Alternative Fact #3 from ‘Blackwood’

THE NATURE OF TREES: FRIEND OR FOE?

It had been a long time since Christina neglected to pay her faerie toll when traveling through the woods so, for a moment, she dithered, unsure of how effective her new ring of invisibility was. Passing by the Toll Tree, she became a young girl with all her old fears, at the very birth of her quest. All the battles and triumphs between then and now seemed suddenly irrelevant, for this… this was the Black Wood, and home to Gallus, whose memory still turned Christina’s very core into an icicle.

The woods responded just as they had that first time. All friendly light faded, to be replaced by an inhospitable grey soup. The trees went from being welcoming towers of greenery to haggard, frosty sentries with a sudden wind howling through their branches.[1]

[1] Such actions by trees living in faerie woodland are often misunderstood by people. When a toll remains unpaid and they react with such hostility it is usually not meant as the evil threat it appears to be. More often than not, the trees are being helpful and trying to make the intruder aware that they may be in danger. Of course, this is not true of all trees, as each tree is an individual with its own opinions, just as we are. There are always troublemakers.