The Forest

Chapter Twelve

` This is amazing. I can`t believe that we are here. ` said Phillip. His face was lit by all the beautiful lights as he stared at all of the wonders that were around him. The doors closed behind them all on their own. The forest looked even better, There were so many things to be discovered and found out. They were happy and amazed at what they could see Philip was still holding her hand and she was so happy about that. She wanted to hold it forever. It was like a drream come true. She was like in her favorite book - a great new magical place and a guy she liked. ` You should go first. ` Philip said, letting her go. He smiled and couldn`t wait to step into a new mystery. ` Me?` she asked, wanting someone else to go first. She was happy but she was scared. What could happen to them? What if she does something wrong and they all die? What if it is all her fault and their mission fails and her life falls apart? ` Now, don`t be scared, you have to go first so we can go behind you. ` said Vinnie. He put his hand on her shoulder and supported her. He wanted to be able to help her more but he also wanted to see her reach heights that he knew she could reach. He liked her because she was so much like Magda but there was also something very different about her, she was nice and a bit shy. Magda didn`t have that. Magda was harsh and loud and arrogant. Tilia was a nice girl. She was kind and brought peace with her wherever she went. ` Does anyone else want to wear it? ` asked Tilia, hoping that someone will say yes but no such luck. She had to do it. She had to be their leader through the forest, the one to save them. She couldn`t hide behind someone like she would normally do. She had to be strong. ` Honey, you can do it. ` said Maria, looking at her gently. Maria always helped her realize her full potential and break free from herself. To show her true colors and what she could truly do. ` Yes, Tili, we believe in you. ` said Pillip, grabbing her hand again and squeezing it hard. HE liked her but her shyness sometimes got the best of her. Caddie looked bored and they were all just waiting for her. Out of fear of disappointment, she accepted. ` Thanks. ` she said to them and gave Caddie a mean look. That woman didn`t like her at all. She rolled her eyes at her and turned around, impatient, unwilling to wait for her to make up her mind and start walking already. Tilia took the ninghtingale pendant and squeezed it tight in her fist. The nightingale shined the most beautiful rose light anyone has ever seen. It looked like a sunset in August, so beautiful, elusive, uncatchable and yet there, warm and comforting at the same time being exciting and inviting. A gentle song came out of the pendant, a melody so intricate and delicate than only the force of nature could develop it. It was embodied in the pendant to sing a tune of warning when darkness was near those who serve it but that tune sounded nothing like a warning, but more like a siren`s song, inviting and pulling them in to listen, to pay attention and lose all sense of place and time. Such a melody doesn`t belong in a dangerous place but paradise, far from what the forest was but much alike what the forest looked like. ` Hey, this thing just lit up. ` said Philip, numb to the world, looking at Tilia in that beautiful light and thinking that she must be the most amazing creature in the world. He loved every tune, forgetting what it meant and what kind of danger it brought to them. Or what kind of danger brought up the sound. ` Yes, that`s what it does. ` said Caddie, uninterested in their amazement as she has seen ant traveled in that light many times but her old soul still remembered the first time she saw it and she knew that under that light she fell in love too, unaware, young and free, welcoming like she wasn`t now, excited for the new future she had. She liked someone, she loved someone and then she lost. That light brought her restlessness and a certain sound of sadness that she couldn`t contol or fight. It was her blues, that tune. She used to love it but now it was just a sad reminder of what it used to be. ` That is so cool. ` said Phillip, still lost in the green of Tili`s eyes, unaware that every single one of those people he waked with had their own reason for loving the light. Vinnie smiled like a boy watching them bathe in the rosy light and he almost laughed because his heart remembered that it was the first time he saw it that he found friends for the first time- something he never had before. He threw his hand around Cross` shoulders and squeezed him. Cross couldn`t help but smile at his people, knowing that even though he would like to be alone he is not and that`s something to be kind and happy about. That`s how it should be. That`s how it always was. His friends and him. He never fell in love - nor did he want to - but he always enjoyed with them. He missed them unlike anyone else as they were his family. They started walking through the forest, cloaked by the light, with the tune ringing in their heads. They knew they were being followed but they couldn`t help but soak in all the beauty that they saw. This was a world far from their own, a different world where anything could happen. The trees were tall and their crust white as if it had gone gray from old age, as if those were the subtle streaks of an old man`s hair. The treetops almost touched the sky with their delicate leaves, loving the sun with their yellow color which was not a sign of the season but a constant, a beautiful color that filled the forest in greatness, together with light pink flowers on every other tree. There were no greens or blues or browns, only the colors of a sun falling asleep in a summer day. Only blues were those in tiny lights hanging from branches, creating a perfect contrast with their rose light. The lights made love, kissing each other on the neck an rolling on a lilac grass like it was their bed. The group walked and enjoyed the view of a beaming forest, loving every step but taking it with precaution because it was not only beauty but also danger that the forest hid in it`s crusts and flowerbeds. ` This place is kinda creepy. ` said Philip, awake and fully aware as he sensed what the nightingale announced, the eyes following them through and through, watching them, claws ready to sink into their skin, soft and tender, their minds fragile and easy to access with all the dreams that lay in their hearts. They could all feel it and it lessened the appeal that the forest had. It was dangerous. It was a beautiful poison. ` Yeah, definitely. ` said Maria, still in a dream, realizing the danger that it could have. If forest alone had that kind of effect on them then the Snatchers must be intoxicating like a good wine, or a song or love. It was all she could think about, her dreams, her hopes and how easy it would be to step out of that light and let them take her and kiss away reality, hug her in a snuggly blanket of unconciousness, loving her every thought. She could barely hold herself steady. She wondered what would happen if only she let one of her fingers raw to the blue lights, but she couldn`t do it, the rose light was strong and just s demanding. ` Why exactly are they afraid of nightingales?` asked Philip, wondering what could those little birdies do to scare big scary dream snatchers, what could it be about those fragile animals that evokes fear in even the darkest creatures. ` No idea, I never quite understood it. Magda once said that only a nightingale can see them. And then, when they see them they announce it with their beautiful song. ` said Vinnie, in wonder to what he missed all these years that Magda was dead. He remembered how raw this place can make you feel, how exposed and tiny compared to what is ahead. His steps were careful but his ming was running off to play around with those tingling lights, away in his own neverland, away where no one could find him or judge him by his size and looks, but by what is in his heart, how small he is there where it counts, how he wished he was what he saw himself to be. ` So every time we hear those birds sing it means that the creatures are near us. ` said Maria, pulling herself closer to Tilia, who was in her own dream, in her own fantasy. The forest was magic and now, so was she. She was a part of something bigger. ` Snatchers. Their name is Snatchers. ` said Cross, the most together person, in love with the dreadful silence the forest had to offer to him. It always knew what he needed and he loved that place for it, he loved every inch. ` Snatchers.` Tilia repeated, looking away in the bushes where the rosy light wasn`t and blues started, there where her enemies were just waiting for her to make a mistake so that they can come and take her away. ` And yes, basically. ` said Caddie. ` I don`t really like this place. ` said Maria. ` No one does. But we have to. ` said Vinnie, lying to himself. ` I can hear them. `said Philip. ` Be careful now. ` said Caddie ` You can`t see them, but they are there. ` said Cross, staring at the flowerbeds and lilac grass beneath his shiny shoes. ` Even creepier. ` said Philip. ` It is. Stay in the light. ` said Caddie. ` So, how did you people even hunt them? `asked Maria. ` Your grandfather, he had a gift for that, he could see them.` said Cross. ` Can you see them Tili? ` asked Maria. ` No…` said Tilia. ` Well of course not, he`s not dead. `said Caddie. ` What does that have to do with anything? ` asked Philip. ` Seriously, you can`t inherit someone`s gifts if they are alive. Only with death those gifts pass along. ` said Caddie. ` Oh. But does she have her grandma`s powers then? `asked Maria. ` Who knows? ` said Cross. ` Yeah, maybe she does but maybe her mother has them and still doesn`t know it.` said Vinnie. ` How could that be? ` asked Tilia. ` It is possible that the gift that your grandma had is sleeping inside your mother. Those things happen. ` ` Oh. ` she said. And suddenly, a house appeared in front of them, a quaint little thing that stretched between two trees and kissed the top branches of those yellow trees. It was grand in its smallness, a hide away of sorts, and everyone could tell that it was, a place you run to not from. She imagined her grandmas hands on those walls, she imagined her face smiling through that window and imagined her life if she grew up there, in the land of magic. There was a single lantern there, shining the same rose light upon the entire cottage, and it`s insides were just as rosy and beautiful. It was safe. It was grand. They all realized that it was a home of sorts. There was nowhere safer in the world except there. And that was enough. ` Here it is. Our house. `