Wrong Side of the Forest

The All the Way Up — Black Fingerless Elbow Gloves are elbow-length black fingerless gloves — deep black stretch fabric, snug fit, fingerless for grip and feel. Luna has found them twice now. The first time was in the Ironspire market quarter, at the stall that is not always there. The second time was in the Corrupt Forest. That is the part she cannot explain.

The Corrupt Forest does not have market stalls. It does not have vendors. It does not have anything that was made by human hands in a city forge district and carried through a supply chain to a table in a market quarter. Luna knows this. She has been in the Corrupt Forest enough times to know exactly what belongs there and what does not. The gloves did not belong there.

She had been moving through the eastern edge — not deep, not the part where the trees stop being trees and start being something that has decided to look like trees — just the edge, where the bark is wrong and the light comes through at the wrong angle and the ground has the particular quality of soil that has been absorbing something it should not have been absorbing for a very long time. She was not looking for anything. She was passing through, which is the only safe relationship to have with the Corrupt Forest — moving, not stopping, not looking too long at anything that looks back.

She almost walked past them. They were hanging from a branch at shoulder height — both gloves, paired, as if someone had draped them there deliberately. No pack. No body. No sign of anyone who might have left them. The branch they were hanging from was not a branch she would have chosen to hang anything on — it had the particular texture of wood that has been in the Plains long enough to be something other than wood — but the gloves themselves were clean. Unaffected. The deep black fabric exactly as she remembered it from the market quarter stall. The same weight. The same fit. The same construction.

She stood there for longer than she should have stood still in the Corrupt Forest. She was trying to work out the logic of it — how a pair of gloves from a specific stall in the Ironspire market quarter, a stall that is not always there, a stall run by a woman who does not speak and whose inventory Luna has never seen duplicated anywhere, had ended up hanging from a branch in the eastern edge of the Corrupt Forest on the Ashen Plains. There was no logic. She knew there was no logic. She took them anyway, because leaving them felt worse than taking them, and because the Corrupt Forest does not leave things out for you to find unless it wants you to have them, and she was not going to think too hard about what that meant.

She brought them back to the Attic and set them next to the first pair without comment. Cinder looked at both pairs. Looked at Luna. Looked at both pairs again — the particular assessment of a wolf who has noticed something and is deciding whether to make it known that he has noticed. He set his head back down. Ash, who had been watching from the corner, walked over, sniffed the second pair carefully, and then sat down between the two pairs and looked at the door. Not at Luna. At the door. Luna did not ask what Ash was watching for. She did not want to know.

Midnight, from the rooftop, said nothing. He had been watching the Plains-side horizon since Luna came back. He was still watching it. That was its own kind of answer.

Both pairs are on the counter. The first pair came from the market quarter. The second pair came from the Corrupt Forest. They are identical in every way that can be measured. Luna has not been back to the eastern edge since. She has not been back to the market quarter stall either — it has not been there the last three times she looked. She is not sure whether these things are connected. She is fairly sure she does not want to find out.

The Corrupt Forest does not leave things out for you to find unless it wants you to have them. Luna knows this. She took the gloves anyway. The question is not where they came from. The question is what they were doing there — and whether the forest is finished with them, or whether it simply decided they needed a different keeper.

About This Piece
What it is: All the Way Up — Black Fingerless Elbow Gloves — elbow-length, deep black stretch fabric, fingerless, snug fit
Found: The Corrupt Forest, eastern edge — Ashen Plains. Originally from the Ironspire market quarter.
Series: Dragonforged | Accessorizing the Mythic
Character lead: Luna. Cinder and Ash present. Midnight watching the horizon.
Find it: All the Way Up — Black Fingerless Elbow Gloves

More from the Ashen Plains: The Ashen Plains — World File & Canon Index | She Doesn't Call Them Armor | The Ironspire Bond | The Rebel's Spine — District 9

What are the All the Way Up gloves?
Elbow-length black fingerless gloves — deep black stretch fabric, snug fit, fingerless for grip and feel. Luna has found them twice. Once in the Ironspire market quarter. Once hanging from a branch in the Corrupt Forest. They are identical. She cannot explain it. She took them anyway.

What is the Corrupt Forest?
Part of the Ashen Plains — the forest that has been absorbing something it should not have been absorbing for a very long time. The bark is wrong. The light comes through at the wrong angle. It does not have market stalls. It does not have vendors. It does not leave things out for you to find unless it wants you to have them.

Why did Luna take them?
Because leaving them felt worse than taking them. That is the only logic available in the Corrupt Forest, and Luna has been there enough times to know it is the right logic.

What did Midnight do?
He watched the Plains-side horizon from the rooftop. He has not stopped. That is its own kind of answer.

What will you find?: All the Way Up — Black Fingerless Elbow Gloves