Conclusion

People in the woods

They were strange. The people in the woods. Beautiful but strange. They come to town every Sunday dressed in their best, they would be on the last pew, looking as serene as ever, keeping to themselves the whole mass. They'd be dressed in colorful clothes of expensive silk. Bright green, yellow, fiery red, orange and royal blue, these are the colors they usually wear.

Ours is a small town, where everyone knows everybody but the funny thing is, nobody seems to know their names. They're simply the people in the woods, they've been in the woods for as long as anyone could remember. They were there long before our town exists. I was always fascinated by them, I'd go to church just to watch them, God forgive me, but they were really beautiful and peculiar.

Sometimes, I'd ask my Mom about them but she would just hush me as if asking about the people in the woods was forbidden as if it was a sin or a big mistake. Other people in town doesn't seem to know much either or if they do, they're keeping it from me.

Once, when I was eight, I decided to follow them home, unable to resist the pull of curiosity, I told my mother a lie about visiting a sick friend before slipping out of her grasp. She was busy talking with Mrs. Merriweather, the widow who lives just down the street so she didn't see me follow the people in the woods.

They seem to be normal though they talk in a language I couldn't understand. Their language sounded strange and old like the Latin prayers that we say in mass, most of which I couldn't understand.

The adults were talking to each other while the children laugh merrily, they were conversing with each other as well. Oh, how beautiful they look! The women with their wide skirts and perfectly coiffed hair and the men in their regal bright clothes, they were like the princes and princesses in the stories I've read.

I wished I was as beautiful as them!

I was so engrossed in following them that I hadn't realized that we're nearing the end of the town and the woods was drawing closer and closer. The woods was dark and forbidding, the town's children were not allowed to enter the woods for there are wild animals there or so the grown-ups say but the woods couldn't really be that dangerous, could it?

These people live there and the children are just as old as I am, some even younger! They wouldn't be living there if it was as dangerous as Mom said.

I was a few paces away from them, though they were so engrossed in their own conversation that they didn't notice me yet.

The woods' entrance was sealed by a series of oak trees growing as close to each other as possible. Most of the trees were covered by thick vines that look like thin snakes coiling around the thick bark and hanging down from the branches. The ground was covered with knee-length grass, ferns and broad-leaf plants.

I hesitated for a bit.

Should I continue?

Of course, I should.

There's nothing to be afraid of. There's nothing to be afraid of. I chanted in my head.

I took my first step into the woods, the grass made my limbs itch but I ignored it.

It was darker in there, the sun's ray barely penetrated the canopy of trees so it look like twilight instead of noon.

I could hear the gentle sighs of the river from here, that, mingled with the children's laughter calmed me down and gave me the courage to follow. Though I couldn't see them anymore, I could easily follow the sound of their voices.

The forest floor was covered with leaves and twigs that snapped whenever I stepped on it. I took a deep breath and pulled the skirt of my dress higher so that it won't get snag on the bushes.