The Heart of the Forest

Prologue

The trees rustled in the wind, the leaves a range of orange and red slowly browning in the cool winter air. All the migratory birds had left and all that remained were the cardinals and thrushes and pigeons. Squirrels were all holed up for the winter and the only sound that could be heard in the early morning air was the flitting of leaves, falling onto the freshly made snow drifts.

I watched all this curiously, wondering how something this peaceful could be so achingly mysterious at the same time. I knew that there was something the trees were hiding. I knew tha there were things in the world just waiting to be discovered. And I knew that it was up to me to find them all. 

I only wished that I could...

My name is Gia Quintessa and I'm completely one-hundred percent useless. I was born with an illness that rendered me wheel-chair bound for my whole life. I couldn't move from the waist down and I had a permanent stutter. But the real reason I'm useless is that I have never left my house in my entire life. My mother was ashamed of me and when she died giving birth to my perfectly healthy little sister - named Janet - my father enrolled me in a homeschool program so that his mistake was not broadcasted to the world.

I had never set foot outside, much less into the woods or beyond and I doubted that I ever would. And so I spent my days inside, gazing out my window longingly as hopeless dreams of being rescued flickered through my mind. Who knew that one day all of my dreams would come true...