Hi!

Joneus, Jesse, and Marr seem to have dived into the world of writing. So, here I go too. I warned you all that it's not stuff you'd like, but I am going to put something here anyway. Just for fun, I'm going to let it be inspired by all you guys. Call it peer pressure. *gulp* Me-ow! Here goes.

Forest.

The trees had a curious, lazy slant to them on the day I left. The entire forest smelled like brown, damp rotting leaves as I walked away from the small cabin I had lived in for the past ten years of my life. I was still deep enough in the forest that I could not see the sun, but I could feel that it was already afternoon. Birds chirped noisily in the distance, undisturbed by my footsteps.
A cool wind filtered through the trees and brushed a deep green branch against my chin. I did not want to leave.

"You have to go. There is nothing for you here," my mother said to me. Her eyes narrowed in a worried, yet knowing expression.

"What about you? I mean, you guys are here for me! That's all I need. You, dad, and the life around us!" I rose my hands in an effort to look intimidating.

"Honey," my mother, although very wise, had a habit of using expression that even then I knew were horribly overused, "a girl your age. A girl with such special gifts would only be wasting her time staying here. You have to venture out into the world and see what you've only read about until now. You need to meet other people. Maybe even others like yourself!"

My father looked up from the book he was reading and added, "besides kiddo, weren't not going to be around forever. What will you do here when we're gone?"

This left me speechless for a really long time. My father is really good at applying cold logic to everything. Cold logic that I can't argue with. And, even if I could, he wouldn't listen.

I simply muttered to myself and said nothing else about it.

When I finally did leave, both of my parents stood at the door of the cabin with smiles on their faces. My father ran one hand through his thick black hair and propped himself against the doorway with the other.

"It's okay father, you can cry," I nodded. "In fact, I'd be really happy if one of you would show some kind of emotion other than those fake smiles."

My parents stared at me for a minute and then my mother finally said, "we've taught you well," between small sobs that were barely noticable and hugged me tightly. My father began hugging me as well and whispered, "I'm so proud of the person you've become." I could feel the warm tears streaming down his face on my shirt. "Take this," he continued, handing me a small silver pendant on a chain.

I did not want to leave, I clutched the pendant my father had given me tightly in my hand. The path continued to stretch out before me, and I noticed more light streaming through the trees now. Along the way, I convinced myself that leaving had been a good idea that I thought of on my own and that my parents were simply going along with it. I don't know why. It made me feel better. And I suppose they would not mind that.

I wondered what would be beyond the forest. My parents were right. The only world I knew was in books. I had no idea how people actually acted. I had no idea how I would be received into this new world. My fingers trembled now, at what may lie ahead of me.

Sure, all of the terrible things I imagined that would happen might happen. Yes, I could get robbed and murdered. But what if I made really wonderful friends? What if it turned out that my parents weren't just biased and I really did have a wonderful gift to give the world?

I smiled as the leaves crunched beneath my feet.

I squinted as I reached the end of the forest and unfiltered beams of sunlight left everything awash in a golden haze. I saw large grey-stone walls and, around them, large groups of people wandering around. I held the pendant that my parents had gave me and put it around my neck.

I wanted to hold my arms up, stare at sky and scream, "Here I am! I have arrived!" But instead, I simply walked outside of the forest, with a large smile on my face that I found impossible to contain.

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There you go. I jumped on the writing-wagon too. Let me know what you think, if you ever get through it all!

*waves*

Thank you all for inspiring me. :) *curtsies*

Your friend,
Kalinka Blue.