Everything in this forest looks faintly edible, which is exactly the problem. Red mushrooms with white spots sit around like candies somebody spilled, pink berries glow on the vines like gumdrops, and the whole ground has gone soft and sugary in shades of violet and rose. Kneeling in the middle of it, one hand pressed to the moss, is a girl in a blue dress and striped stockings, looking up with the expression of someone who was warned about all this and came anyway. A blue bow holds her dark hair back from eyes the color of the sky over a very good day. There's a book open on the ground beside her — face down, pages splayed, the way books end up when their reader finds something more interesting. A caterpillar snoozes on a leaf to the right, unbothered, which in a forest like this is a career decision. Everything here offers itself politely: eat me, drink me, follow me. She's listening. That's the whole trick of places like this — they don't grab you, they just make everything back home look slightly gray by comparison. One bite. That's all it ever takes. The bow stays tied, though. Somebody has to remember the way out.
#aliceinwonderland #fairytaleforest #animeart #curiousgirl
