Terra Natus

I

She stood up from where she'd been crouching in the long grass, far enough away, she hoped, to still be out of range. Though, who really knew?

'They are said to have bows the length of a man, that there is no distance their arrows, as big as spears, cannot penetrate.'

She was breathing hard, nostrils flaring, eyes scanning the wall of dark trees ahead of her; not really expecting to see anything.

'It is said they can move like the wind, that no eye can see'

She still looked, all the same, her fear driving her to do so without her even thinking it.

She'd never been so close before.

The wind blew, coming through the forest to where she stood, and despite her dangerous situation, she closed her eyes, feeling it upon her face. She couldn't help it. A smile touched her lips and she breathed in, opening her arms to it, imagining she could smell them, feel the cool of their shade, feel the moisture in their air.

Trees.

A noise behind her startled her eyes open, and she jerked around, scanning the endless tall blowing grass behind her. Knowing, even as she did so, that it was still too far away to see, and yet, close enough to still be deadly.

'How fast can Aberrant run? Does it matter child? Faster than you, that's all you need to know. You cannot outrun them, they move like fire tearing through the land. You cannot hide from them, they hunt by smell, by sound. Better than you can see, they can smell. A small needle drop, soft to your ears, is to them like the painful crack of thunder nearby.'

The wind had betrayed her. Not that she hadn't been doomed anyway, but now the beast knew exactly where she was, where before it had hopefully been following an old trail; if she were lucky, one of her false ones.

Careless, she'd been careless. This hesitating could get her killed.

She hadn't been able to shake the Aberrant, not for days. Always it was there, dogging her steps, coming closer and closer. Her one hasty trap had not worked, it had been torn clear through; her one real chance. And now? She couldn't go home, not with it on her tail, as that was the whole reason she had run in the first place; purposefully leading it away from her family.

*

Luckily, they'd had early warning.

There had been two Aberrants heading straight for the village, already too close to set up for a kill, and there was no other chance. One Aberrant could destroy them all, and here two?

Six women were chosen, young and healthy, and on their moon cycle. Aberrants could not be stopped, but thankfully they could be redirected. The smell of a healthy bleeding female of age would be too much, hopefully, to resist.

The girls had headed out immediately, no time for pomp and circumstance, no time for goodbyes. Besides, with everyone already packing their makeshift village up for moving out, their family had their own tasks to attend to; and now she had hers.

The girls headed as a force towards the direction the beasts were said to be coming from. Once a safe distance from the village, they'd begun rolling around in the grass, trying to leave enough scent to entice the creatures into giving up their present goal of the village.

They had just begun to split up, angling out in all directions, except that the village would be taking, when suddenly the creatures were upon them. There were screams and ripping noises behind her, but she couldn't look, looking would mean dying. All she could do was run and run and run.

*

Thankfully, it had worked; at least one of them had eventually taken after her. But now, here she was. She would die without some form of real rest and nourishment, she would die if it caught her, and she would die if she went in the woods.

'What do you do then with an Aberrant, if you can't run and you can't hide, what do you do you ask?'

'Pray my child, you pray.'

Looking ahead again at the forest, her heart thumping in her chest, she made her decision. If she stayed out here, the Aberrant would catch her. If she was lucky, he would be too hungry and angry by now and would just kill her, rip her to pieces, and eat her remains. If she were unlucky, it would do what it was supposed to, and take her back to its pack; a fate worse than death.

But, if she went in the forest...? Well, she'd rather be killed quickly and cleanly by a gigantic arrow than either of her other fates.

And then there was the chance that maybe, just maybe...maybe she'd make it in?

Another noise behind her, closer now.

Closing her eyes again, she prayed. It was a simple prayer without any specific requests, without any real thoughts or words; just a feeling, a plea, a need to not feel quite so all alone.

Opening her eyes again she felt a tear fall, swallowed a small sob, then she began to run, as fast as she ever had before, straight towards the wall of trees ahead of her. She kept her eyes low, not wanting to see the impending arrow should it come, not wanting to lose her courage.

What if you couldn't even really enter the forest? What if it really was like the wall it seemed, impenetrable? What if she never got to find out?

She heard the Aberrant's scream behind her just as she reached the trees, but she did not hesitate, only turned slightly to avoid the nearest trunk. Then, again and again, she dodged her way further and further into the darkness.

She couldn't believe it, she'd actually made it.

She was in a forest!

***Author's Insight***

This story had its starts a very long time ago indeed, when I was but a young child on a walk in an Eastern Oregon forest with my mother. Somehow, we got onto the subject of what it would be like if trees were rare and how human culture, in that situation, would be different from our own. 'Perhaps', she had suggested, 'Trees would even be regarded as sacred.' - Having no idea at the time how that statement would stay with me...

Years later, I was with her on another jaunt through the woods, this time in Western Oregon. (For reference: Eastern Oregon forests are dry and full of pine, Western Oregon forests are temperate rain forests, wet and full of life everywhere.) She and my sister were researching a children's book they were writing and illustrating together, in which the various 'faces' one seems to see in the forest actually were...well, faces - forest creatures. (Don't get any ideas - it's copyrighted ;)

As I too looked at the 'faces', I began to wonder, what if these various forms of life were to take human form? What would compel them to do so? How would they feel about it? What would it be like to go from the minimal, yet I believe peaceful, life of a plant, to the mass amounts of thoughts and feelings of a human? And what would their feelings towards us other humans be?...and so on. Thus this story was born.

She - the human in a culture without trees.

He - the man who used to be a tree.

All the names in this book have meaning. Thus, for fun, I shall occasionally show you why they were chosen, and/or what they mean.

aberrant: deviating from the normal type; abnormal