"Wordsmiths Fiction Week 3: Season 24 – The Last Photo"

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I send Greetings to all ye lovers of fiction, thrill, and mystery!
A very big shoutout to these brilliant minds behind this week’s Steemit Challenge – Team Wordsmiths. You’ve indeed given us yet another reason to really stretch our imaginations and then breathe life into ink and thought. I deeply appreciate the inspiration all behind this thought-provoking challenge and today, i take a very bold step into the forest… to uncover the needed truth behind Nadeesha’s disappearance.

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Then where did Nadeesha go? Who or what was the figure in the photo? What was the secret hiding in the forest?

The very morning after the camera was found, Nadeesha's younger brother, Kavin, had returned alone to the forest trail. Going there, he wasn’t just hoping to find her, he was more determined to follow her final footsteps.

Following the unique map stored in her old sketchbook, he had to trekked deeper than anyone dared. The trail, overgrown and all whispering with wind, eventually brought him to the same old tree. Beneath its dynamic roots, barely noticeable, he did found a symbol, — etched in a language that is neither human nor natural. And also ahead of him stood the hut from the photo.

Kavin approached it, his heart was really thumping hard like a tribal drum. The door creaked suddenly open on its own. Inside, the air was more colder than the wind outside, and then a strange scent like burnt leaves and rain filled his nostrils.

• Photos hung on the walls. But sincerely, they weren’t just any photos.

They were all Nadeesha’s shots, not just of animals, but also of her. A different versions of her: smiling 😊 beside a deer, talking to the birds, and even drinking from a river she never visited. It was clearly her, but… not from this world.

And then he saw it.

The tall figure, all cloaked in moss and shadow, stood silently. It didn't like a creature. It was a Keeper, a guardian of the Hidden Lake, a place so untouched by human presence for like centuries.

“You seek for your sister,” it spoke, voice so low and echoing, “but she chose to stay.”

Kavin slowly stepped back while asking. “What do you mean?”

The Keeper then opened a hidden flap on the hut’s floor. Beneath it and through a shimmering layer like a mirror of water, he saw her, peaceful, barefoot, her camera slung, surrounded by the glowing animals and trees unlike any he had ever seen.

“She then crossed into the Realm of Balance. Only the forest's chosen can stay. She captured not just the images, but essence. She listened also when others walked. She waited seemlessly when others rushed. So, we sincerely welcomed her.”

At this point, Tears welled in Kavin’s eyes while he ask. “Can she come back?”

The Keeper slowly closed the flap and answered. “She is safe. But the forest only remembers all who trespass. Leave now. Or stay and be remembered differently as well.”

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In a world that hurries more to capture, Nadeesha chose to understand. And because of that, she was then chosen. Some mysteries are not so meant to be solved… but rather it be respected.

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Conclusion

Team Wordsmiths, this opportunity to wander immensely in wild imagination has really provoke many things. In Nadeesha’s silence, we found a voice, one that whispers not for the rescue, but for reverence. 🌿 So sometimes, to truly find something, we had to willingly lose the world 🌎 we know.

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I invite:

@bossj23	@nsijoro	@benton3

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 -•- Thanks Y'all for Reaching -•-

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