Introduction: Bloom

Autumn is a time of magic. It's a time when people and creatures come together. And for one girl, it's a time when she can be free. At one time, this girl was known by many names, but to her animal friends, she was known as Talutah, blood-red. To an outsider, Talutah was everywhere, yet nowhere.

You see, Talutah had been left out in the woods when she was only a baby. Nobody knew why, but it wasn't something she liked to dwell on. She lived amongst a pack of wolves, and had learned well the ways of the forest. In doing so, she had learned their languages and made friends out of all the forest creatures, and had matured into a beautiful young woman.

As a young woman, Talutah had long red hair the color of a fox's fur, and calm brown eyes like the deer she so often ran with. She wore dresses of leaves and crowns of flowers, going barefoot so she would be connected to the earth like her animal kin. She danced with the leaves and sang with the birds, and was an excellent member of every animal's family.

Every year when the leaves began to change, Talutah seemed to come alive with new energy. She would help the creatures prepare for winter, building little shelters and gathering food, make beds of leaves and help put flowers to sleep. She would do everything she could, and then some.

But above all else, she would keep her friends safe from the humans who came to her forest to harm them. There was many a skeleton lost amongst the roots of her tallest oaks, and it always made her wonder about many things.

'Why do they keep coming back?'

'Why don't they listen to me when I try to warn them?'

'Why can't they… see me?'

She was unaware of what they saw. Or rather, what they didn't see.

Her touch was as light as a feather's, she drifted through life as a pocket of air. Every move she made went unnoticed, a breeze was the only sign of her passing. Nobody acknowledged her presence, because for them, it was only when she started to leave that they would wonder why it became so hard to breath.

She came and went as nothing more than a ghost they would never see.