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The wind whispered through the trees, carrying the scent of damp earth and pine. Lena pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders, staring out at the misty fields beyond Eldermere. The village was quiet this evening, save for the faint murmur of voices from the tavern and the occasional creak of a wooden sign swaying in the breeze.
She should have been inside by now. The elders always warned against wandering past dusk, though no one could explain why. "The forest remembers," they would say, as if that were reason enough to stay away.
But Lena had never been one to listen.
Something inside her always ached for more. More than the simple life of baking bread, tending fields, and gossiping by the well. More than the same faces, the same stories, the same routine, day after day. She had no words for it, only a feeling—a pull deep in her chest, like she was meant for something beyond Eldermere's quiet borders.
And then she heard it.
A sound, faint at first, drifting through the trees like a song half-forgotten. It wasn't music exactly, nor was it a voice. It was something in between, a melody carried by the wind, calling her forward.
Lena's heart pounded.
She had heard this before—whispers on the edge of sleep, flickers of sound in an empty room. No one else ever noticed. If she asked, they would only shake their heads and mutter about foolish daydreams.
But this was different.
This time, it was clear. And it was calling her.
She stepped off the worn dirt path, moving toward the sound. The mist curled around her ankles as she entered the tree line, the towering oaks stretching into the sky like silent watchers. The further she walked, the louder the sound became—not harsh, not urgent, but insistent.
Come closer.
A chill ran down her spine, but she didn't stop.
The trees thinned ahead, revealing a clearing bathed in silver moonlight. At its center stood an archway of ancient stone, covered in twisting vines and glowing faintly with blue light. It looked impossibly old, as though it had been there long before Eldermere itself.
Lena's breath caught.
She had never seen this place before.
How was that possible? She had spent years wandering the outskirts of the village, searching for something—anything—to break the monotony. And yet, here stood something magnificent, something impossible, as if it had been waiting for her all along.
Then, movement.
A figure stepped from the shadows, cloaked in deep green, their face obscured by the hood. When they spoke, their voice was calm but firm.
"You were never meant to stay in Eldermere, Lena. You have always belonged somewhere else."
Lena's pulse roared in her ears.
How did they know her name?
The figure gestured to the glowing archway.
"The time has come to cross."
Lena took a step forward, her heart hammering against her ribs.
She had spent her whole life searching for something more.
And now, standing at the edge of the unknown, she had to decide: stay in the world she had always known, or step forward into a world that had been waiting for her all along.
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