Onehundred Fiftynine

...CONTINUED

Lucas Panton himself, with his own crew of course, dug out the first mine. It was mostly a coal and diamond mine but the legend says Panton found a ruby the size of his palm. He was going to take it to the bank in Pnolla but something happened when he went into the forest. Details vary depending on the story you hear, but when Panton reached Pnolla, he didn't have the ruby and had become a recluse.

It was a long time before anyone dared enter the forest again. It was only when a couple of young hunters were tracking down a buck, which lead them to the forest, did man ever enter again. The hunters got their buck and, when questioned, reported nothing out of place or mysterious about the forest. At first it seemed the hunters would continue to use the forest, and for a time they did, but no one ever dared go more than thirty feet in, it was just considered a superstition.

Eventually, as the world turned to civilization and the modern way of life, the legend of the forest became nothing more than a bedtime story. The surrounding villages grew into large towns, farmers took up what land there was good for grain fields or pasture, and people forgot. Not everyone forgot, if only because they wanted a good story for their children, which was exactly the case for my mother. Her mother had told it to her, and she told it to me. Only in this past year did I find out that this story has been passed down, on my mother's side, for generations since the days of none other than Lucas Panton, the legendary man himself.

TO BE CONTINUED...