Then a girl came over to play.
A cute girl it's golden braids.
...Don't go too deep into the forest. That's what my father had always told me. All the adults in the village said the same thing, so it seemed like a platitude said to children who wanted to play in the forest. The wind blew, making my skirt and golden braids sway. Holding the hair out of my eyes, I looked up. Through gaps in the green branches above my head, I could just barely see the blue sky. It was a hot summer afternoon. And there I was, in the forest.
There was a great forest near the village I lived in. The forest, which was bountiful year-round, was very useful for the villagers. I liked to pick flowers there myself, and it was a familiar playground to me. I stepped on the twigs with my leather shoes. I walked the forest with a hazy feeling. I'm going to play in the forest, I casually said. At my back, father said it again. Don't go too deep into the forest. He said it just as casually, I felt. I let it slip through my ears as usual. But for some odd reason, his words seemed to clutch at my chest today. I was thirteen now. Do you really think I'd get lost in the forest, dad?
My father, a hunter, was always going into the forest. There were adults who went looking for wild plants, too. It wasn't like they couldn't go deep in the forest. Why tell us we can't go? There seemed to be no reason at all. Such was my thought as I walked along, going deeper than I usually did.
I hesitated slightly, but I knew my way back. I kept walking. There was tall grass all around, probably because people rarely went this way. I soon grew tired and sat down on a moderately-sized fallen tree. There were little white flowers around the tree. As I gazed at the lovely flowers, I thought. They had the same name as me - Viola. Though I didn't see them often, as this wasn't their season.
I loved flowers. Just looking at them seemed to make time pass in a blink. A pleasant wind blew at my hair. Just sitting there in the wind made me feel like I was a flower myself. A perfectly calm forest. It made my eyes droop shut. ...And then -
Rustle.
I nearly leapt up in surprise at the noise from the thicket behind me. As I turned around, my father's words filled my head again.
What would I do if it were a beast? But there couldn't be beasts in such shallow forest. Wiping away a cold sweat, I saw...
Meeoh.
A black cat, meowing in a very low voice. It looked at me with gold eyes, swinging its long tail. After my breath stopped for a moment, I took a deep sigh. "Whew..." I giggled, laughing at my silliness. "Come here." I squatted and beckoned to it. The cat curtly turned its back to me, so I hurried to my feet. I thought it was running away, but it wasn't so. It walked slowly within my sight, turning back to me and meowing again. I stood there and blinked. Was it saying to follow...? It seemed strange to think, but that was how it seemed.
I didn't think the cat was inviting me into a world of dreams or anything like that, but my feet naturally followed it. It stepped into a thicket, taking a path I didn't know. Perhaps at this rate, I would be going deep into the forest... I hesitated. But only for a moment. My haste at losing sight of the black cat led me to jump into the thicket.
I walked behind the black cat. Past the thicket were paths barely wide enough for a person to walk along.
After a while of walking up and down slight inclines, an open area came into sight. It was a little flower garden. Red bell-shaped flowers and blue flowers bloomed in a mixture. Who knew such a place was here? I delighted upon seeing the flowers. I squatted down to pick one, and the black cat meowed to call me. When I looked up, I saw it sitting between a gap in the trees, looking my way. It seemed the path went on. The cat didn't wait for me to stand and went deeper. "W-Wait!" I raised my voice, but knew it wouldn't stop the cat. I hurried to my feet and reluctantly left the flower garden behind.
I followed the black cat between the trees. And there appeared before me - "Wow..." A great garden teeming with red roses. A sigh slipped out my mouth. There was a single path ahead of me, as if adorned by the roses around it. And there were all kinds of flowers, not just roses. At the end of the path was a great mansion. I felt like I really had been taken to a world of dreams.
I followed the cat up to the mansion. I looked up at the two-story building. A red roof sat atop dark stone walls. There were flowers decorating the windows. The house stood as if concealed by the trees surrounding it. The cat slid through the front door of the house. Had it already been open? The door didn't close, but remained slightly ajar.
