Miss Claus and Me

Chapter Eleven ~ The path of selflessness

Once they had left the bridge of belief behind them, it hadn't taken long before they had found the path of selflessness. For the first half an hour or so, nothing actually happened.

Amelia was very grateful for the clothes that Livie had bought for her to wear though, with all of this walking through the snow she was sure that she would have been doomed without them.

Eventually Amelia began to see something different ahead of them than what had been there before. Instead of the vast snow-covered fields they had been walking through all of this time, the path now lead them into a forest.

The air smelt of pine and as Amelia breathed it in she couldn't remember when she had smelt something so strong. Usually woods like this would have a sort of cosy atmosphere to them, but as soon as she had entered them, Amelia had felt a sense of foreboding that caused her heart to sink in her chest.

As the two of them came across a crossroads in the pathway, Amelia began to think that her feeling may have been right. If they choose the wrong path, they might get very lost and never find their way to Eve.

"Which way do you think we should go?" Amelia asked her little companion.

"I don't know Amelia... but whichever one we pick it has to be the right one. If we get lost in here, who knows how long it might take us to find a way out."

Amelia thought for a moment.

"Perhaps if we tried both, just for a little while to see which one looks right and than come right back if it's the wrong one?"

The fairy nodded.

"That sounds like as good a plan as any."
She said.

But as soon as they had tried to step a foot onto the path to their right, some kind of force pushed them backwards, blowing Amelia off of her feet and onto the snow covered ground, and Livie into a tree.

"Woah! What was that?!" Amelia asked as she tried to recover from the harsh winding of the fall.

"Livie are you ok?" She asked as she got up and brushed herself off.

The fairy coughed.

"Y-yeah I think so. You?"

Amelia simply nodded as she looked at the path in dismay.

"I guess it's not as simple as we thought than huh?"

She asked as she walked back up to the path, put her hand out and touched the strange magic that prevented her from crossing its borders.

"Amelia look here, this might help!"

Livie suddenly exclaimed, causing Amelia to run towards her to see what she had found.

"Another hand print?" Amelia wondered as she gazed at the old tree stump in wonder.

"Do you think?"

She asked, the fairy nodded. The two of them held their breathe as Amelia placed her hand onto the imprint that must have been carved into the old stump years ago, and pushed.

To their astonishment the force field that had prevented them from crossing the path suddenly became visible, and that wasn't the only thing.

There, on both paths, where images. It was almost like they where looking into a television of sorts, only these ones where a part of the magic that prevented them from crossing either path and it all seamed to be held together by two great arch ways that Amelia hadn't even noticed until now.

The archways where made up of branches that had been twisted together like you would do if you where plaiting a dolls hair, and the flowers that grew on them looked like tiny little bells that tinkled sweetly in the wind.