Long ago, on the edge of a forest quite overgrown, lived a daughter named Terra, and her father named Triton.
"I must be off to work my dear." Her father told her, red curls dancing down his back as he opened the door of their cabin and entered into the wilderness.
"Complete your studies for the day." He called in goodbye as he closed the door behind him, their horse neighing impatiently.
She sat alone at the wooden table in the dark cabin, curtains draped to cover the windows entirely from view of the outside. Or perhaps, to keep the outside from viewing them. Her.
She studied the door, twirling her red curls around a finger, and finally returned to her studies.
Terra was 7. It had been two years since the day her father erupted and sent the both of them into hiding and homeschool. two years since Ms. Lavender held her hand in front of the class and told them to apologize.
Terra still remembered the day, an awful one at that.
Ms. Lavender dropped Terras hand while each classmate said their sorries and sat down at her desk at the front of the classroom. Terra still remembered Ms. Lavender's eyes as she watched Terra while rubbing that aweful lavender scented hand lotion along unusually dry and cracked fingertips.
Evan and his friends gave her apologetic flowers that died not long after. And at the end of the day, knowing she might never return to the school, she said her goodbyes to the blue butterfly. Alone in the classroom, while her father spoke under his breath to Ms. Lavender in the hall, Terra opened the container just a crack.
The butterfly tapped at the glass as though it too wanted to say goodbye.
She slid a hand in and allowed it to crawl over a single finger. Its wings fluttered one last time.
Her father called for her from the hall and she quietly returned the goodbye, with one final glance at its beautiful sapphire blue wings. "I'm sorry I could not save you sooner." She whispered as she slipped into the hall.
Her father murmured to her,
"We leave tomorrow, you will not return here again."
The butterfly stilled in its cage.
And so Terra sits in her cabin reminiscing as much, silently distraught of what could have been and what would never be.
Her father told her not to ask questions.
YOU ARE READING
Forever Forest
FantasyA small house in the middle of the woods. A daughter and her father. A normal life Terra expected to live. Though the second she stepped into the forest, she found her world had turned upside down. Afraid of a fantasy, though her story would be just...
