The dark forest

Chapter 1: Humble Beginnings

The Dark Forest

You wake up in a sunny clearing. Above is a man-sized hole in the 'sky'. You stand up and look around.

Surrounding you is a dark forest. The bark is a dark almost black brown, and the leaves are a deep green. The 'sky' is pitch black except for the hole that you made. The sun peeking through is the only light here. 

Your brain tries to scratch together what happened. Last you were walking to clear your head in the forest, suddenly the ground gave out beneath you, and you awoke here. 

How strange.

As you walk along the trees a deep rich smell of soil hits your nose. It reminds you of your mom's potting soil.

The deeper you go, the darker the forest gets, but at the same time, a luminescent shimmer starts to come from the trees. After a few more feet you can see the dark trees speckled with a bright beautiful blue bioluminescence. You stop in awe for a moment and trace your hand over it. It comes off the tree and onto your hand. Out of pure curiosity, you bring your glowing blue hand and fill your nose with the smell of blue raspberry candy. 

The uncharacteristic and unexpected smell makes your adrenaline spike. You wipe your hand off on your shirt and start to walk a little faster.

You continue through the forest holding onto yourself. You try not to think about how lost, hungry, or weirded out you are.  

As you're about to take a step onto a nice crunchy leaf when a small child runs out in front of you. 

"Earnest! Where are you?!" The child is presumably yelling for another child. This child is shorter than you and is wearing a cool blue peter pan collared dress. A neat white flower is in their thick and fluffy brown hair. They stand out against the dark surroundings.

"Hello?" You ask as the random child stops in front of you, but they have their back to you. 

"Who said that?" They turn to you; their hair covers their eyes. 

"Um right here." You give a small awkward wave. "Can you not see through all that hair?" They just stand there looking in your general direction.

"Who are you? You're rude." They make an exaggerated frown.

"I wasn't trying to be rude I swear! I'm just standing right in front of you, and you didn't see me." You feel bad for making the child upset but it is quickly diminished when they flash a huge Cheshire grin. 

"I'm just joking," They giggle and start to keep walking.

"Wait! Wait!" The child stops walking and turns to you. "Who are you? Where am I?"

They flash a big smile again. "I am Doc. You're in the dark forest." they giggle. "Did you hit your head?" 

"What? No. Maybe... probably." You shake your head a put your hands up to focus. "Where are you going?"

"I'm playing hide and seek." 

"With who?"

"My brother Earnest!" They give a big smile and start to walk off. You decide to follow her as she's the first person you've met so far. 

𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊

As you both walk together, Doc yells for Earnest as you scan the surrounding woods.

"Doc?" You ask, they turn to you stopping "Is that Earnest?" You point but Doc looks the other way. You turn her in the right direction by moving their shoulders.