Read the prologue before commenting on the title. Prologue rewritten 11/08/2016

Prologue: When it all began

I was born into this world too wise and too broken. I left an unfinished life behind me and was thrown into a world that I thought was merely a story. I remember that life I left unfinished, the smiles of those who I loved and who loved me. I remember the story I was told of this world and its future however I did not know how much my existence would change that story I thought I knew.

I believed in reincarnation and that other worlds existed beyond my old one. But still I never expected that I would be reborn here. I never expected that I would remember who I once was and the life I lived before this. For the first while it felt like a dream, an illusion that would shatter if I changed a single thing. I didn't think it was real and honestly would you think any differently if you were me.

When I came into this world I remember being cold. I couldn't see the world around me properly yet or understand the words spoken around me. I remember the scent of lilacs and the comfort of a woman's arms. But is not what marks the start of my story.

Nor does it start with tragedy and violence. Blood, smoke and screams were what introduced me to this world. The family I was born into was one I would never know for they were slaughtered before I could even see their faces. A woman I would never know gave her life to protect me, a child she would never see grow.

Laid in the olden roots of a tree, I was left alone in this world. I wanted to cry out at how cruel it was of fate to give me a new life only to rip it away. I didn't though, crying would not save me. More likely it would have doomed me.

Whether the event that happened next was a greater cruelty or an act of benevolent grace on fate's part, I will let you decide.

I was found and taken into the arms of another woman. She did not smell like lilacs, but of medicine, flowers and dogs. She fought against the other three for the sake of my survival. One smelt of curry, sweat and spandex, the others of paper. There were three dogs as well, one of them had been the one to find me.

They woman, whose face and name I did not know and her dogs took me in and brought me to their den. There I was placed in the arms of the woman who, even though she did not give birth to me, became my mother.

Then as a tiny hand grasped my own I found something I did not know I had lost. I had gained a new family just as quickly I had lost one. The moment when that tiny hand grasped mine was the start of my story.

This story did not start with my death. It did not start with my birth. It did not start with violence. It did not start with tragedy. It started with a small little boy and a small little girl clasping hands. A story of secrets lost in time, of a girl with eyes too wise and of a pair of twins reunited once more other after being apart for a thousand lifetimes began to unfold.

This is the story about the mystery of a forest of a heart and the heart of a forest. This is one of the tales of the Kokoro no Mori. The story of the heart of the forest.

Being born so wise and so broken didn't prepare for what my new life would entail. I don't think anything could.