The Wild Woman Cometh

 She stepped into the forest with the weight of the past clinging to her skin like heavy, broken chains. The air smelled of damp earth and pine, the wind whispering secrets through the towering trees. She had no destination, only a need—to dissolve, to disappear, to let the silence of the wild consume her.

The moss beneath her feet was softer than any bed she had known, and as she walked deeper, the trees leaned in, their ancient limbs bending toward her as if they recognized her sorrow. The birds sang to her, not with pity, but with knowing. They had seen this before—the wounded arriving, the lost seeking refuge in their world of green and shadow.

She found a river, its surface reflecting the sky like a silver mirror. Kneeling at its edge, she dipped her hands into the cool water. It seeped into her cracks, smoothing the jagged edges of her soul. With every ripple, it carried away the whispers of doubt and fear that had haunted her for so long.

The wind wound itself around her, playful yet insistent, combing through her hair and tugging at her old, tattered thoughts. It urged her to shed them like a snake sheds its skin. The past was not hers to wear anymore.

The trees hummed in agreement, their deep, rooted voices vibrating through her bones. "You are not broken," they murmured. "You are being remade."

She lay against an ancient oak, her heartbeat syncing with the rhythm of the earth. Her breath slowed, her mind stilled. Somewhere deep inside, something cracked—not in breaking, but in release. The pain that had once defined her now seeped into the soil, taken by the roots, transformed into something new.

Night fell, and the stars pulsed overhead. The forest wrapped itself around her like a mother embracing a child. She slept, and in her dreams, she saw herself rising—not as the woman who had stumbled into the woods, but as something fierce, something untamed. The trauma had been stripped away, the scales of her past dissolving into the earth.

When dawn arrived, she stood at the forest's edge, reborn. Her skin glowed with the golden light of the rising sun, her eyes held the wild wisdom of the trees. She walked forward, her feet knowing the way, her spirit unshackled. She had not forgotten. She carried every lesson, every scar, but now they were her armor, her power.

She stepped back into the world, and the light within her was so brilliant, so undeniable, that those who once overlooked her could no longer meet her gaze. 

She was untamed. 

She was whole. 

She was free.