CHAPTER 1

It was a strange sensation to fall through your shadow.

One moment Elvie played along the water’s edge at the beach. The morning sun was beautifully warm and gulls harked and wheeled across the clear blue sky. Elvie loved the breaking waves and performed a desperate dance along the sand as she sought to stop them cascading across her shoes. That was the trick, get as close as you could without letting the playful waves kiss your feet. Like a frog’s tongue catching a fly, the waves would suck back and launch themselves across the sand.

A larger wave swept in over the top of another, and Elvie screamed in delight as the water came oh so close. Her bag slung across her back flipped from side to side as her evasive action jiggled the contents within.

Her parents lay back on the grassed edge, idly chatting and watching her progress from the corner of their eyes. They sipped coffee and relaxed – it was the school holidays after all. They reclined in the lush grass, with straw woven hats perched upon their heads to protect against the sun. Her mother offered an absent wave and blew her a kiss before she returned to the conversation.

In the blink of an eye, they were gone.

Elvie’s first impression was a bigger wave had splashed up behind her and launched its cold embrace across her legs and back. But it spread, from her back to her sides, across her arms – all the way to her fingertips.

Her stomach lurched as she fell into the cold.

It happened so fast, it was difficult to process. One moment, the salty tang of the ocean surrounded her, the next, glittering balls of light, perhaps stars, perhaps something else, drifted across her vision. She fell at extreme speed, before racing upwards like she was strapped onto a rollercoaster ride. The starlike lights blurred as her sense of movement increased, stretching into bright streaks which merged and swirled around her world became an inseparable blur of light and dark.

Followed by nothing.

It wasn’t a ‘slap’ that greeted Elvie’s face as she fell to the ground, it wasn’t even a ‘thud’. But if she could have put it into words, it would have been a ‘splunf’.

Soft moss pressed into her cheek, smelling of soil after the rain had fallen. Elvie pushed herself to her knees and forced back the brown curls that fell across her eyes as she blew upwards from the corner of her mouth.

‘What happened?’ she queried, to nobody in particular. ‘Where’s the beach?’ She called to her parents but no reply came from amongst the stillness of the trees.

Because nobody was there.

Spread out around her in all directions were trees. Endless trees of all different shapes and sizes preceding as far as the eye could follow. Some were tall and thin and reached their limbs to the hazy clouds in the sky above. Some had patterned bark like a master artist had engraved marvellous swirls with the finest of blades. Others had trunks like the bodies of elephants, while many clung so low to the ground they barely rose above the deep green moss. A myriad of colours greeted the eye; black, brown, green, red, orange, and even splotched versions of grey. The greatest forests of the world had gathered in one place.

Elvie was not the type of girl to be overwhelmed, but the absence of anything familiar tested her resolve. Her father and mother often accused her of being a wild child, bent on discovering every piece of the known earth – all because she ran from them a few times. But here, there were no footsteps, no lights, no signposts, and worst of all, no safety in the knowledge her parents weren’t farther away than what she could call for. That worried her most.

To arrive in a foreign place should have been one of the scariest moments of her life. But to Elvie, the deep earthy aroma present in the air brought a sense of peace, and the rhythmic sway of the branches comforted her. The forest soothed, the way a soft blanket and hot chocolate left her warm and content.

Elvie took a few tentative steps, not sure whether she should stay or walks onwards – to find some answer to the question of where she was. She had to take control, and her help herself. With increasing speed, she stepped around moss encrusted rocks and crunched leaves as she plotted a way through the forest.

She’d walked for close to an hour before she found them. Trees – but different trees. They weren’t like any of others, obsidian, hard, one even had thorns curved like the tusks of a walrus – or a knife, a razor-tipped knife. The trees formed a perfect ring around a smaller, darker tree. Whereas the others were taller, this one was worn and haggard, like its growth was suppressed. Towards the top of the tree, amongst the mangled and gnarled branches, was movement. A bird? There hadn’t been any other animals so far.

A desire filled her to explore further, almost like a voice called to her to enter, to reach out and run her fingers across the tree, perhaps rest against them. But she didn’t. It wasn’t right. Whatever the tree was, it was different.

She veered through the forest, desperate for any sign of a track, path, or a road she could follow back to civilisation. She had no clue where, but if she didn’t know how she’d arrived, how could she possibly know the way out?

Most of the trees in the forest looked to be healthy and strong, but every so often, Elvie came across a tree which had, for want of a better word, been destroyed. A pine tree was split down the middle as if giant hands had torn it asunder. A second with thick brown bark appeared to have exploded and strewn pieces of confetti across the moss for twenty metres in all directions. Another was ripped in two across the middle so only a stump remained; another hung limp dead branches, and yet another was stripped free of all leaves and life. In a vibrant forest, it was a distressing sight.

The forest gradually gave up its secrets, so Elvie pushed on. Hopefully, the next discovery was a path.

For the second time, she saw movement. This time, from the corner of her eye Elvie glimpsed movement high in the branches of a tree, past the clumps of pointed leaves and whiffs of frothy white flowers, and deep within the canopy.

From the furthest branches, a cat stared down.

How could she see it? Ah, wait, it was the eyes – eyes of vivid purple.

She stepped under the tree to peer upwards for a better look. She’d always loved animals as she’d been born into a family with two cats and a dog – the dog was her favourite. Elvie loved to laugh as the playful Labrador gallivanted across her backyard with no cares in the world. While her cats weren’t so playful, it was always nice to snuggle down with them for some warmth. Her two cats, Dorian and Gilbert, were always friendly – maybe the cat in the tree would be to?

‘Here kitty,’ she called up to it.

It leapt from the branches above – straight for her face. Elvie gasped in shock and fell back against the tree. But the cat disappeared as if it never existed, and Elvie was left curled up against the thick brown truck.

‘I wish I was home,’ Elvie muttered to herself. Her back hurt from the contact of the tree, and the pain reinforced the idea she wanted her mother and father.

She lay against the trunk of the tree for some time. Should she get up and walk, or was there no point? Was it a better idea to lie back against the solid tree trunk and stare at the star-shaped leaves above? The thick base looked comfortable, up until the point where branches wandered in all directions like they’d been whipped about in a storm. The bark was a mixture of grey and brown; grey where it flaked off as if sunburnt. But it wasn’t the branches, bark or leaves that made her want to stay beneath the tree, it was the familiar smell of cinnamon and vanilla cake. Those were Elvie’s favourite smells.

‘What sort of tree are you?’ She crumbled the soft flakes of bark against her fingers, enjoying the velvety texture when her hand seared with pain.

‘Ouch!’

The bark cut deep. Nothing obvious was sharp, but blood flowed and pain coursed through her body. She took a deep breath, pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and wrapped it tightly.

‘Why’d you do that?’ she irrationally asked the tree.

Elvie was so busy wrapping her hands, she didn’t notice the way the light shone brighter around her, or how the world drew a deep breath. The pain in her hand and back, as well as the fact she was in an unknown forest, took its toll. Tears formed in the corner of her eyes, and she yelled to nobody in particular. ‘I want to go home! I want my Mum and Dad!’ She stepped away from the tree – and stumbled.

For the second time in a day, Elvie fell through her shadow.