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Skye crows and squawks softly and lands on the ground before hopping around almost frantically.
I’m not sure if I came to this particular clearing with any expectations. I haven’t been back here since I found the necklace. And for some reason, this part of the forest feels different. Darker. Magical. Thick with expectation.
Skye continues hopping. I set down my bag, and Skye calms down to inspect it.
I know she won’t eat anything I found, and I’ll give her a treat later.
For now, I just want to spend time in this clearing. The clearing that has been haunting me.
The necklace is burning my skin, but I cannot bring myself to pull it off.
That is when I see it. Another shiny thing. This time it is not on the ground, covered by forest undergrowth as if carelessly thrown there. This time, the shiny thing, a bracelet, is stuck to a tree trunk, obvious for anyone to see.
But I am the only one who comes to this part of the forest.
No one else in Lowtown ventures this far.
“Does someone know that? Is someone…watching me? Did someone leave this for me?”
I shake my head at the absurdity of my thoughts. No one knows me. I do not exist to anyone who could afford a bracelet like this.
Despite the sense of foreboding, which screams so loudly in my ears that it is deafening, I lift the bracelet from the tree trunk.
It is pretty and quite big. Too big to really fit around my wrists.
“Don’t put it on. This is probably a nasty dark elf trick,” I whisper to myself.
Skye caws in agreement.
But I do put it on.
And then, as if the bracelet felt my thoughts, the large piece of jewelry shrinks to fit perfectly, tightly, around my wrist.
I let out a steady exhale as my heart thumps uncontrollably.
Where did this come from? This cannot be a coincidence. Someone must be leaving this here.
“Maybe,” I say this thought out loud. “Maybe someone is leaving gifts for someone else, and I just keep intercepting them.”
The clearing grows even darker then. And the trees, like when I found the necklace, begin to sway and whisper.
They are crotchety as they gossip, and I have the distinct feeling that the trees are talking about me. The sunlight, like before when I found the necklace, struggles to reach through the thick, stubborn tree cover.
What little sunlight manages to reach through is weak and creaking, and the light is blown to shreds by an invisible wind before it reaches the ground.
I cannot help but admire the bracelet on my wrist. It fits perfectly, and it is quite beautiful.
And I know that I will never take it off. And I will never take the necklace off.
My curiosity about the mystery of the jewelry is inflamed, even as I know that the jewelry owns me now.
I look down at Skye.
“What do you think?” I don’t bother to whisper. I do not care if the nosy trees hear me. I do not care who they tell.
“Do you think I’m going crazy?” I ask Skye, my voice louder.
And then I burst into a fit of giggles, and my chest tightens with anxiety as I realize that I have no control over the laughter that pours from me.
