Page 2 of Up from the Earth

Mother’s voice echoed in my head. I didn’t know what she was so worried about. It was just the forest. I loved it there, especially now that spring was returning. My birthday was tomorrow, the Spring Equinox, and increasingly more so, the woods felt more home to me than the house.

Of course, I would do my best to listen to my mother. I wasn’t interested in testing her limits of patiencetoomuch, and as far as paths went, the worn trail through the woods taken by us Sisters for the centuries our ancestors had settled here was little more than a winding section that had packed down the earth with years and years of foot traffic.

Snap.

Turning to my right, I noticed a small brown rabbit hop away through a bush and smiled. I loved their sweet noses and wide eyes. The rabbit’s quick speed was impressive as well, and I took a cue from it to hurry up my steps.

Several yellow and tan mushrooms crowded near a cluster of fallen branches. I hastily plucked them, keeping the edible ones to the right and the poisonous ones to the left.

Bird sounds played overhead as I slipped deeper into the forest, following the trail that ran alongside the thin stream. The dirt was soft beneath my feet, and a cloud of tiny white butterflies stirred up as I stepped over a slick rock, not wanting to fall.

“Hello,” I whispered to them, grinning as I tracked their flight up to the canopy and beyond. The yellow, gold sun beat down through sporadic cracks in the canopy’s cover, dappling the ground with shafts of light that looked like portals.

Just then, up ahead in a glowing section of sunlight was a small cluster of bright red mushrooms. Their white spots freckled the tops, and my heartbeat quickened.Fly amanita. They’ve been so hard to find.

I took off for them, taking broad steps to avoid the thicker areas of ground vines and tree roots. It didn’t take more than a minute or two to reach the fallen tree trunk that had become home to the little fungi, and I bent over, picking several and depositing them into my basket.

A swoop of my waist-length, blonde waves tumbled over my shoulder, and as I tucked it behind my ear, the ring on my middle finger slipped off, falling to the ground.

“No!”

My mother had given me the slim gold band years ago, and I landed hard on my knees as I stuffed my hands into the undergrowth, groping frantically for it. I couldn’t see past the thick vines and moss that covered my fists as I searched, but after a moment, I felt something small and hard and metallic.

When I pulled it up, it was indeed my ring, but the slick moisture clinging to my fingers made me clumsy, dropping it again. This time, it rolled forward down a compacted bit of earth flatter than those around it. I chased after, running forward with little care that I’d lost both my boots in the thick mud behind me.

I could taste the tang in the air deepen, the pound of my blood through my ears crescendoing like a drumbeat. Catching up to my rogue bit of jewelry, I launched myself forward, snatching it before it rolled over the edge of this short ridge and down into the darker forest below, where it would surely be gone forever.

“Gotcha.” I slipped the ring back in place and hoisted myself up onto my knees. “Oh, how pretty.”

Near another downed tree was a circular collection of wildflowers. They were well into their growth, which was surprising considering it hadn’t been spring for long. I stood up, walking the few feet over to them, and reached out for the nearest bloom.

The fragile white petals looked impossibly perfect and small, each bloom no bigger than a fingernail. I ran my hand over the top of the flowers, feeling them call out for me, whispering in my blood for me to weave them through my very soul.

Without another thought, I plucked one from the ring of flowers and held it closer to my chest. As I did, the frail, soft white petals turned a deep purplish-red, expanding into wide curved pieces of a much larger flower.

“How did you…That’s beautiful.”

There was magic in these woods, and I wouldn’t argue with that. So, I instead threaded the stem of the gorgeous bloom through the braid at the left side of my head, weaving it through the pale yellow strands until it was safely tucked in place.

Abruptly, I realized that I’d gotten a bit side-tracked, and I needed to head back to the house to prepare the mushrooms. I turned around, leaving the denser part of the woods to be explored another day. As I did, a shadow passed over the trees, sending a chill down my spine.

I shivered, pulling in on myself. “It’s probably getting late. I need to get back.”

As I moved forward, I realized that the tiny path I was to remain on was up ahead. I’d gotten distracted by my ring and nearly wound up lost. It was a good thing I didn’t wander too far.

I approached the trail, ready to go home and tuck myself into the comfy confines of my bed, when I noticed another bit of white glinting dimly in the shadowy light that made it through the trees. It didn’t look like more flowers or mushrooms, and ignoring it was the best course of action.

Still, as I walked closer to the edge of the trail where it sat, I couldn’t stop myself from examining it. I stooped low, moving aside a bit of moss that had grown over whatever this was. As I lifted the green cover away, my stomach dropped at the sight.

A skeleton.

I’d seen several animal remains in these woods. It was commonplace, a part of nature. This wasnotan animal. As I examined the thin spinal column—mushrooms and vines growing through the gaps in the bone—I knew that it belonged to a human.

“Oh.”

My chest squeezed, and I dropped the moss back into place with a rough swallow. Death was natural, the darker half of the endless cycle, but a part of me felt…sorrow for whoever it had been. Offering a gentle smile and patting the moss, I whispered into the darkening forest.

“Be at peace.”

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