Woods

I always loved walking through the forest. I enjoyed listening to the chatter of the wildlife and getting away from the monotonous buzzing of towns.

I never felt comfortable with the logistics of that way of life.

The forest always spoke to me in a way that I can’t quite explain.

It was the only place where I really could try to understand the things that were happening to me. Things that I had heard about in the songs of the Gemma’s.

The arcane people who no longer walked the lands.

The secret conjurers that the people these days dismissed as folklore.

The breath of the forest spoke to me again, encouraging me, willing me to embrace all the strange feelings I have had for so long.

As I walked, that, at home, feeling once again flooded over me, washing away every negative thought I had ever had and replacing them with, almost understanding why.

Taking me back.

Showing me who I was. I have always been.

As this happened I felt this stagnant, magical power surface again. Suggesting to me, no begging me, to remember to come back.

As I blindly wandered further deeper into the woods I became more nervous, yet more at ease. The forest was closing in on me. Trees grew taller. The path disappeared underneath my feet and I had to be careful to place every step I took. Deeper into the forest I went, with an overwhelming urge to turn back only overcome by the calling to continue.

Darker and darker it got as the thicker and colder it felt as I ventured further. Night was falling in. What time did I start walking? I’m sure it was only lunchtime. How long had Have I been walking? It couldn’t have been more than an hour.

Why were the branches of the trees completely naked of leaves? It was summer after all. I could smell everything. The grass, the night... I felt all of my senses were amplified.

I had never been so far into the woods before but yet this was all somehow familiar to me.

I was interrupted from my reverie by a shadow, dashing or maybe alerting me in the corner of my eye.

It was followed by a rustling of leaves and a laugh I hadn’t heard for centuries.

Centuries?? Why did I think that? I’m 14.

But as soon as I thought it, I knew.

Somehow.

I followed the shadow to where I presumed it had hidden.

Each time I thought I had found it. It moved somewhere completely different.

It was playing with me. Teasing me.

And I knew how to play.

Then the words whispered to me.

“If I look, I will not see. And if I see, you will not be.

So close my eyes is what I’ll do.

And when they open, I see you.”

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