The Feeder

A Running Start

A Running Start

Leaving my home seems to have been the easiest part for me so far on my journey. The hard part, for me, overall, is leaving the forest grounds for good and not turning back.  

The reason why I can't turn back is because then I'll never want to leave... never.

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As soon as I stepped out of my house with my drag along backpack, I felt tears rush down my cheeks, right along the edge of my cheekbones. The tears stung my cheeks making my skin feel warm. I didn't care, though. I needed to leave before I went back inside crying to my parents.  

I didn't want to let my mother down or my family. I wanted to prove to my family that I could find someone to love. And I still wanted to find him because I want to live and get married.  

As the tears ran down my cheeks, I began to run with my bag into the forest towards the "world". I sped at what seemed and felt like 150 mph. The wind was blowing through my gently curly hazelnut chocolate-colored hair, making it whip against my face. This caused my face to hurt slightly but I could manage.  

As I ran through the forest, the wind washed away my tears of sadness. Now I felt more confident to continue on out of the forest.  

At first, I could make out everything I saw as I ran through the forest. I could remember where each and every plant I've seen in my live was exactly... every tree and plant that I saw: the few hundred maple oak and apple elk trees that make up the forest, the thousands of differently sized pieces of broken rotten bark on the forest floor, and the decomposing layers of fallen leaves from the trees above. After a few seconds, I couldn't see much other then the sunlight shinning through the trees and shading me whenever I ran through one.  

Then I stopped when I had reached the forest border. I never, before this day, was allowed to venture across the border. This was because my parents wanted to protect me from people like James. Let me rephrase that. Vampires like James. Now that I'm able to leave, I feel extremely scared and vulnerable. I usually am quite curious about the world but I never thought that I'd be able to explore it without my parents by my side.  

I guess I'm so used to being protected and watched over that I can't manage to be free. And I don't have any other choice then to leave and be on my own. They say life is full of choices that you have to make on your own. Sometimes, when I was younger, I felt that those choices were made for me already and that I had no say. But now that I'm leaving, I have to make wise decisions on my own.  

When I reached the forest border, I felt the wind speed up and start to blow against me... Almost as though it was pushing me back into the core of the forest. But I stayed strong, my feet dug into the ground, just like the roots of a maple oak tree's roots do. The wind wasn't going to hold me back from leaving even though I really don't want to.  

I am strong enough to stay still while a hurricane engulfs every last tree in this forest... sarcastically speaking. A hurricane has never hit the forest before. Therefore, I've never seen the destruction that a hurricane can do to a forest.  

Anyways, before I crossed the border, I gulped and took in a deep breath of air. I blew it out slowly so I didn't feel over stressed. What I mean by over stressed is that I don't want to make myself over pressured to leave or look back. Then I won't want to leave the forest and that would lead to a lot of... problems.  

Then I did what at first seemed to be the impossible for me. I crossed the border. 

I took a giant step over the border without looking behind me. I felt super happy for myself because I had achieved a life long goal which I longed to fulfill. And now that I've completed crossing the border, I mustn't look back but continue onward with my quest to find him.  

Now, I was running faster then I've ever ran before. I had to keep running... My journey has just begun.