In the woods: The fairy slipper

- Flashback : 3 years ago -

"I-I like you…" Selene mumbled, shyly as she kept her gaze locked on the ground. She was too embarrassed at her own words to be able to make eye contact with the man standing in front of her.

"Y-you… what?" Damian questioned as he looked down upon the girl shorter than his height with a light mocking tone. He took a seat among the few benches in the cafeteria and looked up at her.

"I mean it… I.. started to feel weird lately whenever I'm around you..." Selene posed her right hand between her left chest, slightly to the left, where the heart is situated, and finally made eye contact with the young man seated in front of her. "It hurts here whenever I see you with someone else," she winced. "And it beats fast every time I look at you." Her face flushed as she made eye contact with him as she was tensing up and fidgeted, playing with her fingers, waiting for Damian's answer that seemed to be taking a lifetime to her.

Although she wasn't confident that he would want to be with her, she needed to let him know her feelings. She never fell in love before. But whenever she saw Damian, her heart rate increased and she was unable to speak her mind. She was experiencing euphoria, increased energy, a racing heart, and accelerated breathing whenever she was around him.

Damian's lips curved into a radiant smile as he held Selene's wrist to make her seat next to him.

"Really? You love me this much?" He inquired although Selene was just expressing her feelings a few seconds earlier.

Selene nodded as the words wouldn't come out of her mouth once again. She had used all her courage to confess once, but twice, she wouldn't be able to do so.

"Let's date then." Damian smiled brightly as he wrapped his hands around Selene's.

***

Selene came back to her senses as she shook her head from the memories that dated three years old now. She started cleaning up the mess her father created, once again, disappointed. Yet again, she couldn't allow herself to have any more expectations from that man because it is expectations that caused her to get disappointed and she didn't want any feelings of hers to be related to him.

The broken vases, few glasses, the bed sheets thrown on the ground, and so on seemed to be endless to clean up. She was already exhausted by her sports class today and having her time of the month didn't help.

She often wondered if her father ever loved her mother. If he was getting drunk to sink out of his pain and to forget he ever suffered the loss of losing his lover. She heard alcohol numbed the pain but she wouldn't know. For sure, she wouldn't move toward alcohol to numb her pain. Never. She has sworn upon the Goddess that no matter what pain she has to endure, she will never depend on alcohol to appease her torments.

***

Kayla approached Selene who was sitting on a chair, working on a painting. "Selene, could you do me a favour please?" The platinum-haired girl asked as she gave her the cutest puppy eyes possible with her big round emerald eyes appearing right before Selene.

Selene chuckled at the sight and nodded while continuing her panting.

"What can I do for you?"

Kayla excitedly grabbed Selene's hands together, shocking Selene at the sudden physical contact, as she smiled brightly as the twinkles in her eyes became visible to Selene's eyes.

***

'No way… NO WAY! What in the world?!' Selene's thoughts ran threw her head as she stood before a forest.

Kayla wanted her to go into the forest to get a rare flower; a fairy slipper.

Kayla was too busy today and she needed it urgently but no one was brave enough to come into the forest. Selene didn't believe the rumours so she agreed to come however, the forest was truly vast. Although she was standing in front of the woods, she could tell that it was vast.

The flower Kayla wanted was very rare and only found in North America and Eurasia. It is said that at the deepest part of the forest in this city, a fairy slipper was seen. It was a single flower, barely reaching a height of 6 inches, emerging from a bulb-like corm, with only one dark green egg-shaped leaf per plant. It was said to be hard to spot among the thick moss carpeting forest floors and the person who saw it was Kayla's distant relative.

Selene sighed as she clenched her fist against her chest as she walked towards the forest, nervously. She was a little frightened as she never went inside that forest. It was said that savage animals resided inside the forest.

"It's okay. I'll be fine. It's okay," she repeated to herself as if to reassure herself that nothing bad will happen to her.

She roamed inside the woods, looking left and right, on the mouse-filled ground, looking for that violet wild orchid, yet nothing as such appeared in front of her eyes, no matter how far her gaze went. She was getting an ominous feeling as suddenly the clouds had covered the sun. Perhaps it was soon going to rain.

She had already reached almost the center of the forest when a drop of water fell on her face. She blinked as the cold droplet touched her flushed face from walking for hours. She looked around for a shelter, but it was impossible to find one in a forest. She shook her head, finding herself foolish to think there would be a shelter deep in the woods. Her heart rate was increasing with each passing second until a sudden growling was heard from afar. She gasped, as she rotated her head to the direction from which the sound came. Her legs started trembling along her hands in fear. Maybe it was the savage animals people talked about? She didn't believe in those baseless rumours since they existed even before her birth. However, she heard it herself right now.

Her legs became weak to fear causing her to fall on the ground. Her knees were scratched by the rocks below that she failed to notice. She groaned in pain as she held her wounds with her hand.

Just then, she saw it. The flower she was meaning to find; the fairy slipper. Just as Kayla told her, it was small, barely 6 inches as she heard.. A delicate smile appeared on Selene's face. She crawled a little as her legs didn't listen to her and decided to not allow her to stand up due to her fear from earlier.

She reached out for the flower. Just as she touched the flower, a drop of her blood fell on the flower and a garden of calypso orchids, another name for fairy slipper, grew leaving Selene shocked, yet completely amazed by the situation.

However, when she heard the growling of the animal from earlier once again but it was becoming stronger and clearer, she realised that it was coming closer to where she was located. She quickly stood up, although still frightened, she fought her fear, as her legs were still trembling, she refused to give up. If that animal found her, it would eat her alive for sure! And she wasn't ready to die yet!

***

"Blood?" A growling manly voice spoke.

The stain of blood on the calypso orchid was barely present so was its aroma washed away by the heavy downpour rain and the muddy smell of the wood's ground but the person present had hyperosmia; he could smell the slightest scent very easily.

"Who's?"

His ruby-like eyes looked at his sourrings wondering who was present in the woods right before it but nothing could be seen despite having a vision that could see things from afar, no human could see that far.

"So many fairy slippers… How's that possible?? There is supposed to be only one flower in this specific place. Don't tell me that person was a… But how? And why would one of them be here?"