In the Lost Woods

Prologue

A white fog.

Mist swirling all around me.

I could hear voices calling out to me, but they seemed to come from far away, I couldn't hear the words. But they were so loud. 

I pushed them away.

Then I heard another voice, sharper, clear as a church bell in the morning, and seemed to come from very nearby. 

"Hello?"

Who was that? I didn't recognize the voice...

"Miss? Are you alright?"

The voice was high-pitched and sounded very friendly, but at the moment it was laced with concern.

"Can you wake up now please?"

What? Wake... wake up...

Oh! Suddenly I realized that it wasn't all a dream.

I seemed to be lying faceup on the ground, judging by the feel of slippery leaves under my arms, legs and head.  Slowly feeling came into my limbs and I breathed in deeply. The air around me felt slightly humid, while also being pleasantly cool and having a wonderful scent. It was like a mix of wood, flowers and leaves. I must have been in a forest of some kind...but then why didn't I hear and birds chirping or leaves rustling?

Wait—the leaves were rustling, right next to me. Oh, right, the voice! I forced my eyes open.

A leaf-shaped face was staring back at me, less than ten centimeters away from my own.

I let out a shriek and sat up, pushing myself backwards.

The face had darted away the moment I had screamed and was now at least a meter away. Now I could see the face belonged to a small creature with odd wavy patterns in green all over its tiny body. Its leaf-shaped mask  (I could now see it wasn't exactly a face) was the lovely dark red, orange and yellow colors of a leaf in autumn. It had little holes cut in it for eyes and what I could only assume was its nose and mouth.

Among all of these things, I could see I had frightened it. It was trembling and crouched, looking down, with its short arms held out as if to pacify me.

"Oh, please d—don't hurt me! I—I didn't mean to f—frighten you!" it said shakily.

I immediately felt guilty.

"I'm so sorry!" I said. "You only startled me, that's all!"

The odd little creature looked back up at me, its leaf mask quivering in the slight breeze blowing through. "I merely wanted be certain you were alright, miss! You were fast asleep in the middle of the Lost Woods when I found you!"

Questions suddenly started flowing into my head as fast as a rushing river. Where were we? What was the Lost Woods? What was this little creature?

I tried to remember what I had been doing before I fell asleep and realized I couldn't remember anything at all. Only the white fog that had filled my mind. 

"What is your name, if you don't mind me asking, miss?" asked the creature.

"Oh, it's..." I paused. "It's, um...N...Ni..." I can't even remember my own name! I thought with a jolt of fear.

"Nightshade?" asked the little creature, gesturing to my waist. Confused, I looked down and saw a sprig of lovely Blue Nightshade tucked under my belt. 

"Um, sure," I responded. Better than nothing. "Um, I don't mean to sound rude but...what exactly are you?"

The creature let out an adorable little giggle that seemed to echo a little more than was natural. "I'm a Korok, of course! Maca is my name!"

"A Korok?" I echoed curiously.

"We are spirits! The children of the forest!" So saying, it pulled out two little branches with bright red berries on them, jumped into the air with a twirl and landed again.

It's...really cute, I thought with a twinge of glee.

"And, um, where exactly are we?" I asked, looking around. We were surrounded, shockingly, by trees and bushes. The ground was covered with green leaves fallen from trees, along with a few flower petals sprinkled here and there. There was one very big tree some 20 meters away that had a trunk almost reminiscent of a face, and it had cherry blossoms that branched out over the entire clearing. The whole place seemed to be bathed in golden light.

And between me and the big tree was a small, triangular stone pedestal surrounded by Silent Princess flowers. Sticking out of the pedestal, standing tall, was a sword with a dark blue handle and an ever-so-slightly blue glow, was a sword.

Just looking at it gave me shivers. 

Maca had let me look around for a moment and presently said, "We, good madam, are in Korok Forest, at the heart of the Lost Woods!"

Looking all around me, I slowly stood up. Glancing around I suddenly realized Maca and I were not alone.

Nervously, cautiously, some of them hovering with adorable leaf propellers, other Koroks slowly began to come out of their hiding places to look at me in fascination. They were all so small, with lots of different types of leaves used as their masks, and oh, I was about to melt, they were so cute.

I did see one that was different from the rest. It was big, with its leaf mask only covering its "mouth", two little trees growing out of its head, and it was holding two bright red...maracas? Hm, that was interesting.

Maca gave a little bounce. "You can be one of us now!" It said excitedly. "Would you like that, Miss Nightshade?"

I thought. I couldn't remember anything from my life, I needed to get back--

...but...if I had run away from something, as I'm sure I did, it must have been painful.

Here was warmth, light, safety, and above all, adorable little forest spirits. 

"I would like that," I said confidently. "I would like that very much."

A/N:

Hello to any of the wonderful people who have read this! Thank you for giving my story a chance and reading the first chapter! (This was a really long prologue, wasn't it? Sorry bout that 😅)

Side note: Koroks technically don't have any gender, but since they are referred to as male in the Adventure Log and stuff, I'm making them male.

I will confess this is my very first (real) Wattpad story and I would be super happy to receive any tips, encouragement, or, if you hate it, you can just say that too! Any comments will be appreciated, is what I mean.

Thanks again, hope you enjoy my story!

- Volio