The first thing I noticed wasn't the silence—though that would come later, pressing against my eardrums like cotton wool—but the lights. Tiny pinpricks of gold that danced between the trees like earthbound stars, too regular to be sunlight filtering through leaves, too purposeful to be mere reflection.
Fireflies, my rational mind insisted. Nothing more than insects going about their evening business, despite the fact that it was barely past dawn and fireflies didn't typically illuminate forests in broad daylight.
But rational thoughts felt flimsy here, as insubstantial as the mist that curled around my ankles with each step. The deeper I walked into the forest, the more the normal rules of the world seemed to... bend. Time felt different. Distance felt different. Even the air felt differ
