Once upon a time, there was a young girl. She lived in a little cottage in the woods with ther mother, and they were very happy. Her mother used to be a healer, until one day one of her pupils accidentally injured her severely - so severely that the girls mother instead devoted the next 15 years of her life to caring for her daughter. This young girl had long brown hair that glittered with strands of gold in the sunlight, and grey eyes that sometimes shifted to blue. The girl's name was Skye, so called because of the beautiful hue of her eyes.
Skye grew up fatherless - he had been seduced by a powerful enchantress when Skye was only four, and she knew he was lost to her forever. Sometimes, Skye could see in her mother's eyes that she had deeply loved the man, and missed him still after eleven years of his absence. However, most of the time they were happy and content with one another. Sometimes, Skye wished that it could always be just her and her mother, alone in the woods. But at other moments - and these were increasingly often - Skye found herself longing for a husband, for someone to take care of her and for her to take care of. She comforted herself, however, by noting that she couldn't get a husband legally until she had attended the National Ball when she turned 16. So Skye grew up, as is the way of the world, until she was a tall and graceful teenager. Her legs were long and shapely, her forearms as delicate as china, and, perhaps most importantly, she could laugh. Too often the fatherless go without laughing.
Skye had at an early age begun the sacred art of reading, an unusual feat for a girl. However, as she pointed out to her mother, she was the one and only heir in the family and therefore should be intelligent enough to go to town and look after herself. So Skye read, and read, occasionally helping her mother with the houeswork she found it increasingly hard to do, until Skye noticed one day with some horror that her mother was growing old. The fine dark hair was subtly lined here and there with silver, and the already weak limbs were only getting weaker. Her mother was not unduly ill - this much Skye knew. It was merely the effects of her mother's illness coming into play. With a heavy heart, Skye abandoned her joyful books and settled down to doing housework that her mother simply could not do. The little cottage had never been so clean since her mother had been injured, but all Skye could see was her mother wasting away on her pillow. Finally, Skye realised that if she didn't do something, her mother would die and Skye would be chained to a house to forever clean until she died. So she enlisted the help of a wise woman wandering through the forest to look after her mother until she returned from her quest, magically shrunk all her books so they could unobtrusively fit in her backpack, and set off, first to the the market to get supplies, and then - well, Skye thought, she would find out later.
***
The woods Skye had travelled through so little now seemed even more menacing than usual. A cruel wind blasted through the icy, dead fingers of the trees longing for one final caress. Skye pulled her backpack tighter onto her shoulders, hoping against hope that she wasn't where she thought she was. The clouds parted, and looking up, Skye longed to see some yellow sunlight pouring in. But instead, she only saw the distant light of the moon, reflecting the light of the sun, but not enough to fully illuminate the dark path ahead of her. When Skye left it had been mid-morning. Her heart started speeding up in fear. She was in the Forgotten Clearing.
Nobody was quite sure when or how, but for many years it had been known that there was a certain clearing in the woods that was haunted. The stories went that a village girl had fallen in love with the then-reiging duke of their village. But unbeknownst to both her and him, he was engaged to be marrried to a Lady in a neighbouring kingdom. Heartbroken by his apparant rejection, the girl's mind had snapped, causing her to believe that a sword left idly in the village centre was a deadly snake. She had picked it up tightly, with the 'head' at her chest, about to throw it away. But alas, the very real sword had cut her palms deeply, and, slippery with her blood, she had dropped it. The point pierced her chest deeply, and it went straight through her heart.
As tragic as it had been, what happened next insured that no one would or could ever forget it. The Duke had been riding slowly back through this very clearing when the ghost of his lover had appeared to him. She was not heartbroken in sadness, but filled with anger and bitterness. The Duke in terror tried to protect himself by sending his messengers on, hoping to talk to his lover himself. Tears streaming down his face, he had apologised and begged for her mercy. But the village girl had been scorned too much, and her heart had been broken into too many pieces for it to ever mend again. The legend said that the girl called up a storm, and when the lightning struck the duke, he was imprisoned as a tree forever, in agonies from the burn and that he could never see his family again. And now, every male traveller that ventures through that clearing is never seen again. All that is left is a pile of clothes, and a twisting tree.
Normally, being a girl, Skye wouldn't have been afraid. But to avoid being attacked on the road more than necessary, she had dressed in a shirt and breeeches. She could only hope that the ghost of the village girl could tell Skye was entirely feminine.
Her heart in her mouth, Skye started walking through the space absent of trees. Suddenly she felt a strange wooshing sensation go through her, as if the wind had approached her and kept on going. For what seemed like forever Skye stood there, in the middle of the clearing. A single beam of light shone down. It was swiftly followed by many others, until the sun was finally out in its entireity. Skye whispered a silent thank you to the ghosts of love, happiness and desire that lingered there still, and went on her way. Behind her, a pale girl looked out after Skye. She stepped into the sunlight, and for an instant that lasted for eternity rainbows filled the clearing. Just as suddenly as they had appeared, however, they shattered like broken glass. At the same time, as many as fifty trees in the surrounding area burst forth into young, healthy men. One by one, according to how long ago they had been transformed, they fell to the ground and disintegrated into corpses. Except for one. Startled by the noise, Skye had looked back. Instictively, she felt that Martha's Curse (that was the name of the village girl) had been lifted. Expecting to find more people, Skye was startled to find only one boy about three years older than her. Their eyes met. And suddenly, Skye recognised him.
"Caleb!"
