The Tales of Tangle Wood the Four Travelers

By Nick Caruso

Follow Kathryn and Hailey leave Arddunol Castle on the first deer hunt of the season. What they encounter on the trail leads to life changing experiences and adventures.
Follow the four travelers as they come to realize the gift of family and the strength of comanionship. Their exploits lead to discoveries about themselves and the land they inhibit. They soon realize that each day brings something new and exciting ad the adventures is only beginning as they travel past the borders of Tangle Wood Forest, past the Sitting Man an in the land beyond.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Aug 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490743134

Nick Caruso

Nick Caruso was an inner-city school teacher for many years, who taught, in both middle school and high school. He is also involved in teaching and training in a Christian Church. His great love of family was the inspiration for penning this novella. The characters are the real life children, in the writers life, who became the inspiration in the creation of this story. The many hours spent riding through the rolling hills of Texas helped to chronicle the adventures of the four travelers.

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© Copyright 2014 Nick Caruso

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4907-4314-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-4313-4 (e)

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Contents

Book I The First Deer

Chapter 1

Breakfast at Arddunol Castle

Hurrying Home

The Two Best Scouts

Confined

Morning Comes Early

The Courtyard and the Hidden Gate

Mitchell’s Pace

First Light

The Castle in the Clearing

The Guardian Trees

Climbers

Inside the Tree Castle

New Weapons for the Travelers

Through The Woods

The Tell’un Tree

The Explanation

The Tree Bridge

Speaking to Mason

The Puzzle Box

Waking in the Castle of the Woods

Time to Go

The Tree Bridge

Two Day’s Journey

Mason’s Plan

Race to the Three Gates

Surrounding the Creaduls

Iellata

Again the Night

Departing from Arddunol Castle

A Look of Pleasure

Things Happening at the Castle

Snow Every Day

The Potion

Surprise

The Other Travelers

One Against Four

The Intruder

The King Aurilleus and Queen Dalfina

The Captain Returns

The Night Watch

Blossom’s Training

Training Begins

Tomorrow and the Surprise

The Castle’s Secret

The Terrible Answer

First Signs

Mal’cor’s Rage

The Hidden Gate Found

The Opened Gate

Mal’cor’s Plan

Fire Arrows all Night

The King and Queen ready for battle

A Noise before Dawn

The Front Gate

Waiting

Mal’cor’s Armor

The Brave Young Warriors

The Arrow with the Yellow Feathers

The Kings Orders

The Evil One and the Black Stone

Chained

That Evening at the Castle

Tillman’s Secret

Ironwood’s visits

The Twelfth Month

The Language of the Elders

Iellata and the Stone Hollow Cave

Book I

The First Deer

Chapter 1

THE SUN OPENED ITS sleepy eye and slowly rose above the crest of the mountains to bathe the hills and valleys with a blanket of light and warmth.

Birds chirped, the animals stirred, the rabbits poked their heads out of the burrows to greet the warming sun and to find the first meal of the day. Even the deer could be seen looking for their favorite leaves.

The Sun also bathed Arddunol Castle, causing the pure white faces of the Castle to shine in the sunlight.

Arddunol Castle was built before a written history of the forest was kept. It was an imposing structure of tall white walls, a guard tower at each corner. Entry into the Castle was through two large Oak Gates which were secured by a large crossbeam, held in place by four iron braces, inches thick and 24 feet from end to end. It was raised and lowed by two strong ropes attached to a winch that was housed in the Guard’s station on the left side of the gates.

No one entered or left the Castle without the Guards knowing.

Yesterday two hunters left the Castle in the early morning with the intention of getting the first deer of the new season.

The two Guardsmen, Jake and Kian, who were stationed at the front Gate this morning, knew the two young hunters and wished them good hunting as they left the Castle.

The two hunters from the Castle, who had camped by the sweet water stream, stirred as the sun’s light awakened the Coedwig-foresr. Hailey was the first one up.

She yawned and shook Kat awake. Kat open one eye and greeted the world by rolling over, pulling the blanket over her head; two more shakes and Kathryn was up, yawning and gathering her gear together.

She said What’s to eat?

Hailey replied why Cook ByBe’s biscuits of course.

Hailey had said the magic words Cook ByBe.

Cook ByBe was the best cook in all the land. No one could match her in the kitchen, and her biscuits were the best, hot or cold, but especially hot.

After a breakfast of biscuits and fresh honeyed tea, the two hunters cleaned up their camp site, making sure the forest was the way they found it.

Both girls had the deepest respect for the forest and everything in it and making sure it was set right was one way to show their respect *Barchu."

Soon both hunters were shouldering their light packs and looking for deer signs. Within the hour they were tracking the first deer of the season.

It didn’t take the hunters long to find a prize deer. The young buck was grazing down wind and didn’t pick up their scent. The two princesses were ever so quiet as they came closer to the clearing.

Hailey slowly retrieved an arrow from her quiver and loading it into her bow she carefully took aim. The deer was about twenty yards from them head down, neck extended. Hailey drew her bow string back and holding her breath she released the arrow.

It flew straight and fast, and within minutes, the deer was theirs.

Both Hailey and Kathryn let out shouts as they ran to the fallen prize. Kathryn looked at Hailey and said, Bull and Mason will be so mad that we got the first one of the year

Hailey and Kathryn laughed hard as they cleaned their prize. After cleaning the area, they made a makeshift carrying pole. Hoisting their prize onto their shoulders, they started back to the Castle.

Smiling and thinking of the look on the boys faces when they caught sight of them carrying the first deer of the season.

Every 500 meters the girls would stop to rest and switch places. As Hailey and Kat cleared the heavy brush, they came to the forest path that led to the Arddunol Castle, both girls stopped in their tracks.

The girls crouched down and looked at each other, neither one moved as they both caught the scent of something very *Hafich foul.

A smell they never had experienced before.

The scent was so bad it started to make them sick. Hailey and Kat lowered the pole with the deer on it and drew their short swords, not knowing what to expect.

Almost as suddenly as the scent appeared it had disappeared.

The fresh smell of the forest returned and both girls rose, hoisted the deer and began walking toward the Castle.

About twenty meters further they stopped and realized what the foul smell was.

They had never smelled that scent before, but they heard about a foul odor as bad as this.

Creaduls said Hailey and Kat together. Not creaduls, not here in Tangle Wood Forest.

But Hailey and Kathryn realized they could have smelled Creaduls.

Creaduls were not seen in the forest since the year of the Snow Wars. That year started with the weather staying cold into planting time, the snows came and stayed all through the summer. As the months passed, no crops were planted, food was running short and then the Creaduls came looking for food.

Their idea of getting food was stealing the food and removing anyone who got into the way. The Creaduls invading Tangle Wood had started the Snow Wars.

Creaduls are normally cave-dwellers, just slightly smaller them humans. They have large eyes and are sensitive to very bright sun light. They like living in their Cave and never venture past the mountains, let alone go into Tangle Wood, but that year the starving Creaduls did come.

As a rule they are not very intelligent and they rarely bathe, living so deep in the cave.

They are also very sloppy, have no real manners and are mean tempered when disturbed. Creaduls do not like the forest or anything in it or about it for that matter.

The thought of Creaduls made then quicken their pace. They needed to tell the Captain Cadfael about the smell and where they had experienced the scent.

They wanted the safety of Arddunol Castle. The high thick walls, more than seven meters thick, each wall housing four stories of guard rooms, storage rooms, windows for the archers.

Each wall was anchored by one of the four towers, one on each corner of the Castle. The tower stairs were cut from the same stone as the rest of the Castle. Each stone was cut with perfect corners and put together without mortar. The towers, raising fifteen meters beyond the walls gave an unobstructed view of the surrounding countryside.

The Castle was an imposing structure, build before the history of the Woods was written. No one knew who built Arddunol castle, or even where the stone came from who they were or what happened to them. There were no quarries anywhere near the Tangle Woods.

Some say they were master builders from the far North Country, beyond the Seven Lakes. No one knows for sure, this was just one of many legends about the Castle.

Getting to the Castle meant being safe and the two girls wanted that, now more than anything.

Breakfast at Arddunol Castle

THERE WERE A LOT of things to miss at Arddunol Castle, lessons, chores, cleaning the stables, but one thing no one missed was Cook ByBe’s breakfast. It was the first meal of the