Song of the Woods

For as long as he could remember, the vast woods stood tall and proud beside his house. Day in and day out, he would hear the soft musings of the trees, beckoning him to come closer. To see what lay behind the foliage. He was young, and unafraid of what lurked beneath the trees. For all he knew, there was nothing. And for the longest time, there wasn't. Every now and then, a deer might pass by and then leave as soon as it had come. Every now and then, he would see a squirrel, gone in the mere seconds he had noticed it. He knew of what lay in the woods, if only for a moment every time.

One day, alone in the backyard, there came a noise. A sweeping, beautiful melody that sounded as if it had come from the heavens above. And it came from the heavens above indeed, coming from the trees reaching sky high, their leaves rustling in time, swaying along to the strange melody. It was unlike nothing the boy had ever heard, unlike any grand orchestra or spinning record. He stayed there, swaying along with the trees, entranced by the song that echoed through the small backyard where he sat.

After a while of sitting on the ground and listening, he noticed the song being interrupted by a pair of footsteps growing near. He didn't turn around to see who it was, as he was still entranced by what he could still hear of the song, but he knew it was his mother. Suddenly the melody stopped,

and with it stopped the swaying of the trees, the small noises echoing through the backyard. He froze, and his mother spoke.

"Henry, it's time to come back inside. It's getting late and you'll get cold."

"But that-" He whined.

"No buts. Now come on, I've made your bed- it's time to go to sleep" She replied.

Reluctantly, Henry got up and followed his mother inside and slipped into bed, still thinking about the song from the woods. He slept in fits, and since being snapped out of his trance, he racked his brain for any possible reasons for it to have happened. There were none. It sounded vaguely human, like a chorus of people, like a group of citizens proudly singing and cheering to an anthem. He resolved to just stop thinking about it and slowly started to drift off into a long, almost peaceful sleep.

----

Years later, Henry had grown up, and he sat at his desk, staring out his window at the backyard. Both his parents had passed and he now lived alone in his childhood home. He sometimes thought about the strange song that came from the woods and, like that night, decided not to think too hard on it. He had work to do, bills to pay, people to meet. No time for secret forest songs and strange hour-long trances. And it carried on like that for a while.

Until one particularly boring afternoon, he sat in his old backyard, reminiscing about his childhood memories and his days playing the day away there in the backyard. Something tickled the edge of his senses. Something so familiar, yet so far away. He got up and drifted closer to the tree line, his hand cupping his ear to listen closer. A very faint chorus of voices rang through the trees, just barely loud enough to register. He debated whether he should follow the voices, the song he had heard so long ago as a child. But he couldn't do that! No, there was no time for wandering around the woods when he could be hard at work...right? A small part of him urged him to carry on, to chase the star on the string, to be a kid and run to the welcoming arms of the forest.

So with everything to lose and no time to spare, he ran off. Sprinting, laughing, tripping over roots and leaves but always catching himself at the last minute. He followed the faint light of joy that was that song, that celestial melody beckoning him closer and closer to some unknown fairytale land. And eventually, after battering branches and kicking stones, following the ever present song, he found it. A clearing, larger than life and twice as grand, brimming with life. A small river rushed under a stone built bridge, sparkling in the light of the setting sun. Flowers bloomed everywhere, in the prime of their life and with dancing colours that showed that much. All the colours of a joyous sunrise spread across the clearing.