We ran the unmarked path, winding through the dancing evergreens in the heat of summer. The fallen needles rising around us celebrating our passing. The old pines raised their roots and clapped, and the birds sang with the morning sun. The streaks of light passed overhead as we ran faster and faster, chasing under them. The moss blanket shifted in waves, flowing with our steps and sending ripples throughout the forest.

Dani ran ahead of me and Syca beside me, then we spread our fabric wings wide. The ribbons of our ceremony gowns trailed behind us in the wind as the children of the forest played along our skin. Little lights blinked into existence, only to blink away, touching our skin, our gowns and our hearts letting out cries of laughter and joy. Dani shouted behind her, “Run faster, seedlings!”

“Fly slower, Dani,” I shouted to the wind, my voice cascading around in ripples. Syca chuckled and ran faster ahead of me as she pulled the strings at the front of her chest, releasing the overgown into the wind as her skin shimmered. A pair of wings burst through like a monarch butterfly escaping the cocoon for the first time. She flapped delicately at first and then she thrust them up and down, up and down, and she rose.

“Cheater!” yelled Dani ahead of us as she did the same, sprouting the wings of a dragonfly and quickly flitting them through the air. I chuckled at the other girls and released my own gown and  felt the flowing feeling as the power rushed through me. It swelled into two pools on my back and bursting forth from my skin in the shape of wings, feathers burst forth of every color each perfected for a singular purpose. I beat my powerful wings with speed and strength unknown to my sister spirits– with their fragile wings– my colorful plumage brought me up to them in three wingbeats. In another three, I was ahead of them laughing into the breeze.

We soared faster and faster until we were off the cliff and over the valley, a cold wind rushing upwards over our skin. We looked upon the land we had known all our lives as a lush green paradise, but now saw only blackened ash and spires of ice. We looked at one another in unison and knew something was really, really wrong in the forest…