The cool autum wind blew through the trees losing millions of amber leaves. They drifted to the ground in golden waves sprinlked in occasional drops of red and shreds of royal banners. Rustling they piled upon the wooden path laying a soft carpet for those who trod this way.
The wind calmed into stillness blanketing the bright wood in silence unbroken by passage. The blue clear sky shined vast above the ancient calico forest. Unbroken it stretched from plane to plane, never-ending.
The silence was broken by a step, echoing off the rough trunks of oaks and white bows of the asp. Again the foot fell, lighter, yet stillintruding on the peace of a perfect silence.
The girl stopeped. the wind blew, sweeping her mahogany hair into her pale face. Her red scarf flapped in the breeze and her matching skirt billowed above her knee. She pulled her scarlet cape tighter.
She was alone amid the falling curtian of fire and she smiled, a small, sad smile, but a smile nevertheless. Her eyes glowed in the radiance of the drifting. Her cheek glistened with a sinlge tear catching the sky.
She walked through the falling leaves over the carpeted floor. It was her path and her haven, the silent forest and the endless sky. Straight on the narrow path the girl passed the blazing forest, never to pass that way again.