I swung my packed bag over my shoulder, staggering from the weight of it.
The bag still smelt faintly of a half-eaten avocado sandwich I had forgotten to take out one day after school - the remnants of which is assumed were still scattered about my bag.
"You ready?" My group leader asked me. I nodded.
Every year, my scout group did a test, they sent you out into the closest forest, about an hour away, armed with a compass, an emergency phone (only one button, to call for help - say, if a bear started eating you), a pocket knife and a map. The map led back to the camp, where you'd meet your parents (worried sick, even though they planted a tracker around your neck just in case you go off course and they can't find you) and the group leaders who would award you with your annual 'Survival' badge.
I had one badge so far, a purple one with three stitched claw marks.

Looking down at the badge on my jacket, I shivered at the memory, I didn't really deserve it. I'd eaten a poisonous mushroom just before sunset and had to call for help, my forehead burning with embarrassment and fever. I barely made it when the rescue team drove in.

I had been the first kid to not remember that only poisonous mushrooms are red, but the leader back then had been nice, a teenager with bubblegum pink dyed hair and a personality to match, so she felt guilty I didn't receive a badge ("after all you've been through") so she gave me one (apparently they accidentally got two made so it was okay). Hopefully I would be able to stay the night this time.
As I shook that memory away, I clicked my seatbelt in and awaited the long drive, rattling off a chant about edible and poisonous berries and trying to focus on my parents and sister's proud expressions when I get picked up in the helicopter. Pokeweed berries, deadly grapes,
I suddenly became aware the car wasn't moving.
No.....no!! I wasn't ready. I needed another week to prepare at least!
"I-I don't feel well," I lied.
"Nonsense." Came the new leader's muffled reply. "You're probably just nervous. Just make sure you don't die a foolish death like last time."
I sighed. This new leader wasn't half as nice as his older sister, the girl who gave me the badge.
As I made a move to get out of the car, the leader gave me a stern glance (not unlike his normal expression)
"Make sure you use your emergency phone if you get lost, eat a poisonous mushroom, or die." He droned on, giving the impression of a shop assistant advertising a product, made to say the same product warnings every time.
"Good luck, I'll see you at camp, hopefully." That "hopefully" was making my stomach churn with nerves.

After a pause, I finally stepped out of the heavy-duty door, listening to the leaves crunch beneath my leather boots. I was met with the sound of exotic birds singing.
I watched the last I could see of the car I rode here in, shrinking as it rode into the distance, dodging trees and leaving clouds of dust billowing in its wake.

I remembered feeling a sense of loneliness last time I was here but this year it was different. Different how? I wasn't sure myself.  I took my compass and map out of my school backpack, then decided to look around a little before I began the trek back to camp.  I dropped the dead weight that was my bag, keeping the emergency phone in the deep pocket of my snow jacket.

A floral scent started to fill my lungs, leaving a sweet taste in my mouth.
I glanced at the floor, which was covered in a layer of mist. Tall purple flowers sprouted from the forest floor, thick with multiple types of wild grass in colours I didn't know existed. Blue blossoms sprouted from between moss laden tree roots. The ground 'squelched' with every step and covered my boots in mud as I trudged deeper into the thicket of berries and branches.

A creature I'd never seen before fixed me with large sun coloured eyes through the cover of a tree branch. It scurried away, disappearing into a dark green shadow.

Dust floated in a patch of sunlight leaking through the roof of branches. That sunlight, reflected onto every flower and tree so perfectly I wanted to preserve it somehow, take a picture or sketch it. I cursed myself for not thinking to bring a camera.

A frog with a body as clear as glass jumped from the cover of a patch of reeds that grew behind a pond with wonderfully beautiful lilies peacefully floating in time with the subtle breeze. I felt absolutely incredible as I collapsed on a nearby fallen tree, the bark scratching my skin - but in a nice way, like an exfoliating massage, rubbing away itches I didn't know I had and making me feel absolutely sure about one thing-

This place was one word, magical.