The Secret of the Forest

Chapter 2: Uncharted Territory

Light infiltrated the darkness that had been clouding the girl's vision as her eyelids were finally able to flutter open. She was still sprawled on the floor and saw that the large branch lay adjacent to her body. As soon as she began to push herself upwards, a searing pain took hold of her skull and jabbed at her brain. Soon the pain subsided enough for her to be able to think properly, and she was then able to thoroughly examine her surroundings. Her eyes trailed upwards and saw that the immense tree was still rooted in the same spot, however its leaves appeared to be of an even deeper hue of green. She continued scanning the area and noticed that the clearing remained the same as well, besides the fact that the grass, quite literally, seemed greener.

She told herself that after a hit like that, it would be expected for her vision to be a bit off. After assembling her book and pens, which had fallen from her hands during the event, she gathered all of her strength and stood up fully. With a small shake of her head, she progressed towards the path she had entered through, figuring that it was definitely time to return home. While traveling down the thin trail, she once again shoved past the obstructive branch and found herself in an unrecognizable area. Beforehand, she had veered off onto the path from a familiar area, however now everything was obscure. She glanced around in confusion until her thoughts halted at the sight of a blue shimmering light. Advancing forward, she maneuvered herself around a large bush and set her eyes on a luminescent bed of flowers. They were a shade of light blue and dazzled in the sunlight, causing beams of blue to shoot off in different directions. Their petals were long and delicate and flowed in the wind while their stems twisted around in a spiraling shape. Phoebe had never seen anything similar to that of the strange, but beautiful flora, not even in movies or drawings. Overwhelmed with amazement, she fished her book and pen out of her bag, attempting to describe the plants as best as she could. She knew that her sketching would not do justice to the mystical blossoms, so instead she pulled her phone out from within her pocket in order to take pictures. Pressing the home button, she readied her finger to swipe open her phone's camera, when her screen began flashing a dark red and then white color. It finally turned black and lifeless, not performing any of its functions no matter what procedures she took in order to help it work. She could have sworn that she left the house with an almost full battery, and besides, she had never seen a phone malfunction like that before it died. The female placed the useless item in her pack and remembered that she was still lost. Fear slowly crept into her mind and the comfortability she had always felt while in the forest began to steadily vanish. She wandered away from the otherworldly flowers, assuring herself that she could come visit them another day. Another ten minutes passed, and her dutiful searching had morphed into a frantic roaming. No matter which direction she went, she could not regain any familiarity with the area. She came to halt and wiped the beads of sweat from her brow, breathing rapidly and looking around in panic.

"Alright, I need to know where I am in the forest and I need to see how far away I am from the house," she concluded.

She figured that if she were to climb one of the trees, she would be able to attain a sufficient vantage point above the woods. Scanning the area, she noticed a large oak with a branch low enough for her to pull her body up with. She marched towards it and wrapped her fingers around its limb, using all of her upper body strength in order to hoist herself upwards. As expected, she felt the burn in her upper region from the physical labor, yet she felt as if gravity was pushing down on her form more than it normally should. Her hands gripped onto the branch with all her might, yet her shoulders seemed to be forced down by an invisible power. She returned down to the earth with a thud and looked up at the tree perplexed. Once again she endeavored to scale the tree, but was met by the same invisible oppressor. This time however, her ears detected a soft chuckle coming from somewhere in her vicinity. Her head darted around, only to see that all of the encompassing area was vacant as well. Fear consumed her entirely, and she moved away from the tree hastily. She continued surveying the area only to find that she truly was alone with just the trees beside her. Suddenly, she felt the delicate touch of a leaf brush against the soft skin of her neck on its descent towards the ground. The female's eyes trailed upwards as to follow the leaf's path when instead they landed on a figure lounging comfortably in the bough of the tree directly above her.