can't pin it down

From the grey skies came the snow that laced the evergreen pine trees and muffled any sound within the forest. The birds had migrated and the rodents and bears had hibernated and all was deathly still. The only thing that had not been touched by the frosty winter's bitterness was a lake in the middle of a clearing in the middle of the forest. This was Lake Everwater. This lake never froze over and was always healthy with fish. However this was no oasis in the annual winter drought, It was much more.

A group of hunters and their dogs from the nearby Village of The Dark (a name given to them for the shadow of the great forest that was cast on their village), many years ago, stumbled upon the lake in their quest for hibernating bears. They found that the water was warm and relieving as they drank it down. Only one member of their group did not go near the water; the young son of a very superstitious witch-doctor. The boy claimed that he would go no where near the water that did not freeze because it was "tainted by the blood of the wicked" and it was a portal to one of the Four Hells. The boy was the only member to return from their journey aside from the dogs.

Over the next week it was observed that the dogs who had returned with the boy were different from the ones that the party had gone in with. These dogs were disloyal to those who took them in and kept their distance from all dogs aside from the group that had been to the lake. Also the dogs all seemed to have insatiable appetites for the destruction of nets and half finished animal traps, sometimes ruining weeks of work through group gnawing. One day, a few weeks after the return of the boy and the dogs, a man came upon one of these "changed" dogs chewing on a net that he had spent weeks on. The man snatched the net from the dog, threw it over him, and proceeded to beat and kick the dog. As witnessed by the man's wife, five other dogs leaped upon the man and mauled him before tearing at the net holding the beaten dog and fleeing, never to be seen again. 

The people of the Dark Village soon migrated elsewhere due to the ritualistic destruction of their weapons and traps and the occasional missing person. The woods were said to be haunted by dogs and their red eyed masters, their souls turned wicked by the unfreezing water of Lake Everwater or "The Tainted Lake". The area was left to the wilderness and was soon forgotten by the human world, If only for a short while.

The wind attacked the trees that guarded the small clearing in the forest and shook even the tallest of them. The air was sharp and thick with snow and ice as it whistled around  the lake that was placid amongst the chaos, as if frozen in time. The storm died down and the tree's ceased with their groaning and slowed their swaying limbs. The temporary silence was broken by a shuffling noise behind the trees at the edge of the clearing. From the trees the ragged grey head of a wolf revealed it self.

Her eyes slid side to side while her ears swivelled back and forth, making sure that she was free of unwanted company. When she was satisfied she slowly drew herself from the trees and into the open. She was very slim with many patches missing from her coat. The rest of her fur was mangled and dirty. She limped pathetically to the edge of the lake. Her body was broken from exhaustion, and injuries that had first caused her to fall behind her pack still plagued her bitterly. However her eyes were alert and nervous. She slowly bent her head and began to lap up water from the lake. As she did her body began to give up, her slight frame too heavy for her weak legs that now grew weaker as she swallowed the warm, soothing water. The wolf collapsed, her ragged coat soaking up the water beneath her. Her nose was submerged under an inch of water and in her unconscious state, she could not lift it. She was drowning. 

The Trees began to sway, back and forth, at first slowly, and then more vigorously. The wind had not picked up and the earth was still, and yet they swayed. The noise of the tree's movement and the cracking of their branches as they battered one another were monumental and the sound echoed for miles.

One tree, the largest and closest to the lake began to rock back and forth in more dramatic lurches, and slowly, it's roots began to surface. The tree, with a sickening crack, began to split up the middle from the roots. The tree bent and split out of proportion and it seemed to mould and mutate itself into something neither tree nor human.

 Although this creature seemed to have no eyes, it found it's way to the edge of the lake to where the dieing wolf lay. It wrapped one long branch around the body of the wolf and in a awkward yanking motion, pulled her from the water. It held her in the air for a moment, as if not sure to do with the wolf, before dropping her carelessly on dry land and trudging back to it's original growing space. It sunk it's roots back into the ground and began to mend itself back into a tree.