13

You find them and change into them right away, relishing the softness on your feet. You feel like you could run all the way back home.

After a long time just sitting together in your room, you tell Arctus it's time to go home—and she makes a noise to show she agrees. You make your way down to the first floor, then through the door and back into the winding stairs hidden in the tree's trunk. At the bottom, you let Arctus squeeze out first before you duck through the gap under the hollow root and finally straighten up on the ground.

Gazing up at your tree, you sigh, thinking of the long way home—but it's okay. You've made the trip before; it'll just be like a nice walk.

"Why don't you go ahead?" you say to Arctus, who blinks in understanding—and then a moment later, when you next look at where she was standing on the ground, you see that she's vanished entirely. You smile to yourself, thinking how you sometimes forget that she's magical as well, and that she doesn't have to get back the hard way if she doesn't want to. You, however, don't have much of a choice—and after a moment, you set off through the trees in the direction of home.

You only get about ten yards from your tree, however, before you notice something that makes you pause.

There, poking out of the undergrowth at the foot of another evergreen, you see a small metal box.

Frowning, you step a little closer—and try to nudge it gently with your foot. It doesn't budge; in fact, it seems like it's connected to the tree. Even more confused, you crouch down to get a closer look—and that's when you see the hint of black plastic just showing through some dead leaves. When you move them aside, you realize that what you're looking at is a wire—a wire which protrudes from the box and disappears out of sight under the thick moss and ferns covering the ground.

What do you do?