I stood there in awe, my arms lowering as if my soul was being sucked right out of me. If anyone saw me, they'd probably think I was hypnotised or something.

There in front of me was a huge, massive wall. Well, no it wasn't a wall. It was a hedge, but it was huge and it was covered with thousands and thousands of different coloured roses, all growing out of it. The rays of sunlight's beaming through the tops of the trees shone down onto the hedge mystically. It was so striking. There were white roses, red roses, black roses, yellow roses, pink roses, even glittery blue roses!

What struck me even more were the millions of little butterflies fluttering around the roses and the hedge. My eyes were gleaming with amazement. This didn't look real. It couldn't be real. It looked too magical…

But what if it was real? Maybe I wasn't dreaming. Maybe this is supposed to tell me something. Of course, being a five year old little girl I never thought of this, I was much too fascinated by the magic of this sight.

I felt a little overwhelmed but inspired. My heart was fluttering as quickly as the colourful wings of those butterflies. I whipped my head around to look back over my shoulder, to see if anyone from the other group was close by. Nobody was there. I felt trapped in a real forest, like in one of those fantasy stories mommy used to read to me.

I then turned my head back towards this beautiful hedge, my eyes blinking curiously when I spotted a big hole in the bottom of the hedge. At first I wondered if foxes had probably been digging into the hedge, but it felt suspicious. My head tilted and I stepped closer, the butterflies not bothering me. They just continued to flutter where they were.

I knelt down in front of the hole. It was quite immense and big enough for me to climb through. My child instincts were telling me that if I crawled through, I'd end up in some magical land, again, just like in the stories mommy use to read to me.

I started to crawl through the hole feeling the leaves and the twigs of the hedge rub against me. I was probably going to get my dress all mucky but who could blame me. I was just a curious little girl. I felt like Alice in Wonderland. For a second I pretended I was, until I crawled out of the other side of the hedge.

A frown came to my face as I pulled myself up to my feet, not even bothering to brush the dirt off of my knees. I stood there, my shoulders lowering. I was standing in the forest of trees again. Did I take a wrong turning? Everything was exactly the same.

I turned back and looked at the hedge. It was exactly the same.

I looked back in front of me at the collection of trees.

Everything was exactly the same.

Maybe I really did take a wrong turning when I climbed through. Either way I walked on, figuring I should go find Elizaveta. I stopped in my tracks when I spotted the stump from before. "…." Okay, now I was shocked.

"Didn't I leave my clipboard there?" I asked myself quietly. Surely I did. I remember sitting down on the stump, leaving the clipboard there. Now it was gone, unless Liz took it. But she couldn't have because she went the other way.

Now I was starting to get confused. Maybe the sun was getting to my head. Despite all, I walked on. My knees stung a little from crawling in the dirt but I ignored it, wanting to know where I was or—

I heard hooves; galloping hooves. At first I thought I was imagining this noise.

I twisted around in all directions, turnings circles, trying to catch the sight of whatever the noise was coming from. There. I spotted a stag in the distance, prancing around through the trees. My eyes widened and I gasped. What was a stag doing in a park? They didn't have deer running lose in this park, surely they didn't. Did they?

And then I started to ask myself: was I even in the park?

Swallowing I walked forwards again, my eyes darting around cautiously. "Liz?" I called out. No answer. "Liz?" I call out a little louder; again, no answer. Now I was getting worried. I started to shake.

Where was everyone?

Where was I?

I kept walking, gradually stepping out into the clearing of the park field, my eyes widening. It was completely empty. It looked exactly like the park, but deserted. No icky couples, no football players in the distance. The weather even remained the same. However I did notice one thing. There were no railings or gates of fences in the distance. That was really odd.

I started to whimper, tears forming up in my green eyes. "Where is everyone…?" I snivelled to myself, wishing I had my bunny George to snuggle, or Jan's hand to hold. I tried to be brave but I was just so confused and frightened.

Things only started to get scarier from there. Everything darkened a fraction and my head whipped up to the sky. The clouds became murky and the blue of the sky faded to an odd orangey colour, almost making everything look like it was sunset. Everywhere I walked, little tiny daisies would bloom beneath my feet in the grass.

I started to cry quietly to myself, dropping to my knees, my dress sprawled out around me. "Jan?" I cried out. "Jan where are you?" I slapped both of my hands over my mouth and gasped, my watery eyes widening so much they were almost popping out of my head.

In the distance was a huge, magnificent black Pegasus. It's coat jet black and shining. It was a long distance away from me but I could see it clearly. The powerful creature reared up onto his back legs in the centre of the park field, wings stretching out and making it seem much superior to what it was. It whinnied, which sounded more like a thunderous battle cry, the sound travelling all through the park like an explosion.

I whimpered and curled over in the grass, covering my little arms over my head protectively, sobbing with panic from the noise, trying to cover my ears. It was so loud; I thought I was going to go deaf.

"Please stop! Make it stop!" I cried in my arms, trembling with fright.

And suddenly, just like that, everything stopped.

I didn't even realise that things had become quiet then and the sky had returned to its normal blue summer colour. I was still quivering, and although by now I realised it was suddenly dead silent with just the sound of birds chirping in the background, I remained curled up on my front, too petrified to see what had happened to the park next.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I immediately flinched to sit up, shrieking and backing away from whoever was touching me. I fell back onto my butt with a cry, staring with teary eyes up at an unbelievably tall man who had appeared in front of me.

My eyes widened again. He was so tall compared to me. He wore a long, old, ripped black cloak which hung loosely around his neck, attached with a hood which was covered over his head. I could barely see his face right this second; just his smile. The rest of his face was shadow.

His hand was reached out to me, a black fingerless gloved hand. Whatever he was wearing it looked like some sort of old medieval fashion. Maybe he was a reaper or something. I remembered Jan reading about those things to me once.

And he touched me. But I wasn't dead. Was I?

I could barely speak. I was in too much shock. The man knelt down in front of me, pushing his black hood off and revealing his head and his face. The man's hair was a dirty blonde colour and it was extremely messy. It stuck up, as if he had been brushing it back with his fingers for years, with little odd strands of hair hanging over his eyes. Black eyebrows; eyes glimmered like the blue ocean during the summer's day.

"Hey…" he said in the softest tone I ever heard in my life. His hand remained held out to me. "Don't be afraid…I didn't mean to scare you."

I just stared up at him like he was a ghost or something. Who the heck was he? Where was I? Why was everything just being so weird? I was too young to understand any of this. I sat on my knees, huddling my arms to my chest protectively when he held his hand closer to me, hiding my hand over my nose. I shook my head, turning my head away from him. He looked scary with all that black clothing on. Maybe he came from the past. I don't know.

"Please don't be afraid. I didn't mean to scare you there. I guess I was just excited to find you," the man said, his extremely whitened teeth revealed each time he grinned.

I glanced hesitantly up at the big scary man, shaking non-stop. "…f-find me?" I asked, not sure what he meant. Was I meant to be here?

The man nodded and sat down on his knees in front of me. "Mhmm. I've been waiting for you."

"Waiting…?" I swallowed, tilting my body to the side to glance past him and at the field behind him. I straightened up, quickly wiping my eyes and looking back up at him. "…there was a big horsie there…with wings…." I said quietly, ducking my head a little.

The man's grin widened and he nodded. "Oh, was there? That was me."

He can't be serious. I blinked rapidly, almost able to believe anything at this point. I was a child after all. I still believed in Santa and tooth fairies.

"Th-that …was you?"

There was another nod given from the man. "That was me. I can transform into anything you want me too," he smiled; such a wide but sweet smile.

"…R-really? …W-what are you?" I asked. I was starting to calm down. Perhaps this man really meant no harm at all, though I did wish he wore something less threatening looking.

"I'm a bit like a sorcerer," he told me. I had no idea about these words, but I did recognise them from my brother, since he had an interest in mythology and fantasy and all that. He was studying it for English after all. Well, when we use to live with mommy.

"W-what's a sor…sorce…." I struggled to pronounce anything.

"Sorcerer," the man chuckled. "It's like a magician. You know what a magician is right?"

All of a sudden I perked up inadequately, a faint smile appearing on my feline lips. "Oui! Mommy took me and Jan to my friend's birthday party and there was a magician there. He was magic," I smiled. "…but he couldn't turn into a flying horsie like you can."

The man ruffled my hair and I flinched, noticing his sweet smile. For some reason, I felt I could trust him, so I returned the smile.

"My name is Mathias by the way," the man said, holding his fingerless gloved hand back to me again. This man had a strange accent. At first I thought he was German, but he didn't sound like it.

"…I'm Emma," I smiled shyly, holding my tiny palm out to his large hand, which he gently shook.

"Nice to meetcha, Emma. You can call me Mathias, or Matty, or Mat, or Denny."

I couldn't help but giggle at the last name. "Denny? Why Denny?"

Mathias's teeth flashed each time he grinned at me and he ruffled my hair again. "That's a secret, my dear."

I pouted. "Alright, so…" I stood up so I was eye level with him and poked his big nose. "Show me what you can do."

Mathias sniggered and stood up, towering over me again, enough to block out my sunlight. "Alright," he said confidently, folding his arms. "Give me something to do and I'll do it."

Such a big request for little me; "I, um… I don't know," I murmured, tangling my tiny fingers around each other bashfully.

"Well, no problem. What's your favourite animal?" He asked, hands on hips.

"...cat?" I muttered.

And just like that, Mathias pulled his cloak over himself. I could hear the sound of the material flapping against the air and then all of a sudden the cloak fell into a pile on the ground.

Out crawled a little fluffy ginger feline from underneath, it's fuzzy tail swishing as he mewed up at me. I could barely contain my astonishment and squealed, kneeling down and about to stroke the creature but it suddenly blackened and I flinched back.

The cat's figure faded and disappeared within seconds into what looked like black smoke which refigured itself into a human, which so happened to be Mathias again.

I stood there in astonishment, my crystal eyes wide yet again. "…."

Mathias stood there in front of me with a broad smile on his face, his head held high with pride.

"..w-whoa…okay," I trembled, quite taken aback by what I just saw. What did I just see? It was breath taking. This man just transformed into another living creature then back again right before my eyes. "w-what sort of other things can you do..?" I asked him curiously, my large eyes flickering up to his.

"Welp, pretty much anything you want me to," Mathias said with a nod, resting his fingers in his belt.

I stared up at him in thought. Was this guy being serious? I didn't know what to believe anymore. What I just saw was impossible but it was real, because I saw it with my own eyes. I didn't just imagine it? This man was pretty much God. I believed that when he said he could do anything I wanted him to do, he could do it.

"Can you make me smarter?" I grinned, holding my hands behind my back and rocking myself on my feet.

Mathias raised an eyebrow at me and shook his head, ruffling my hair. I frowned in disappointment. "I can't do anything to you." My heart sank a little. "But I can do things for you."

"Then make me smarter!" I whined.

He shook his head. "Sorry, kiddo. I don't want to mess with your life… It's quite risky…"

"I don't understand!" I continued to whine.

Mathias knelt down in front of me again, placing his large fingerless gloved hand on top of my little head.

"Kid, it's hard to explain, but when you grow older, I'll still be here. I'm not going anywhere. I'll always be with you and I can maybe explain it to you a bit clearer then."

I frowned and my shoulders fell. I hated it when grown-ups said that they'll explain stuff when I'm older. It annoyed me so much. Why not tell me now?

I sighed heavily, exaggerating my pout. "Fine," I huffed then and folded my arms. Mathias laughed at me and tapped my shoulder, standing back up again.

I decided to give him another chance. After all, watching him rear up as powerful creatures, then watching him morph mysteriously into another was just beyond amazing. I was still starting to believe he was God, or a shape shifter. I remember big brother Jan telling me about shape shifters.

Mathias started to walk on, signalling with his hand for me to follow, so I did; the man's big cloak flapping in the wind behind him. I toddled up beside him, staring up at him as we walked along through the field.

"Hey mister…?"

"Please, call me Denny," he grinned down at me. This man liked to smile a lot. It made me smile too.

"…Denny?"

"Ja?"

"Are you God?"

Mathias stopped in his tracks and turned towards me. I frowned, thinking I said something wrong but his smile remained on his face so I was confused.

"Emma… I can't do everything. So nej, I'm not God. Ja, I'm powerful, but I'm not that powerful. I can't control the whole world. Heck, I can't even leave my this world."

"This world? What do you mean this world?"

"Your world," he nodded and held his arms up, "all of this. Everything you see is all part of your world. Everything I do is all part of your imagination. This is your imagination, Emma."

"…But….but it feels so real!" Surely he couldn't be serious.

Mathias knelt down in front of me again, placing another hand on my shoulder. "If you say it's real - then it's real," he smiled widely.

I thought about it for a moment before returning a smile.

"I'm still confused…" I admitted timidly.

Mathias took my hand gently, holding my tiny paw in his large, hand. To me his fingers were fat. I almost wanted to squish them. I wondered if daddy's hands were like that.

"You don't have to be confused here, Emma," he told me in such a soft tone yet again, eyes directly looking into mine. "This is your freedom. You love butterflies, right? Your favourite colour is orange," Mathias glanced up at the sky and I was reminded of that sunset. "You love horses. You love summer. You love to laugh and be happy. This is your world, Emma."

I was probably too young to understand this, but even at my young age I was eagerly interested especially what with I just saw.

"I'm just here to make your desires become a reality," he told me, his voice quietening.

I was quite taken back by how he knew what I liked. It was all true. Maybe I should give in.

Mathias tugged my hand gently and stood back up again. "C'mon. I want to show you more."

More of my world? Or my imagination?