Jimmie's Hell
Most of Stonega’s surrounded by normal woods —thick as the devil, of course, but not half as dangerous— but to the south, near Steadler’s farm, is what’s commonly called a “laurel hell,” a giant patch of laurel trees so tall, thick, Getting Familiar and twisted that some say it’s got its own weather and time. A man and a dog might walk in there on a bright sunny morning and not walk out until six days later in the deepest snow they’ve ever seen, thinking only a day has passed. Still, they’d do well to consider themselves lucky, for some never come out at all.
This particular one’s called Jimmie’s Hell, for old Jimmie Beckler, who once claimed the laurel thicket stole his favorite hog, and he went in after her. The hog came home a few days later, but Jimmie never did.
