The fall leaves crunched under my heavy black boots. The sunlight grew dimmer with each step farther down the path into the forest. Shining through the leaves, the sunlight tinted everything a deep, emerald green.
It was just a few weeks before I'd be returning to university. I was honestly dreading it. The stress and all-nighters and parental pressure really had gotten to me last semester and I had been glad for the summer break. But I wasn't here to think about that. I was here to get away from everything, to bask in the crisp early autumn air.
I sat down on a mossy log and luxuriated in the pureness of being immersed in nature. The trees around me stretched upward towards the sky, their bright red and orange leaves making them almost look like they were on fire. Birds flitted around their branches, chirping joyfully.
I walked onwards, wandering into a clearing glowing with sunlight. Right in the middle were mushrooms peaking out from the grass to form a circle. Their color seemed to shift subtly, but it must have just been a trick of the light. My particularly superstitious roommate had once told me that mushroom circles were portals to the fae world.
"Sela, that doesn't make any sense- they're just a naturally occurring phenomenon," I had said, sparking a bitter debate that I'd later regretted. There was something strange about these mushrooms though that made me almost doubt my rationalist convictions. Almost. I strode across the clearing, through the circle, back into the embrace of the dense forest.
As expected, I was not magically transported to another realm. I mean, I felt a bit dizzy, but that was probably unrelated. I tried to shake it off and keep walking, but I soon realized that I was no longer on the path. The trees looked different too. Unfamiliar fruit hung from them, ripe and fragrant. Soon, I spotted a lithe woman in the distance.
"Hello? Do you know how to get back on the trail?" I called out to her.
She turned to look at me and I knew immediately that she was not an average hiker like me. Though the air was now still, her hair flowed like a gentle wind was sweeping through it. Her ears poked out from between the ebony locks, long and pointed. Her skin was copper brown and shone in the light that seeped through the canopy. Her cheekbones were high and regal. She was crowned with a silver headress and draped in an elegant black dress reaching her ankles. It was a contrast to my simple outfit of denim shorts and a tie dye crop top.
The strange woman approached me with curiosity in her deep brown eyes. "What are you doing here, human?" She spoke in a strange, lilting accent that I couldn't quite place.
"I- um- I think i got lost," I stuttered out, stunned by her ethereal beauty.
"Very lost, it seems." She touched my cheek gently with slender fingers, sending tingles down my spine. Her deep brown eyes met mine and she licked her lips. "May I have your name?"
