Outside my room, there was nothing.
It was like coming out of an invisible tent in some unknown forest. There were trees, grass, shrubs, and even small rocks around, but no signs of what used to be the rest of my house. When I turned around, it was to see that all that had come to this place was the inside of my room.
Outside, there was no sign that I was even here. None at all.
I went and shut my room door from outside and it proved it all. Once the door closed, there was nothing to show that anything was there. My room was practically invisible.
I stood there, thoughts of all I used to know and love running through my head. Where were they now? Did anybody notice that I was not there with them anymore?
The shadows on the floor at my feet danced all of a sudden, and I raised my head to see what it was in panic. From above, a large branch was coming down upon me, and it was so big and so close to me I fell to the floor, waiting for the worst to happen.
It was the last thing I expected that eventually happened.
It came close and stopped inches above me, without crushing me.
Before I knew what was happening, I felt the branches curl around me, just like a human hand would around an object it was grasping, and then I felt myself rising high above everything else, including my invisible room on the ground. It was strange, and I was scared of heights, so I cried for help, wondering what was taking me away.
"What do we have here?" I heard a voice that sounded very much like an old man's chuckle when the branch finally stopped, its leaves dancing around me. My hands grabbed the branch tight for fear of falling while I looked around for the voice that spoke.
"A human walking out of nowhere, eh?"
"Who are you?" I asked.
"I am the tree. I am the one talking to you."
I turned, and once more there was a chuckle. "That branch seems to scare you, so I must move you to another of my branches that is stronger, to make you comfortable."
As it said this, another branch came and picked me, moving me away.
"Do you feel better here?" It asked.
Still scared out of my wits, and in disbelief that I was speaking to a tree, I said nothing.
"You will take some time to get used to me talking, even though your kind have done everything to me, convinced I cannot move, or talk, or speak, or feel since I have been standing here for the past four hundred years."
"Four hundred?" I questioned, astonished.
"There are trees even older than me. I am only here because I have been waiting for you."
"For me?" I asked.
"Yes. I and my other friends were told to watch the forests, for anyone that might appear out of nowhere. I was lucky you appeared at my feet."
"Are you sure I am the one you want?" I interrogated, surprised that a tree would claim to be waiting for me. "I came here because I read a curse out of a book, a time travelling curse that brought me here."
The tree chuckled silently, pulling its branches close to form a cushion for me. I sat in it, taking a deep breath.
"We have been waiting for a visitor, a human who will walk out of nowhere, as the Elves said. You are the only one I have seen walking out of nowhere. I am taking you to my old friend, Darwin, now. He will know what to tell you."
"Taking me? And who is Darwin?" I asked, looking around me.
"Darwin is a leader of a group of Elves. They live in the cave."
At first I failed to notice it, but then I did.
The tree was moving forward. It was gliding through the soil and the branches of other trees as smoothly and slowly as it would have through water, without even leaving a single trace.
"There is so much you do not know about this earth you live in, little one, and there is so much for you to see."
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"Up on that mountain. Below it is a cave. That is where Darwin is."
I looked up and sure enough, there was a small mountain in the distance, quite far away from us.
"My friends are all saying they wish they were the ones who found you. They would be honoured to carry the One."
"Your friends?"
"Can you guess who they are?"
I looked around on the branch, slowly growing comfortable with the fact that a tree could listen and even speak back to me. Now, I wanted to figure out who the friends he referred to were, and so far, I could identify none of them."
"They are the ones whose branches have been intertwining with mine. That is how we communicate with each other."
As we moved, many of the tree branches were softly rubbing against those of the one that carried me through, but I had not noticed because it looked like they were only blowing into each other, the same way it would look on a windy day.
I observed this for a while, watching, almost hypnotised by the motion. It must have been why I fell asleep, forgetting that I was in a different place, far from everything I had ever known because of a curse I had pronounced.
The sun was setting when I opened my eyes again, rolling over to stretch when I remembered that I was in a tree.
"Easy, there, boy. We have reached the cave."
Astonished, I realised that it had taken all day, testifying to how slowly the tree moved, even when its target was only a short distance away.
We were quite close to the mountain and the cave underneath it now, and I straightened up in expectation to meet Darwin, or whomever they said he was. I tried to imagine what he would look like, an old man with long, pointed ears and a white beard wearing a hood and holding a staff, just like I imagined an elf would look.
As we approached, a light flashed from inside the cave.