Juniper

Finding yourself lost in the depths of the Unseelie Woods, you've travelled for what's felt like a lifetime. The sunlight never breaking from the black canopy of the great trees that have swallowed you up. Looking up, the fauna covered skies only resemble a starry night sky at all times. There's no concept of time. No past, no present, no future.

Starvation is rapidly starting to settle in. The few berries and vegitables you find spoil so quickly after you harvest them. It only adds to your weakening mental state. However, something hits you like a brick wall. There's a heavenly scent riding upon a gentle breeze. Just the barest hint of succulent meat sends your mouth into overdrive as drool drips down your throat. Swallowing down the gallon of spit, you start to desperately follow the scent. Rushing and running, your stomach howls as your mind goes wild. Food. Food. Food. Where's this food? You don't care about trying to find a way out for a moment. The fact you are going deeper, and deeper, and yet ever deeper into the forrest doesn't strike you. The fact that the few vestiages of light above the canopy are gone, replaced by glowing muchrooms hiked up on the giant tree trunks and disgusting worms hanging down from the high up branches, doesn't enter your mind. No, it doesn't concern you as much as the smell of a feast does. That's why, the moment the breeze stops and the scent is no longer being carried to you ends, it hits you all the harder. The panic. The fear. The breakdown and tears. That's what she wants to see.

Suddenly, strangely so, the divine smell of cooked foods is back. Just like magic. It's even stronger now. So much closer. It's only a short search before you stumble upon it. A table made from a giant beast of a fallen tree is absolutely covered in dishes of food and drink. From a huge, golden brown turkey to a mighty, perfectly glazed bone in ham. Gravy boats filled next to giant heaps of mashed potatoes, baked, fried, corn cobs, cooked vegetables, anything and everything and more. Your heartbeat is pounding in your ears, your knees tremble as you shakily walk over. Sitting in a chair, at the head of the table off more to the right, Juniper smiles as she invites you. A pink blooming mantis rushes over with a cake carefully balanced on top of it's forearms. Looking down at a pink frostered cake, white flowers decorate the edges as a red icing writes out in delicate handwriting "Welcome Home." You inquire about the message but your words are clumsy and slurred from hunger. Juniper smiles as her bat speaks up for her. "You should sit and eat. We'll talk about what it means afterwards." The bat is just grinning as it is rewarded with an affectionate pat. Your hunger pangs have become so painful it nearly makes you double over. Yet, something seems so off. This doesn't feel right and in the very back of you mind you know you shouldn't eat this. But, that doesn't stop you tearing into the feast. Forgoing table manners, you rip into the food with your bare hands. Stuffing and chewing and gulping everything down without care about the mess or even the taste of what you're devouring.

Juniper's button eyes gleam in amusement at the scene. Her smile growing larger as she hums softly. If you can manage pull yourself away, it wouldn't matter by now. The unending feast having trapped you in the forrest, your forced gluttony a brand of ownership, and the devilish changes happening to you a price. When you're done, it will be time to prep another feast. A bird to pluck and boil, a pig to cut and gut, a cow to butcher. When Juniper welcomed you home, you never could have known the danger you were in.