• As I ran after my friend, Josiah, we came up to The Oak. The Oak is the oldest and biggest tree in the forest, and is supossed to be inhabited by wild men and women.
    "Come on, let's get out of here," Josiah whispered. Such a baby, I thought to myself. He has always been afraid of the unknown.
    "Nick, come on!" he screamed, but I wasn't paying attention. I saw a flash of movement on the highest branch.
    "Just a sec, I thought I saw something," I told him. As I began to climb the tree, Josiah began to back away. He turned and ran as fast as a cheetah back to his house. I sighed.
    "I'm sorry Nick! Those wild people give me the creeps!" he called back to me. I began to laugh at his fear. Nobody had ever seen the wild people, so why should he believe they are real?
    I climbed higher and higher, until I came to a giant hole in The Oak. Strange, I thought. I climbed down inside, digging my fingernails into the tree. I jumped to the ground and looked around. My heart stopped.
    Standing in the middle of the hollow tree, were at least 25 naked men and women. Some had leaves tangled in their hair, others covered in filth. They began to grunt and make weird gurgling sounds. They rushed towards me and ripped off my clothes. They tore them to pieces, and threw them in a fire off to the side of the tree. I was smothered with dirt and put upon a chair made of polished wood. The wild people began to kneel, as if I were a king. They lavished me with all sorts of strange fruits and nuts. I was part of a legend, telling of a strange boy covered in false skins, who fell from the heavens and became the first in a long line of Kings of Kericha.


    That is the story of how I became King of the Kerichas, or wild people, as some may prefer to call us.