My name is Peyton Nevilleon. I have always wanted to be unique, special, something different; that is, until last September.

It was Woodsbylle’s 100th Anniversary of the Autumnal Festival and my family has always been in charge of the forest décor. The sun is about to set and as I climb up on a ladder, hanging fairy lights, I see something move in the bushes in front of the ancient wisteria tree. I have always heard stories of the mystical creatures that have lived in the Ageless Forest; yet, it has never come to my attention whether those stories are tall tales or coincidentally, reality. I climb down from the rusty ladder and – lights! I see small, twinkling, lights floating about the wisteria tree, and as I walk over to them, “Peyton, Peyton, is that you” I hear. There could not possibly be anyone in the forest today because no one is aloud to enter before the festival, that is, unless you are a Nevilleon. Stopping in my tracks, I scream, “Nana, Nana where are you?”  Could it be, could it really be my grandmother? No, of course it can’t be her, she is, unfortunately, dead.

The next morning, I wake up extra early. Right at the crack of dawn, 5:45, I am up and have already started making myself a nice warm bowl of oatmeal as I watch the morning dew drip down the sides of the frosted kitchen window. My family’s modern cottage is pretty spacious, we live very close to the forest, so it does not take me much time to sneak out quietly and arrive at the wisteria tree. Rumors say that the wisteria tree was here before the town was even built and that it had secretive abilities. The founders of Woodsbylle had arrived in the middle of summer, 100 years ago and had discovered the tree as a young sprout with bright blue flowers that grew to a full size the next day.

If I had a choice at this point, I would go back home and ask for help, but the tree has suddenly consumed me into a sort of trance. All I can see now, is a young horse-like creature, maybe a newborn, I don’t really know. It needs my help, she needs my help, and I can feel it, as if I can communicate with her. A soft squeak comes out of her mouth; she looks too weak to speak to me. As I come closer to the crippled being, she drags herself the other direction, it is like she is afraid of me. Doesn’t she know I want to help her? As I try to speak, it seems that I know an entirely different language that I had no idea existed and no intention to actually speak it. After the confusing sentence leaves my soul, she turns around and staring at me with her bold grey eyes, lets out a “Please”. She is not any usual living creature, there is a small diamond-like stone in the center of her forehead, her beautiful hair glistens like silk and the color changes slightly with every movement she makes. As she tries to stand from her position, leaning against the tree, the stone on her forehead creates a glistening light and the twinkling lights that I had seen last night appear, floating around the wisteria tree again. “Were you by any chance hiding in that bush last night?” I say, pointing at the small berry bush that had startled me when I was in the tree. She slowly nodded her head at the end of my question. “What were you doing?” I ask. “I was trying to eat as many of the berries as I could before the harvest came upon the forest because I would not be able to eat much after. I am sorry if I had scared you, I did not mean anything bad to come from my appearance.”  She said with great disappointment.

Once she stands up, I can see the life come back into her eyes as they change to a subtle lavender color and she grins at me. In a mere second a loud noise comes from within the depths of the Ageless Forest and an arrow is shot right into the oak tree beside us. “Where is she? We need to find her before that wicked child escapes again!” “We have to go. Now!” she anxiously mutters to me. “Wait! What is your name?” I ask her eagerly. “Neveah!” she shouts out at me as she gallops away. “ Wait I know somewhere we can be safe!” I shout more desperate than ever. She turns around with tears flowing out of her eyes and follows me back to the cottage. “My parents are at a town meeting right now, so no one is going to see you.” I say, almost in tears myself as she collapses onto the wooden flooring of my kitchen, “Its okay, you can trust me. I am not going to hurt you.”

A loud knock comes from the front door, and my father appears, “Peyton, are you home?”  As I get up from the table, I fall to my knees onto the floor, next Neveah and my father’s large pointed business shoes appear in front of me. “Who is your friend darling?” he speaks softly while helping us up. ”Oh, ummm dad, this is Neveah!” I say, regretting my choice and looking at what should be the creature that I have saved from the forest; but she does not look like a horse at all! She is a young girl that looks around the age of 14 and – she is human! How could this be? How is it possible for her to have changed right in front of our eyes, yet none of us have noticed it? “Hello Neveah, do your parents know that you are here?” my father says with his gentle voice. “Oh, why yes, of course Mr. Nevilleon. How are you this fine day?” she replies to him in a slightly squeaky, high-pitched voice. “Oh how polite you are, I am great today! And please, call me Tim.” he says “Peyton I just came to pick up some papers for the festival. Your mother and I will not be back home until late tonight, so please be careful sweetheart.” “Don’t worry dad, I will.” I give him a tight hug and he is finally on his way out the back door back to his meetings.

As I turn back to check on my new “friend”, she looks into my eyes and says a soft “sorry”.  “ I am not mad at you. You jus surprised me. I did not know that you could change.” I mutter in order to break the cold silence between us. I take her to my room and we disguise ourselves with my old school uniforms because I only have a few days left to finish setting up the decorations in the forest. When we get to the festival location, we start hanging fairy lights again and the “invisible” men that had chased us away before, came out from behind the wisteria, and I suddenly felt as if someone had taken my voice away from my soul.

I could not scream or speak in any way. They marched in a stampede of about seven. In that moment, I knew that I would never see Neveah again. I fell to the cold grassy forest floor and lay there motionless as I saw them take my only friend away. She struggled. She was hopeless. And I was no help.