The Tree's Heart

Prologue

Willow had soon realised that coming here was a mistake. She hadn't thought it would be a mistake, she had wanted this to be some sort of magical experience, some way of exploring this place that had so many legends about it. She shouldn't have disregarded all the warnings she had found in her research. She shouldn't have brought Nora here with her – but Nora had insisted on coming along with her.

Willow had never been good at saying no to her girlfriend. She loved Nora more than anything in the world and she would gladly have given up her life for her. Which is why she shouldn't have brought Nora to this forest. She shouldn't have gone here herself. They shouldn't have stayed overnight, by any means.

Willow had been to this place many times before, but she had never stayed the night, because she had been listening to the warnings from all her books and all the stories she had gathered back then. But now she had gotten too ambitious, and she had wanted to see for herself what this place was all about. She had wanted to have some sort of mastery over the magic in this forest, but it was too much for her.

There were many stories of people getting lost in this forest and never getting back out. Many stories of people making it out again but being completely changed. Stories of strange lights and strange noises coming out of the thick of the woods at night and even during the daytime if someone got too close. It had been something that Willow was in awe of ever since she could think. Something she had been afraid of, too. Maybe she should have stayed afraid of it – it would have been better.

But she had gotten too proud, too confident in her skills and her intuition. And now here she was, together with Nora. They had been spending a night in the thick of the woods. Nothing unusual had happened, but now it seemed that they absolutely could not find their way out of the woods again, no matter what they tried. It had been three days since they first had set foot in here and they were hopelessly lost.

Nothing seemed to work. None of the things Willow had learned and studied and perfected over the years – not her divinations, none of the dowsing rods she had made, none of the spells she had tried to cast. It was hopeless. The only thing that kept Willow going was Nora and her unshakable faith in her.

But Willow was losing hope. She knew the stories, she knew that there was almost no chance of them ever getting out of this place ever again. And if they got out – how would they change? Willow wasn't sure whether she was more afraid of being trapped here, than she was of getting out of the forest. At least, while they were here, they still had each other. They still knew who they were. No one could tell what would happen to them once they left the forest. Nora didn't seem too bothered about it.

She was her airy self, floating through the forest, as if she was already a part of it. Seeing her here with her was Willow's only comfort – her honey blonde hair, the eyes that were somewhere between grey and blue and that seemed to change with the colour of the sky, her soft and pale skin, almost making her look translucent. Nora was an air person. Willow had known that the first time she had seen her.

Willow herself was more of an earth type. She had dark brown hair that was falling down her shoulders and her back in unruly curls, her face was sprinkled with freckles and her skin was sallow, maybe even a little more than sallow. Where Nora was soft and petite, Willow was hard and tough. Her voice was gravelly, her arms and legs were strong and muscly. Nora might have floated away at any time, but Willow was always firmly rooted in the ground. Willow loved it, but out here in the forest it scared her.

Willow hadn't told Nora about it, but she could feel herself becoming rooted to the ground. She could feel the soil beneath her feet, she could feel the plants entangling her, the soft moss under her toes and the branches of the trees almost reaching for her, as if they were trying to embrace her, the leaves whispering to her. It was hard to resist all of that. And Nora... well, Nora was someone that got carried away so easily.