There is nothing outside the forest, 2/6

  Days passed like dreams and nights like nightmares.

  Then eventually came hope.

  The height and density of the trees dropped. Young samplings, herbs and flowers replaced ancient and giant trees. Rabbits, ox and birds replaced deer and boar.

  Then I saw The Sky.

  Not simply a sky, not the specs of light that appear above the forest, or the great sky above the Great Lake…

  An overwhelmingly vast, endless Sky… and a blinding light.

  Burying my eyes in my palms, I fell to my knees.

  Blinded, I crawled back to the shade of a young yew tree. From there I could look across to where the forest ended and a limitless expanse of golden grass lay.

  Shielding my eyes under my hand, I gazed up at an infinite blue canopy.

  Then I saw the children. Children of the People, but with subtle differences. They were fully dressed, for a start, maybe to protect them from the sun, and their hair was cut short. Their faces wore an intense pride, like a stag deer, or an ancient woman introducing her many descendants

  Until they saw me….

  Then they screamed and ran.

  Soon after the fighting men came, led by an old woman.

  They were dressed in metal, like the orc use for their blades. Foot to neck in metal, like creatures from a nightmare- they shone like the moon. Bright hats towered over faces that were too proud. The men held massive spears and the old lady bore a mace.

  ‘Stand down,’ the woman commanded her men in an accent which I could barely understand. ‘Only one of them.’

  She took a place towards me. I stood to greet her, totally overawed.

  I had found something outside the forest. An open, golden land and a strange branch of the People.

  ‘You have wandered too far, beast.’ she said to me with utter disdain.

  I looked at her, trying to show respect, but utter confused and still dazed by the light.

  ‘Monsters are unwelcome here…’ she continued,’ how did you get past our guards?’

  I laughed, hysterically… what was this about?

  ‘Grandmother, you think I am Orc?’ I asked.

  ‘No, Beast, I know what you are!’

  ‘Fey?’

  ‘Yes. Worse than the orcs. Orcs can be tamed, taught, controlled. They are our watch dogs. We breed them and train them to guard us.’

  ‘Guard you against what?’

  ‘Against you! To guard us against your barbarian people… You savages who live in trees full of skulls. Who eat raw flesh from every animal you see. Who live in darkness and worship death! Fey!’

  It was time to go home. There was nothing outside the forest for me.

  I had, at least, seen and known Great things.

THE END

There is nothing outside the forest, 2/5

The details are blurred and faded now.

  It was the day we… lost… it is too sad to say.

  One moment we were walking, the next, falling.

  My arms flailed out and caught the ground.

  Desperately, I leld the leafy earth, my feet kicking at the emptiness of the pit that had opened.

  There were cries of pain.

  Shocked, I pulled myself up and looked down at horror and blood.

  My brother was murdered… my loyal brother the aurox lay impaled on cruel spikes, thrashing, bleeding, dying.

  Tomm too, lay impaled through his arms and legs. He stared up at me, his eyes wild with pain.

  “Run,” he yelled.

  The orc were coming. Maybe I obeyed Tomm. Maybe my instinct compelled me to run like a frightened rabbit.

  In blind panic, I climbed up a tree and hid… Looking down, I saw the orc inspecting their trap. Silent tears ran down my cheeks and I knew I was watching Tomm’s last moments.

  How is it that we must be born in pain, live in chaos and fall again into darkness so easily.

  As I watched them kill him, I asked myself, is there anything more to life than this?

  When the orc had finished with him, I scurried down from my hiding place and cut off his head.

  It had to be done. I cut off the head of the might I might have loved because that how we show kindred with the dead. I placed tomm’s head atop a yew, and hoped dearly to see him again in his next life.

  I walked on. There was nothing left to do but to walk on- to some thing outside of all this.

  It was a slow walk, and intolerably lonely. Constantly dodging orc and orc camps.

  Often there were marker stones beside rivers and the tallest trees.

  ‘FEY DIE HERE.’

  They read, or…

  ‘NO FEY.’

  ‘NO WELCOME FOR FEY.’

  ‘FRE- FREE OR DIE.’

  I suspected that I understood the word Fey by then, but still I walked on. What did I have to lose?

  There was another great river, to wide and fast to cross. Lookin for a ford, I found some thin else.

  Some thing new.

  A path made of stone, in the air! Maybe a home for a river creature… but so clearly built to cross the river.

  Stealthily, I crept closer. It was made of stone, cut into blocks. It was shaped like a crescent moon, lying with its points touching the earth.

  The People do not build such things. The orc, surely, could not.

  It both amazed and shocked me, yet still I walked across it.

THERE IS NOTHING OUTSIDE THE FOREST, 2/4

I felt Tomm’s hot tears on my forehead and held him closer.

  

  There were few animals among the dead trees. Few insect, few birds. It became hard to hunt.

  The next day brought more slaughtered trees. Slain oaks, ash and pine. But no more Orc camps.

  No animals too, until we came across a wounded boar. He staggered towards us in a grim clearing, bleeding from his strong left shoulder.

  We ate him.

  Then we respectfully placed his head atop an oak sapling which had been spared.

  Tomm was recovering well, but I feared for the health of our brother aurochs.  

  The following dawn,  I woke up cold and damp, curled up beside brother auroch, with Tomm in my arms.

  I wish now that I had never let him go.

  The rest of that day was filled with terror.