The Apotheosis

Chapter One

Sun. Below it, flowers. A meadow. Maybe some butterflies and a group of children playing. It's wholesome. A fantasy. Beyond the meadow, past the pines and out of sight was a gallows.  A dark fantasy. Perhaps a delusion, rather. One is always inclined to keep the hangings and other such cruelties of the functionings of the world away from the children. For what those men were hanged, it matters not. Perhaps it does not matter either what the children were playing, yet it would be preferable to revel in the innocence and idleness of youth. They were playing hide and seek. It's a common game, across all cultures, after all. The boys would hide and the girl would count to one-hundred and run off to find them. Despite the tall grass, the meadow remained very much flat and for that reason, many of the boys found themselves hiding amongst the pines. Some even climbed them. Such a height provided an incomparable view of the meadow and the idyllic little village beyond. Moreover, it provided an excellent view of the girl stalking the long grass, on the hunt. From up there, one was safe. Detached.

One of the boys, no different, really, or any more important, than any of the others, had hidden himself on the lower boughs of one of the pines closer to the tree line. It wasn't the greatest spot from to take advantage of the aforementioned benefits of the pines, but he was a sensible boy who did not endanger himself and he was hidden and that was enough. He was still at enough of a height to witness the girl traipse into the dense forest almost immediately after reaching one-hundred. She did not bother checking the meadow, for she was aware of boys and their strategies. She moved confidently, yet carefully. It was likely the influence of her older brother, who sometimes took her out on hunts, despite the better judgement of her parents, and the villagers. There was no particular need to hunt, either; the villagers were well fed by their farming. One has to find entertainment somehow. She knew how to move with as little sound as possible, which is rather difficult, considering how forest floors tend to be covered in pine needles, cones, twigs and other detritus. 

This particular boy held his breath as she passed beneath. He was not standing directly on any of the branches; he could not find enough grip, so instead he held himself to the tree, his fingers dug into the bark. This girl almost seemed to sense his presence, loitering above. She paused beneath him to look around. He was beginning to feel the strength in his arms disappear. She insisted on checking behind the tree. His fingers were losing grip. She peered into a bush beside the tree. He could feel himself about to fall.It was a mistake to hold his breath: he wasn't making much noise anyway, and now he needed to gasp noisily for breath, which would reveal his position, or else, fall from the tree and reveal his position. Either way, he was doomed. Doomed to fail. It was all about to be over.

She left. He fell. The noise surely attracted her attention and she pierced him with her predator's gaze. The particular variant of hide and seek which they were playing allowed the boy to invoke the rule that she had to catch him for him to be out, so he ran. On his ankle, twisted from the fall, he ran. She may have been an excellent little huntress, but he was faster. The pain arcing through his leg compelled him to be faster still. Over logs and under branches, through streams and around pitfalls, she chased him down. She could not keep up and was lost in the forest. He never looked back to see how far behind she was and consequently, he too ended up far away from all the others, deep in the forest. If his leg wasn't already damaged from the fall, it certainly was now from the pure violence of the impact after impact of his foot while running.