The sun was scorching hot but as I entered the darkened shadows at the edge of the woods the coolness licked at my skin sending shivers up my spine. I could hear soft whispers ahead of me, behind me, above me. The laughter of the squirrels as they played tag through the trees. The footsteps of the unseen moving away from me as I moved deeper into the abyss. What lay waiting around the next tree? Was it a sweet wild bunny or one of the little people that I was warned about? Were they really dangerous? Perhaps they were only misunderstood.
What was that? A sigh of content? A hushed whisper that was more than the leaves rustling overhead? All the sounds seems eerie and yet beautifully mysterious. The musty smell of the dirt and moss teasing me as I watch a fawn scamper off towards its mother. A woodpecker tapping out a love song somewhere in the distance brings me back to the moment and I remember I’m cold. I’ve wandered without care or attention and I can’t see my way out anymore. I look up, up past the tallest of trees and I realize that the sun is still shining so brightly up there, like a whole different world. A world I am craving now, a warmth I am yearning for.
I open my little wings and fly as high and as fast as they will allow. Up over the pines and past the spruces and as the warm sun brings life to my cold iridescent wings once again, I can go faster and faster until…
I see my cozy little home off in the distance over the meadow and next to an old abandoned house. The little girl built a home for me hundreds of years ago before she was taken by the long-haired stranger in the night. My home is inside the flower pot on her bedroom sill that still holds the key to her diary. I promised I would guard it for life and that I would one day find her to give it back. I still have the key but I can’t find Helena.
-Ang
