Day 19

Continued from Day 16. Yesterday and the day before were a bit of a cop out, so I thought I'd get some more of this novel thingy written today. ^_^

***

Even at a young age, before disillusion set in and such fantasies went the way of Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairy, she had instinctively known that going any farther would put an end to her imaginings.

Now, though, there was nothing to stop her from following the path to wherever it led; after seven years away, talking rodents and tiny people with wings were all but forgotten. Violet barely hesitated as she came to the wood, and she trod onwards, pointedly pushing the empty boxes she’d left behind to the back of her mind.

It was cool in the shadow of the trees, and a wind rustled the leaves of the canopy above. The cultivated flowers were soon left behind her, and she breathed in the smell of earth and damp. Beyond the well-tended path the undergrowth grew wild and untamed, and Violet had a sudden fancy that as she walked the plants were closing in, encroaching across the path behind her so that it disappeared entirely. She did not turn around.

Violet wondered why the path was there. Someone—most likely her grandmother, though she shied away from that train of thought—had obviously used it regularly, but there didn’t seem to be much point to it. She supposed the wood was pretty, if a bit unnerving. But where did it go?

That question was soon answered when she turned a corner and the trees began to thin. She stepped out into the bright sunlight, blinking, and surveyed the meadow before her. Here the path petered out, getting quickly lost in the tall grasses. Violet waded through them slowly, looking around. There was nothing there. No sign of civilization, no sign of the path. Just a meadow surrounded by hedgerows, and a country lane on the other side.

The scene jolted as her foot caught in a hole and she stumbled. She righted herself, cheeks burning even though no one was there to see her clumsiness. Brushing off her trousers Violet glanced back over her shoulder and froze.

The wood was gone. Where there had been trees there was now only a hedgerow, and behind that another field. There was no sign of the way she had come, even though she had only walked twenty paces out into the meadow.