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CHAPTER 3
Deep Forest ~ 深い森
Two years passed. Talc did his best to teach me his language, but to him I was still a small child. I was happy, yes, but I had a spoiled life. I never went too far away from the house, and I was always given food instead of finding it on my own.
Everything they gave me tasted funny, but not bad. Talc gave me his last name, since I did not have one. His last name was Suna, meaning ‘sun’. I drew on these sheets of ‘paper’ with a marking thing they called a ‘pencil’. I loved to draw the sun, the birds, and the animals. They were all free.
Talc watched me draw another circle with a concerned look on his face. “You ok?” I looked up to him. “Sun,” I said quietly, looking down to the piles and piles of unorganized papers lying about the table before me. I shuffled them a bit and found one of my previous drawings, a bright orange and red bird. “Free…”
Talc walked up to the table and sat down beside me. He noticed the blue edge of one of my drawings. “What’s this?” He asked, slowly pulling it out of the pile. The picture showed a lifelike recreation of a silvery horse with the wings of a silver falcon. The wings were remarkably large for the horse itself, making the possibility of flying more realistic. “He... fly,” I told talc, dropping the pencil, and resting my hands in my lap. The expression on his face seemed surprised, yet calm, as if he were imagining it were actually alive. I was somewhat ashamed of myself, thinking I should not have drawn that one. “It seems so real,” Talc managed to say, focusing on the picture. “Each feather, each muscle. Each frame to the bone.” He turned to me, saying, “How did you draw this?” I stared at him for a moment, thinking to myself. “I had… in-inspiration.”
Talc smiled. “Do you know of something like this?” He put the picture back onto the table. “Only…” I looked to my lap, “in… dreams.” Talc placed his hand on my shoulder, leaning towards me. “You want your freedom, don’t you?” I shifted my gaze to meet his, my eyes widening slightly as I slowly nodded. “Oh, Zerie,” Talc said, a gentle expression on his face.
“Why do you want to leave? Where would you go? Wh-where did you come from?” He suddenly remembered the day we met, when his question was not answered. It was him who nursed me back to good health. “I don’t want ta leave Talc.” I sighed deeply. “I don’t know where I go. I miss…” I bit my lip, trying to remember my brother’s name. I became frustrated not knowing, but Talc managed to prevent me from shedding tears, saying, “Its ok, Zerie.” I couldn’t remember my brother’s name, but I missed him so much! “There was a dog who continues to come here. The first time I saw him was the day I found you, a black and white malamute. He sometimes wanders around the house whenever you are sleeping. Perhaps he was watching over you.” He turned to the open door near us. “The day I found you…” he began, reminiscing, “I felt your great spirit inside. It was unexplainable. Just like a bird. Free… Strong… Powerful…Courageous…” He looked back to me. “It doesn’t quite seem like you really are. Did I miss something?”
I nodded slowly, watching him. He reminded me of my brother at times like these. “Can I ask again? Where did you come from?” I dropped my sights to the floor, and responded quietly. “Far away… Far away, in a forest. With lot of… water, an’” Talc interrupted me, “Did you see the devil? Wait.”
He knelt down to me, a smile bright on his face. “The Phoenix!” I had the most confused look on my face that I had ever had. “pho…?” I was cut off with: “The free spirit inside you,” he continued, “it must be the Phoenix.” I grew more confused. I didn’t understand what he meant by ‘spirit’ or ‘phoenix’. I didn’t see what it had to do with anything.
“What… what is a…. that?” I asked him. Talc took a deep breath; his adrenaline was sprinting about, so much that even I could feel it. The room filled with excitement because of him. “The Phoenix is a bird of fire, free, and powerful, and…” He paused for a moment. “Bird? Fire? I didn’t know birds could be made of fire.” He placed his hands on my upper arms and led me to stand up. “It is one of a kind,” he explained, “The spirit needs to be free. If it is closed in, it could cause destruction.”
“Spirit?” I only had part of my question answered, no matter how ridiculous it sounded.
There was excitement in his voice, the kind I have not heard before. “We must go,” Talc said as he took hold of my hand and took me outside and to the stables behind the house. “Where?” I asked before he brought out the brown quarter horse we called Chena. With the pathways as they were, dirt and rocks, there was no reason to use transportation with wheels around here. So, Talc leaped onto the back of the horse after dressing it with a reins and a blanket, then reached his hand down to me. I wasn’t sure I wanted to leave; after all, I had not been far from the house. I finally reached up to him after a moment of hesitation, and got onto the back of the horse, though there was a blanket between me and Chena. I wrapped my arms around Talc’s waist as the horse moved out and onto the path, galloping after a minute.
We rode for a while, far on the path alongside the forest I came from. It felt like only an hour had passed when Chena began to rebel. The horse became restless, and pulled on the reins, thrashing his head while he began to make noises, groaning. It tossed its head about as if we had forgotten something, or something spooked it. Talc got off Chena and reached for the harness around the muzzle.
Just then, Chena reared high, neighing loudly. This caused me to fall off its back, hitting my head on the rocks from the path. I stood up quickly and walked into the grass, going around Chena to meet Talc. I was hoping the beast wouldn’t harm Talc. He was grabbing at the reins, trying to calm the stomping horse. The hooves pounded at the rough ground below. I wondered if it had gone mad when it pulled away from Talc anyway, then ran in the direction it came from. I watched quietly from the grass as the horse disappeared over the horizon. Talc started chasing after it when he tripped on the rocks in the middle of the pathway. He caught himself before his face got planted into the ground, and looked up. He sighed in relief when he saw Chena returning, running back. However, the horse had no intention of stopping. It ran past the both of us with fear in its eyes. I had never seen Chena run so fast. Talc quickly became concerned again as he watched the horse run off in the other direction.
The ground began to shake beneath my feet. It was the rumbling that Chena must have been running from. I reached my hands down to the grass under me to feel the shaking Earth, and to be sure I did not fall if it became more serious. I wasn’t too worried about Talc, for he was still low to the ground. I could tell he felt it too. Just then I heard Talc’s soft voice grow coarse. “Oh my god,” I heard him say. I looked up to see a stampede of horses thundering towards us. On their backs were men dressed in extravagant colors. Talc scrambled to his feet and tried to run away from them. I had no idea what to do; I didn’t know what was going on. Horror overflowed within me as I watched the stampede trample Talc… right in front of my eyes! I looked up and down, from the riders to Talc and back. After a few seconds, the group finally went away.
Talc was on his stomach and he tried to force himself up. He then coughed, blood spewing from his mouth. I stood up, ready to go help him when another stampede came in between us. I just saw Talc alive, and I wanted to help, but I couldn’t. I didn’t know how! I took a glimpse of the new set of riders. They were not dressed as fancy. They wore dull earth tones. I looked to Talc again as the second herd left. They had trampled him again. I was so frightened, and my heart has never been pumping so hard before. I listened to hear if anymore horses were approaching as I ran out to join him.
He was pounded under hard hooves. His body seemed nearly flattened. I rolled him over, a lifeless body, and held his head in my hands. He wasn’t breathing. I placed my hand at his neck in hopes I would feel his heartbeat, but there was none. I lifted my hand from his blood-coated body and allowed the liquid to drip for a second. “The phoenix of the forest?” I whispered to myself, hoping he would answer as my eyes welled with tears. Tears drizzled down my face and landed onto Talc’s tenderized cheeks.
A horse trotted up beside me and stopped. “Being sad wont make him come back to life.” This voice was deeper. It was that of a more mature man. “It did once,” I responded without looking up.
“I am sorry… for his death.” I looked up to this new man. He was one of them in dull brown earth colors. His face didn’t appear to be sympathetic as his words claimed to be. But then again, he was more mature. I gently placed Talc’s limp head onto the ground and rose. I turned around and began to walk the path towards the house. I could hear the hooves behind me following slowly. I didn’t care anymore. Was he to slay me as well? Or would he take me prisoner? It wouldn’t matter. My life wasn’t worth anything. “Where are you going?” The horseman asked.
“Home.”
“Where is that?”
“I’m not sure, exactly.”
“What is your name?”
“Zerie Suna.”
“A sweet name. mine is…”
I glared at him and cutting off his sentence. “Leave me be!”
I turned back around and ran as fast as I could towards the house. It felt great! I hadn’t ran for so long, and without that claymore… The claymore! I must have it! I won’t let anyone have it, I thought to myself. That horse matched my speed beside me. I saw its hooves and ran faster, forcing myself closer to my limit. The horse matched my speed again, but descended quickly to the previous speed. It felt wonderful, and then I stopped suddenly. The rider had a difficult time stopping the horse on a pin as I did. I had the house in my sights. I walked up to it and saw Chena standing right by the building. A smart horse, it was. It must have returned using a different path. I wasn’t sure. I walked up to Chena, who was huffing and puffing. It pawed at the ground. I saw it’s leg has a minor injury. Only a cut. It would heal on its own soon.
I walked inside the house, not sure of how to take care of ol’ Chena. I searched for my claymore. Right next to it, as if it was known to happen, was a photograph of Talc. I sat on the floor, holding the picture. Watching his face, I felt the tears beginning to return to my eyes. My vision became blurred. “You really won’t come back again, will you?” I asked myself, not hoping for an answer.
“Not if you don’t come,” spoke the voice of the horseman. I lifted my head in surprise, wiping the tears quickly and turned to see him standing by the door. “Explain,” I demanded.
“Are you here all alone? Was he the only person that was here?” The horseman asked, leaving me to nod quietly. “He cared for you, didn’t he?” The man came closer. “I wouldn’t mind if you stayed with me for a bit, if you need someone to live with.”
“Where is that?” I asked, turning back to the photo.
“I live on a mountain, not too far from here.”
I sighed. “Do I… really… have a choice? I cannot survive… on… my own.”
 Amazing Q · Thu Jul 23, 2009 @ 08:54am · 0 Comments |
