Spellbound

The Forrest Girl

Adrian leads me deeper and deeper into the forrest surrounding the school. He doesn't say much. I don't even know why I agreed to come in the first place. Everything looks different. I don't recognise any of it from last night, completely changed by the light of day. Tall trees tower into the sky above, branches stick out at us like bony fingers, and twisted vines cover the ground beneath us. Not as terrifying, but I'm not completely at ease either. Something feels different...Wrong...

The wind howls violently. Trees sway against one another—trunks groaning into the air around us. I feel the heaviness inside of me—

Adrian stops suddenly and I crash into him.

"Sorry," I say sheepishly.

He says nothing. Instead, he takes his hand and places it against the trunk of an old elm tree. Thick black sap falls slowly, all the way down. There's something uneasy about all of this.

I move hesitantly towards Adrian and the tree. I place my own hand beside his. The second my fingertip comes into contact with the bark—bolts of electricity shoot through my veins. I bite my lip and wince, as the pain sends me to the forrest floor—tiny white dots blurring my vision.

Adrian drops beside me instantly, "You okay?"

I grip my aching hand with my free one, "pain—"

But it doesn't belong to me—not all of it.

Theres a sudden rustling from the thicket behind us, "The forrest is sick."

My eyes dart to the barefoot girl with wild red curls, emerging from behind another tree. Adrian seems a lot less taken aback than I am as he helps me to my feet.

"What's causing it?" He asks.

The girl walks calmly towards us and straight for the elm. She places both hands on the tree, before pressing her ear to the trunk. Her eyes close in concentration, and she listens.

"Hard to say really..." She has a dreamy voice that doesn't quite match her words, "I've never seen sick trees like this before—but, I might know some people who have."

She looks between us expectantly. I feel drawn to her for some reason—but I can't help raise my eyes at Adrian, in my best silent attempt to say "absolutely not."

I mustn't do a very good job, because he says, "Let's go."

The girl nods at us and heads off towards the clearing in the forrest. Adrian starts after her, but I catch his hand in mine—white-hot anger spills from his fingertips, and shoots through my veins. In the second I let go, the pain ceases.

He turns to me, "you okay?"

I stare at his hand—I can't feel his anger anymore. It's not like with the others...

"We should go back."

He stops for a second, finding my eyes with his.

"Don't you want to know why Fox was attacked? Because Eden might be our best chance—"

"Eden?"

He nods his head in the direction of the red haired girl who seems to be collecting twigs in her curls with each step she takes.

I think about the tiny white wolf—her blood stained fur. Our deep connection to one another that I can't explain...and how close I came to losing her. I can't lose her.

Adrian must take my silence as a yes, because he takes off after the strange girl again. I wait a few seconds before I follow him, but I have to take twice as many steps to keep up.