Snapshot - Night Magic

A piece of flash fiction inspired by a photo

He tread through the forest that morning, the air cool and misty around him. The sound of his steps swallowed by the plush undergrowth of ferns and other plants he knew nothing of. It was still early in the day and birds were just waking from their slumber, moving in their nests but not yet singing their praises to the sun. 

 While he was familiar with this wood, it was the first time he had embarked on a journey into it so early in the day. The fog of morning clinging feebly to the trees. The sun not yet awake or strong enough to shoo it away. Dewdrops had formed upon a rather large spiderweb and he stopped for a moment to enjoy the artistry behind something created to do passively hunt the airborne prey of the spider who still slept near a corner, dangling by a single this thread of silk. 

 Following what the boy believed to be the trail he knew so well in later times of the day, we walked in the subdued quietness. Something large sounding stirred beside him but did not get up and jump away as it would when he passed the way again later in the day. In the distance, he heard a sound he had never before heard in this part of the wood. 

 He followed the sound, footsteps still muffled, his breathing the only sound cutting through the fog but not quite drowning the strange new sound. It reminded him of the sound made when he played in the bathtub when he was smaller, pouring water from one container to another, but much more delicate than anything that he had created then. 

 Suddenly something began to loom out at him from the thickness of the morning fog. Dark and almost menacing, but this is where the sound was emanating from. The ground began to rise under his feet and as he rose up out of the murkiness that held the forest in sway, he was able to now see a large pool of water formed into a rock in the hill on which he stood. Though the water in it was not the torrid green he was expecting nor was it crystal clear hosting one or two small minnows as he had seen in other surprising little ponds he had found at other times. 

What he found stunned him, this water was purple. A large fern lounging over the lip of the bowl the pond resided in, a couple of its fronds touching into the surface as one would if they were laying next to a swimming pool on a sunny day. The boy took a step closer, wanting to touch the water and maybe learn it's secrets, disturbing a flurry of dragonflies he hadn't seen resting on the edge nearest him. 

 Watching them flutter and skip across the surface towards the larger fern on the other side, he heard another noise. One that did not belong to the forest except at mealtimes or when the weather was building to storm, the voice of one who loved him more than he loved her. his mother was looking for him, possibly worrying about finding his bed abandoned and disheveled at such an early hour. 

 One last look at the tempting violet water was made before turning towards the sound of hi being called. He hoped he would be able to find it again when he was able to come back letter in the day. He ran towards the voice, stirring and shooing the animal that only shuffled just moments before. Bird now greeted the day and wished him well on his way. The sun was starting to cut away at the magic spell that the night had woven through the forest, it's secrets never to be seen until the next time.