Free Servants of the Living Forest by Brandon L. Summers

Part I: The Cabin
    The rusted blue van trundled down the county road, the tall ash and firs at its sides casting long shadows over it as its driver navigated the myriad hairpin turns.
    Cameron gripped the wheel firmly, nervous about the day and alert for any disturbing sounds the old van might suddenly decide to start making. It was a terrible and embarrassing vehicle, but she wanted this weekend more than anything else.
    She glanced at her girlfriend of eight months, sitting contentedly next to her. Jocelyn was wonderful and very beautiful, with dark olive skin and long, gold-brown hair tied back in a sporty ponytail. The trip had been her idea, and while not Cameron's first choice of activities, she was more than ready to attempt it for Jocelyn.
    Jocelyn caught Cameron looking at her and smiled playfully. She loved the admiring way Cameron looked at her, like she was someone special, like a model, when most of the time she just felt dumb and silly. It wasn't the only reason Jocelyn had pursued her. She was impossibly sweet and as cute as a button, with bushy chestnut curls like those of a doll.
    "You were looking at me again," she said over the van's insistent rumble and the teen pop playing softly from the radio.
    Cameron blushed, looked away. "Sorry. I should probably be, you know, watching the road."
    "I love it!" Jocelyn said. She giggled. "This is so exciting! It's our first big thing together. It's like we're proper grown-ups or something. Right?"
    "Yeah," Cameron said. She was bookish and awkward by nature, but for Jocelyn, she tried to be more open. It was an ongoing effort. "We're going to remember this forever."
    Cameron could feel the sweat on her lip and tugged at her yellow polo, wishing the van had air-conditioning. Jocelyn, in a bright green tank top, didn't seem bothered. She hoped it was because Jocelyn just cared about her that much and not because she didn't have her own means of transportation.
    "I should've rented a car."
    "Oh, you! This van is the real deal," Jocelyn said. "There's lots of space in the back, if you know what I mean."
    Cameron snickered, but was too bashful to add anything else. She glanced at the odometer, then looked ahead, and worried.
    "I think we missed the turn," she said. She grabbed the printouts wedged under her seat, fussed through the pages. "Yeah, we should have seen it by now."
    "We passed a service station not too long ago," Jocelyn said, pointing behind her. "Why don't we go back and ask for directions? Someone'll know."
    "That's a good idea."
    Cameron turned the van on the narrow road and headed in the opposite direction. After a while, they found the rustic garage nestled among the verdant trees. The white paint of the rectangular shop had mostly peeled away, revealing soggy gray wood. They parked in the gravel lot, large enough to almost fit two more vehicles, and stepped out.
    Behind the shop's counter, a rotund man looked up from his comic book, a silver-age adventure yellowing at the fringes, and grinned at the sight of the cute girls in small shorts approaching his door.
    "AUGH!" he groaned and gazed upward. "Thank, Odin!"
    Cameron and Jocelyn entered with a squeak of the door. He set down the comic and with some effort, hefted himself from his seat, still grinning widely.
    "Hi," Cameron said.
    "Hello there, ladies," he said. "How can I help you?"
    "We're looking for Zarindast Road. Can you help us?"
    He leaned in. "You two, you're going into the woods alone?"
    "Yep!" Jocelyn said and put her arm around Cameron. "My girl here has never been hunting before. She's only done sports shooting and archery. And I want to show off my skills with a Remington 798."
    "Amen, sister!" he said. "Good fun and good protection, too! Hey, you never know what kind of weirdoes are out there." He leaned back. "You wanna keep going the way you're going, about another four or five miles. And go slow, 'cause that turn's hard to spot among the trees and whatnot, but it's there."
    "Thank