Woodsman Felled — A Short Story

Woodsman Felled is a short story of dark fantasy, where might makes right, but what's right isn't often clear.

No one is to go into the forest outside of pre-determined woodcutting seasons. Gregory is a woodsman; one of the few men willing to risk going into the wood year-round. Winters are harsh, and people always burn through wood faster than they think they will. So if Gregory doesn't go into the forest daily, the people of his village will freeze. No one else seems willing to take the risk.

One morning, Gregory thinks he hears an elk nearby and thinks he'll bring home fresh meat for the village. Instead, he accidentally wounds the horse of a passing knight. A knight determined to bring Gregory to justice.

But when Gregory and the knight tangle in this haunted forest, they run into one of the things that go bump in the night, a source of local legends and tales that keep children shivering in their beds. Suddenly, the long arm of the law doesn't seem quite as strong.

This is my first published short story. It started life as an assignment in a creative writing class, and I’ve worked on it for more than a year since then. After enough people seemed incredulous when I told them it hadn’t been published, I decided to change that. When you buy, you’ll get an email in your inbox with a secure link you can use to download a PDF of this story. Thank you for supporting my fiction writing career.