by Johan Dahlberg

Created on: October 29, 2008

I stopped at a point where the old forest path split in two. This is where they found my father, I thought. My father had died about a year earlier. They had found him lying on the ground, with every bone in his body broken, as if he had fallen and hit the ground at high speed. But there was nothing to fall from, except for trees, and they weren't nearly tall enough to cause such severe injuries. Officially his death was classified as an accident, but no one had ever been able to determine the true cause of how he died.

I looked in one direction. The path was dark and gloomy, and only surrounded by old coniferous trees. This was the path I used to take, because my mother had told me to. She had forbidden me to take the other one. It's dangerous, and you might get lost,' she always said.

There was an old tale in the local area, about a mystery world with the entrance located somewhere in these woods. This world was said to make anyone have their most precious dreams come true. The only catch was that the world would be testing you. You had to survive whatever dangers the world might expose you to, to meet your fears and conquer them. The world would be messing with your mind, and you would have to sort the mess out. Was this why my mother didn't want me to leave the normal path? Did she believe in this fairytale?

I glanced in the other direction. Here the path was surrounded by huge, green birches, and as I followed the path with my eyes, I saw a river further into the forest. Strange, I thought, that I had not seen the river before. I had walked past this path so many times in my life.

I was supposed to go straight through the forest, but there was something about this other path. I wanted to go have a look at the river. I wanted to find out what was over there.

Once again, I looked down the path that my mother so many times had forbidden me to take. Just a quick look can't hurt, I thought, as I started walking towards the river. Slowly, I came closer to the sound of the water, roaring against rocks and cliffs. When I reached the river, I looked around. The path continued into the green luxuriant woods on the other side, but the river was too wild to cross at this point.

My body was filled with a strange, sort of happy feeling. I found the idea of getting to the other side appealing, but I didn't know why. I started walking alongside the river, to find a better place to cross it. As I came further up the river, the water gradually began to calm down. Not too far

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