Part Five: The Curse

Sedera vanished through the trees without waiting for an answer.  Bridget turned and walked the opposite direction.  And tripped over a root.  Sprawled on her face and very much annoyed, she heard laughter, evil, ugly laughter.
"You- *snort* -must be- *gurgle* -Bridget.  How nice- *snort* -to meet you. *giggle-snort*"
  Lifting her head,she now saw that it wasn't a root she had tripped over, but a slipper, long and brown and looking very much like a piece of twisted beef jerky.  Attached to the slipper was a spindly leg, brick red in color, and attached to that was a scrunched up little body, with long arms and a gruesome face.  The face was pale green, with glowing green eyes.  The part of the eye which should have been white was orange.  His face held a grimacing smile.  That is, it was a grimace, for certain, but it was obvious that he was smiling.  The smile was more gruesome than his frown could ever be.
"I am Glishnik.  Sedera - how nice to see you again.  You haven't forgotten me, I hope?  We had such times together."
Sedera had reappeared the moment she heard Glishnik's voice.
"We did, didn't we?  I remember every detail." she replied, with poison in her tone.
"Why, Sedera, you don't sound very happy to see me.  You haven't even introduced me to your new friend.  She seems very interesting."
Glishnik's voice sounded so oily, you could imagine his tongue slipping around, trying to gain footing.  That is, if you really wanted to imagine such a thing; I can assure you it wasn't a pretty sight.
Bridget felt sick.  Her knees were weak, and her stomach felt trembly.  Glishnik was having a strange effect on her.  Her eyes started to close a bit, but she forced them open.  Her feet were rooted to the ground.  Her arms stiffened.  If she had been able to look, she could have seen that her feet were quite literally rooted to the ground, but she couldn't fight the weight on her eyes any longer, and she didn't notice her hair getting longer and more tangled, and by the time the transformation was complete, she was in a deep sleep.
Voices pounded through her head, but they gradually became foggier, and finally they faded away completely.

Sedera stared in horror at the tree.  You could still see a little human in it, for example, the tree held faint tints of color where Bridget's clothes had been, and the trunk was smooth except for a small part that, if you looked long and hard enough, you could almost imagine was a face.
Glishnik gurgled a little more; his own way of laughing, and disappeared.  Sedera ran to the edge of the island.  The water steamed and bubbled.  It was black and slimy.  Sedera ran back to the Bridget-tree.  She didn't know how to turn her back.  Only Glishnik and the Cheif knew how to do it for someone else.  There was a tale that it could be done by the person-tree itself, but they would have to figure it out for themselves, and that had only happened twice.  Sedera walked to the edge of the island again.  Swimming was faster for her, but she wasn't sure how safe the water was right now, with Glishnik probably still exerting his influence over it.  She would have to fly.  Anyway, it wasn't too far to Irtyla.