FAIRYTALES FOR A HUMAN (Lesbian)

Part 14 HUMAN*

Nota bene: the chapter features mature content!

"Are you scared?" Den is annoying me. "That's just a tiny runnel!"

He's scratching his bare knee and grinning, looking at the rest of the forest on the other side. It is lit with the afternoon sun that helps to create that particular pleasant view of a magic forest with bowing trees and slowly falling leaves twirling in the air still unsure where to fall.

"Let's go back! I want to return!" Nick is sniveling again.

"The log seems rotten to walk on it," reasoning his twin sister Anna who secretly despises her whining and permanently joy killer brother. She doesn't honour him by looking where the miserable creature stands and wipes his running nose. Disgusting.

"It's fine! Look!" Den is checking the only log "bridge" across a tiny forest runnel, "Not so broad or deep here."

I have a look at my new shoes. Mom will kill me if I drench or tear them. She didn't want me to wear a new pair for a picnic, but I insisted promising her to take care of them, and if anything happened, I swore my heart to wear them till I'm old. I wanted to impress Anna with a new cool purchase, and parade them around Den and a sissy.

"So who's going to be the first?" Anna was finally convinced by Den. I see my friend standing with her stick arms on the hips like a superhero ready to save a planet or maybe two.

"I will be the first," says Den languidly, touching his chin with the index finger and the thumb.

"No, I'll do it!" I stubbornly break into their conversation.

It was his cunning plan: not to show his obvious weakness before twins and provoke some sort of spirit of rivalry out of me. I noticed a sly move in the coroner of his lips. Den is demonstratively shrugging his shoulders as if saying: "As you wish. I don't care."

I look at the misty green meadow: wickedly watching ravens' eyes of true lover's knots are gazing at me from behind the thin bushes. Though we were forbidden to go far away from the place we stayed, I was not scared to be scolded or get in trouble. It was like a perfect adventure.

"I want to stay here!"

"Oh, shut up!" Anna and Den hiss at Nick almost synchronically. He starts crying. What a pussy! I don't want to look at his red face and gingerly step on the log. It really seems fine. I undertake some hasty moves and jump on the opposite side. When I turn around, I shudder: instead of my friends there is a thick stakes of tremendously tall pine trees.

"Hey! Guys! Guys?" I scream at the top of my lungs. No response: useless air rending. Did I get into the wormhole? I've read something about it in a science fiction book, but I remembered not so much information about it: traveling to remotest stars and planets but not to the dim forest. I sigh: Anna and Den are always calling me "our personal nerd". And I hate it. Well, when Anna says that, it's not so bad...

Shall I stay and wait for help or try to find a light gap between the walls of trees? Minutes are running and I'm getting nervous, for it's getting darker, and I'm alone for the first time in my life. Not that alone when you are in your room or class, but alone-alone.

Maybe I'm just dreaming and will wake up soon? No, the forest's smell and dry rustling sounds are real enough to believe.

I hear something. I don't see it but hear distinctly. My hair stands on end. I understand now what does the expression "animal fear" means. And I run (hearing my own sobbing) the direction my eyes mention.

I stumble... no, not stumble! Something has grabbed my leg. It seemed then as if an old man's knotted and crooked fingers are holding me tightly.

I didn't know how many hours I had been waiting and struggling. When she released me, I was too scared to thank her or ask for help. I was pathetic. I heard her laughing at me while I was stumbling and obviously making fool of myself. Just like Anna's twin brother.