derivative images

Many people have written their personal accounts of strange or even terrifying accounts of unexplained incidents in the woods. This is my account and although it isn’t horrifying when I came to later understand it, it was life altering.

When I was twelve years old my parents moved from Pennsylvania to a small town in upstate Connecticut. It was a picturesque quaint place surrounded by plenty of wooded acreage with great places to hike. Being a friendly child I made friends easily and acquired two “besties” with whom I hung around with after school and on weekends.  One of our favorite things to do was play in the woods and boys being boys we decided to build a clubhouse out in the denser part of the woods. We begged borrowed and stole what we could from our parents garages for both building materials and old items like lawn chairs with which to furnish our private place in progress.

It was a warmer than normal spring day when we all became aware of what would come to call “the watcher.” I was up on a ladder hammering boards to the make shift roof when the wind picked up slightly and I thought I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. Lots of things move in the woods so I didn’t think much of it until one of the other kids  who was working on an in-ground fire pit about ten feet away stood up staring out into the distance said, “hey did you guys see that?”

I was too busy to get that involved but did mention that I saw something. Our other friend who was busy setting up a lunch spot had seen nothing. So, it went on like that every time we went out there – a wind would kick up momentarily and then some sort of movement. We were all starting to get a little unnerved by it all but managed to eventually get our clubhouse built. Besides nothing negative was happening to us.

About a month in to using the clubhouse our friend who never noticed anything parent’s made a family vacation trip during spring break so it was just me and the other kid who had noticed what I did. We went out to the clubhouse and went in engaging looking at magazines and munching on some snacks when we were startled by the wind picking up at a more noticeable rate of speed.

We stepped outside and about 100 feet from the clubhouse we saw a patch of trees moving around in that winds while everything else in the woods was still. We noticed a wavy type of movement – invisible but more like when you see heat radiating from a hot sidewalk in summer. It had no form or characteristics but it was huge maybe about 50 feet high but narrower in girth and full of some sort of opaque particles.

We stood there with our mouths gaping open and took off headed for the edge of the woods that bordered our parent’s property. As we were running away, my friend started yelling, “It’s chasing us!” I didn’t want to look but I stopped and did and sure enough whatever it was, was hot on our trail but it only moved along the tree line like it was keeping a distance. We made it out and ran closer to the house and while my friend ran in the house I stopped to check out what was happening. The entity had stopped at the edge of the woods that bordered the property undulating and then seemed to disappear back into the woods.

We knew we weren’t crazy. We had both seen it.

I had a good relationship with my dad who was an outdoorsman and told him about it. He actually went out to the clubhouse and checked out the area finding nothing. He also couldn’t think of a natural or scientific reason for what we saw but at least he believed us. Later that day he took me into town to talk to a local indigenous person who was also not only a town historian about adept in Native American ways. We all sat down and I told him the story detail by detail.

When I was done he smiled and told me I had nothing to fear. What my friend and I had seen and experienced was an elemental who was only protecting the land especially since we had encroached upon its space by building a clubhouse. Later that evening him and my friend and me went out and performed a special ceremony honoring the land and letting the elemental know we meant no harm and asked if it would protect us while we were using the clubhouse.

We never had a problem after that although I did notice that every time we left the woods for the day the elemental would stop at the wood’s edge as though it had escorted us out. The situation never changed all the years I lived in the house and even after I went to college and came home for a visit I could still see it wavering at the wood’s edge. The clubhouse is long gone and was cleaned up properly out of respect for the land.

One additional thing the local historian told me about myself is that my path would be different and I would break from usual traditions of life choice. I am a naturalist by lifestyle and an environmentalist by trade. Some I suppose would liken it to more of a Pagan lifestyle but it is a bit different and very rewarding. If I had never had the experience out in the woods I probably would have become a banker or accountant.

I am sure that elemental is pleased.