She is, however, unaware of the scarecrow's curse.
Can Christan save her in time?
Susan | |
 | Susan is the main character of the first story arc. She is a young village girl in her late teens with a miserable home life. Her mother died while Susan was a small child, and although Susan's memories of her are positive, they are hazy. Susan can't even remember what she looked like. She feels neglected by her father and distrusts her abusive stepmother. Her only friend in the village is Christan until she meets a scarecrow. Her bad experiences have given her a negative, morbid outlook on life. She dreams of a more interesting life outside of the village walls. She is haunted and confused by constant nightmares of past events in which she took no part. |
Eli | |
 | Eli is Susan's father. He was once an adventurer and hunter who was one of the few village residents to travel far beyond the village's borders. He met Susan's mother during his travels, and the other women of the village were not fond of her; they saw her as worldly and impure. Nevertheless, the best days of Eli's life were spent with her. Soon after her death, Eli took a new wife from the village, Claudia. He thought his new bride would make him happy and help him cope with his loss, but she turned out to be a rather bitter, jealous woman who nagged him constantly. He realized his best days were now behind him, his adventures were over, and he had nothing left to live for. He began drinking himself to death in his butcher shop, which is not so much a shop anymore as a place for him to hide in denial of what has become of his life. He loves Susan deeply, and there is much of him in her, but he does not feel she needs him. |
Claudia | |
 | Claudia is Eli's second wife and Susan's stepmother. She sees Susan as a remnant of Eli's first bride and realizes he was much happier with her. She has a hard time living with this and constantly takes it out on Susan, giving no thought to Susan's feelings. In public, she hides her abusive side and pretends to be a devoted mother and wife. |
Christan | |
 | Christan is a little older than Susan, in her early twenties, and lives in a cottage by herself close to the village's walls. She is fairly introverted and bookish and cares for a garden outside her cottage. She has been Susan's best friend since childhood, and is Susan's only friend now. As the story progresses, she develops powers to see future events, but she does not realize she has such power in the early chapters of the story. Eventually, she will learn more about her abilities. |
The Book | |
 | The Book is given to Christan early in the series by The Librarian when he senses that she is the one for whom it was intended. It is unknown whether The Book is trying to help Christan save Susan or if it is serving a more sinister purpose, but it is sentient and writes conversations within its pages directly to Christan as they "talk".. It responds to her thoughts and statements in its texts, directly addressing her. It will help Christan develop her abilities, but it has no interest in helping her intervene with Susan's troubles. |
The Scarecrow | |
 | The Scarecrow is a seemingly ordinary, inanimate Scarecrow that hangs in the lonely meadow on the other side of the forest in which Susan's village is located. It is, however, a cursed object that is sealing a dimensional rift that was put in place a couple hundred years ago by a well-intentioned but sloppy wizard. While the spell was taking effect, a chain of events occurred that led to a child's soul being trapped inside the Scarecrow. This soul is inside the Scarecrow in Susan's dimension, but in the other dimension, he can roam freely, to a degree. The meadow is a center of supernatural activity, and he is magically bonded to it, preventing him from wandering off too far. He has been there for two hundred years and has subconsciously in the other dimension adopted the characteristics of the Scarecrow. Reality is more fluid on the other side, and he has been able to imagine a decent castle and three pumpkin-headed minions to keep him company. Still, he has been merely passing the centuries away, which becomes a bit hollow for a little dead boy. He has been keeping his ears open to his old world, waiting to make contact with someone strong enough to save his soul from the curse. He has taken notice of Susan's daily trials and fallen in love with her. In Susan's world, he is unable to manifest physically, but he is able to subtly influence things to a degree. By passing his memories to her in visions, he has been able to summon her to the meadow and the cursed Scarecrow. Flowers grow around him that are actually from the other dimension; they have supernatural properties that can open one's eyes to the other world or drive them to madness. |