The Burning Woods (Location)

The burning woods is the local name for the wood in Mount Absalom, so-called because the two major fires in the town's history that started there. The woods is said to have a long memory, which is a polite way of saying haunted.

History
The 1896 fire, which burned down most of Mount Absalom, likely originated in the woods. The last major fire in the burning woods was in 1996. While no one died, several people were injured, and Chester Warren was trapped in a storm cellar for nearly two days. The fire also burned down the remaining homes in Oak Street.

There used to be many breeds of bird in the woods. One year, the mayor sent out invites to various hunters around Ohio, offering them no limits to their hunting. That autumn, the wood was full of hunters, until the birds stopped coming to Mount Absalom.

Folklore
There are two local legends about the burning woods.

The first is about a young girl who got lost in the wood. She spends days trying and failing to find a way out. As she sits praying, she looks up and notices that the nearby trees all have one single branch pointing in the same direction. The girl remembers that her father is a woodcutter, who must have left the branches as a way to lead him out of the forest, so the girl follows the branches home. Another version of the tale has the woodcutter searching for his daughter after she goes missing. He searches for days, going deeper and deeper, before finally giving up in despair. An old wolf takes pity on the woodcutter, telling him that the woods, who hated the woodcutter, had taken his daughter as revenge for the woodcutter's years of cutting and hacking the trees. The woodcutter pleaded for his daughter's safety, and the wolf says that if the woodcutter takes the daughter's place, she will be returned. The woodcutter agrees, and the daughter exits the forest the next day, following the branches. The woodcutter was never seen again, but sometimes, his daughter could hear his screams in the forest.

The other legend is about a coven of witches living in Mount Absalom who performed rituals and magic in the woods. They also performed sacrifices of people from the town, who would find themselves walking to the Witch's Alter at night, unable to stop themselves. The blood of the victims would flow to the forest floor and give the witches vision. Eventually, deciding they had had enough, several families from the town rode out to the forest where they knew the witches were, and set the woods on fire. When the fire burned out two days later, all the bodies of the witches were found except for one - the body of the witch king.