novelraw Chapter 300: The Elm Forest Family
Chapter 300: The Elm Forest Family
5:30 AM
The sky, which usually began to lighten at this hour, remained as dark as an abyss.
A relentless rain lashed the earth.
A heavy, long carriage rumbled through the streets of Belfast. In the windows of the houses, the silhouettes of people flickered.
Most families were already awake, preparing breakfast and getting ready for work, praying for the rain to stop.
The rainy season was not due yet, and this sudden downpour had caught many unprepared. Families were draining their last savings on house repairs and buying food at rapidly inflating prices.
People carrying oil lamps were already appearing on the streets, hurrying to work. Despite the rain and the early hour, the factory schedules remained unforgiving.
The carriage passed a lit section of the street. The houses on either side of the cobblestone road grew smaller and more ramshackle, gradually giving way to unsightly wooden huts.
After a while, the carriage stopped before a long building on Snake Street.
Lu Li did not know which room was Barton's, but he remembered the window. Approaching it, he rapped a few times. The curtain was drawn aside, and Barton's disheveled head appeared.He said something, but the roar of the rain swallowed his words. Then, rubbing his eyes, he shuffled toward the door.
"Wait here for me," Lu Li told Anna before stepping into the dark building through the open doorway.
Barton's home was cluttered with junk. Lu Li stopped just inside the entrance.
"Is the map ready?"
Barton turned partway around, still rubbing his eyes. With his back mostly to Lu Li, he pointed at a table scattered with the remains of a meal.
Lu Li walked over to the table and picked up a fresh sheet of parchment. It showed the terrain and the forest, with clearings and Quiet Hill marked out. Dotted lines traced the paths. Such precision was clearly not Barton's handiwork.
Lu Li placed the agreed-upon payment on the table.
Barton, reeking of alcohol, set aside his mug and scooped up the 300 shillings. Nodding toward the window, he asked, "What do you have in that carriage?"
"A tree."
"From the Elm Forest?"
"I'm taking it there."
"Why?"
"To plant it."
"You came this early for a map just to plant a tree?"
"Yes."
Barton, at a loss for words, simply waved a hand, dismissing him.
With the map in hand, Lu Li left the house and returned to the carriage. Barton raised his mug in a silent farewell. Lu Li took up the reins, and the carriage lurched into motion.
Instead of returning to the detective agency, Lu Li, with the map in hand, headed for the northern outskirts of Belfast, toward Elm Street.
Anna had told Lu Li that Enni did not have much time left.
6:23 AM
The dark sky finally began to yield to the dawn, and more people appeared on the streets.
The carriage turned off Elm Street and into the Elm Forest.
As he neared the forest, Lu Li felt a familiar sadness. But after weathering yesterday's emotional storm, he seemed to have developed a certain resilience; the sorrow no longer affected him as it once had.
Perhaps it was because his perception of the forest had changed.
Anna, on the other hand, felt the sorrow acutely. The flicker of Enni's life force, which she could sense, was so faint it seemed ready to extinguish at any moment. She bowed her head, lost in thought.
Lu Li urged on the horses, which had grown restless upon entering the forest. Using the map and yesterday's route for guidance, he made for the cliff.
As they went deeper into the Elm Forest, other emotions began to mingle with the all-pervading sadness.
These emotions were difficult to describe. It felt like a sort of attentiveness, of concern. They enveloped the carriage, as if tenderly reaching out to the dying Enni.
Anna looked up, surprised. The flicker of Enni's life was no longer fading; it had begun to stabilize.
"Enni isn't getting weaker anymore..." she whispered in disbelief.
"They're helping her," Lu Li said, his gaze sweeping over the unseen emotions of the forest that surrounded them.
The emotions of the forest—or rather, its will—continued to reach for Enni, and her life force not only stopped fading but actually began to strengthen.
In the sadness that hung in the air, faint hints of hope and joy appeared. It was as if the forest was waiting for Enni, as if she were one of them.
After all, Enni was an elm.
Their efforts had not been in vain. This forest truly could save Enni.
A wave of those emotions washed over Lu Li, Anna, and the horses, as if to soothe them.
The horses stopped fighting the reins, and the muddy track seemed to grow a little easier to travel.
Anna relaxed slightly, her hand resting on Enni's trunk as she monitored her condition.
An hour later, they reached the cave by the cliff.
Ahead lay a steep, rain-slicked slope. Several attempts to ascend it failed.
The cliff was less than a hundred meters ahead. Lu Li stopped the carriage, took a shovel, and walked back to the cave. In the spot he had chosen yesterday, he began to dig a hole.
The waterlogged earth yielded easily to the shovel. Anna wanted to help, taking a second shovel, but Lu Li stopped her. Her strength would be needed for something more important.
Twenty minutes later, Lu Li had dug a hole the size of the wooden crate. He went into the cave for some dry earth and lined the bottom of the hole with it.
"Too much water and the tree will drown," he explained to Anna, though it did not seem to matter much: the dry earth quickly darkened and became damp.
Tossing the shovel aside, Lu Li returned to the carriage and asked Anna to move Enni.
An icy, sinister aura swirled around Anna. Her hair flew up, her long dress whipped in the wind. Channeling her power, she lifted the heavy crate holding Enni into the air and guided it toward the cliff.
Lu Li's gaze lingered for a moment on Anna's distorted shadow before he scanned the surroundings.
The forest was empty, yet it felt as if they were not alone—as if someone was watching them.
It was a forest of emotion, not consciousness. And yet it watched, as if every tree had become an unseen eye, silently tracking his every move.
The crate holding Enni descended beside the pit. Lu Li opened the lid, and Anna lifted Enni out, the soil still clinging to her roots, and carefully placed her in the hole.
After filling the gaps with earth, Lu Li stepped back. He looked at Anna, who had her hand pressed to the tree's trunk, and then scanned the forest once more.
The presence was still there, radiating a sense of joy and benevolence.
"Enni knows what we've done for her," Anna said.
"Yes." Lu Li picked up the shovel Anna had discarded and looked at her. "Now it's up to the forest to help her."
Anna pursed her lips, her gaze sweeping over the unseen onlookers as she whispered, "I beg you... Please, save my sister..."
The moment the words left her, she felt a pang of self-mockery.
I'm talking to trees...
Suppressing her aura, Anna looked at Lu Li.
"What do we do next?"
"We'll set up the shelter and bring in the supplies."