“WHAT’S THE FIRST THING YOU REMEMBER?” The woman asked.

“The woods, a canopy of leaves, a green glow all around me, birds chatting merrily…” Reminisced the young man sitting across from her.

“That’s a bit more eloquent than I expected, especially from a sixteen year old.” The woman sitting across from him laughed.

“I suppose so, but one can hardly lapse back into simplicity when they’ve had so much of an experience in their life,” remarked the young man, reclining in his chair.
“What sort of an experience would that be?” Inquired the woman

“Allow me but an hour, and I’ll recount it to you.”

I always loved the woods, and would often spend hours there, alone with nothing but a pocket knife and a carved walking stick, but one day the woods took on a whole new meaning to me.

It was the day that I turned fifteen, and I was walking through the woods when I made a discovery. On the ground in front of me was a large paw print, similar to that of a cat or dog, and yet altogether different. For one, this print was so extremely large that it seemed to belong to a beast the size of an elephant. For another, there were large triangular impressions at the front of each toe, as if this beast had enormous claws each as long as a carving knife.

This find greatly excited me and I at once set of deeper into the woods searching for this great beast, I did not find it that day, but I knew I would, and that when I did I would not be disappointed.

“I trodded along for many hours, losing the trail now and then, but somehow stumbled back upon it. I eventually found myself in a wood I’d never been in before, and that I had not a single clue of where I was. It was then that really looked around, and was amazed by what I saw, dark oaks, towering hundreds of feet off the ground, massive rock formations, with vibrant reds and burning blues. A moss like substance grew pink and white striped flowers, which held more petals than I could count.”

His mind seemed to have been set free from the dimly lit concrete room, away from the strife and suffering of this world, moved to the one of his own

”And you weren’t startled?”

The young man let out a laugh, “You couldn’t be afraid if you wanted to, the land is so beautiful that it simply takes your breath away. it was a kind of land that you dreamed of, a lush rolling landscape , youcould felt, well, you felt as if you were finally home.

“So then what happened?”

His face grew grim, “Then it all started to burn.”