Sense of Wonder

Passing the pond, sounds of rushing winds are heard as the yelps from various animals echo throughout the vast forest. The tiny gal walks forward staring at the glistening leaves as they sparkle in the sunlight. Stars of the morning, maybe not as plentiful as the night sky but equally as vibrant for rainbows cover the surface of each water droplet. Further ahead a single blood red rose the size of the small child comes to view. Petals softer than velvet, roots white as snow encroaching the forest floor. Even the oldest trees that have reached the clouds couldn’t escape the flower's grasp. Seeing the still germinating pod the lil girl takes a sharp right, aware of where she is and where she wishes to go. The lash green of the forest dims slowly turning to a deathly white. A plague to the forest is what that flower is as its roots burrow themselves into everything, eating the forest's vitality from the inside out.

However, the flower is not so simple, the roots encompassing this portion of the forest bloom tiny blue roses that release tiny orange spores into the air. From the spores' cocoons are formed, and spotted butterflies are born. Thousands are swarming this section of the forest, yet with a gentle glow from a crystal around the girls neck the butterflies scatter. Several butterflies, scorched by the crystals light as they fly too close to the tiny gal. She begins moving around look for something a pristine stone road not perverted by natures touch. Approaching the road small intricate carvings along the sides of the road begin to shine as fireflies manifest from the archaic runes. Tiny floating lights to accompany the girl along the path creating a barrier between her and the surrounding nature guardians of the stone road.

Here that gal would observe the butterflies as they would eat the nearby flowers. Their translucent wings taking the color of their diet while still maintaining various transparent spots. The child would watch in amazement as the butterflies change colors and dance in the wind.

No matter the level of enjoyment all must come to an end as the daylight will soon pass. A child is still a child with its own fears and worries. Without a guardian the child still has its own safe haven, its own mother, a small wooden cabin at the end of the road. There the lights always stay on and food is always present courtesy of, narrator. She enters and hugs one of the support beams from the warm house with a bright smile the child speaks “ama”.

In a distant place the narrator feels his pocket watch vibrate as it exits his front pocket a image of the gal manifests before the narrator. There he can see the child eating in the cabin.

“Good your home, guess I do not need to keep searching for you”.

The narrator watched as the child finished eating, soon falling asleep on the wolf pelt near the cabin's fireplace. Putting the watch away the narrator looks at the sky observing as the sun slowly begins to set.

There he stood before a black cave, the opening riddled with bones and fresh blood, the heavy smell of iron still present. The cadaver of a child laying outside, with a slight bow the narrator says a few words to the dead child.

“May you find sweet dreams in your sleep, and forget about today's nightmare.” A small orb of light exits the child's body leaving the reaches of the forest floating towards the stars.

Makes me wonder how the child ever got this far by herself whatever the reason. If that reason happened to follow her here it’s most likely dead by now., might as well sever problem before it escalates.

With a large leap the narrator passes the foliage of the forest and begins examining the surroundings. Looking through the sea of darkness and trees a small light source barely visible with a stream of smoke catches the narrator's eye. Normally a narrator is forbidden from interfering with the world they inhabit, however nothing is without loopholes. Something this idiot has been messing with for various years even before taking a personal interest in the child of today.

Miracles as some may refer to them, or lucky coincidences, are each caused by a form of indirect interference. The rogue car missing you by a foot just because a stranger happened to bump into you. The sudden spontaneous decision to play the lottery winning on your first try. Each situation is extremely lucky, but are all orchestrated by a series of dominos placed in a specific order to bring about such miraculous results.

Approaching the camp a group of five individuals come into view. 2 females by the looks of it and 3 men each donning a cloak and face cover. The first to speak was a scrawny man with pointy ears and golden eyes.

“This place is pretty creepy, but nothing like the legends say. Guess rumors about this place hold no merit”

Responding to the statement was one of the females wearing a silver bracelet
“We did come across some rare beasts on our search, but nothing we couldn't handle. Still this place feels off as if I’m being watched. As soon as we find the girl, we should leave this place.”

From the attentive listeners the most muscular male adds his 2 cents.
“Dead or alive that is what the contract said, so we just need her body. If someone would have done their job, we wouldn’t have to go through this hassle.”

Silence fell between the group as they all turned to Mr. scrawny.

“I did my job if the scout hadn’t failed to mention that the damn unexpected guest was a trained knight. I wouldn’t have been too preoccupied to capture the girl while everyone else was silencing possible witnesses.”

Mr. Scrawny turns to look at the final male who is maintaining his silence same as the final female.

“Here we are now so let's just finish this quick and be done with it.” Scrawny says as they douse the flames and retrieve what seems to be some rations they ate before we got here.

Following closely behind, the narrator notices one of the members holding a charm which conceals their presence, probably a reason why these people had it so easy. That or maybe they just happen to be the luckiest people in the world, the same as that dead child.

Following the miniature footprints from the child the group quickly approaches the cave with the freshly deceased child. For the hell of it the narrator tosses a stick into the cave.

Wonder if anyone is home

The sudden sound put the group on high alert as they notice the bloody ground and their target’s corpse, the little girl.

The moment of solitude brought back memories before the appearance of the child 2 long years ago.