I looked up slowly from my uncomfortable position on the ground from where I had fallen. My eyes met a pair of bare feet. I scrambled into an awkward crouching position, then switched to standing. My mouth opened slightly as I took in the girl before me. She stood in front of me with the previously mentioned bare feet, crossed arms, and a half amused, half annoyed expression as she looked down at me. She wasn’t that taller than me, but tall enough to be intimidating. Her eyes appeared oddly lopsided, so I looked at her clothes. In a white t-shirt, shorts, and pale skin, she appeared almost angelic. A quiver of multicolored arrows was slung across her back and a bow leaned against her side. As she flipped her hair, I realized she had either the weirdest or coolest hair-dye job ever. The hair on top of her head was dark blue speckled with silver, but as the hair got longer, the strands had been separated into six groups. Each group a different color, it looked like she had a rainbow growing out of her head. My observations were ended as she cleared her throat. I looked back at her eyes and realized they weren’t lopsided, they were different colors. I wasn’t close enough to see what they looked like. I was about to move towards her a little, but then I noticed the.... dagger? Whatever it was, it was inside a leather sheath attached to her belt. I stayed where I was. While I had been taking her in, she had also been looking me up and down critically. I probably was just about a scene to look at as she was. My hair was a mess, my clothes were torn and splattered with dirt and such, and my face was probably unrecognizable. So she looked at me, and I looked at her. Finally, she spoke;
‘Where on Earth have you BEEN?’
And I replied;
‘I truly and honestly completely have NO idea where I am or where I have been.’
‘You need help.’
‘That is a complete understatement.’
She smiled, and held her hand out. I noticed she had a tattoo on the back of her hand.
‘I’m BlueJay. You can call me Jay, if you want. I have so many names it doesn’t matter to me anymore what people call me.’
I personally thought this was something odd to say, but obviously I kept my mouth shut. I grabbed her hand and shook it.
‘I’m Emiline.’
‘What an odd name.’
‘And yours isn’t?’
I blurted it out before I could think about it. I turned red and waited for her to walk away. Instead, she laughed.
‘I should have realized. I know where you come from. I assume you want to get back. It’s going to be a long journey. You sure you’re up to it?’
‘I’m tougher than I look.’
She laughed again.
‘I should have known. You know, I think I’m gonna call you Tweet.’
I nodded. Why not?
‘So, where do I go to get back home?’
‘Just you? There isn’t gonna be YOU in this. There’s gonna be US. I’m goin’ with you. I don’t have anything better to do, and I have a feeling that where you go, fun things are gonna happen. So, to answer your question, we go visit a very old friend of mine. The Queen. But first....’
She looked apprehensive, and I think I saw fear flitter across her face like a birds shadow. Then it was gone.
‘First, we go and visit my sisters.
It was a very long trek through the woods. BlueJay was steady and fast, deadly combinations for me, who would feel good, then hit something difficult and stumble my way through. I took time to look at the forest. Wonders and dangers lurked in its every nook and cranny. I wished I had my sketchbook. Shadows in the shapes of wolves darted between trees. Flowers made of pure gold bloomed on the sides of the worn path we followed. Once I turned around to see three alligators following me, which scattered when I gasped. I saw a bird flutter down onto the ground in front of me and freeze. It had a key in its back, and when I turned it, the bird came alive, but before it fluttered away it put one of its feathers in my palm. It was made of metal, but silky soft. I put it in my pocket. Giant tarantulas scuttled in the undergrowth, scaring the heck out of me. Jay didn’t talk much. I asked her what the forest was called. She answered
‘The Illusion Forest’
‘Does that mean that it isn’t real?’
I had heard about explorers getting mirages and imagined some wayward hiker stumbling across me in some forest near home, wondering who on Earth I was talking to. Jay answered haltingly.
‘No, it’s real, all right. Just...stay close to me, and be careful of what you believe. This forest...it’s like your mind. it appears different to every traveler who comes through. For those who fear nothing, it’s paradise. For those who have fear in their hearts, the beasts of their imagination come to life in this area and devour them. Some wizards and sorcerers made an enchantment in an abandoned forest long, long ago. They were trying to make what you thought come to life... Like if one of them thought of treasure, it would appear. But one of them messed something up, did something wrong. Whether he was trying to betray them, save us, cause trouble, or if he just plain messed up, no one knows. But the spell infected the forest around us, and the spirits and demons of your mind come alive. What you are seeing now is, in a way, the inside of your mind. Only those who truly believe they are steadfast and true of heart, mind, and soul dare to enter and walk these paths.’
She wouldn’t say anything else. We continued walking, until we reached a huge tree. Not like Redwood tall tree, like average thick trunk, extremely widespread branches. It was leafy, but you could see up into the tree to some extent. As we came closer, I saw that the trunk was covered in thousands of hundreds of strange symbols. Some seemed oddly familiar, while others were wildly strange. I looked at Jay with a question on my lips, and she smiled faintly and said
‘Glyphs. Magical letters and symbols.’
Ok, I thought, sure. Marshmallow mushrooms. Penguins with top hats. Strange girls who appear out of nowhere. Enchanted forest. Magic? No problemo.
Jay walked up to the tree and knocked on some of the Glyphs in some sort of order. She then threw her head back and howled like some sort of wolf. I thought she’d gone mad. Wolves in trees? Yeah, right. Now, I look back and think how naive I was, because in a way, there was a wolf living in that tree. A faint, wavering, high, eerie howl trickled its way back down the tree and down my spine like ten thousand frozen beetles. It made the hair on my neck stand up and my skin tingle. Something about that noise... It wasn’t right. It wasn’t human. I heard a muffled thump behind me and felt cold metal on my neck.
That is SO amazing! I want to be a writer someday. I am in a few writing clubs at my school and I love them. Anyway that is an amazing story!
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