Realm of Randon

Friends of the Forest

Prompt:
1. What is your greatest strength and weakness?
2. Compose a short story in which the protagonist shares the same strength and weakness. Write about what happens to them as a result of that.
(Ive chosen my connection with animals and my weakness of short term memory)
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Strength? Pfft, I don't know em.

Staring up at the ceiling of the treehouse that was made for him, Cory took in a deep breath. A hole in the ceiling was revealing the night sky above him through the leaves of the tree, allowing him to watch the stars happily and letting his mind wonder all night. That is... until he completely zoned out of his own head.

The poor boy may have been a hundred or so year old vampire, but out of his 7 half brothers, he was the youngest. His player dad, with 3 wives always ignored every son he had, and Cory's biological mother was the only one who actually kept him close, cared for him an protected him. Only, her constant protection ended up backfiring. Cory had matured, yes, but his mind stayed in a child like state and kept him "childish" over all these years. None of these brothers of his liked it. They either ignored his presence, or bullied him. Ever since his mother was killed by human hunters, Cory only had his treehouse and many animal plushies for comfort.

Finally zoning back in after hours of time, even though this was a safe and recognizable place for Cory, he couldn't figure out what anything around him was or even where he was. Beginning to tear up, starting to feel unsafe, Cory looks around for an exit. Almost panicking until he found the trap door he could open and climb out of the treehouse. He hopped down onto the cold ground.

The small 5 foot vampire looked around, wrapping his arms around his stomach to hug himself tight. Attempting to calm down as tears kept swelling in his light blue eyes until they had started falling down his freckled cheeks and off his face. Despite being in this forest millions of times, he couldn't recognize anything about it, except all the critters and animals he'd talk to every day he was in the forest.

Even though they were animals, unable to really speak back, Cory knew they listened and cared. He didn't know why, but there was a real connection with him and the forest animals, he always assumed it had to do with his mom. She kept him adventurous through his childhood but also as kind as possible. Those two things kept him connected with the world, and he believed the animals were his mother listening and guiding him after her death.

Nothing seemed to be around him except for trees, bushes, rocks, normal things in a forest basically. Up until a white fox ran over and hopped on top of a fairly large bolder, Cory was alone.

The fox glared down at the small male, something that was unfamiliar to Cory. Animals may not have trusted him at first, but he gained all the trust of the woodland animals, why not this one? Was he in a new territory or near its den? He didn't know, and clearly wasn't going to get any answer seeing the animal's fur turn more luminescent.

The animal leaps off the bolder towards Cory, causing the boy to fall back, moving away from the animal in case it was extremely hostile. The fox began to growl as Cory approached a lake. He didn't know that he was backing towards it until a rock catches on the back of his shoe, causing the vampire to trip and fall back into- no...onto the water.

Just like the fox, the water below him was illuminated, except, the water was glowing a blue unlike the white of the glowing, protective fox. Cory looked around in fear, keeping his guard up in case the fox tried attacking, though it was difficult to pay attention to things around him when he was literally laying on top of water like it was a solid object.

Cory sat up on his hands and knees. Looking down in the water below him as he saw two fish swimming happily together, looking like they followed a pattern as they swam together. Soon, they faded into sparkles under the water. A trail of sparkling light forms from the fish's spot up to the sky above them all.

Looking up at the sky, having his gaze follow the trail, Cory watches as the Pisces constellation fades into the beautiful night sky. This is what the fox must've been protecting, is it a guardian to this lake? To the animals joining the stars in the sky? Most likely.

Cory admired the sky until he noticed more animals approach the lake, faint different colors of light showing upon the surface of the water like they were different star constellations, the vampire immediately made himself stand and attempt to get off the lake without an animal being near him. It was difficult, but Cory managed. The fox trotted towards the lake when Cory was finally off.

The first animal that approached looked to be a timid deer as it walked over a few of the different colored spots. It flinching as a second animal started hopping playfully over the water and lights. The playful animal, a rabbit, was hopping around so fast, it managed to fly into the skies before the deer could. Both of them disappeared going up the same way the fish did, before the rabbit turned into the Lepus constellation, and the deer into the Mriga constellation.

Cory giggled as he watched the rabbit. He watched its playful spirit as it ran around until disappearing, causing the fox to stare over at Cory. The fox tilted its head curiously as its ears stayed pointed up and alert, its tail softly swaying from side to side.

Cory hesitantly looked over at the animal staring at him, tilting his head as well but not staring back, knowing for most predator animals like a fox, staring back could possibly be some kind of threat.

The animal could see Cory was trying to be friendly, but it didn't understand. The curious animal cautiously started to slowly approach, causing Cory to tense up a little and freeze, not wanting to scare or threaten the animal. He was scared that he had messed up as the fox's ears folded back as it stood in a threatened, and defensive pose.

Cory whimpers quietly to himself, closing his eyes and bracing himself for an attack, but never got attacked. Instead, the fox ran past Cory and behind him. The animal was protecting Cory from a lone wolf that was approaching, wanting to attack the little vampire. Despite the fox being much smaller than this large wolf, it manages to make its way under the wolf, biting the wolf's neck and allowing its teeth to sink in deep before letting go, getting the angered wolf to attempt attacking the fox instead of Cory. And it worked.

The fox easily slips away with its speed, using its size to its advantage as it runs towards the lake with the wolf following closely. It guides the wolf over the colorful spaces of the lake before stopping to breathe, watching as the wolf started glowing before blowing up into a cloud of sparkling light that soon fades, a tail of light going into the sky, forcing the wolf to be stuck in the stars forever as the Lupus constellation.

The fox breathlessly walks to Cory, nudging the vampire's hand with its snout the moment it got there. Cory smiled weakly at the animal, carefully petting it on the head to thank it for help before the fox gently bites onto Cory's hoodie sleeve, trying to pull the boy away from the lake.

Cory didn't question the animal, it clearly knew more than him, but why didn't it turn to a constellation when running over the colors like the other animals did? Cory wanted to question the animal, but knew he wouldn't get answers from a silent creature.

The vampire stands after getting his sleeve free from the fox, following it through the forest until they find a log cabin the size of a mansion. It was his home.

Cory got excited to finally be home and be with his plushies again, looking around the ground for the fox to give then a grateful "thank you" head pat, the fox wasn't anywhere to be seen.

All that was left was a trail of sparkling light on the ground, going up to the roof of the cabin where Cory sees the fox trotting through the skies, leaving a type of Aurora Borealis in its trail behind it in the beautiful night.