Strange Creatures

“Iris! Iris! Mom says that we are almost there!” I felt a smaller hand start furiously tapping my arm in order to get me to wake up. I shielded my eyes from the sunlight as I started to wake up, sitting up and adjusting the seat belt to a more comfortable position. Those words thrilled me!

“We are?” I looked around and saw an abundance of green made of the most beautiful pine trees, berry bushes, and smaller plants that grew on for miles ahead. Something within me felt the energy equivalent to a young child squealing in a toy shop. The forest surrounding us just felt like a warm comfort, one I have missed for years.

“Yeah, we are about 40 minutes out.” Dad piped up from the driver’s seat. I felt a rush of excitement as it was becoming more and more a reality rather than a hopeful dream.

My family and I were moving back to the small town where I was born and raised until the age of 12. The name of it was Silvaton, and it was a much older town. All the buildings were like a darker theme in their own aesthetic way, having been built by individual builders a long time ago. Everybody in the town knew everyone else, and everyone knew everything from gossip to good news in the smallest nook and crannies. It was a little hard to keep secrets.

Growing up, I did have a good few friends here. There were five of us. Granger, Dana, Arlene, Valerie, and I. We always played the game ‘pretend’ when we were much younger. Til I left Silvaton, we always pretended that Granger was a knight, Dana and Arlene were the princesses, Valerie the sorcerer, and I the mighty Queen! It was so much fun...despite my age, I still would find it fun. Something about it feels right. Weird.

I have kept contact with only two people. Granger and I managed to keep somewhat in contact throughout the last five years. We would text on and off, facebook friends, or play games online. I had one other friend that I met almost right before we left and I have had heavy contact with them since. Her name is Ava. She was like a godsend during darker times, and she was always metaphorically by my side. She always provided me with good advice and the best jokes, honestly I am extremely grateful, and I can’t wait to see her again.

While looking around at the trees whizzing by, I fidgeted with the ring on my finger. It was a silver ring that was made to look like a grand flower blossoming, a beautiful amethyst sat in the middle where the pollen would be. It was an absolutely beautiful ring, and was handmade by my grandfather for my grandmother. She gave it to me right before she disappeared, and no one could find her.

My grandmother was a beautiful and eclectic woman, accepting and loving of every creature on the planet. She believed that there was a great amount of beauty in the natural world, light following her everywhere she walked. She was very eccentric and had my mother and aunt very young. One of her permanent and strange marks that she bestowed on the family was my mother’s and aunt’s names. My mother’s name is Sapphire, my aunt’s Tanzanite. Honestly I think they are quite beautiful names, more beautiful than unconventional. My grandmother was a woman of many colors and stories. I wish to be like her one day. She inspires every step I take in my life.

My aunt was like her in many ways. Her bright strawberry blonde hair highlights her fiery and shining personality unlike any other. She swears by my grandmother’s ethics and morals more than anything else. My mother is older than the two, so there was very obviously a sort of sibling rivalry, but recently, especially after my grandmother disappeared, their relationship had gotten much, much worse. I never really understood why. They were always arguing in silence, and anytime I, or my sister would enter the room, they would immediately bring their conversation to a halt before I would even step foot into the room. It was always like they knew I was coming up to the door somehow and I never could figure out how. My mother and aunt were always very strange and very secretive.

My dad would tend to stay out of their conversations, and when I asked him what they were talking about, he would either tell me to ming my own, or to leave it be. Whatever it was, my aunt always sounded pretty angry.

Aunt Tanzy lived with us for a while at one point, and after an argument, she took me to get a tattoo as a way to get back at my mother. At first, I didn’t understand why she offered me to get a tattoo at 16, but I found out a couple months ago, and found out that she was incredibly PO’ed at my mom and wanted to do it to get back at her. Mom wasn’t that upset when I texted her to double check if the tattoo was okay, and she was okay with it……. That is until I got home and showed her what I got.

Remember when I was younger I used to pretend to be the Queen of the forest? I got a tree sprouting through a flower crown on my forearm and underneath it, it read “Queen of the Forest.” Mom cried for three days after I got the tattoo, and wouldn’t let me go anywhere. It didn’t make any sense to me.

“Iris! Hello! Earth to Iris?!” Maisy was practically shouting in my ear, trying her absolute hardest without hitting me to get my attention.

“What?!” I unintentionally snapped at her. Immediately I apologized when she gave me her famous hurt puppy dog expression.

’Dad said we are pulling over to take pictures.” Maisy huffed before turning back in her seat to face the road.

I groaned. “Can’t we just wait to take pictures when we get to the house?” “You really don’t want a taste of the forest now? I’m more than surprised to hear you say that.” Dad chuckled at my reaction before he started slowing the car down. I guess it really wouldn’t be that bad if we pulled over for a few minutes.

Excitement started to bubble up within me, and within seconds I was unable to sit still in my seat as if I was a small child again ready to go to Disney.

Once Dad pulled the car over, Maisy was the first one out of her seat and crawling out of the car, almost tripping as she darted towards the forest. I was a close second out of the car, and when I tell you that the sweet grassy aroma, and that beautiful pine scent hit me, you better believe I was in heaven.

Tears were forming in my eyes, and as dramatic as that sounds, I was absolutely miserable in Arizona, and was terribly homesick, and now? Well, now I am home.

Kicking off my flip flops, I felt the green grass for the first time in a long time. It was cold and was wet with dew, and it was the most refreshing feeling I have had in a long, long time.

Being around the trees and the grass, the roots, the leaves, all of it made me feel safe and at home. It’s something about the forest that just brings me comfort and security. I know it’s a cliche but honestly, when I’m around people or in the general public, I feel alienated from even the buildings that had surrounded me. Well, I guess that the fact that dangerous things kept happening around me would cause panic quite easily. Honestly, we had the worst luck living in Arizona, and not to mention the nightmares. We will get back to that later.

“Are ya alright Iris?” Dad caught me off guard with his question and with my eyes closed, a huge smile on my face, I nodded at him, breathing in a huge whiff of forest aroma. He chuckled once more before turning to help mom out of the car.

“Is this how you remembered it, Iris?” Maisy questioned as she flitted around the grass. She seemed to also be in awe of how beautiful the green colors were. Seeing her dancing around in the same forest where I once reigned made me smile.

“Yeah, that and more. Don’t you just love the green Maisy?” I scooped her up in a hug and she laughed at my ridiculousness.

“I don’t think I have ever seen this much green! Arizona definitely didn’t have this much for sure! Or these trees! Well, where we lived anyways.” She was right, back in southern Arizona there was absolutely nothing except for bushes and rocks. Not really our first choice if we had to choose where to live.

I took a glance at mom to see what her reaction was so far. She seemed off, but to be honest, any one could see she wasn’t happy. Honestly, if I were to guess, I wouldn’t be able to tell you why. She was absolutely miserable back in Arizona, she couldn’t garden, she couldn’t take many walks among nature due to the heat, and she was so miserable she was barely able to get herself out of bed to work despite working from home. It pained me to see her feel so miserable and yet not understand why she was. Nobody was happy there, not even dad and he was always okay with everything. With how much she hated Arizona, I can’t imagine why she wouldn’t be jumping with joy just seeing the trees.

“Dad?” I whispered to dad as I walked to his side while watching mom walk to the edge of the forest. “What’s up kiddo?”

“Why is mom upset? I mean she absolutely hated Arizona and even a blind person could see that she missed this place a lot... So why is she so upset?”

Dad just sighed, he seemed to be thinking about how to answer my question, and with how long he was taking to answer, I can assume that he either doesn’t know, or he does and he didn’t want to tell me.

“She’ll be fine, don’t worry about her, okay?” Dad tried to give me a convincing look, but come on, I am not that dumb. I decided not to press into it much more as I returned to Maisy, who had found something cool while I was talking to Dad.

“What did ya find?” I peered into her hand and found her holding a pine cone. Maisy looked up at me with sheer excitement.

“I’ve never seen one before!” She squealed. She definitely has, but due to how old she was at the time, I really doubt that she would remember.

“You know what, when we get home, why do we blow it out of any bugs, and we can display it on the mantle above the fireplace.” Dad suggested to Maisy, who, despite my disbelief that she could get even more excited, squealed and giggled once more before running to show mom. I watched as she proudly presented the pine cone to Mom, who just sadly nodded. When she noticed the concerned expression on my face, she quickly plastered the fakest smile on her face and tried to show excitement. I really don’t understand what she could possibly be so upset about.

“How about we take a picture so I can post it online?” Mom suggested as she tried to lead an excited Maisy over to the edge of the woods. Dad agreed loudly and began to drag me over to Maisy. Mom stood and yelled ‘Smile!’ while holding her phone up and aiming the camera at our smiling faces.

As I was smiling, I noticed something across the road that looked like a tree stump…… moving???

Wait, tree roots can move on their own?

I squinted to look closer at it, and when I saw it, my eyes snapped wide in shock. It…. Had… Eyes….

And it was staring right at me!

“What the hell?!”

“Iris! Language!” Mom snapped before noticing the baffled expression on my face. She whipped around to look for what I saw. When she did see it, she looked back at Dad with a look that just screamed the words ‘I told you so’, before demanding everyone back into the car.

“Wait, what’s going on? What was that?” Nobody answered my questions as my sister and I filed back into the car.

“What did you guys see?” Maisy piped up from beside me.

“It looked like that tree root had eyes…. You guys saw that right?” I aimed my question at mom and dad, who again exchanged looks that did not give off the happiest vibes.

“What we saw was probably a badger or something and I didn’t want us to deal with it. Don’t forget, like I told you before, these woods are getting more and more dangerous. Last year, there were multiple bear sightings. Just to be safe from whatever that was, we are just going to go straight to the house from here. Then you girls can get unpacked and ready for school tomorrow.” Mom started babbling, she always does that when something was wrong.

I started to think about it a bit more, what I had seen, and what mom said I had seen. Maybe she was right. Maybe it was just a badger or something. Are the woods really getting that dangerous? I just can’t imagine that being true with all the years I had spent in these woods when I was younger. I only remember good things about this forest, I don’t remember anything dangerous. Well, not that I already knew they were there, like spiders and sometimes snakes. But not often, and not enough to cause reactions like that.

A part of me feels like mom was lying, and another part of me knew mom was lying. She was probably better off saying it was a snake, and I would have left it alone.

I was about to open my mouth when Dad shot me one of the sharpest ‘don’t say another word’ look towards my way in the rearview mirror. Nevermind. Maybe this topic was best saved til later. That look alone sent shivers through my body, so I knew this would start a fight within the car, so it was probably best to keep my mouth shut. Well, if I couldn’t say anything about it to them, I did have someone I could text.

Opening my phone, I shot a text to Ava, asking her if she had seen anything weird in the forest lately, and if it had been as dangerous as Mom said it had been. I waited for a few moments for her text back, but then I remembered she would probably be in class right now. I will just have to wait for her to answer.

Dad had pretty much driven like a maniac the rest of the way to the new house. The ride there was tense to say the least. Maisy tried to say a joke to lighten the mood, but the atmosphere was just too thick for a joke to do the trick.

I sat in complete mystery as I tried to understand what I had just witnessed in the forest. The weirdest part is that I don’t think it was a normal creature, and even more, I don’t feel like that’s an absolute impossibility.

Though, despite how deep I was into the though process of what that could have been, one thing, and only one thing had snapped me out of it. The car pulling into the driveway of our used to be and now again home.

Silently stepping out of the car, I took a large happy sigh while my eyes feasted on the very sight of our manor.

Man, it feels good to be back.