"Where did she go?" A little girl asks, bewilderment and awe emanating from her. I open my eyes and two big brown eyes are staring back at me.
"I'm right here," I say unsurely. I don't know who she is or who I am for that matter.
She stares more intently at me before muttering, "Maybe she fell out of a different tree."
I continue laying on the ground while basking in the sunlight and notice that the moon is peeking out from behind a cloud. Upon inspecting it, I hear a faint voice whisper, "Don't be alarmed. I am the Man on the Moon, and you are Mother Nature. Stay put. The others will find you."
I feel an awful power creep through every inch of my being. Roots slowly writhe their way out of my hands. I double over and scream even though it doesn't hurt. Forcing myself to look at my hands turns out to be a difficult challenge. They appear to be two perfectly normal hands but I flex them to make sure. Then I triumphantly look at the moon.
I stand up, mostly to test the durability of my shaky legs, and shout, "I don't want them to find me!"
I start running to nowhere in particular but just to get out of this forest. I notice my clothes are ripped like I fell from a tree. I decide to get new ones, but I am utterly lost in this forest. "Okay so maybe I need your help," I mumble looking up to the moon for help.
"Look straight ahead and keep walking that way. Eventually you'll see a road. Follow it," He says eerily. Due to a lack of a better choice, I follow his directions. My pants get caught on a bramble and it tears my pants a little more and causes a scratch.
"Why does today have to be the worst?" I plead aloud. After innumerable hours I see a road. I break out into a run but a tree branch grabs me. It curls around me, ensuring no escape. The branch grows and starts to take shape and form a cocoon. I start screaming, clawing, and fighting against the tree. Unfortunately, I can't escape on my own. I stay curled up in the cocoon until the coldness from the outside seeps in. I clearly remember it being summertime. Through a gap in my cocoon I see a person.
"Hello out there," I weakly call out. He looks over obviously startled. The cocoon starts reverting back into being just a single branch. I dramatically fall out of the remnants and onto my savior.
He catches me, and, with a bit of concern haunting his eyes, asks, "Are you okay? Why were you in a tree? Who are you?"
"Yeah I'm fine but I have no idea who I am. If I told you why I was in that tree, not only would you not but you would also will think I'm crazy," I reply while he helps me back to my feet.
"Try me," He dares and then freezes the tree that caught me.
"How did you do that?" I ask my eyes widening with amazement.
He smirks, "Probably the same way that you shielded yourself in that tree."
I avoid making eye contact while relaying to him what had happened. Then a red sleigh lands on the road a few feet away from where we are.