Ferret's Guide to the | Svalich Woods Ww ; dec i Author: Ferret : Artist: Ferre}~ With all the ceremony I want to dedicate this book to Lady Arisa von Fellengard and to all, all, all my friends. &. name is Ferret and I am the author of this book! 4 was a present for Lady Arisa von Fellengavd during our + wonderful vacation in Kvezk, So if you accidently happened to find it, please tvy and give it back! But if she or any of my other friends lend it to you, then a big, big welcome! % Now I will introduce myself properly: I'm 10 years old, “the Seeker's daughter and the priestess of the Mothe¥ Night! ; » “All my life I have lived in the Svalich Woods and have Seen * many, many interesting things there, which I wrote down for my friends and anyone else who might find the stories amusing ov helpful. Spey I hope the book will make you happy and cheer you up! With love and all sorts of nice things- Staring contest ometimes you can find a shard f a mirror in the woods, and sometimes it veflects a . lhouette. This silhouette is | curious, but it does nothing at all st stares intently. F you "catch" one by looking into] e mirror, it starts watching you ‘om all the things that can reflect! ut since there aren't that many iny things in the woods, you don't ince it was after the full moon, I blamed it all ) waning of the cycle. But then I went to the river for a drink and fnancell that eve were five of them staring back at me from the reflection! The next day my mommy swiftly chased them away, but ver since I try to look into strange mirror shards as li ttle las possible. ‘ rwaE z vty ater Fhe Precious Owl, _ It's hard to tell what's going d Be | = animals when you don't speak theiv | language. Now it's not a problem anymore, but back then I could only | watch theiv mysterious life. - Once I met an owl that kept very > majestically in the hollow of an old | and twisted tree. 4 YZ) The owl was just enovmous, it | = could have easily grabbed and. her huge size that she -" h _ From time to time, mice and rats would run into the with all sorts of trinkets: buttons, buckles, or other things. The owl didn't eat mice, but she was happy t Bethe treasures. The most interesting thing was that * little mice brought droppings out of the hollow, shi ‘ coins, and then piled it up in all places well-known ‘o the - ravens. ¢ The ravens were annoyed that these strange oegings / shimmered so brightly in the light, but I think that was actually | _ the intention of that very mean owl. My mommy Said that sometimes gold comes from unpleas nt sources and only self- sresgectng| birds can refuse the easy, but insulting glitter. RaeRET all ~ The Nice Uncle _ because people are such rare juests in the forest and those searching for their loved ones wh \ \ (deft for the woods are an even N ver Sight. These ave the people \ e Nice Uncle is usually appearing before. ry kind. Oh, and you can see his eth as well! He doesn't have any/ yes though and he actually looks ike a really old corpse! le's just as tall as a young pine | feel like people don't recognize at his appearance is a biiit ifferent from theirs, so they appily grasp his hand and follow im. 1 think that the Nice Uncle promises to lead them to the person they | “were looking for, but to be honest it's a bit hard: \devstand what he's actually saying. : ‘When he was showing the way to another girl once, I decided to | follow him. At some point both of them disappeared somewhere, but slater I actually found her under the tree, next to someone's skeleton. | Although she wasn't alive by that point, she still looked satisfied, hich means that the Nice Uncle fulfilled his promise and sent her off. le's not veacting at all when he sees me, but’ my ‘Mommy said it's © ecause I'm not looking for anyone. f meold deadwood, ox is a small | circle of stones spread around a charred, black tree stump. | discovered it accidently many, many years before, but: I've rarely visited this | - place at all. a 4 But the most interesting thing about it was that if you actually ~ step into the circle and touch the stump with both of your hands, ‘ou would suddenly get some kind of epiphany, just as sudden as if you were hit by the lightning! } That's how I discovered the existence of chess and how to play em, even if I've never owned a chess board before! Another - ime after touching the tree stump I've even learned how to. # harvest millet! 2 Tc. that I didn't feel good at all, though, and I've coughed up _. lood for some time. So I've never touched the tree stump again. h { " * | think that it can give the person touching it some random > | knowledge, but I doubt it can be done more than three times. _,. There ave so many interesting and varied plants in {my forest! Among them grows a bush my Momm eaches my burrow, she immediately moves it. t I'll explain to you what it does if you ever encounter it on your urney! you bury an animal next to it, en, aftey some time, the bush will 4% row berries. They have a very evesting form and look abit _ jimilay to water drops or tears. you eat one, you will very vividly “vemember the buried animal. y Mommy showed me how the berries can affect See get curious to "yemember" what it feels like to aven or a fox. But, after eating a few of those, it’ 's very hard to, stop eating them. the end they get trapped and feel so lost among those emories that it's hard for them to remember who they once *: But guess what I'm really curious about! If you bury a person |Underneath this bush, will you be able to' "yemember” their ‘memories as well? rwaa, 7 Forest Mail — Before my fide ome from, the mists, I've never wyitten | any letters. It's different now and I'm sending mail to. everyone we meet on. our travels! But even before that, I had a pen pal, even if only briefly. i ne day I found a pretty jewelry box lying in some ruins. here was a key inside, but it didn't open anything, So | mewhere else and put my twig doll in the jewelry bi forgot all about it after a while, until one da) 1 ecid d to } heck on my doll. But when I opened it, I inste ad fou a mony Bpcy were gone and there was bread again! ‘This way I exchanged all kinds of stuff with some | Stvanger, until one day I received a note saying: a ill Find you". ut want to put my new friend at risk, so I hati to stop our xchange and hide the jewelyy box back where 1 found it. Anyway, it's good to know that, if necessary, one can use it to get in touch with someone kind and send prem a note, letting | them know where you are! t { ik CE inlet aethink there used to be a few very interesting ee in the | forest, especially in those parts that are Bese tg human settlements. I don't know what happened, but all that's left of those old houses now are ruins where you can play to your heart's content! _ 2 But there are a couple of rules. For example, you can never ~ ever go up any stairs that lead into nowhe j few times I saw how some not very smart little squirrels did | xactly that. I really, really hope that they've in a better place now and that theiy parents don't m Wie them! jets ‘ A Ni | , , Bie p> es ai & yoN 7 vai WeES The Leshy ( e's very very nice! But when ‘ou look at him for a long time, ‘s always walking around the ¢ vest here and there, to see at everything's in order. he Leshy punishes those who int at the wrong time and isturb the woods. ‘ou have to be very polite with him! : ‘on't do anything naughty. He doesn't talk, but he bows ; hen he meets you and is very well-mannered. One time I gave him a flower to thank him for all his hard _ work keeping the forest in order! Afterwards pretty / Spring flowers were blooming around my burrow for the entire vyThe Unfair Healer Helping others and being kind is very important, especially if you all live in a place where there may be a lot of danger. ‘I always follow this rule and try to help others in the forest! This is why once I van after a _ rabbit who had problems with bis footie. I wanted to help before a sly fox or a sharp eyed owl would catch him, but he kept losing me. In the end, we Yan very deep into the woods where we stumbled across a small’clay figurine of a pigeon. : } The Pigeon was beautiful and pleasant to the touch, feeling slightly warm. It would be a great toy, if not for its strange ability. When the rabbit touched the figurine running past it, my arm started hurting and looking wrong. It hurt a lot, but the rabbit fleeing my sight now looked healthy. At night Mommy explained that the figurine heals but at the cost of the health of others. Then she asked me to break my aym again so that it could heal properly. I buried the figurine and did not leave a mark where I left it. I fixed my arm too. It's good that I always find the strength to do as my Mommy says when she asks me to.ETEK, ms SS ' Forest Song [| mushroom civcles are snique and in most of them ican play without fear. Even yound my home there is a beautiful mushroom circle! ut only few know that each them sings their own uiet Song. here are circles so strong, ey sing the ancient song of © he forest and you can do nothing but listenin fascination. | ings them to me, but sometimes I see how a foxior a a falls asleep in a civcle and then trees, grass and jushvooms reach with their roots towards them. ee happens rather quickly and only a flower f overed mound is left behind. This is how animals become | part of the song and the forest grows. I think the same would happen to a human if they listened closely. . J Fre i, ae ~ Th The Sad, Ones 3 Sometimes things just don't go well » 3 in the forest, so you just die there. But some dislike it so much that their spirit stays there. | Because they upset me a lot, | they never linger near | my b urvow for long, but I still meet | ( the Sad Ones on my forest | They don't do anyth q ‘besides crying over the place where they have died. I tried comfo them before, | o o 8 and started reaching out to me. Suddenly, one of Mommy's Yavens appeared and flew towards her. Sadly, it di exact moment, while the Sad One vanished. { ¢ After burying the raven I decided not to approach the Sad Ones gain. Light i is something they don't like at all, so they only livei in i dark parts of the forest. “ Shc elem ate te“Ce of War immediately bring to my hiding spots. After all, no treasure should tie around just like that! q Sometimes when I'm very lucky m able to find something truly, cient, like a tiny piece of armor oy a Sword. y ften they ave very sturdy andone can Ry | ake a peek at the red and gold colored “Sa etal that can be seen through the rust and moss ; ‘\ uch armor and weapons ave very responsiv 2 to XN SCI | e bare touch,So they give you a slight feel f distant pain. — ince, I felt it in my heart and another time around my, neck. | any, many of these little pieces exist! e However, one of the pieces I own is very valuable. touching it, you feel an unbearable amount of sadness. It's so strong that you immediately start crying. When I touched it for / he first time it felt like if I could endure it a little bit, I'd be able te realise what caused me to feel this way... something very big _ ind scary. But I didn't manage to understand why so much pain ‘was contained in such a small piece, because a raven pecked it | but of my hands in time. low when I find such treasures I wrap themin rags and put | them in separate hiding spots so that people won't find them | and ever experience this kind of pain at all. ~ t 4~ ve he Sitting One. The Sitting One looks like an. ancient 2 but. the lower half of her body | grew deep into the trunk of the tree on which she sits., he is almost entively covered with moss and branches, but | her face remains clear, even’ if her eyes look muddy. | are not covered by roots, the Send One does not move them. From her trunk giant roots reach into the fav e I don't hink they do anything special. jets arted aide about a lot of things in his life. he other hunter got angry because of that, b In the end they started fighting each other, until one of them tried to attack the Sitting One. Immediately after that he arted twitching scarily and fell dead. The other one ended the Same way. } nce I went up to her to offer food and accidentally told her al it of things which I never wanted to tell anyone. I cried because | that, but then she pet my head, comforting me Mommy Said that the Sitting One just likes honest people, but 's better not to come near her, since not only she canhear at you Say in the forest. ‘ ‘Still, sometimes I visit her, so that she doesn't feel lonely. /CE = “The Moaning Tree 1 That's what I call a small vee that I found deep in |the woods when I was walking around with vens to find ~ a yself something to eat. you bury a seed or some food der that tree, it will instantly, J ] its branches. a Ul iad i s * course, I was very happy about is discovery, because it's not that sy to find a lot of food! Although sometimes the tvee grows things a bit yong, and after eating a couple of. uns from it, my hands began \ The vavens were very angry with i me and I had to sleep for many many days befove getting better. oo i After that I went to the tree only once, and there was a woman. Instead of buns and vegetables, she was burying nes, Her hands were visibly shaking and her face was hidden | under a hood, so I think she wasn't doing it for the first time. a fter a while the tyee grew something horrible and crying. 1 | idn't like it at all and I think, Mommy didn't like it either. |The woman fell dead on the spot, but the moaning and | Screaming from the tree wouldn't stop. I decided to run away * d leave it be, so I can only guess what happened next. ; y Cicietmatee 3"The Friendly One " I'm not really sie if they' ra aman or a woman, but whoever they may be, they, know one of the most important rules of friendship!, Which is, that you have to be | generous and make great: presents, hum sn-like ape, but) hey've not bothered by it at all. And also, t nave very thick — kin, so even when Someone tries to stab or hit them, they { Hon’ t care! hey don't pay attention to me or to other animals ai Ag it's because they don't realise I'm human. ‘But they look for other humans and try to become friends with” hem. Sometimes they give Someone a jolly smile and that person walks away very happy, but sometimes things don't work out so well and they give away one eye or nose too many. | but when you've friends, you have to make gifts too, not just eceive them, so the Friendly One also takes something in» | ‘eturn. At times it can be something very Cixcrtunate) like your | mouth. Fa ll in all I think it's good that they don't notice me, especially as long as they're still learning how to be good friends. Enel ie yage Ty re ~~ Talkative Flowers . ae . I think the world is full of beautiful things, but PS ckimall i it's hard to invent new stuff and you ae what you like. 4 I think this is why these flowers look like human heads, since humans are very esau . The patterns on the pistils look like Hanan ayes and | the petals look like a mouth { (through which you can see the seeds The flowers are very polite and happy to If you talk to them, they will answer in your first quietly, then oe Mostly tl ask to eat a seed and sometimes That's why you should talk to them only alittle, because after a few minutes your head starts to hurt and you feel sleepy. £ : a ‘ / { ; | ‘ &PS Catch me er It can be very, very lonely and boring in the woods. Z During the day, here's no one to talk to or play with, and x in the evening you have to go hide in a burrow. \e But I know a few tricks to avoid being all alone! q 3 ys | For example, if you start running fast in a thicket, after a while a curious creature will start chasing you. hey look just like normal people, only with strange arms and “legs they use to run really fast. And theiy eyes ave So huge to better watch you and your movements. — j First, only one appears, but the longer you run, the 2 of ! “ them there are! 4 burrow and hid inside. After catching my breath, I peeked out of my hiding and saw that nobody was running after me anymore. That's r understood, they were just playing! 5 Afterwards, I started running in the thickets on purpose, as running with friends is so much more fun than running + alone! J~ Sick twin ‘Family i is very important. In a family, you love we other and everyone oe ‘veady to sacrifice iemselves for the eS of loved ones. ut Some creatures are so tvongly attached to theiv mily that it affects their > whole life. Y And that's how sometimes _\\ i meet pairs of animals, with one of them looking very > a. healthy and the other one terribly sic Such twins walk together, eat in unison, and even seem to ‘breathe at one and the same time. \ T never saw such twins move more than two steps away from @ach other. Generally, both animals look happy, but if Something bad happens to the healthy one, it immediately Shows on the sickly one and only on them. Funny but the healthy twin is in no way more cautious. Quite the opposite, they are even more adventurous than animals without Such a sibling. I don't think it's very nice for the sick twin and he shouldn't suffer so much, but I can understand why, for the sake of those a love, you've willing to put up with all the bad things in the iovid.SPECIAL THANKS TO @NUIIHREN, @LOKURO, OFROMMAODONNA, @SONNTAMM AND OUR OM @ARREN_KAE FOR TRANSLATING, SUPPORTING ANO BEING OVERALL GREAT FRIENDS MAY WE HAVE MANY MORE ADVENTURES TOGETHER AND ALWAYS KEEP EACH OTHERS SAFE MomMhy (@ srren-kte) ) \: p