Walking With The Tree People

• Liv Greenhalgh, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2019

I stared at them, and they stared back. So many piercingly blue eyes peered from behind the trees of the Stygerian Forest.
“Who are you?” I call out to them, in hope that they would tell me. It’s a question I had been thinking ever since I wandered into the forest. Everyone in the village knows, if you stray from the path in the Stygerian Forest, you don’t come back.
“We are the tree folk, leading the human travellers to a place they can call home. Please, follow us before the sun goes down, there are other creatures in the forest than just us you know.” They call back, and one by one the blue eyes vanish, and a hand reaches out from the trees signalling me to follow.
I walk between the trees with the tree folk and they point out their favourite places in the forest, and as we walk, I see many beautiful things. I see birds flying in circles high in their nests, I see deer and stag drinking from the river.
I suppose everything is beautiful once you begin to truly look at things.
I see the bees buzzing as they work, I see bears caring for their cubs.
If you leave the path to see the world, you can see that what you may think is awful, might be the most amazing thing you’ve ever experienced.
As we arrive in an open area of the forest, I see huts high above in the trees and heads pop out of the little windows. I see the people who have vanished in the Stygerian Forest. Woodchopper Sam, Butcher John and even Seamstress Sue.
Then I hear her call my name. Dahlia, my sister. She went missing only a few days before I came here, but it was still the worst time of my life. But here she is, in this place in the forest.
“Where are we, Dahlia?” I ask her urgently, I don’t want to be putting her in any more danger than she’s already in, even though the tree folk said it was safe.
“We’re home Rose, we’re home.”