Inktober/ Drawlloween Day 5: Gnomes and Goblins
Sorry I'm a day behind. Got Halloween costumes for my kids yesterday and decorated the house!

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The woods outside our town used to be the best place to explore and to find hidden secrets.
Stories my grandfather told me spoke about circles of mushrooms entering into the magical lands of fairies and gnomes and magic.

It all ceased one day over years ago when my grandfather encountered an eerie creature in the woods.

"He was a bizarre sight to see." my Grandfather said. "But I could tell, there was mischief about him."
My grandfather Angus was never afraid of anything. He bad been through wars and been captured and even claimed to have an encounter with the Lochness monster.

"I remember he looked like an old man hunched over with strange clothing and overgrown facial hair. But that wasn't the most eerie and foreboding thing that sent chills down my spine. It was the creature he was riding and the evil way he looked at me after he had seen that he had been spotted. I was just a lad then, skinny as can be."

"The little man smiled and I could swear I heard his bones cracking as he did so. The owl on his hat whooed as it was unsettled from its perch and then settled back down again. His teeth were broken but still I could see they were sharp as arrows."

'"Dunna be afraid lad, Imma not gonna hurt ya. Why donna you come with me? I can show ya a land of magic and mystery and enchantment. Follow us."'

My grandfather shook as he continued. "Curiousity got the better of me as I followed the little man towards a deeper part of the woods I had never been to before. We must have walked a mile or two through the forest and it got darker and quieter the deeper we went."

"Suddenly I found myself alone. The little man was nowhere to be seen. I stood at the edge of a small pond aware that there was no wildlife in the woods around me, I shook violently to the point of wetting my pants. As the wind blew, I heard voices telling me to run and escape before it was too late and in the water I saw bones of children that had appeared to have been taken by the little man. Hearing a cracked branch behind me, I whirled around."

'"Ah, gladda see ya me boyo. do ya like the magic and enchantment ya feel and see?"'

"He laughed and suddenly began to transform into a hideous beast the likes of which I had never seen then or ever again. It drooled and licked its lips as it crawled towards me like a Rake pursuing its victim. I gathered my wits about me long enough to throw a rock at it and then turned to run. I barely made it out of that cursed place with my life."

"Wow, grandpa, is that why we aren't allowed to go see those woods and why we moved here to America?"

My grandpa sighed and after a tired nod, went to sleep in his chair.

I got up and left the room to go to bed myself, hoping I wouldn't have nightmares.