The Unknown Forest

The sun was setting and Samantha was lost. She had entered the forest to harvest some edible mushrooms, but she had not marked her way like her mother had told her. Her mother had warned her about being in the woods after dark, and the setting sun started to worry the young girl. A cool breeze floated through the trees and Samantha heard something move behind her. Turning quickly she dropped the basket of mushrooms and backed away from the noise. To her surprise a small rabbit hopped through the foliage.

“Hello, Mr. Rabbit.” The young girl said to the small animal.

The rabbit froze at the sound and looked around. The moment it noticed the small child it turned to run in the opposite direction, but as it tensed its muscles to jump away a large snake struck from under the bush the rabbit had exited. Seconds passed as the snake grabbed the rabbit and started to wrap its body around the furry animal. The sudden attack scared Samantha and she turned around and ran, forgetting the basket full of mushrooms.

Samantha's feet took her deeper into the forest and the sun was soon obscured by the thick canopy. She stopped once she hit a wall of vines and took a few deep breaths. Looking around for any sign of which way to go she broke down. Her tears flowed freely as she slumped to the ground. Not knowing what to do her sobs grew in intensity.

The darkness got thicker as the sun finally slipped under the horizon and Samantha tried her best to pull herself together. With a new found determination she stood up and headed back the way she thought she came. It wasn't long before she got turned around and ended up back at the vine wall. Discouraged, but not deterred, Samantha turned around and walked the opposite way from the green wall. A few minutes later she was back at the vines.

“How do I keep coming back here? I am walking away from it.” she talked to herself in an attempt to soothe her nerves.

“Is the girl lost?” A deep creaking voice filled the air.

“I believe so.” Another strange voice broke the awkward silence.

“Who said that?” Samantha yelled as she looked for the source of the words.

“Does she not know how dangerous this place is?” the first voice spoke up.

“Apparently she does not.”

“Show yourselves!” she yelled again.

“What did the child say?”

“I am not sure.” The second voice replied.

Samantha was doing circles looking for the source of the voices, but when the tree on the right of the vine wall moved she gasped, fell to the ground, and curled into a ball. The tree slowly turned towards the poor girl, but all she heard from the fetal position was wood creaking, cracking, and groaning. When something brushed against her back she bolted to her feet, ready to run, but the sight of what touched her stopped her in her tracks. Her mouth fell open in disbelief.

The tree had turned around and now stood proudly in front of Samantha. Its light brown eyes blended in with the moss covered trunk. The scrawny limbs under the canopy doubled as the creature's arms. Giant roots, covered in dark earth, had been pulled out of the ground forming the tree's feet.

“Are you lost, child?” the middle of the tree opened and closed as the living greenery spoke.

Samantha, with her eyes wide and mouth agape, tried to turn and run. Unfortunately, the limbs that made up the tree's arms had been slowly closing around her. She screamed at the top of her lungs when she noticed and began to thrash about in an attempt to break free. Her efforts were useless as the limbs grew closer together, blocking out what little light was left. With Samantha engulfed by limbs of different sizes the tree decided to speak.

“No need to worry, child of man, I will not hurt you.” The tree tried its best to soothe the child.

Samantha started to breathe fast and shallow, while her heart began to push blood quicker through her veins. Tears welled up once again and her breathing turned to sobs. She couldn't see anything in the tiny space and that fueled her panicked state. Her arms and feet kicked and hit at the limbs, but they did no damage. While hitting the tree with her hands she felt something sticking out. It turned out to be a new limb forming and without thinking of the consequences she broke it off.

“Hey, child, that hurt.”

“They are a violent species.” The other tree responded.

“She is scared.”

The tree that had grabbed Samantha then opened its fingerlike limbs and exposed her to his gaze.

“You are safe.” The light brown eyes blinked.

When the limbs had started moving Samantha tried backing up more, but the branches didn’t budge. She sat there with her knees blocking her torso and watched the tree's eyes move over her.

“Do you have a name?” whispered the small frightened girl.

“Yes, my name is Tedrilm. That is Ildil. Who are you?”

“I am Samantha.” The girl said a little louder.

“It is an honor, Samantha. We do not get many children of men around here now.”

“Good thing, too!” Ildil replied from his frozen pose.

“I enjoyed them. They have potential.” Tedrilm said, still staring at the girl in his grasp.

“What are you?” Samantha asked as she picked up her head a bit more to see over her knees.

“We are what you call a Drus.” Tedrilm answered, but after seeing the girl's quizzical face, added, “We are living trees, my dear girl.”

“Wow, that's amazing.” Samantha replied with wide eyes. “Are there only two of you?”

“No, there are several dozen of us.”

“Once there were tens of thousands. Do not forget to add that part, brother.” Ildil stays perfectly still.

Tedrilm rolled his eyes, and Samantha giggled a bit.

“Yes, brother, we are few now, but that is nothing to say to a child so young.” The big eyes got even bigger before lighting up. Soon the light condensed into a pudgy firefly that flew out of the eye. It started to happen more and more until there were fifteen fat bugs lighting up around Samantha.

“I am not so young,Teadrim, I am nine!” She replied with determined eyes and a clenched jaw.

“Yes, of course, my dear. Now, do you not know how dangerous it is this deep in the forest?” Tedrilm ignored the mispronunciation and asked instead.

“Yes, but I got lost. And then a snake tried to bite me.”

“Trust me when I say there are much worse things here than snakes.” Ildil tried to scare her.

“How … How do I get home?” Samantha asked as she got to her feet, the little lights following her.

“I will gladly walk you to the divide between our planes.” Tedrilm slightly tilted his giant head forward.

“What's that mean?”

“A Drus would slowly perish in your universe, but our universe is saturated with magical elements.” The loud creaking and groaning returned as the tree man started walking.

“How did I get here?”

“Did you see a vine wall?” The tree asked as he continued to walk.

“Yes.”

“That means you walked through a small arch made from a portal tree that can exist in two planes at once.”

“I didn’t see anything like that.”

“With how dark it is, and your short stature, you clearly walked right through it. But do not worry, I will help you find it.”

“How far is it?” Samantha tried her best to look where they were going.

After seeing the small girl struggle to look forward Tedrilm removed most of the limbs and left a platform for her to stand on. The young girl sat down and watched as the trees they passed got smaller as they moved. The journey for the walking tree took less time than it had taken Samantha to run. The platform started to descend to the forest floor. When it reached the uneven ground the passenger departed and the limbs returned to their previous position as branches. In front of her was a dark and thin tree that was bent over making a tall entryway that was hard to see in the low light.

“Is that the way home?” Samantha asked while the fireflies slowly revolved around her.

“Yes, go through there and you will return to your plane. From there I am not sure which way you should go. My apologies, Samantha.” Tedrilm said.

“Thank you for showing me the way home.” Samantha curtsied and turned back towards the odd structure, hesitant to pass through it.

“It’s ok, once you exit you will be safer than being here. All you need to worry about in your universe are wolves.”

“Wolves?” Samantha paused midstep.

“Yes, they are four-legged creatures with sharp teeth and a group mentality.”

“I know what wolves are. I am nine, remember? Not a baby.”

“Yes, of course, Samantha. You are not a baby.” Tedrilm replied. “My lightning bugs can’t follow you, so you will be on your own, in the dark.”

“Thanks again, Teadrim.” With that she turned around, looked at the swirling lit up bugs above her one last time, and stepped through the entryway.

The warm weather from the universe she just left turned into the coolness of her own. A chilly breeze rustled through the trees and bushes which made Samantha put up her guard. After a nearby bush moved violently Samantha took off running again. This time she made sure to have her back to the portal and ran in a straight line. Her pounding feet brought more attention to her and whatever was in the bush started following. She could hear the footfalls behind her and tried her best to run faster.

Minutes passed as she ran, but whatever was following her was gaining on her. She looked back to see the creature, hoping it wasn’t a wolf, and tripped over something. Rolling into a ball when she came to a stop she held her breath. Now she just waited for the wolf to take a bite out of her. Instead of that happening the creature stopped beside her and started sniffing. Still scared of the possible wolf sniffing her she unrolled and immediately pulled the creature into a hug.

“Zeus!” Samantha cried out.

It was her bull mastiff. He was shaking his whole body and started to lick her face when it was exposed. After her fear completely subsided she noticed she had tripped over her basket of mushrooms. Getting to her feet she picked up the grass woven container and piled the scattered edibles back inside it,

“SAMANTHA!” A feminine voice yelled.

“MOTHER?” Samantha yelled back.

“WHERE ARE YOU?”

“I AM OVER HERE WITH ZEUS!”

Another bush moved and her mother appeared.

“Get your butt home, missy. It’s past sunset.” The older woman said, concern leaving her as her eyes fell on her daughter.

“Yes, ma’am.”