The forest was vast and green, its tall leafy trees were dancing to the beat of the cool breeze. It was a perfect bright shinny day for them to sing a song with their leaves. However, their music was not the only sound going around that day. The screams of a desperate and seemly lost young man could also be heard throughout the canopy. He did not understand why he was there, the only fact he was certain about is that someone was after him. But not anymore, and that is what confused the young man, how did he end up in this forest and who was the person he was running from? At the same time, he felt a bit of relief because despite of not remembering the place he came from, his instincts told him that he was safe, for now.

His name was Alessandro. A tall boy physically looking to be in his late teens, eighteen years old to be exact, although, he was much elder than that and he knew it. He also knew his human appearance was present for the most part, after all, he used to be one. But his elven ears were exposed, revealing his true nature. Alessandro did not know how they got there but he was not in denial anymore. He was an elf now, one with a human spirit that despite the years, he never let go. He hold onto the memories with his loved ones those forty years he was outside of the human realm. Those precious moments with them were the key to set himself free from Arcadia, the place he escaped from.

‘’But why I don’t remember anything else other than that?’’ Alessandro asked himself.

The more he thought about it, the more confusing it was getting for him. What was Arcadia? Why did he know the name but not the place or how it looked like? Why did he instantly know he was in the human world and not there anymore? Those were just a few of the many questions he had and didn’t have an answer. Alessandro did not know what else to do other than keep running in hopes of getting out of the forest and ask for help.

A fiery sun was still up in the blue wide sky but despite not having a watch, Alessandro knew at least two or three hours had passed. He was not the type to give up easily, on the contrary, he was exhausted, but kept going forward without looking back not even once. His clothes were a bit ripped and covered in dirt from running and falling down several times. He was starting to feel the craving hunger growing inside him, he did not remember the last time he ate something. He wanted to stop and rest for a few minutes but decided not to do it at the last second because of how eager he was to see some signal of life. He missed his family, his friends, his love, the one person he thought about every single day during his time in Arcadia. At the same time, Alessandro was afraid to see them again. How could he explain to them that he was an elf now if he himself didn’t quite understand it in its totality. How could he reappear in front of them looking exactly the same as that eighteen year old boy they saw for the last time, forty years ago. Would his parents still be alive? Alessandro shook his head to get rid of such image, it was not the time to be pessimist.

‘’Hope is the last feeling a person should lose’’. Alessandro smiled at the memory of that phrase. His dad used to say it all the time. Where ever his father was, Alessandro knew he was making him proud for not giving up right then and there. The light returned to the crystal clear blue eyes of the young elf when he gave himself that boost of confidence and hope. He took a deep breath before continuing his running, yelling for succor. But nobody answered. At some point, Alessandro started to wonder if perhaps the human race was no longer living on Earth. That was highly unlikely, forty years were not enough for them to disappear like thing air.

All Alessandro saw around were trees, leaves and different shades of green. The sound of the dancing trees’ branches was relaxing to listen but not what Alessandro was hoping to hear in that particular moment. Taking a heavy tired sigh, he stopped by one old trunk to sit there and think what else could he do. It’s not like he had many options but at least he was hoping to find something or someone who could assist him. Unfortunately, that possibility was low. However, low was better than nothing. In a blink of an eye, the trees surrounding Alessandro suddenly stopped moving with the breeze. Said soft wind disappear to reveal a very silent forest which panicked Alessandro enough to stand up and be alarm to any causalities. There was no sound or movement, not from the trees, not from the air. It seemed like time suddenly froze.

‘’Who ever you are, I’ll fight even if it is the last thing I do but I’m not going back to Arcadia!’’ The young boy shouted to nothing after swallowing in fear. It was true Alessandro did not remember a thing from Arcadia, but he was certain of something; that place was not unicorns and rainbows. Just pronouncing the name sent a cold shiver down the boy’s spine. His mind didn’t remember but for some estrange reason he couldn’t seem to comprehend; his body did know the details.

He waited for something to happen, for someone to come out of the bushes and attack him…. But that never occurred. His surroundings were still quiet. Thanks to that quietness, he heard a familiar sound that immediately made him walk to its source.

‘’Water?’’ Alessandro wonder out loud while looking around to find said transparent liquid. After walking a couple of steps forward, he found a gorgeous natural pool.

Its water had a beautiful electrifying turquoise color, on top of it, there was a rather strong cascade gracefully falling down to the crystalline water. Around the pool, long and green branches hung from an enormous bushy tree that provided some shadow from the intense sun. The thin line on Alessandro’s face turned into a smile after contemplating such magnificent place. The view sure was spectacular, there was no denial on that. Alessandro started laughing when he realized why this place looked very familiar to him. He knew where he was now, he visited this pool before with his best friend and family. He never forgot those moments with them. They were the ones that kept him going and not losing faith while he was forcedly taken away from them.

He was finally home, or better say, he was close to home, just a few kilometers and an ocean closer. His home, his life, all of it was in a small town of the U.S, right now he was in Yucatan, Mexico. Alessandro was still surprised of how well he remembered the geographical aspect of the place, why exactly was that? He didn’t know, but it was definitely closer to home than he imagined. He was ready to jump into the green-blue water to refresh himself, after all, the temperature was hot in the forest and he was just a bit dehydrated. A good dip wouldn’t hurt him.

When Alessandro started to happily take off his boots, his heart skipped a beat after hearing some voices behind him.

‘’People!’’ he gasped with excitement.

As tempting as it was to jump to the fresh water, Alessandro shove the idea aside so he could start looking for the voices he heard. Turns out, they were closer than he expected because they found him before he even had time to cover his pointy ears. The strangers looked at the seemly nervous boy who had his eyes wide open, the kind of frighten eyes someone could have after seeing a ghost. Alessandro did not know what to do in that moment, the people who found him had a pretty elf in front of them and said elf was sure his kind was not something a human would see every day, specially a pretty one. Alessandro was a modest guy; most of the time that is. He also knew he was not perfect, but he couldn’t deny the fact that he had masculine yet beautiful and flawless features. Even with his dirty and torn apart clothes along with his messy chocolate and sweaty hair from running that much for who knows how long, he still looked pretty. His clear blue eyes were truly mesmerizing, like the shiniest spot in an aqua marine gemstone.

Those lovely eyes went from frighten to confused. The strangers looked at him odd from head to toe but they were more focused in the young boy’s face and clothes than anything else. It was right then when Alessandro started to wonder in they could see his ears, apparently, they could not. They never looked at them nor pointed at them. Alessandro was tempted to touch them just to confirm if they would still be there but that could be seen as suspicious, so he decided not to check on them.

‘’H-hi…’’ The young elf greeted his founders nervously ‘’I-I’m sorry to bother you but, could you please help me? I’m trying to get out of here, I am lost.’’ He finished the sentence in a friendlier tone after seeing the strangers paying close to attention to every word he was saying. Although, that did not matter in the end, they stared at each other looking completely clueless. After that, they started to speak in another language which Alessandro identified as Spanish.

‘’They must be locals from this area’’ Alessandro thought. They obviously did not understand him when he spoke in English so he prepared himself to pull off his very poor Spanish. He was very rusty and only knew the simpler words, but he had to try.

‘’Uhm…. Yo perdido, usted ayuda …. A mi? por favor?’’ Alessandro said trying to smile in hopes that he at least managed to address his situation and it worked! The group immediately raised their arms after saying something like ‘’Oh!’’ and nodding afterwards. Alessandro could only assume they understood what he said after trying to speak their language. With friendly faces, the strangers waved at him, gesturing to fallow them. Alessandro was not entirely sure if he should fallow after them but right now, they were the only option he had to get out of the forest and set foot into civilization, so he let his paranoid self aside and start to walk behind them to where ever they were going.

The minute he started walking, the seemly frozen forest was moving again, the wind was blowing softly again, the songs from birds could be heard around the tree branches. The sound returned! Just like that.

‘’I don’t think that’s not normal’’ Alessandro questioned in thought after noticing such events. He was ready to try and asked his hopefully saviors if that was supposed to happen in this particular place but they didn’t seem to notice the sudden changes so he didn’t give it that much importance. Another thing he noticed was that one of the girls in the group could not take her eyes from him. When Alessandro caught her, he quickly gave her a friendly smile. That only provoked the girl to smile back at him and turned her head to other direction after her cheeks went from her normal skin color to a slightly pink. ‘’That was cute!’’ Alessandro said to himself while still smiling.

After about half an hour of walking, they finally got to a more rural area and left the forest behind. There were cars, some buildings and what it seemed to be a small police station. Alessandro could almost jump from excitement, he was brought to civilization again. The strangers accompanied the young man they found inside said station to immediately talk to some officers. Alessandro was left behind and could only assume they were explaining that they found a confused lost person, alone and desperately seeking for help. Once they finished, a good bye was transmitted to Alessandro with waving hands and smiles, specially from the same girl he caught blushing at him. There was no harm in seeing that again so he obviously grinned back at her producing the same effect.

‘’So, you were lost in the forest kid?’’ A husky voice asked, making Alessandro turn back to look at the officer who just questioned him. The accent was present, but with a perfect English.

‘’Uhm, yes… I don’t exactly know how but…. I’m just trying to reach out to my family and friends.’’ The young boy said.

‘’Were you in a costume party and got separated from your group?’’ The policeman asked clearly wondering why Alessandro’s clothes looked different. He was not referring to the dirty and torn out parts but the style and fabric of them, it sure wasn’t an attire fashionable these days or at least in the area. Alessandro wasn’t sure what to answer, he has been seeing weird events since he appeared running in that forest. Like; why did he suddenly step foot in there? Or why his surroundings froze until he got help? and most importantly, why did nobody comment about his noticeable elven ears? Alessandro realized something wasn’t right here, so he fallowed the current and told the officer that he indeed got separated from his group.

‘’Very well then, here’s a cellphone. You can call them to pick you up.’’ The man offered Alessandro the device to make the call but, when Alessandro saw it, he got the same feeling of confusion from earlier. He held the phone in his hands looking at it very closely. Now he was certain that there was something off about this place or better say; time. The phone he was holding looked exactly the same as the ones he remembered, like the style didn’t change at all in those forty years he was out of the human realm. But how could such thing be possible?! It was 2018 when he disappeared, why are they still using the same phones?! After forty years!

‘’Are you ok, kid? You look troubled.’’ The policeman asked with a confused look in his face.

‘’I uhm… o-officer, what year is it?’’ Alessandro asked trying to hold down the tremble in his voice.

‘’It’s 2018 of course! Why don’t you seat down, you may have hit your head’’ Oh, Alessandro could only wish that was the case.