Lost, Not Forgotten

The Girl in the Woods

Vivian didn’t know where she came from. She didn’t know why she was here or what lay beyond the thick forest walls that surrounded her. All she knew was the gentle tug in her heart, pulling her forward, urging her to keep moving.

The forest was a realm of strange magic, alive in ways she could not explain. Her footsteps were soft on the moss-covered ground, her eyes wide as they caught glimpses of delicate flowers and shimmering berry bushes. Over the weeks—had it been weeks? Or months?—she had learned which plants she could eat, the ones that tasted sweet and filled her with warmth.

Vivian knelt beside a stream, her reflection gazing back with the same soft, confused green eyes and red hair she saw every day. It had taken practice, but she’d learned to fish here, carving a small spear from a sturdy branch to catch the silvery creatures that darted below the water’s surface. And sometimes, she caught crawfish that scuttled over rocks, their hard shells a challenge but nothing she couldn’t handle.

Despite the wildness around her, there was a grace to her movements, a quiet understanding of how to survive. The forest embraced her, its magic feeding her in ways that felt both familiar and unknown.

A soft breeze stirred the trees, and with it, she felt that pull again. There was something waiting for her, something just beyond the shadows of the forest. She could feel it. And though she was afraid, she also knew she had no choice.

She had to keep moving.