Silver Soul

Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Once Encountered

         I reached into my traveling pack and grabbed my water bottle to take a drink of the mineral water that we were all required to bring along on this so called hike. This hike was my teacher, Miss Mrin’s great idea to do for fieldtrip day in the middle of the year. If we wanted a good grade this year in anything we were required to participate in a fieldtrip to some protected wildlife forest or something outside of our little village in the middle of nowhere. You see, we live in the beautiful and gorgeous country of Tronvi. There was once a time when this country was absolutely full of life but after hundreds of years of war too many people died or were assassinated by crazy rebels it is now a desolate landscape.

           The actual war that started these years of bloody battles was a truly terrible time for humanity. Some refer to it as the war that started the end of the world. Just for reference though, the wars didn’t end the world otherwise I wouldn’t be here at this very moment. In class, we have to refer to it as the Great World War III (2050-2072). I personally think that name is entirely stupid. I mean who ever heard of a war that was ever so wonderfully great. War is just a bunch of (ignorant) people fighting against each other over someone else’s political war, right? This was the very beginning of what would eventually almost destroy living things on this planet. Even though the first of the wars lasted only 22 years, that was just the beginning of hatred, feuds, and plain bad luck for all. After that the world was fighting against each other and everything around it until the year 2974. That means that the wars lasted for exactly 924 years! I wasn’t born until the year of 3014, about 40 years after a final truce was made between the surviving countries. I was born on the 267 day of the year 3014. I have heard that before the wars people’s days of birth were three numbers. According to my teachers there was a year, a month, and a day. If I looked at one of the old time calendars at the library, then my day would be September 23rd, 3014. Sometimes I just wonder what the world was like back before our history books start.

             Every single one of our references starts at the beginning of the Great World War III. It must have been nice to not worry about what was going to happen to you or your loved ones. My great-grandfather and grandfather died fighting in that war along with my uncle and thousands of others perished in the last years of the war. I wonder now that if they considered this war great, what is considered positively horrible. The wars that followed weren’t nearly as violent, horrible, and bloody as the very first one in 2050, but all were fatal for people around the world whether they wanted the war or not. The country that I call my home is finally starting to rebuild itself back to its assumed former glory.

           Anyway, the hike I was on in the Black Forest was taking place at the base of a huge mountain called Feldberg. We call it Great Top outside of class. On this mountain, as well as the rest of the world, many strange creatures and plants have either evolved or were created scientifically or chemically during the past millennia. They inhabit this mountain as well as every other mountain range throughout the world.  Just like the herd of deer leaping across the trail up ahead of our group would be a perfect example of what animals may evolve to during the war time. These deer, which we call Uno Deer, evolved during the worst of the war time. Uno means one in some forgotten language, so we call them Uno because of the fact that they have only one six inch twisted horn right smack dab in the middle of their small forehead. The Uno deer were past us in a matter of a few seconds without taking one glance at our group. The problem with that particular species of deer is that all are extremely trusting of everything, so most are killed before they reach the age of two.

           Due to this the species is now declining so the bureau of something habitat protection now has the deer under its protection, which is just a fancy way of saying that no one can kill them anymore. However, if those big dingbats bothered to come out here and actually do some research they would find that it was the deer themselves that were getting themselves killed on their own; not being hunted to extinction. I’m not saying that people don’t still hunt them for their meat still, but I am saying that these deer are just plain dumb, stupid, naïve, whatever you want to call them. It’s true that I have seen people drag the deer through town on their carts or horses it’s just that if those big, important people up in the higher towns would bother to get out of their mansions and come down to this town as well as others; they would really see what needed protecting. Just like the pined grouse sitting on the middle branch of a dead tree just up the way. This was one of the animals that were being hunted to extinction, due to the fact that its meat had mysterious properties that sometimes cured sickness and pain. Their feathers were also prized for being soft enough to fall on from a great height and not be hurt. That was when our tour guide, for the trip up the mountain, started going on and on about the importance of Uno Deer and Pined Grouse in Feldberg’s food chain including the grass they ate and exactly what variety of animals ate them.