God of Thought and Chaos

Chapter 5

Daifa

10 years ago...

The walk home From Liza's house through the forest path seems different every time. It's my third trip home this week and still nothing is familiar to me. Tiny white mushrooms dot the mossy dew misted underbrush as the tall elder trees sway slightly in the after breeze of this morning's rain storm.

The nice new shoes Liza gave me are already soaked through caked in mud. I regret wearing them, not just because they are uncomfortable but because I knew Liza had spent a small fortune on them. But I'd never owned shoes so nice and it had not occurred to me that I could ruin them so quickly.

This walk usually takes what feels to be about 15 minutes and it's much faster than the path through town. The path runs right along the edge of town and sometimes you can even hear the faint sounds of town traffic and wayfair. But the trees are dense and the forest seems to be its own world apart from all else.

Sooner than expected I see faint glowing candle light through the quickly darkening forest off the left. The sun had begun to set on my walk back and my hope was that mother would let me sleep at home if I visited her late enough instead of sending me back to Liza's.

I step off the path in the direction of my mothers house and pick up my pace, not particularly enjoying the sensation of the briars and bush snagging my skirts. I nearly trip over a damp log and manage to catch myself on the rough trunk of its neighboring tree. When I look back up I can no longer see the faint light of my mothers house ahead. But the forest is shallow and the only think In this direction is town and the houses on the open countryside. I dust myself off and keep heading in that direction.

I'd always dreamt of living with Liza in her big beautiful townhouse. And now that it was a reality it was everything wonderful I'd expected. But after the first few days I began to miss home and my mother. So much that my heart hurt and I would cry. My mother was quieter than Liza and didn't have as many possessions. But she brushed my hair and sang to me every night before bed. She let me bring home all the forest trinkets and critters I found and seemed to always know something about each and every one. But more and more often lately she disappeared. Not physically. Actually she rarely ever left our little home. But it was like she got lost in her own body, in her own mind, and would stare at nothing for hours on end.

After five minutes of walking I begin to suspect something is wrong. I should have reached the Forest Edge by now. I tell myself only a little farther but as the next five minutes pass by and the forest sets in darkness, my heart begins to pound faster and my breathing becomes more shallow. How had I gotten lost? I hadn't thought the forest would even extend this far to the west. Granger Forest was large and many people had gotten lost in it, but its vastness extended to the east and Brevard sat on its edge to the west.

I decide to keep walking. If I don't reach the glen where my mothers house sits at least I will eventually end up in Brevard.

It isn't until the forest is completely black and my shoes are completely ruined by muck and damp that I realize I am well and truly lost. I stop walking to listen once again to any signs of life. The forest lays asleep around me, nothing but the night song of crickets and the low wind blowing through bush and grass. Somewhere beyond my view of my shadowed surroundings cast in the dim pale light of the waning moon through the dense forest canopy, I hear a stream of water, possibly a creek.

"Help! Please someone help me!" comes a desperate voice from far away. All of the natural night noises cease as if the forest lays dead around me. I strain my eyes and ears trying to determine the direction the call had come from. "Help please!" screams the female voice again with even more desperation than before.