcs saw it. First the fire, now a glowing deer! It runs as they shoot arrows after it, and pursue it. But while the deer moves them down the predetermined path out of the woods, the orcs don’t follow long enough. For a moment, they pause, hold out their hands, stare at the deer, the flame, thinking… thinking… about why this feels different.

And thirty orcs stop right there and they don’t move, even when the flames intensify.

Go to Chapter 11

9. BattleHawk (Autumn Woods)

November 1, 2024November 4, 2024jstueartLeave a comment

As it always seems to happen to Fade, the thing he wants is destroyed. This time, suddenly, with fire. The North Eastern quadrant of the Autumn Woods was engulfed in flame, flames that reached the highest trees in seconds. From nowhere. As he watched everything he loved burn again–as too many wars between kingdoms had cost him his home, his friends, his loved ones–he could hear the roar of the wildfire, the crackling cackles, see how it engulfed the trees and twisted the branches, till they fell withered–but he felt no heat. He relaxed. He could feel how tense Dame Brigitt was on his neck. “That is not a fire,” he said. “That is magic. And orcs do not have magic.” Dame Brigitt tried valiantly to argue against his logic. He persisted to calm her. “There’s no heat. It is illusion.” She gasped, “Xini is using the crown!” And the battlehawk, with nothing to fear, but everything to save, dove into the flames towards home.

Go to Chapter 10

7. Salamander Warlock (Autumn Woods)

November 1, 2024November 4, 2024jstueartLeave a comment

Xini can use her illusionist spells to make the orcs believe the woods are on fire–driving them out. But she must use the Cursed Crown to do it. She’d given up that warlock life years ago, though still bound by the curses she accepted, but her home and the homes of so many others are at stake. The other animals beg her not to– because each use of the crown’s magic draws her closer to a doomed afterlife in the Eternal Desert. “It is just a step closer,” she says. But what good is a favored afterlife if you doom those you love to death here? The curse of the crown is one’s own altruism to use it. If you could truly give up the power to save others, you might save your own soul. Xini doesn’t find that kind of soul, though, or that life, worth saving. She knows this is her moment to show her love to her community, and she awakens the cursed crown, watching it spin like swords above her.

Go to Chapter 8

8. Chipmunk Paladin (Autumn Woods)

November 1, 2024November 4, 2024jstueartLeave a comment

Dame Brigitt Meadowsedge, a Knight of the Order of the Sun, a Paladin of Threnna, returned from her Seventh Quest of Valor, which had taken many months. She rode Fade her trusty red-tailed hawk, her companion in battle, himself a cynic that kept her gleeful optimism realistically grounded. Their path home, though, they’d seen a trail of orc destruction stretching between two kingdoms already, a trail that alarmingly led her straight back to her own home. They’d seen too much wide Orcan devastation for some individual band in such a short time, razing and plundering villages along many paths. Fade said it was calculated for orcs. It suggested a plan. But oh, Threnna’s Beads! (Doom F*ck, said Fade) The last smoldering human village was only a short distance away from the Autumn Woods. She shouted to Fade to fly faster, and his mighty wings hammered the air. She could not let herself believe that she might be too late.

Go to Chapter 9

6. Badger Mastermind (Autumn Woods)

November 1, 2024November 4, 2024jstueartLeave a comment

Gressler reminded them that Orcs were not dumb, but they had tendencies that could be taken advantage of.

Orcs, because of their size, and the size of their people in relation to every other creature, tended to believe that size and strength were all that mattered. Because they got what they wanted with size and strength.

So they to believe that they could conquer and overcome any group, no matter how many, because of their size, strength and stamina. Small things posed no threat to them, ever.

“How is that helping us?” The Beaver brothers asked. “We are small things.”

Gressler pointed out that along with their belief that they could win any strategy that favored strength and size, they tended to discount cleverness, trickery, intelligence. The Bix were taken by surprise, he reminded them. Bix are clever, and if they had known–as we know–that the orcs are coming, they could have prepared.

Other things to know about orcs: They had good eyes and ears. But that lead them to depend on them too much. They tended to trust what they saw and heard.

“Also, when in armies, orcs are often overworked by their commanders. It stems from the belief that orcs are strong and strength and stamina are the very nature of an orc. So they don’t give them breaks. This means they can be more exhausted than they will ever mention,” Gressler said.

He turned to a map of the Autumn Woods, a large detailed map where he had already marked where they were, according to Craek, the paths they were taking–and the ones they were avoiding.

“I believe,” Gressler said, “we can reroute them using natural barriers, distractions, and detours to move them quickly out of the woods.” He gave them all marking tools. “Now, let’s come to the map and see what we can do to guide them away.”

They would not be taken by surprise. They had the advantage. They just all had to come together and do it.

Go to Chapter 7

5. Moth Mount (Autumn Woods)

November 1, 2024November 4, 2024jstueartLeave a comment

When Craek returned, and told them what he’d seen, everyone suddenly remembered the bix village massacre in Summer Woods many years ago.

“They were caught by surprise!”

A thriving group of little people of the forest, the bix were an important part of trade between the Summer Woods and outside villages of humans. You could find healing ointments, teas, remedies of all kinds, at a Bix Market. They could enchant acorns to guide you, put a protective leaf in a locket for you. The Bix were hard-working magical people living in harmony with the humans around them. The Summer Woods, always a delight to travel through, had been such a helpful place for humans and animals alike, partially because the Bix were there offering everyone the best that herbs and magic could devise. They enhanced the kingdoms around them.

This is how they were noticed by the Orcs. Everyone had heard a version of the story of the Maebon Massacre, or Bix Slaughter, or some other title. It was the kind of story that made good people think twice about being too kind, too open, too vulnerable. The bix didn’t make swords or weapons. They made medicines and remedies. Sometimes the story was told in a way to suggest, “See what happens when you get known for being nice.”

They were all killed and eaten. They say the orcs put their teas and medicines around what was left of their corpses. As if to say, heal thyself.

It reminded them of the horror that others could do. But it was so unthinkable that it became unthinkable— to think about it too much made people anxious and scared and paranoid. Orcs could turn up anywhere! In some ways, the story just couldn’t settle in a mind that believed that good things happen to good folks. Some variants of the story had to give the Bix some fault—outside of being noticed by Orcs. Others just said it was myth.

Nevertheless, the story drove them now into a frenzy. How do they protect themselves from this passing group of orcs? Why were they here in their woods? What did they want? Would the same fate await them as the bix of Summer Wood?

No.

They wouldn’t believe it.

They would fight and they would be clever and they would survive.

“Protect the Autumn Woods!” is an illustrated story by Jerome Stueart in 33 short flash fiction chapters. The story features D&D-inspired magic-using forest animals, all retired from dazzling adventurous lives, ready for peace and quiet in the midst of a spellbound forest, a woods with a very long autumn. When a mysterious troop of orcs, armed for battle, march into their woods, the heroes will do anything they can to keep the orcs away from their loved ones. Sometimes, though, the wards and tricks won’t work. Sometimes, you have to fight harder just to keep what you have.

This story was at first a response to a prompt list created by Jenn Reese and Deva Fagan for an October Art Challenge in 2021. Anyone who wanted to play along could draw pictures according to the prompts and post them on social media with the #autumnwoods hashtag for 31 days. I drew pictures and posted them. But I added D&D classes, and then a story happened. You can now read all 33 parts of the story, “Protect the Autumn Woods” with the search term, #AutumnWoods, or hear them all narrated to you on Substack as you go through the “Protect the Autumn Woods!” Art Show happening at the Dayton Society of Artists (48 High Street, Dayton, OH) from November 1 — December 15 2024.

A reception and opening happens this Friday, November 1st. “Protect the Autumn Woods!” is adjacent to a larger show of amazing Dayton Artists, “Small, but Mighty.” Come see all of the art, Friday, November 1st, or come back any weekend, Friday 12-5, Saturday 12-5 to experience the art yourself.

4. Beaver Crafters (Autumn Woods)

November 1, 2024November 9, 2024jstueartLeave a comment

Kelsky and Big Slap had been the kind of brothers that didn’t need to say very much to each other, but they seemed to understand and communicate effectively anyway. A gesture, a nod, something anyone else would dismiss, was enough for them to cooperate on opposite sides of a river or stream.

Mama Beaver said they were born with the same mind. They’d laugh at that.

“I have half a mind to argue with you,” Kelsky would tell her.

“And I have the other half,” Big Slap would say. “But arguing with you is harder than Oak. I’m gonna go fell a softer tree.”

When they heard the call from Brother Fenzel, they had the same idea at the same time. Reroute the orcs. It was a simple as that. Everyone liked an easy path. You just got to make all the other paths too much trouble. It was like building a dam and guiding water.

And guiding a river, redirecting a stream, wasn’t that different from redirecting a troop of orcs, was it? They just needed to clear any path they wanted the orcs to take; and fill the rest with barriers, fallen trees, branches, things that wouldn’t look purposefully placed, but naturally fallen.

They needed the woods to be a suggestion of pathways.

Their suggestion.

They did not have time to fell as many trees as they needed. They would have to use what they already had. And what they had were their homes.

Kelsky grabbed both sides of a big sycamore atop his recent den addition and pulled, disturbing several other branches and logs.

“No,” his brother said, slapping the ground with his tail. “You need that.”

His brother smiled, his two teeth bright, “I’ll be getting it back, don’t worry, brother. It’s a temporary thing.”

“Well, we will need more logs than that.” He began dismantling the roof over his kitchen.

His brother huffed loudly, “There is plenty in this den. I overmade it anyway. You just keep your kitchen and we’ll use my den.”

“Won’t be enough, and you know it.” Big Slap kept pulling out logs from his kitchen.

Conversation was over. They both knew the other would not relent or change their mind. They were both right. It would take several well placed logs and branches to block the paths. Fitting that they would use their homes to save their homes.

Without a word, they spent the afternoon, pulling and dragging and scattering their home logs and branches into an effective set of barriers, placing them as if the wind had merely knocked them over and an open path never existed.

Go to Chapter 5

3. Blue Jay Spy (Autumn Woods)

November 1, 2024November 4, 2024jstueartLeave a comment

Craek collected rings. Gold inlay, brass, silver, it didn’t matter. If it shined in the sunlight, and was left out on a balcony, or next to a window, he would be pulled in. He couldn’t resist those rings. He had his ring collection stored high in an oak tree.

As a spy for Princess Kaera of Brightsun, Craek had helped stop the War of the Valley before it started by relaying the battle plans of the other two sides, had blabbed on the behaviors of three awful suitors seeking the hand of the Princess, and, less than 5 hours after the royal kidnapping, Craek found Little Prince Nessian.

He was given the highest honor of the King after that, as well as a small treasure of shiny, sparkling rings—but, of course, then the entire Kingdom not only knew of his bravery, but of his spying.

So, that job was over.

When he was ready, after training the next group of spies, he took his leave and retired to his nest of rings in the Autumn Woods.

He was content to bring occasional news of the Outside Word to the group. More and more, though, he stayed at home, mesmerized by his treasures.

“Promise me, Sir Craek of the BlabBlab, you won’t forget us as you travel from kingdom to kingdom.”

He could not. Their love was the shiniest thing he’d ever had.

Tonight, though, Craek couldn’t forget the Princess. Perched over an encampment of orcs, he saw the seven Brightson Ruby Rings around the neck of one of the orc soldiers.

They’d lit a fire, massacred several small rabbits from a local warren. Now, the soldiers chewed without speaking, pulling the meat away from the spit with their tusks, .

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