No place like home

NPLH part 3 (4-5) "Trail to a stump"

I gathered all of my pencils,and my(now going on to the third) research journal, I knew I wanted to study them up close, but I didn't know where to begin, so I just decided I'd see where the forest takes me. There were so many tree roots popping out of the ground, and it made it quite difficult to walk on, almost seemed to be on purpose, protecting the ground. I was examining every crevasse I found, and part of me hoped to find a new species of bird, but after a while of searching for different birds, I found only two other species, blue birds, and the adorable chickadees. I hadn't really noticed before, but almost all cardinals had a bluebird or two by its side. I'm not sure the reason for this, but it reminded me of a king and his guards; I thought it made sense because cardinals are signs of confidence, and because bluebirds are very territorial. I also noticed that the chickadees were always by an opening in a tree, observing, watching,(which chickadees tend to do) I assumed for the purpose of protecting their nests. After I had written it all down in my journal, I came to a realization that this forest almost seemed to be a little kingdom, "how magical would that be" I thought to myself, but of course that's just me and my imagination, or so I thought.

I seemed to be lost, but I didn't really mind, I was in no hurry. Though, I decided that the rest of the forest would just have to wait until tomorrow, but when I turned around to go back, everything looked different. I had no idea what was going on, but the roots that were once protecting the ground, were gone. Everything seemed, rearranged, I was confused, but way too tired to think about it. I just decided that I would follow the trail, and eventually find home. After walking for what I think was about thirty minutes, a chickadee chick showed up, I was way too excited to see one up close that I followed it, and failed to comprehend that the bird was actually leading me somewhere. I think I've been following the little bird for five minutes, but we finally reached our destination, whatever that was. I slowly came to a stop once noticing something up ahead, as I inched towards it, I managed to make out the shape of a stump, but something caught my eye, there was something shiny in the center.