The hike up the steep hillsides of her hometown was a familiar one to Jessica. She came here a lot when she was little to get away from her bitchy family and overbearing mother. The fresh air and the steady heat always made her feel more alive and in touch with the world around her. The tall trees dripped with both moss and moisture, and the clear creeks that babbled by were wonderful places to stop and refresh from the warm air before continuing along to the crest of the hill.
As familiar as the trail was Jessica hadn't been up here for years. She had moved out at 18 to attend college as far from this backwoods hellhole as she could get. It had been almost ten years exactly since she had moved out, actually. And here she was, back in the old stomping grounds, trying to clear her head as the rest of her family tried to argue and reason and beg something of the estate her parents had left to her from her. They had died suddenly, in a car accident, but owned a sizable house in a secluded spot with tons of otherwise worthless land. Jessica had an ally in her older brother, who wanted the will executed as their parents wished, and he had told her to go blow off some steam after seeing how all the arguing and yelling had been getting to her.
So here she was, climbing the old trails and remembering the old sights and smells while her brother wielded a metaphorical whip and drove everyone out of what was now Jessica's house. Aunts and cousins and uncles who had never cared about her and her abuse before suddenly crawling from the woodwork like so many bloodsucking termites claiming that they had always cared about her and always had her back when things got rough, yet had nothing to say when Jess fired back with examples and receipts of the times she had literally begged for them to take her from this place so she could live a normal life. They knew what was happening, and hadn't cared before, and Jessica was not going to let that fact go.
She was panting pretty hard now. The climb was a lot harder than she remembered it being, and she was looking forward to that first stream where she could rest. Just a bit.. Ah, there was the marker. A stack of flat stones on the far edge of a curve in the trail she remembered stacking there when she was 10. The memory of finding those perfect flat river stones made her smile for the first time all day, and she quickened her pace. Just around the corner there was a small stone bridge that went over the creek, and Jessica sighed with relief. The water was cool and clear as always and as Jess knelt on the stoney bank and dipped her hands in, she inhaled the scents of this lush forest, taking a deep drink.
The air was filled with the smell of the damp moss and the wet river and the leafy growing trees, but there was also a strange floral scent that Jessica didn't remember being there before. It was subtle but insistent, seeming to catch onto her nostrils and coat everything else she smelled. It was intriguing to say the least, and Jess found herself looking around trying to find whatever flower was producing that lovely smell. Having a bloom like that at her new home would do wonders to cheer her up. And so, abandoning the trail and her hike to the peak she started up along the bank of the creek, looking for that wonderful smell.
She walked upstream, carefully stepping around boulders and following deer trails for awhile as her nose led her up to what looked like a crack in the edge of a cliffside that marked the top of the hills. The cliffs were tall and muddy, but the stream had cut a deep furrough into it as it splashed its way down the hill. Looking back she could still see the trail only a few hundred feet below. There was a ledge along the creek that should let her into that strange little valley she saw beyond the cliff wall, and so Jess squeezed in, stepping sideways along the slippery bank and finding the trail difficult but not impossible. That scent was stronger here, almost overwhelming in its heady aroma and her brain started to feel a bit fuzzy.
The trail ended after about twenty feet, opening into a large bowl-like valley that was maybe a few hundred feet wide but with walls stretching up above cutting the daylight off almost totally. The trees here were slender but tall, with thick leaves that did an excellent job blocking out even more light, and so she stood next to the bank of a large bubbling spring staring around at the twilight she was suddenly plunged into. Night insects were chirping here, and it felt utterly surreal to hear the chirping and calling when it was barely even 2 in the afternoon. The air was still, and so utterly drenched in the scent she was definitely feeling light-headed.
Glancing wildly about, she finally noticed the slender trees were the bearers of the blossoms causing this heady aroma. They featured little white flowers all in among the leaves, the size of a quarter or so, but at the top of the trunk, pointing towards the sky was a massive purple blossom that Jessica had never even heard of before let alone could try to guess what it was. It had to be as big as her head at least, and each of the dozen trees had one only.
Carefully leaving the slippery edge of the spring and creek she walked among the deep grasses and just stared up at the tall slender plants before her. Bending a bough down, she smelled the little white flowers and found them to have a smell as well, something musky and spicy almost and yet just as cloying as the overwhelming floral scent she knew must be coming from the giant purple blossoms. With crickets humming their mating songs she stopped at a tree that was thicker than the rest, might even be able to old her weight.
