Freedom

I froze. The creature's eyes shone bright in the twilight.

“Easy there, I’m not going to hurt you.” It hadn’t moved and as I inched closer I could see why.

One leg was trapped in a hunter’s snare. They probably weren’t hunting for fox, more likely juicy rabbit, but caught the fox all the same.

“Easy, easy, I’m not going to hurt you.”

The fox watched, wary, as I reached out a hand and gently pulled the snare from the animal's legs. The fox let out a soft, low sound of gratitude,(Goddess, I hoped it was gratitude) as I stepped back, careful not to make any sudden movements.

The fox tilted its head in a way that looked entirely too human as it turned. It watched me and began to move away. It looked back at me seemingly to indicate that I should come behind and I felt compelled to follow her into the darkness.

The fox led me deep into the forest, then stopped suddenly. In a small clearing tucked away so carefully I never would have stumbled across it in a million years of wandering these woods, was a clear crystal pool, with a small stone shelf jutting over it scarcely large enough to lie upon.

When I looked back to the fox, it had vanished.

I laid down on the ledge and stared up at the stars, now arriving in full ****. Something about the pool seemed familiar, as if I'd seen it somewhere before, although I couldn't imagine how, except in the depths of my dreams.

The starlight collected in the strange pool and glittered like diamonds. I could feel the power emanating from it, and even though I knew relatively little of magic, I recognized the feeling.

I touched the surface of the pool, and the light was reflected back at me, refracted and magnified. I smiled, and I understood. This was the source of the magic that had been flowing through the Forest.

I closed my eyes, and concentrated on the memory of the pool. The sensation of the water, the coolness, the warmth, the way it felt against my skin. Laying on the stone slab I felt it soak into me. I became one with it, and I was transformed.