A guide for exploring the woods
Only go in the summer. The winter court will do you no favours. The summer court is less malevolent, but no safer.
When you enter, know that time will not work in your favour. You may lose entire lifetimes within hours.
Choose a new name, but don’t keep it for too long, otherwise you will belong to it.
Bring cold iron, wear red.
Carry red berries from a rowan, mountain ash, or holly tree. St. John’s Wort or red verbena flowers are acceptable as well. They will keep you safe, but not for long.
To see through the glamours, place four-leaf clovers in a pouch around your neck. It may help.
Children should wear crowns of daisies.
If you return home, and your child is different, do not go looking for what you have lost.
Leave the same way you entered, but never return through the same entrance. The second time, they will know enough to keep you.
Do not stand in the mushroom rings. If someone you know enters a ring, you cannot save them.
Never accept a gift. They will want something in return.
Be polite, but do not say thank you.
The food will be the best you have ever tasted. Only eat it if you wish to never leave.
If you must stay the night, sleep under the rowan, holly, or ash tree. The elder wood will make you tired. Do not close your eyes.
If you hear music, you are running out of time. If you hear harps, your time is up.
Don’t join the dancing unless they give you a token.
You cannot become one of them, however much you desire to leave your life behind.
If you see an alder tree, know you will not be lucky enough to go home unscathed.
Sit under a hawthrone tree or an elderwood tree on midsummer’s eve if you need to find the courts.
Place salt on your windowsills if you make it back, otherwise they will follow you home.
If you meet other explorers in the woods, do not help them. They have been there too long. Do not let them know you can leave, otherwise they will try come with you. Do not let them help you, they will try make you stay.
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