Into the Forest (Flash Fiction pt. 2/2)

    Eventually, I reach what I’ve been walking towards. The trees thin out and open up to a large, oval clearing. In the center is an oversized, mammoth of a tree. Somehow, I’ve always known that this tree is older and wiser than the other trees in the forest. It is the wise, old grandmother among the village that surrounds it. Although the tree is old, it stands tall and straight, a beacon of hope. A perfect statue for all other trees to measure themselves against.

    When I step into the clearing, the forest goes quiet. There is a silence about everything, a stillness in the air; but not an eerie one. As I walk toward the old tree, the calming silence wraps tightly around me like a warm blanket. My cheeks are long dried from my tears. I reach out and touch the wide trunk of the tree with my fingertips like I had so many times before.

    “Hello, you,” I whisper. I wrap my arms around the tree tightly, my fingertips not even reaching halfway around. As I close my eyes, I can almost feel the tree wanting to hug me back; I smile again. I turn around and slide down to the ground, leaning up against the tree. I open my notebook and start reading through my words. I can’t figure out where the story seemed so wrong in her eyes. As I flip through the pages, I notice that they are shimmering in the forest light. I flip through the pages faster; my thumb pulling on the edges of the sparkling paper. As the story streams by, I notice that some of the words are written in glittery ink instead of written in the black ink I used.

    I glance up from my notebook and look around the clearing. Everything is just as it was when I sat down and I am still surrounded in my blanket of silence. I turn back to the first page and flip through my notebook again. The glittery words are dancing and jumping about like they have a mind of their own. I am mesmerized by the magic of my own words. I stop flipping through my notebook and open it fully on my lap. How can this be?

    I watch as the page transforms before my eyes. At the top, the first letter grows in size and swirls around to form a large, beautiful, calligraphy-styled letter. Some of the words written in glitter change to different words entirely. A few of them just stay written in the beautiful glitter ink. I turn to the next page and most of the changes have already happened. I flip faster and faster, catching the words dance and change. My heart is pounding quickly as I’m filled with excitement.

    When I close my notebook in awe, the silence is broken. Somewhere in the clearing surrounding me, I hear the forest speak to me. She says, “You are only just beginning.” A chill runs up my spine but the tree makes me feel safe. The notebook on my lap starts to change even more drastically than the words inside of it. A suede binding wraps around the front and the back, transforming the entirety of the flimsy notebook into a beautifully bound book right in front of me. I rub my hands across the front cover in complete awe. The title appears across the front in bold, stamped letters. Then right in the bottom corner of the book my name appears, in beautiful script.

    I turn the book over and over in my hands, unable to believe what just happened. This book looks more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. I have my own finished novel, something that I have always dreamed of. Inside the first page the name of someone that lives in The Common is listed as the printer. I close the book, my book, again and squeeze it tightly to my chest. Somehow I know with all that I am, that all I have to do is take this book to the printer and he will make more copies.

    “Thank you,” I say to the tree, and the forest. “Thank you so much.” A warm breeze swirls around me, ruffling my hair and making me smile. I don’t want to leave the safety of this place but I know that I have to. I have been given a gift from the forest herself, and I won’t waste it.