I thought I heard a voice calling me, from far away. It was a velvety sounding woman's voice.
"What is she saying?" I asked myself aloud. I tried to turn around to look, but I couldn't.
I suddenly realized my back was against an enormous, red-barked deciduous tree. The tree was so large, I would have to move from my spot to peer around it. I knew without having to count the rings that it was around 500 years old.
I looked up. It felt like the tree was so tall it reached up to the end of the atmosphere. I looked forwards again at the vast expanse of forest in front of me.
I got a funny feeling; an intuition feeling, like I was not alone in the forest. I felt like I was being watched, but I didn't feel creeped out or threatened. It was like more than one pair of eyes were watching me, curious and observant.
The wind blew, the sound the wind made as it wrapped its way around trees and found its path through the forest sounded almost musical to me.
"Wait!" I thought. "I'm not on Earth. I think this is… the old Fairy Forest?"
It was like naming it triggered something, the wind suddenly picked up dirt and it swirled around me. I closed my eyes, to keep from getting dirt in them. I felt the abrasive debris scratching my face, my neck, and my arms.
"Wake up!" The woman's voice was no longer velvety and far away. It was loud, clear, insistent, and commanding. "Open your eyes".
I opened my eyes and had a moment of disorientation and confusion. I blinked, and my brain made sense of what I saw.
Directly in front of me was a wooden table, and I turned my head and saw the kitchen. I was on the first floor at the dining room table.
'When had I gotten here? How had I gotten here?' I pondered.
I thought about it, I didn't remember going upstairs last night. The last thing I remembered was… I let out a sigh.
The thoughts and feelings of last evening were still fresh in my mind. The thing that weighed on me the most is that I will soon be parting with my friends, possibly for the remainder of our lives.
I suppose I fell asleep down here.
'What time is it?' I contemplated. 'If the Goddess is waking me up it must be important.'
My eyes found the digital clock set in the stove display. 6:10am was displayed.
"Holy cow!" I sighed in exasperation with myself. "Second morning in a row! I had better not make a habit of this."
"Good thing I have you to wake me up." I whispered, with the full belief that the Goddess could hear me.
Trying to rush as quickly as possible to get ready, while also trying to stay as silent as I could proved to be a challenge, as my brain was still in the process of waking up.
I stubbed a toe on the way up the stairs and took a corner too sharply rushing to get exercise clothes out of my dresser and hit myself on the corner of the nightstand.
It was as I was fixing my hair that I started reciting the mantra 'Today is a good day', to combat the growing feeling that today was anything but a good day. As I finished getting ready in the bathroom, I half- paid attention to the swelling turning into a bruise.
'Seems that nightstand is truly well made, it sure won the battle between the two of us.'I thought.
Traveling down the stairs quickly and quietly went much better for me.
In the kitchen I found my bag and made sure I had everything I needed: extra hair tie, my water bottle, maple syrup candies, my keys, sunglasses, wallet, phone. I put my shoes on my feet and did the laces up.
I unlocked the front door and went to open the door to leave, when I realized I forgot the eggs.
So, I u-turned and went to the fridge. There were 3 hard-boiled eggs in a container. But I only needed 2. Glanced at the clock, and realized, I do not have time for this.
I shrug and put the container with the three eggs in the bag. I rush to the door, exit, lock the door, put the keys in the bag and then proceed to work on the spells to make the bag levitate and hide it from non-magical creatures.