Genre: Fantasy

Plot: A character buys a house surrounded by a forest of talking trees

Words to use: branch, roots, bark, wind, whisper, secret, leaves, property, boundary, rumble, nest, sap, scatter, scent, seeds.

The last of the leaves were scattered, blowing all around in the cold chill wind of autumn. Bianca had set her heart on the quaint house, set back from the road. The property was surrounded by a dense ancient forest. The boundary was made of an intermittent stone wall. The bark of the trees were jagged and peeling in large part of their trunks. Their rootswere deep and intertwined. The lane leading to the house was under a canopy of the network of branches, the sky barely visible even with a small amount of leaves left. The trees whisper to each other a secret of long ago. 

The house was quaint, Victorian gingerbread all around and one small turret that was the dining area of the first floor and a sitting area on the second. The paint was peeling and dry rot was present but Bianca was undeterred. She wanted a fixer upper and that is what she got with this home in the middle of a forest.

Her first night was spent was quiet. She worked on peeling some wall paper that was from the 1960s, all green and yellow flowers. She wanted to take her time to enjoy the process. She had a plan of attack for all the work that needed to be done to make this her dream home. She heard a rumble from her stomach, it brought her work to a finish for the night. She set all her supplies to the side, with plans of heading to the kitchen to make herself a snack before bed. The scent of toasted cinnamon bread filled the kitchen. A comfort food she loved. It was something her grandma made her when she was a little girl.

The area she chose for her make shift room was made up of a cot, sheets and blankets with her favorite pillow. She had a lamp set upon a box next to her for reading. She was settling in when she heard a scratch on the window adjacent to her bed. She thought it was just a tree branch moving across the window. The wind started to blow with more force as the sun began to set. She didn’t feel too concerned, until she heard the sound of whispers coming from outside. She set about finding her flashlight to investigate. It was probably just her imagination. She must be really tired, more than she realized. 

When she opened the front door, she thought she saw tiny lights float through the trees. Lights that darted to and fro with the wind. The lights would dart around in intervals then come together again. Very curious indeed. Through the darkness, she continued to hear talking, “Did your seeds scatter through each burst of wind, Ivera?” She heard a low set tome say, “they certainly did, Idlewise.” “It knocked a nest from my bough” was another reply from somewhere else in the forest. “The birds should use some extra sap to make it more secure to your limbs, we should tell them”. 

Bianca stood motionless while this conversation went on. Her mouth was opened in a mixture of fear and concern for her mental health. She turned back around, retreated into the house. “That was weird. I must be hearing things.” she laid back down into her bed and listened to the ongoing conversation between trees. She finally fell asleep in deep slumber, dreaming of talking trees and fairies that darted around playing tag. 

When she awoke, after eating and getting ready for the day, she made a stroll through the forest of trees surrounding her home, making a thorough search but saw nothing. 

“I guess I must have been dreaming.” She told herself. 

Going inside, she started from where she left off the night before. She sang happily with the music playing through the house from her phone. When her phone rang, she stopped to answer the familiar number.

“Good morning, John. How is my favorite real estate agent this morning.” She chirped.

“We need to talk about the trees surrounding your home. I got some information from a previous owner.” His voice was serious.

Her eyes widened as he spoke and she dropped the cloth she holding in her hand. She was dazed when the call ended and went to the folding chair to sit down, absorbing the information he gave her. “Now what?…” she queried to herself. Lifting herself off the chair, she walked to the window and looked at the trees, contemplating her next decision. Was that tree giving her a menacing look? She shook her head in confusion of what she saw and it was back looking normal. It must have been an illusion again. She continued on with her work of stripping the old wallpaper, not knowing what evil was in store for her future.