“Are you lost, little girl?” my mother said, kneeling before me.
I dropped the bounty of wildflowers in my tiny arms, scared by her voice, despite the fact it was soft, nurturing.
I nodded. Mama always said I shouldn’t talk to strangers, but something about this woman felt okay.
Like I could trust her.
“How did you get out here?” she said as she held her hand out to me.
I reached my stubby little hand out, feeling my magic fade as I did so. I pulled my hand back, feeling the magic tingle like it had been... drained.
The trees loomed around me like shadows.
These were not the trees I knew, this was not home.
“It’s okay, sweetheart, I won’t hurt you,” she said as she caught my gaze.
“Charlotte! Darling, where are you?” my father called, his voice distant.
“I’ll be there in a minute!” she called back, before turning her gaze to me once more.
“Come on, then. Let’s get you out of these dreaded woods and get you something to eat. Would you like that?” she asked.
My stomach grumbled and I realized it had been hours since I’d been fed. I’d gone to the forest after lunch, to run, to play.
Mother said to run as far as I could, and she’d find me on the other side.
But this woman didn’t look like my mother.
But who else could she be?
I reached my hand out, feeling my magic fade as I set my tiny hand in hers and stepped across the river that separated us.
“You... know this because...”
“Because your signature was found in the Forest of Lir,” she said, her tone most serious.
“And it matches the signature of Queen Amaranth’s daughter, who went missing during an attack on their kingdom twenty years ago.”
All at once the world beneath me fell from under my feet.
Missing.
While I’d grown up baking gingerbreads and reading books, and struggling to fit in... I’d been missing.
From my true home.
I had so many questions.
I thought of my parents, who found me, a little lost, pink-haired girl in the woods.
They must’ve thought the worst, but surely they would have tried to find my parents...
But they would not venture across realms, and it wasn’t like one could call up the Fae king and queen.
Though they must have suspected I wasnotnormal, from my natural pink hair, to my magic.
And that’s why they didn’t want me to venture into the forests, where the Fae could find me.
