literature

Freedom at Last

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Literature Text

Featuring Silv
Spring, Year 756 of the New Age
Windborne, Gumtree Hollow The Tree



Darkness gripped the trees and moss that grew on the bark. The darkness also coated the creamy stag’s heart. Fear enveloped and leaked from the young stag’s eyes. Silv was terrified. The growing grasses were a blur during the dusk. Night was ending, and soon the morning sun would soon grace the plains that the growing stag ran across. Wind whispered through the colt’s ears. The landscapes blurred together. Silv didn’t even know where he was headed. All he knew was he had to get away.

Six years had passed. Six long years. The almost grown stag had been oppressed his whole life, and finally he took control. Well…. he ran away from the control of his father. Fear pounded in his heart as he ran for the mountains. Gumtree Hollow. He didn’t know why he wanted to go there. What compelled him to run for the mountain was a mystery. Hooves gripped the first rocky surfaces of the Hollow when the first beams of morning lit his path.

Distance makes the heart grow fonder. Or in Silv’s case, grow in hatred. Suddenly he was no longer surging up the mountain out of fear. He was running out of hatred for his father. The path he ran along wound up and up. Soon no path was even underneath his hooves. It was just a mixture of grass and stone.  Birds chirped and monkeys howled as they were awoken.

Bright flowers were blooming all around the stag as he rushed between trees and bushes. Pinks and oranges were the popular colors. Blues and yellows would crop up as well in patches of open fields. Silv’s mind hardly focused on his surroundings though. All his mind focused on was the torment of his past years.

Beatings had been daily occurrences. They would be physical or mental. Everyday the cream stag had to live with his father controlling his life. Never having a mother, he never got taught love the way many fawns had been taught. He learned to be a caring soul, due to the wicked ways of his father. Silv chose to never be what his father was, so he did everything the opposite. His father would snort a butterfly out of his way, Silv would tend to it when his father wasn’t looking. His father would barge up to another fawnling and interrupt conversations, Silv would wait back and bow, waiting to be allowed into the conversation.

The spotted stag had taken this for six years. Now he ran away.

Sunlight brightened the trees and bushes that the stag ran by. A row of bushes were up ahead of him and Silv just leaped over them, not thinking what would be on the other side. Well, he was a tad bit surprised as his hooves went searching for ground and only found air as he went sailing into a crater. Eyes wide from surprise it was only seconds later that his hooves hit the soft grass. His large clumsy body went head over first and he tumbled in the blue and yellow flowers of the rather open field. Silv jumped up, slightly shaken. He looked around and saw a gianormous tree before him.

It had limbs reaching to the ground, and to the sky. It’s trunk was massive, and the rather bulky stag felt so puny before it. But then his anger surged again. He felt his antlers ready to be shed so he lunged forward, blinded by anger, and rammed his head and fragile antlers into the tree trunk. Chunks of bark chipped off as he repeatedly hit the tree.

Why him? What had he done to have been tortured for years? Why had his mother died? Why didn’t she fight for him? Thoughts raced through his mind till his antlers shed off of him. He was stunned, and suddenly the ache of running on for forever, and from ramming into this solid tree, overtook him. A groan escape his lips and his heart felt heavy.

What have I done? It was a question Silv feared. If he ever saw his father again, he would surely kill the young colt. That thought made Silv shiver. Well.. I’ll just have to find some place to live. That made Silv feel no better about the situation he was in.

He sighed and looked around the bowl he was in. The tree he had attacked was in the center, and the branches that it had that reached to sky interlocked with the trees on the rim of the crater. The tree’s lower limbs circled around itself, like it was a resting place for a giant. It grew a color of flowers that he’d never seen before. Almost like a pale pink, but it had a tone of blue to it, that made it completely different from pink. The field that was in the crater was lush and full of blue and yellow flowers. Bushes with blooming deep pink flowers were at the top of the ridge, and acted almost like a barrier.

Bushes also lined at the bottom of the crater. Silv had been lucky not to land in those, since they look infested with thorns. Once more the stag’s eyes were drawn to the tree. He saw the marks he made and felt wretched. He had had no right to destroy part of that tree. It belonged to the same life he belong to. Careful steps brought Silv to the wound of the tree and he saw that the sap still flowed. It worked to cover up the exposed wound of the tree, so it could begin to heal.

Seeing that, the buck felt oddly at peace. What this tree was doing was what he needed to do. He needed to heal himself, then move on from the past injuries. Though he would never love his father, and it would be hard to forgive him, he would at least never let him occupy so much of his time. A gentle smile graced the stag’s maw, and he seemed transformed now that his anger was gone. Curiosity got the best of the growing stag and he walked around the tree. What he found on the other side made his ears perk up.

At the base of the trunk was a hole. The ground dove deep under the tree, and the roots arched to create a ceiling. Desperately he wanted to go in, but he was wary of predators being inside. What if a tiger was in there? Or even the elusive drop bear? It made him pause, but his curiosity got the best of him, and he slowly walked into the entry, and descended into the den.

There was nothing. Not even the scent of anything. No fawnling or beast had ever entered here. The ground was dry and the overall height was high enough for even Silv to stand to his full height.  It was large and roomy. A family of four fawns could easily grow up here. That thought triggered a small day dream and he thought that this would have been the place his mother would have raised him at. It seemed like the place he imagined she would like. From there he thought that this would be where he raised his own family. To him it was perfect.

Exiting the comfy den, he blinked in the sunlight and smiled up at the tree. “Thank you.” He felt something had led him here. Something extraordinary.

Happiness filled his chest and he bounded some and then jumped up onto one of the low branches of the tree. The branch was so thick he had no problem keeping his balance. He jumped from branch to branch, then went back down and explored the rest of the day. He found some non-thorny bushes and pulled them up and moved them as he made a path so he could enter and exit without the worry of thorns meeting him down below.

When he came out of the crater, he looked back and smiled. This was home. Then Silv turned back around and checked around the area, finding a stream relatively close by. He also had the misfortune of waking up a colony of koala bears who hissed at him. He hurried out of there, and as night came, he found some long grasses that were soft and he took them into the den under the tree. He laid them down then laid on top, his body now too weary to ever stand again. His deep brown eyes closed, and he entered into his sleep readily, unknowing of what would be meeting him his dream world.

Featuring Silv
Spring, Year 756 of the New Age
Windborne, Gumtree Hollow The Tree





Word Count: 1446
+2



I'm rather pleased with this!! This was a big moment for Silv and his life. This is what set up for him to do everything else in his life. I wanted you all to know what I imagined his life being like early on.

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brytewolf's avatar
Oh, poor boy! *SQUEEZES HIM* but he had a lot of strength, finally freeing himself! I hope he gets a family to live in his tree with him? <.<