In Darkness There Is Light

Black

  The morning was crisp with dew and little rays of the sunshine, as it peeked over the hill as a young boy of the name Toby jumped around his house ready to escape off to his treehouse. He skipped into the kitchen to snatch a few snacks and slip a few cuts of meat into his cooler. "Alright, Loki we ready?" He whispered to the little Sun Conure. He had been sitting on his coolers handle gazing at him with curiosity. Toby poked his wing and received a surprised little noise from Loki. "Oh wait... can't forget little birdie snacks right?"Loki jumped up and down bobbing his head in agreement getting a small laugh out of Toby."Okay, you hyper thing... we're going... just gotta check on dad."Loki tilted his head slightly, watching Toby closely as the brunette placed his snacks in the cooler and exited the room.

Toby was a sole child, so his siblings were the forest animals. His mother has fallen ill and died when he was nine. Being sixteen now he had recovered but his father never did. His father was more vigorous on him then his mother was so they never got too close. His mother was just in love with animals like him so when he was seven she gave him a bird. That bird was Loki, that bird became his everything. In return, Toby was everything to Loki.

Yeah, Toby loved his father, but he never saw him because of his drinking issue and depression. His father would lock himself in his room and not come out for days, only coming out to get another six pack from the fridge, stumble to the corner store to stock up or somehow make it to work. His mother secretly had left everything to Toby and left him a vast sum of money so he survived as his dad struggled to feed himself, get drunk and work on the weekends. This fueled his father's hatred for him even more, as his beloved wife had left him nothing in return. 

Toby sneaked into his room and sighed as his father had passed out on his desk, his laptop open, the soft light illuminating his gloomy room. Toby slung his father's arm around his own shoulder to hoist him up and move him to the bed, his father grumbling in his half-awakened state and rolled over, pulling a pillow closer as he hit the bed. Toby threw a blanket over him and went to shut his laptop when he observed what his father was considering. He had opened a link to adoption papers stating why he was leaving his teen and a picture of his mother. Toby sighed irritated. "He's trying to send me off to adoption care?" He mumbled as again sighed, not fazed at all as he canceled the note and glared at his father as he popped in his Thumb drive, snatched all the pictures up of him and his mother and wiped the whole computer clean. "He's gonna kill me but fuck it."Toby thought as he shuffled out of the room and back to Loki who chirruped happily at him, excited to see him once more.

"Let's go little one...Before I lose it."He said to Loki darkly.
The bird cocked its head for a moment but bounced up and down, Toby held his arm out for the bird to flutter up and climb his shoulder where he scooted closer and touched his beak to Toby's cheek. "I love you too bud... now away we go."Toby said quietly as he picked up his cooler loaded with food and brought it outside, placing it into his wagon tied to his go-cart."Alright, little one, guard the goods I'll be back... need to grab soothing."Receiving a chirrup in reply, He let Loki hop onto his finger and then he placed the little bird in his cart and ran back inside.

He jumped up the stairs to his room and grabbed his backpack full of adventuring gear his mother obtained him when he was little. He looked around for anything he might have missed. "Oh right, phone and solar charger." Toby, being good with electronics, had fixed a small phone charger to charge his phone with sunlight, so he could use it anytime. He was just about to walk out the door as he stopped to pick up his framed picture of him and his mother. The last time he got to see her before she left. He sighed and crammed that too into his bag and made his way back outside, locking the door behind him. "Ready little light?"He asked Loki as he let the bird crawl into his shirt's breast pocket and snuggle down so he wouldn't fall out on the ride there. A small but audible squeak came from his pocket, telling Toby he was ready.

Toby snickered at the noise and flipped the switch on his cart, the cart came roaring to life with a rumble. Toby took off on the dirt path, fields moving past him swiftly, cows looking up from chewing there cud to watch him go by as he moved into the green lush forest.

As he drew near to his treehouse, he switched the cart off and pulled down the pedals so he could ride up silently. He hated scaring away animals from around his treehouse. He rode up into a modest clearing at the foot of the tree and parked his cart. He jumped off his car and enjoyed the soft crunch of the leaves. His brown eyes scanned his house for a moment, silently marveling at the little house in the woods. Returning his gaze back down, he unlatched the cooler from his cart and lugged it closer to his wooden home.

He deposited it onto a small wooden platform pully he shaped together and lugged it up before climbing up the rope ladder, lugging it off the wooden pully and unlocking the house door, placing the cooler in the corner of the well-built treehouse. He let Loki climb out of his pocket and placed him on the balcony of the treehouse so he could watch Toby. Once he finished that he opened up the narrow window next to his bed and scanned the roof of his treehouse for holes. Since he had a ton of books and maps in here, he had to sustain it, to keep it dry. Seeing nothing he contently climbed back down to his cart to arrange more books onto the wooden pully. He sighed in bliss listening to the forest around him. Subsequently, he realized everything was silent. Dead. Silent. Unlike the forest whatsoever.

There wasn't a whistling breeze or obnoxiously beautiful Bird songs, no random wildlife jumping out of the brush, oddly curious on what Toby was and why he was out here. That's when the hair on the back of Toby's neck raised as he heard a bloodcurdling scream and the forest exploded in fear and terror. Animals from everywhere seemed to be running in terror, out of their forest home from where Toby just came. Loki screamed at Toby in terror as he jumped up and down, scared for his friend. Toby dove for his rope ladder as a herd of deer came crashing through the forest, their terror threatening to trample him to get away.

He swiftly hauled himself up as the enormous Oak tree his home was placed in practically shook from the stampede. Birds of all sorts came swooping down, diving at the two, screaming in terror. Toby swiftly snatched up Loki, earning an angry squawk as he dove into the house. He slammed and locked the door, setting the bird on the floor he dove to shut the window. His brown eyes scanned the earth below him as animals flooded from the forest.

Sudden terror flooded his heart as he saw black squid-like tentacles snatch up an Elk that was a tad bit too slow. It bawled in terror, blood pouring from its eyes, ears, nose, and mouth as its screams became gargled and it disappeared into the darkness that had trapped it. The earth below him seemed to turn to black bubbly soup as everything went silent. Fear pulsed through his veins as he gathered up Loki and placed the small bird on his shoulder, exiting the house to look around, brown eyes scanning the quiet forest. 

 His fear was slightly dampened as the area around the tree in a precise 5-foot arc was untouched. A silver mist coated the house in what seemed a protective bubble as the tendrils of darkness lashed out at the cloud, unable to attack the surrounding area. He climbed down from his treehouse, feet striking the earth with a soft thud as he looked around. A few animals had taken refuge around his tree as the tendrils could not attack from there. What surprised him, even more, was in the mist of the animals, there lay a fair-haired, bloodied, beaten girl, passed out on the lush forest floor.