Tales from Wayward Forest

The arrival

There was no sensation of falling when she stepped through the portal. No glowing doorway. No pulling sensation. One moment she was walking home on an ordinary day, feet hitting the pavement as she walked. The next she was crushing grass, moss, and leaves underfoot. The buildings were replaced by trees twice their size, no sign of civilization in sight. Layla was fourteen years old and suddenly very, very far from home, in more ways than one.

  She turned about, trying to discern where she had suddenly found herself. Her outstretched hand brushed the trunk of a tree and recoiled when it felt the solidness beneath. She then repeated the same with the ground, testing the feel of the grass and leaves there. Upon finding nothing out of the ordinary, nothing immaterial or strange suggesting that this was not real, she drove the fingernail of her thumb hard into the middle of her palm. Layla winced but held it there until her arm began to shake slightly. She ripped her hand away and shook it out slightly before inspecting it. A deep red crescent moon now marked her palm, that stung when she ran her finger across it. She looked up and began to glance about wildly, her chest rising and falling, faster and faster. Her hand clutched tight at the backpack over her opposite shoulder, placing pressure across her chest. Layla kept turning around in circles, over and over, panic and desperation stealing all logic from her mind.

"Is anyone out there?! Anyone?" A light appeared ahead and halted her frantic whirling. Nothing one moment and the next this brilliant, blue-white light was there in the distance, bobbing slightly as it moved about.

"Oh thank God." She breathed out. "Hello?! Hello, I'm over here!" She cried out and heard small beings scatter away from the sound. The light paused for just a moment, then winked out.

"Wait! I need help. Turn the light back on! Please!" She moved forwards, then sprinted for the last place she saw the light. Halting where she guessed she had seen it, she looked around once more. A small blink of light far off in the distance had her chasing once more.

   She ran, faster than she ever had before. Branches and brambles seemed determined to halt her way as they scratched against her arms and calves. This did not deter her. They didn't even register. A blink to her left made her trajectory change without pause. The forest around was merely a blur moving past. Small scurrying sounds came from all directions as all manner of small things fled at the sound of her heavy footfalls. There it was again, just ahead. Somehow the girl found another burst of speed and pushed on faster. Right up until her foot became caught on a tree root.

   She reached her hands out to brace herself on a tree just ahead of her, her hands grazed from the impact. Sharp, short pants were torn from her mouth, her chest tight as her body caught up with the exhaustion from her sprint.

"Wait- please," she wheezed. Only silence answered.

"Please don't leave me," Layla pleaded out to the dark. Feet slid down as she half fell, half lowered herself to the ground, and leant back against the trunk. Small streaks of warm tears began to run down her face, her hands curled tight at her sides. She tucked her head between her knees.

"Not again. I don't want to be alone again. I can't, I-."  Her voice cracked and caught in her throat.

   A tone suddenly pierced the quiet hum of the forest. A soothing sound that rung out and pierced the panic in Layla's mind. More than that, it cleared everything away, it calmed and soothed till there was nothing. The sound drifted off and Layla blinked and tried to shake the daze from her head. She glanced up as she did so and in front of her was the blue-white light, but unaccompanied by anyone to wield it.       
   It appeared like a glowing ball and it gently swayed in front of her. The tone started up again and a glazed look entered Layla's sky blue and mist grey eyes. Her face relaxed and her body slackened as she just stared back at the light and began to sway along with it limply, like grass in the wind. Small pairs and groups of curious eyes watched as the girl rose and followed the ball of light far off into the distance till she was just a smudge on the horizon and then nothing at all.

The forest had claimed another wayward soul.