The Alpha Mate

In the middle of a forest, Lily stood upright, surrounded by giant trees. Her ginger hair glowed like the twilight at the end of the day in the forest full of green and brown to black colours from the trunks of the trees. She seemed so contrasting.

Lily was in a state of confusion after staring intently at where she was. She looked in all directions in a panic, unable to scream. Lily recognised the place. It wasn't the first time she'd been there. She had run around there many times but never found her way out.

All she remembered clearly about this place was that she was near a tree with a pair of people; both were familiar to her, but she did not recognise them as people she had met before in the real world.

She vividly remembered the two of them telling her to leave immediately, and she reluctantly left cause she was worrying about them.

Yes, she recognised this place from a dream that had come to her repeatedly but felt real even after waking from sleep.

"Where exactly am I?" asked Lily finally, walking carefully after she had been silent with her confusion about the situation she was in.

Where exactly was this forest, somewhere real or somewhere in her dreams? She was beginning to have trouble telling the difference.

Lily approached a tree that she recognised. Lily's eyes focused on the stump in front of her. The tree's rings seemed to be moving in circles. She felt an optical illusion was taking place before her eyes, trying to trick her. Or she had gone further into her dream because she saw impossible things.

Lily closed her eyes, completely lost as to what was going on. Was she in her dream, or was she in the real world? Lily didn't know for sure. What could give her an answer? The girl who was barefoot and wearing her usual nightgown pinched her hand hard, as hard as she could, until she groaned in pain.

To say it was a dream, the pain was too real. Lily could visibly see the skin on her pinched hand turning red. Her current outfit also led her to believe that she was not dreaming. However, Lily was aware that her dreams always felt real because even when she was dreaming, she felt pain all over her body as if it were not a dream.

But what was going on? Why is she alone in this place at this time? Why isn't she running this time, and why is this place so quiet? What is going on? Where exactly were the people who were with her in the dream? Although only two people were clearly remembered, Lily was sure that many people were around them at the time, holding back the other group. Her memories were rather vague, but she was convinced of the existence of the others.

Lily walked through the forest. Leaving a tree she recognised. She moved on through the woods, which were only a fraction of the size of the place she had seen in her dream. The towering large trees seemed to have lived longer than her age, the moss clinging to the wood clearly showing the time.