THERE IS NOTHING OUTSIDE THE FOREST, part 7

   The sound of drums grew ever louder, and the land rose in a way that I did not understand. It was like the bank of a river, but far longer, when I looked ahead I could see that the trees were higher than me, and when i looked back the trees were lower. On we rode, and it became for difficult. We had to get off the bull and lead it carefully around huge rocks and up the strange land. I felt like a spider climbing a tree.

   Once I fell, for it was so hard to balance on such uneven land. I could not hide my shame, for I had lived my life hunting among the trees and had not lost balance since I was a baby.

   ‘You have never walked up a mountain before,’ he said.

   I shuck my head. I did not know what a mountain was, but I guessed I would see.

   The sun set, and still we climbed.

   Soon I saw the light of a huge fire above us. It cast a wild light and the shadows of many trees. I thought the Orc could have made the fire, so I held my weapons ready, but Tomm showed no alarm.

   I looked around me and saw that I stood between two Sleep Trees. I was entering some People’s land. Looking closer, the Sleep Trees were wrong, for both Yew and Oak had human bones, and there were skulls of deer, boar, rabbit and bird. I did not like these Shaman People.

   As we climbed further I saw a thing sat by the fire, beating a massive drum. The thing was the shape of a tall, thin man, but it had horns like a stag and was covered in fur.

   ‘The Shaman,’ Tomm said. ‘We must wait for him to finish.’

   I did not know why he had taken me to see this thing. He sat down a few paces from the thing and waited. The bull walked off the graze.

   Suddenly it screamed like a dying deer, stopped drumming and fell down. Tomm was not surprised, so I did not move.

   The thing rolled around for a moment, and then sat up.

   ‘I hate coming back down,’ the thing said in a deep, dry voice.

   ‘Great Shaman!’ Tomm greeted it.

   ‘What?!’ it demanded. “I have been running with the deer herd all day, I am hungry and tired, what do you want?’

   ‘It is I, Tomm Rider, and I have boar meat for you.’

   The thing stood and took a step closer, it looked at us carefully.

   ‘Tomm, my boy! Good! You have boar, that is good… and a girl, that is interesting. Come, sit and eat.’

   We did so. I inspected the thing as they cut up the meat. It was an old man, the oldest I had ever seen. He wore tree branches tied up in his hair to look like horns. Most People wear only animal scin trousers, and cloaks when it is cold, but the old man wore scin and fur everywhere apart from his face, hands and feet. He had trousers of boar fur, and wore deer scin on his chest and back, and rabbit scin on his arms. He had a belt of rabbit bones around his waist, and bird bones around his neck. I did not understand.

   Tomm and the Shaman talked about mundane things as they ate. The weather, the movement of the great aurox herds, and the quality of the meat.

   Suddently the Shaman turned to me.

   ‘You are the one who dreamed of life outside of the forest,’ he said.

   ‘How do you know,’ I replied.

   ‘I am Shaman, I live in dreams just as you live in this land of tree and meat. I know of dreams.’

   ‘Then what do you think? Is my dream real?’

   ‘All dreams are real… in their way…’

   ‘But do you think there is land outside the forest? Will I find it?’

   ‘I have marched for many moons with the aurox herds… I have climbed great mountains with the giant black bear… I have hunted with the wolf in the wildest valleys… I have dug beheath the earth with the fox and seen the vast roots of tree… I have flown with the eagle across the Great Lake… But I have never seen anything outside the forest.’

   ‘Then there is nothing outside the forest?’

   ‘No… I did not say that, only that I have not seen it yet, or dreamed of it… I cannot know. Maybe I will dream it tomorrow… who knows?!’

   ‘Do you think I can find?’ I don’t know why I cared so much for this strange old man’s opinion.

   ‘If you dreamed it, it is real some where, so maybe you can find it.’

   ‘That is good enough for me,’ Tomm said.

   I agreed. Soon after we slept.

   In the morning we could not find the Great Shaman, I guess he was flying with the ducks, or with the Great Bear on the Great mountain by the Great Lake where the great Herds go.. or some thing.

   Its seemed that there were many Great things in this part of the forest. Nothing is big enough to be called Great where I lived. There were very big trees, but I have never heard of any being called a great tree.

   I had been told that I was on a mountain, and it seemed that mountain means ‘land higher than a tree and easy to fall’, so I thought the Great Mountain must be very hard to climb, and very big. I hoped I would not fall off.

   The Great Shaman was not very big. Maybe he got bigger when we was with the giant bear… he must, or they would eat him.

   We went back down the mountain, going slowly because Aurox and I are not good at walking on mountain, and we did not want to fall. When the mountain stopped, I rode the bull and we travelled fast.

   We reached the river before sunset and rode along it. It had grown even stronger. When darkness fell, we stopped to eat and rest.

   ‘Tomorrow’ I asked, ‘are you going to start calling the river, The Great River?’

   ‘You learn fast.’

   For ten days we traveled down the Great River. It became over 300 paces wide, but it flowed more gently, so I could swim in it when I bathed.

   Those days passed peacefully. Looking back, I remember it was being a glad time in my life. Tomm did not annoy me so much in those days.

   I had never loved a man before. I think I was falling in love with him at that time. I liked the way he treated his bull, in some ways they were like family, and the huge beast seemed to respect him. I started to like the strange way he talked, and how he was so often silent. I understood that it was because he was normally alone. His life was not happpy. I liked the way he seemed to always know exactly what he was doing. I really liked the way he believed that my dream of life outside of the forest. Maybe I loved him.

   Now I cannot know.

  

   Then I thought I had reached the end of the forest.

   I saw something that I had never seen before- no trees ahead of me.

   The river joined a huge pool of water. Truly huge, too big to swim, maybe 2,000 paces across. Beyond it, the land rose to the height of 200 trees. The top of the land was pointed and white. It must have been the Great Mountain.

   Above the land and water was the sky. I did not know it was so big. I could see the sun. It hurt my eyes, but it was beautiful.

   For the first time in my life, I saw a lot of blue instead of a lot of green.

   ‘Look!’ I shouted.

   ‘The Great Lake,’ Tomm did not share my excitement.

   I looked closer. There were trees all around the lake, and all over the mountain.

   We still had far to go.       

THERE IS NOTHING OUTSIDE THE FOREST, part 6

   For three more days were walked. Each day the river grew wider, and we left its banks only to hunt.

   ‘We will never get to the end of the world at this speed,’ he said, on the afternoon of the third day.

   He called to his bull and patted its side, and it began to trot. I had to run to keep up. It was not easy. We, The People, are made to walk and climb. We can run fast or far if we need to, but we do not like it. I did not want to be left behind, or to show weakness, so I ran, even when my legs and breath were fire.

   When he stopped at sunset I jumped into the river to drink and be cold.

   ‘Tired?’ he asked.

   ‘No, just hot and thirsty.’

   ‘Good. Try to catch some fish when you are in there. I am going to look for duck.’

   He jumped off the bull and walked up down river. The bull came down to the river bank next to me and drank. I looked into its huge, black eyes. It ignored me. It was three times my height, and maybe ten times my weight. I felt I was nothing to it, not even food.

   When it stopped drinking it looked at me, and took a step closer. Its head was in reach of me, and I could feel its hot breath on my face. I must admit that I was afraid. We cannot trust a bull aurox, the bull aurox fight for fun, like the Stag Deer and the Orc. It moved slowly closer. I stood still as it opened its mouth, a mouth big enough to eat my head in one bite. Then it licked my face with its huge, rough, wet tongue. Then it nuzzled me gently, its head again my body, carefully keeping it horns away.

   I had seen aurox do this in their herds, and I knew the bull was my brother then.

   I don’t like eating fish, and I was too tired to hunt, so I sat on the bank of the river with my feet in the water. The aurox lay down beside me.

   The next day I wanted to ride the aurox, so after Tomm had climbed on its neck, I climbed up it side. I held its long hair and pulled my way up, like climbing vines, untill I was sat on its shoulder with my legs over the side.

   Tomm turned and looked at me. He smiled a thin smile.

   ‘Hold on,’ he said, then patted his bull on the head and called for it to trot.

   I had to grab the bulls hair in both hand to stay on it. Its shoulder moved up and down as it trotted. It was dificult to balance, and soon bacame painful. It was impossible to continue that way, so I was forced to move. I swung myself forward and sat beside Tomm on the neck, my legs around his legs and my hands holding the bull’s hair.

   He said nothing.

   At midday we saw a boar and gave chase. I wanted to throw my knives, but I needed both hands to hold on as the bull charged. Tomm did not need to hold on, but he did not throw a knife. We gaining on the boar, but I did not know how we were to kill it.

   Then I saw.

   The bull came behind the boar, lowered its head, and butted it. The boar flew like a leaf in the wind. The bull slowed and trotted to where the boar lay. The boar was dying, it rolled in the leaves and roared terrably.

   I jumped from the bull, and finished the boar with my axe.

   It had been a mighty boar. I had hunted boar in the past; it took ten people a day to kill one, and some times the boar killed one of us. The boar are strong brothers and we respect them. I did not like to see the boar die to easily, but we needed to eat.

   I cut off its huge head and held it high.

   ‘You were a might boar,’ I told it. ‘Have better luck in your next body, and try to keep away from bulls.

   Our bull grazed on leaves, grass and plants as we butchered and ate the boar.

   After eating and resting, we climbed on the bull again, and it walked on. Not towards to river, but deeper into the forest.

   ‘The wrong way.’ I said.

   ‘No. The right way to The Shaman.’

   ‘What is a Shaman?’

   ‘You will see. If we are going to the end of the world, we need to talk to The Shaman.’

   ‘Why do you call it the end of the world? We are looking for outside the forest.’

   ‘The forest is the world.’

   I heard distant drums. 

THERE IS NOTHING OUTSIDE THE FOREST, PART 5

   I did not know what to say.

   ‘I will go with you,’ he stated.

   ‘What.’

   ‘I will go with you, and see if there is an end to the forest.’

   ‘No… I mean, why?’

   ‘Now I want to know. Do you want to go alone.’

   I thought about this for a moment, ‘No.’

   ‘Let’s go.’

   He strode to his bull, it bowed its head and he held one of its horns. It swung its head up so he could climb onto its neck.

   ‘Join me,’ he said.

   ‘No.’

   ‘Why?’

   ‘If we were made to ride, we would not have feet.’

   He laughed. He never sounded happy when he laughed.

   We travelled together, following the ever growing river. His bull walked, but still it was hard to keep up with its massive legs.

   When it grew dark I was hugery.

   ‘Wait here,’ I told him,’ I am going hunting.’

   He nodded, and patted the bull. It lay down and he jumped off.

   I stalked the forest untill total darkness, then I caught a rabbit coming from her home. I walked back, wonderering how he could hunt in the company of that bull, silence would be impossible. I was very hungery, but I wanted to share the rabbit with him, so I did not scin it. I remember thinking that he must be very bored and hunger after sitting on his bull for so long.

   When I found him, he was eating some fat bird that I did not know the smell of.

   ‘What is that?’ I asked.

   ‘Meat.’

   ‘What meat?

   ‘Duck.’

   ‘What is duck?’

   ‘Ah… You would not know them. The duck are a swimming bird, they live only where water gives them room to fly and swim. Here, where the river is wide, and at the Great Lake.’

   ‘How can a bird swim? … And what is a great lake?’

   ‘You will see.’

   I was angry with him. I ate my rabbit, and did not speak again.

   When I climbed a tree to sleep, he did not climb a tree. Before I slept, through the darkness, I saw him lye on his bull; like a baby on its mother in the nest.

   In those days I did not know what sort of animal he was. 

THERE IS NOTHING OUTSIDE THE FOREST, part 4

   I had barely made it up onto the lowest bows of a large chestnut tree ,  when I heard some of them, roaring to each other in their incomprehendable language. The sound, and the stench, grew closer. I climbed to 10 paces above the ground, hid as best I could, and had my weapons ready.

   There were three of the Orc- scouts, no doubt. I could see them coming towards me.

   I hoped they would pass by.

   But they did not.

   One of them sniffed the air, then hit it’s fellows to get their attention. They bellowed at each other for a few moment, the headed directly for my tree. They circled my tree, sniffing and growling like wolves, then they saw me.

   I threw my first knife, hitting an Orc in the guts, and enraging it. It ran towards my tree and made a frenzied atempt to climb, but a knife in it’s head sent it down again.

   The other two advanced more carefully. One had a spear and a knife, the other a sword. One threw its spear at me, and missed, causing it’s fellow to roar and strike it across the face. They growled at each other for a moment, then got back to hunting.

   The Orc with the sword began climbing the tree. I threw my last knife, but the Orc was fast and aware, and blocked it with its arm, getting only a cut.

   I had only my axe, and was ready to fight and die.

   When it was close, the Orc slashed up at me with its sword. I squatted on my branch, steadying myself with one hand and blocking the sword with my axe. The Orc was too far away for me to hit. All I could do was defend. The Orcs knew this then, and roared with victory, or hunger, or joy, I could not know.

   Then I heard the crashing of many feet coming towards us. The sound was like distant thunder in a terrible storm when the sky breaks in many places.

   I thought some vast army of Orc were coming to eat me.

   The Orc in the tree was too busy trying to cut my legs to care, but the Orc on the ground bellowed madly.

   Then I saw it. Not an army, but a bull aurox charging at full speed. The bull of the arox are rare, and I had never seen one so big, or traveling so fast.

   The Orc on the ground ran, but the aurox was upon it in a moment, smashing the Orc beneith its hooves like eggs under an axe.

   Then I saw the impossible- there was a man riding the bull aurox. Sat at the bull’s neck, holding it’s red long hair in one hand and a knife in the other.

   The man shouted at the bull and it slowed its charge to a trot, turned, and came to the tree. The man threw up his knife and hit the Orc in the back. It made a terrable roar.

   In the Orc’s moment of weakness I acted. I swung from my branch, holding the branch in one hand and axe in the other, and kicked the Orc in the face with both feet. It fell down to the lowest branches. I dropped on it, landing heavily on it’s chest. Still it fought, reaching for me with its huge, clawed hands.

   It stopped when I put my axe in its head.

   ‘Who and what are you,’ I asked him as soon as I had caught my breath.

   He looked at me as if seeing me for the first time. I saw that he was male and not Orc, but apart from that I knew not what he was.

   We, the People, are tall and thin, closer to the deer than the aurox. Our scin is the colour of dried leaves in the sunlight, our hair white or    yellow, our eyes green, purple or black. This man was the tallest, thinnest, darkest male, with the whitest hair and blackest eyes that I had ever seen.

   We do not ride the aurox, and we do not, normally, travel alone in the free lands of the forest.

   ‘Tomm Gim the Rider,’ he said, in my language.

   ‘You are of The People?’

   He laughed, without joy.

   ‘I am a Ranger,’ he said.

   ‘What?’

   ‘It is like a scout, but we travel alone and far. We are rare, and you would not meet us unles you need us. And you? Why are you here?’

   ‘Charlotte, daughter of Mary. I am walking.’

   ‘Where to? The nearest family nest is ten thousand paces from here.’

   ‘I am working untill the end of the forest.’

   He looked thoughtful, then dismounted his bull.

   ‘Have you eaten yet?’ he asked.

   ‘No yet.’

   ‘Come down from your tree. I have boar meat, it is still freash.’

   ‘How can you ride the aurox?’ I asked as I climbed around the Orc and down.

   ‘It is easy.’

   ‘It is not easy. How?’

   ‘I found him when he was a calf. The Orc killed his mother. I raised him. When he was strong enough, I rode him… I am his father, he follows me.’

   He passed me some meat and we ate in silence.

   ‘No one rides aurox,’ I said when my hunger was over.

   ‘I do.’

   ‘The bull is very dangerous.’

   ‘True.’

   I looked at him carefully. He was very strange.

   ‘Where are you really going?’ he asked.

   ‘To the end of the forest.’

   ‘There is nothing outside the forest.’

   ‘If you can ride a bull, I can go out of the forest.’

   He looked at me silently. I did not like his silence. People ought to say what they think.

   ‘Why are you a lone scout? A ranger?’ I was curious about him.

   ‘I was born a ranger.’

   ‘How?’ I did not like the way he talked without saying anything. ‘Are your family rangers?

   ‘My family are dead. All but me. A ranger found me, alone in the forest when I was very young. That is how people become rangers.’

THERE IS NOTHING OUTSIDE THE FOREST, 3

   The next morning I woke with a disturbing sensation that that I did not understand. It was like I was hunted. I lay still and listened. Nothing but the birds, insects and wind in the trees. I sniffed the air. No scent but the sweet, damp smell of the Yew tree. Slowly, I sat up, unwrapped my traveling cloak, and looked around. Nothing. Yet still I felt… watched.

   I decided it was because it was the first time I had ever woken alone. My family have a good nest, a solid platform of wood and rope high in the bows of an Oak tree, and I missed it. I missed the warmth of my sisters and mother beside me. I hoped they were not sad or afraid because of me.

    I was doing a strange and lonely thing… but I had to know if there was an end to the forest-  if there was anything outside of the forest.  

   I walked beside the river for three more days. The forest never changed, just trees and shadows and leaves, but the river grew wider and stronger. The curent flowed the same way as I walked, and the current seemed to get faster with every stride. One the first day I swam some times, and I could swim fast with the current, but soon I became too cold. On the second day the river was so strong that I was afraid to swim in it, and went only to the bank to drink and wash. Some times I was hungry, but then I would catch a rabbit. Somes times I was lonely, some times excited about my journey, some times lost in the beauty and scale of the forest.

    But always I felt watched… hunted, but never could I detect my hunter. One time, on the second night, I was afraid of the Orc. We are nothing but food to the Orc, and if they saw me before I saw them, I would be meat. But the Orc are not a quiet or patient creature. If they were hunting me I would have heard them, or I would have been eaten.

    I did not enjoy the nights. The forest is so very dark. When were are young we often climb very high in the trees, and when we climb very high at night we see strange lights in the sky. There are tiny white lights that seem so far away, and we call them Stars, and a big silver light that changes shape. We call that moving, changing light the Moon. Some say that it is the daughter of the Sun, but I think it is a vast flower that grows and blooms and closes forever. But the point is that these lights do not reach us in the forest, so it is totally dark. Totally black. Darker than when you close your eyes in the day time. No shapes, no shadows, only black.

   I missed The People, and did not like to be alone in the blackness.

   The forest is dangerous, so people should not be alone.

  

   On the fourth day that distant feeling of being hunted changed greatly. It became a knowing of being hunted.

   In the morning I was stalking a rabbit. I was almost close enough to throw a knife, when the rabbit suddenly ran. It had not heard me. It had smelt Orc. I smelt it too, and climbed up the nearest tree.

There is Nothing Outside The Forest, Part 2

   The tiny pools of dappled green light which could filter through the trees woke me at dawn. I left early and silently, so as not to wake my sisters or mother. I took only my axe, knives, rope and traveling cloak, for that is all that we need. I climbed down the rope from our nest to the leaf covered ground.

   The forest is beautiful in the dawn… or atleast it is in the places where the Orc have not been. All above is green and gold, all below is gold and red. The air is cool. The sun’s burning heat and the storm’s wrath do not meet us here.

   We, The People love the tress.

   We know the Oak is brother to our kings, and the Hawthorn is sister to our princesses. The Ash fights beside us. The Willow weeps with us. The Pine stands firm beside us.

   The Orc hate the trees as the trees hate the Orc.

   The trees grow, the Orc destroy, and we struggle to live.

   That is our nature.

   Knowing not which way to go, I followed the river next to our nest, for it is wise to stay close to water when traveling far.

   An aurox and her calves drank from the river. The aurox was not started or enraged by my presence. I drank beside her calves, watchimg the young beasts lap the water as I cupped it in my  hands. The aurox know that we only hunt them in the summer, and it was autumn. The aurox is a mighty and noble beast. They are our brothers.

   When I was refreashed, I walked on, to the Sleep Trees that mark the limits of my family’s land. From an Oak tree we hang the bones of our ansestors, so that the trees know that this is our family’s land. On a Yew tree we hang the skulls of the bull aurox, as an offering to the trees. As a child, I feared the Sleep Trees; I did not like to see the bones, and hated the smell of freash offerings, and most of all I dispaired to see the birds picking out their meat. Now I am a woman who has seen 19 winters, and the Sleep Trees inspire me with pride- as they should.

   I passed between these two trees which are the gate to the free land in the forest, and I continued to follow the river. Soon I would need to eat, so I was watchfull for rabbit or deer.

   The rabbit and deer are our sisters, and it is sad that we must kill them, but all things must eat.

   The People learn to throw a knife as soon as we are old enough to hold one. When I saw a fawn drinking at the opposite bank of the river I was able to take it before she knew I was there. I swam across the river and finished her with my axe. I cut off a leg and scinned it for my breakfast, the rest I would carry with me- exept for the head, which is left so the spirit of the deer can find a new body. I cleaned my blades and tied the young deer’s body across my back. I ate the leg as I walked. The meat was good, she was a beautiful fawn, and I hope she has better luck in her next body.

   Unlike the Orc, we do not burn our food with fire. Fire is wasteful and dirty, and the tree’s hate it, so we use it only when we must.

   I walked untill late in the afternoon, then I saw a terrible thing. Ahead of me there was smoke from a dead fire, and trees had been slaughtered. An Orc camp. I hid behind the nearest tree and sniffed the air. The Orc smell foul, like smoke and dung and dead things all together, but worse in a way there are not words for. The Orc smell was faint. I could hear nothing but wind and birds. The Orc are loud things, and birds cannot stand them, so I knew it was safe.

   It is sad to see the things Orc do. Whole trees killed, some burnt, some wasted. Whole animals thrown on the fire, heads destroyed and only legs eaten. There was an aurox calf lying half butchered on a stone slab. Blood lay in pools and was splashed about. The Orc kill anything at anytime.

   Suddenly, I felt that some one was watching me. I turned around and looked and listened carefully. I detected no threat. We are never alone in the forest, I knew that, and maybe the Orc mess was making me edgy.

   I could not stand the smell so I walked on, but soon I frooze, for I thought I saw a sleeping Orc. It lay behind a bush a few paces ahead.

   They are taller than we are, and very wide and strong like an aurox bull. There scin is deathly white, like a dead body that has lost too much blood. Their teeth are huge and sharp like a boar’s tusks. They have no hair, and their eyes are yellow like fire.

   Ugly. Ugly and fearsome.

   A knife was already in my right hand and my axe in my left. I needed to kill it quickly, because if it woke it would soon overpower me.

   Then I saw the flies about its eyes and mouth. It was dead. I moved around the bush and inspected it. There were cuts on its arms and gut. It had been slain.

   The Orc are proud and brutal, they often kill each other for sport, or in petty disputes.

   I walked untill it was dark, then I found a tall Yew tree to climb up. I ate more deer, then lay across the branches, wrapped in my cloak and ready for sleep. Only then did I feel alone. I had done a strange thing. My family would be looking for me. Maybe I would walk alone in the forest forever…

    I needed to sleep, so I did.  

THERE IS NOTHING OUTSIDE THE FOREST

PART !

   We, The People, live in the forest; and there is nothing outside the forest.
   We hunt the deer, the boar, the rabbit and the aurox. The Orc hunt us.
   That is our life; and there is nothing ouside the forest.
   
   Last night I dreamed that there was life outside the forest.

   I am Charlotte, daughter of Mary and Torson. My mother hunted the aurox in the moonlight as a child, and my grandfather fell beside Freyyson at the Battle of The Oaks.
   That is what I am.
   That, and that I dreamed of life outside of the forest.
   But there is nothing outside the forest, all of The People know that. There is The Forest and life: the Orc and death. And there is glory. That is all.

   I must go for a long walk.