The Forest Spirit

Anonymous
2020.01.19

This happened about 16 years ago, when I was eight years old. Like we did every summer, my two cousins and I had gone into the woods. This particular day we had gone down a different path, one we weren't familiar with. After walking for a while we ended up in the middle of nowhere and didn't know where we were going. We kept walking for three hours, taking random turns and exploring. Eventually we took a break and just sat down knowing we were lost.

Then we saw a baby bird on the ground, staying quiet so that predators wouldn't notice it. We saw a nest in the tree above, so I climbed up and put the bird back in the nest. When I got back down from the tree, a strange breeze starting blowing. The three of us noticed it blowing through the tall grass, like someone was walking through it.

We decided to follow the wind. Only certain trees seemed to be affected by it. They were all blowing in the same direction so we decided to follow them. We kept walking like this for a little while until we found a familiar path. As soon as we stepped onto it the wind abruptly stopped. From there we found our way home.