At the end of the lane, there was a brook with a small footbridge over it. Barely a bridge which is really nothing more than just a couple of planks of wood covering the distance from one bank to the other, in a rather rickety, slap dash fashion. On from the 'bridge' a narrow, winding gravel path takes you further into the woods. At the end of the path is the cottage.
Entirely unremarkable in design, and seldom noticed by passers by. The mould stained walls and sagging roof show the lack of care and attention the cottage had received in anything like the recent past.
Curiously, despite being surrounded by nature, anyone that happened to walk down the lane, across the bridge and down the path would notice that none of the animals in the forest went anywhere near the cottage. Nothing so much as a bird sitting on the roof, and certainly no brave squirrel ever ventured into the open windows.
The casual, but rather lost observer may comment that the trees and bushes surrounding the cottage had grown to be as close as they dare, as if some invisible barrier prevented their further encroachment. Either something within the cottage shielded it from their advances, or the plants and animals did everything in their power to avoid it.
No one ever knew which, or at least if they did know they never made it back up the path, across the bridge and up the lane to warn anyone else.
