The Forest - by K.
(Note: This is a short story my kid wrote relatively recently, at age 11, when she was in sixth grade. I’m hella proud of her, so I’m posting here to share. She wants to be a writer someday.)
“Focus, Leaf,” my sister Willow repeated to me as she tried to teach me fishing. “If you never learn, you won’t survive by yourself.”
Again, she demonstrated how to catch a fish. I tried to pay attention, but I was staring at a bright green leaf that was floating on the stream.
“Are you watching me?” my sister snapped at me again.
“I am!” I snapped back though she could tell I was lying.
“There's no point teaching you,” she answered.
She started to walk back to the den. My other siblings were off hunting and my mother was fishing at another stream, and I really didn’t want to be with my sister. So I decided to stay by the stream. I suddenly realized the leaf I had been staring at was gone. I decided to focus on something else. Then I spotted something I hadn't noticed, a bird's nest on the other side of the stream filled with eggs. I was very hungry and eggs were my favorite food. I walked to an area where rocks were placed in the water, creating a path. I walked on the rocks to the other side of the stream. I stared up at the tree that had the bird's nest. The tree was very tall and I wasn’t a good climber. I placed my paws in the bark and tried to heave myself up. It didn’t work. I decided to give up and walked to the other side of the stream. By the time I got to the den, my other sister, Moss, and my brother, Birch, were there. They looked like they were mad at me for some reason, and I think I knew why. Birch began to speak.
“We heard you failed your fishing lesson, again,” he said with a sigh.
“Maybe you should focus more on surviving than leaves,” Moss said. “Train harder next time. Tomorrow, you need to try again harder, Leaf, and don’t fail!”
I hated when my siblings ordered me around, but I knew they had a point. I decided to skip dinner and fall asleep early.
When I woke up my siblings were gone. So was my mother. I decided to go to the stream to practice fishing. When I got out of the den, I saw something very strange. A bright blue beetle was crawling on a rock. I found this interesting, so I decided to look at it. Suddenly I heard a familiar voice yell, “What are you doing?! You're supposed to be practicing!” She yelled so loud I thought the entire forest could hear her. The beetle flew away and I turned around to see that my sister Willow was angrily glaring at me.
“Sorry,” I said, though I didn’t mean it.
“You're hopeless,” she said.
“I’m going fishing!” I snapped at my sister. I turned around and walked towards the stream. “Stupid, Willow,” I muttered.
Even though we were all the same age, my siblings always bossed me around because I was the smallest. My mother had taken care of us our entire life but now that we were older, we had to practice harder so when we left her, we wouldn’t die. My siblings had always been good at hunting and fishing but I never really had been. I was really good at finding food that wasn’t alive and moving such as eggs (I really like eggs).
Suddenly I stopped walking and realized I had been walking for a while. “The stream isn’t this far, is it?” I thought. I looked around. The light had faded. The trees looked much different than the ones at home. I realized I was lost.
***
I remember when I lived in the woods. I lived in a wooden house in a grassy clearing surrounded by trees. The house was located in a forest with a driveway that led to it. I had a few neighbors that I knew very well. My mother had grown up there and she also knew them.
When I was nine years old my mother died. I was eleven now. My father had forced me and my younger sister, Lily, to move and live in a nearby city. The city was a gray, dusty area. There were shops and apartments and other buildings as far as the eye can see. The closest thing to nature was the park. It was mainly grass, some benches, a fountain, and trees neatly lined up in a straight line. The apartment I lived in now was small, old and had a weird, dusty red color. There were three stories. The bottom one belonged to our landlord who was a very grumpy old bald man who always said we were too loud even though we weren’t. We lived on the second floor. It was very modern. It was slightly larger than our old house. On the third floor lived a family with two annoying teenagers who constantly yelled and sweared. The apartment had some things I liked too. I had my own room now, and we had better Wi-Fi. I still liked the house in the woods though. I missed it as well as my friends, my old neighbors, my old school and everything else I loved about the forest.
So I was lucky when I was ten, I discovered that the window next to my bed had a metal ladder outside that led down to the street on the first floor. It took a lot of research but I found that if you took the bus to the hiking trail and went off the path, you could go to the road that was near my old house. I always made sure I didn’t get seen by one of our old neighbors because they might get suspicious if they saw me and call my dad, which I didn’t want. When my father was away from home and at work, and my grandmother (Dad's mom) who babysat us was sleeping, I would sneak out to go to the forest.
***
I began to panic. I yelled hoping someone would hear me but nobody did. I calmed down and decided to look around, the trees were different from the ones at home. Their bark was a dark brown with leaves that were very tiny and thin. The ones at home had white or light brown bark with wide flat leaves. It was weird seeing trees that were so different. Suddenly, I felt very hungry. I remembered I hadn’t eaten yet. I sniffed for some food but only smelled the mysterious thin leaves and damp moss that was clinging to the trees.
I decided to walk around and try to find some food. As I kept walking, the ground became steeper. It wasn’t a problem for me though. I kept listening for food but the only sound I heard were a few far away birds. Suddenly I heard something else. It sounded like thunder. I looked up, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. I kept walking towards the noise. The noise became louder until I found the noise’s source. It was a long black line with bright, big, shiny objects running across it. I stepped on the line, the line was warm and hard. I kept on walking to the center. The noise was getting very loud. I turned around…
***
“Hazel!” I heard my dad yell from the kitchen. “Wake up!”
I groaned. Lily was already dressed and sitting at the table eating breakfast. It was the middle of summer. My dad still had to work and was in his shiny lawyer suit and was on the phone with someone, probably a client. I sat at the table and grabbed my book I had left there the previous day. After my mother died, my dad had told us that we were moving. The city was closer to his work and was closer to shops and other stuff like that. Also my dad never really liked living in the forest. He didn’t sell the house because he had said we might go there for a “vacation” but we never had so far because our dad was always working.
That day I decided to bring my sister to the forest. My dad had left for work around lunch, and said that our grandmother was coming around dinnertime. He told us to behave, which we didn’t. Me and Lily climbed down the ladder and went on the bus. It was annoying because she kept asking “Where are we going?” even though I kept telling her “It's a surprise.” We got to the hiking area and began walking off the path.
“You're supposed to stay on the path!” she said, pointing to a faraway sign that said “stay on the path.”
She was three years younger than me but always acted like she was smarter than me. It annoyed me a lot. When we got to the road, I think she recognized where we were because she immediately ran in the directions of our old house. “Wait!” I yelled running after her.
It was too late, she had already run out of view. I ran after her hoping that she wouldn't get seen by one of our old neighbors. As I ran up, I saw her talking to someone on the path. I realized it was one of our old neighbors. She was an old woman named Edith.
She spotted me and said, “Hello, Hazel, it's been a long time since I saw you.”
“Hi” I replied trying to not show I was angry at Lily.
“Does your father know you're here?” She turned her head to see if our dad was here.
“Yes, he dropped us off at our old house. He'll pick us up later,” I lied before Lily could say anything.
“You two are welcome to come with me back to the barn for a little bit,” she responded.
“Sure,” I said, trying to hide my anger at Lily.
Her house didn’t have a path so we had to walk through the forest to get there. Lily began to follow her.
“Are you coming Hazel?” she asked.
“I’m coming,” I said as I stepped through the trees.
Her house was very small and had a barn that used to have a lot of animals. They all died or got sold except for her eight chickens who lived in a fenced area behind the house. She walked toward the empty barn.
“Where are we going?” I asked
“She’s going to show us the fox!” Lily excitedly replied.
Edith opened the barn door and we walked inside. The barn’s inside was dusty and dirty because it hadn’t been used in a long time. Lumps of hay were all over the floor.
“Where's the fox?'' I asked Edith.
“Over there.” She pointed to a large lump of hay that had a dead fox on it. It had fluffy dark orange and white fur and long black legs.
“Is it dead!?” I asked.
“No it's still breathing but it's unconscious,” Edith reassured me. “I heard it get hit by a car so I went to the road to make sure it was okay. The driver was gone by the time I got to the road. I’m surprised it's still alive.”
I went into the house with Edith. Lily had insisted on staying in the barn. I didn’t argue because I knew it would be pointless.
A few minutes later, Lily ran inside the house screaming, “It opened its eyes!”
We rushed to the barn. The fox’s eyes were slightly open. It looked very sleepy.
***
I opened my eyes to find three odd-looking creatures staring at me. I immediately tried to get up and run but my bones hurt and ached too much. I think they realized I was overwhelmed because they began to walk away. I tried to remember what happened, but all I remember was the big object coming toward me on the black line. I wondered what my family was doing. They were probably extremely angry when they realized that I wasn’t coming back. Later, one of the strange-looking creatures bought something silver full of water. I tried to drink it but everything hurt too much.
The next day the old weird thing shoved me in a cage with soft stuff on the bottom. She brought me to another weird thing that kept tapping me. I tried to bite him and run. I think that had upset him because he shaved a bit of my fur and stuck a pointy stick in the bald part. It hurt a bit. I tried to run away but another weird thing grabbed me. I started to feel dizzy. My head felt like my brain disappeared. I realized the pointy stick had made me sleepy. Why? I thought. I fell asleep very quickly.
When I woke, I felt a little better. My head was aching less and my bones were less sore. The old strange thing came in with the silver object but instead of water it was full of raw meat. I slowly ate the meat. I was still very tired and my jaw was still a bit sore. Then something caught my eye. The weird creature had a basket full of eggs. They were much bigger than the eggs in the forest that were tiny and blue. These eggs were large and light brown. She put down the basket and when she wasn’t looking, I stole one and dove into the pile of hay. When the thing was gone, I ate the egg and felt a lot better
***
The next day was very normal. I mostly stayed in bed and drew while my grandmother babysat us. I had decided not to go to the forest because another nearby forest was on fire and was making the air smoky. My grandmother was watching the news. A man was showing images of the wildfire. Lily was also watching.
“Is our old house going to catch on fire?” she asked our grandmother nervously.
“No,” she responded, “That forest is very far away from your old house.”
Lily relaxed and went to her room.
The next day was less smoky so me and Lily went to the forest. We visited Edith. The fox was gone when we got there. Edith said it was hunting. She also told us that she took it to the vet and that it was a boy and was around six to seven months old. It was around lunch, so she made us some pasta. We had left early because our dad was coming home early for work. On our way back I spotted a fox that looked very similar to Edith’s fox, the fox that had been hit by a car. It had a dead rabbit in its mouth. It barked and ran away when it saw me.
When we got back home, our dad hadn’t gotten back yet and our grandmother was still sleeping in front of the TV. Eventually, our grandmother woke up and made us dinner shortly after our dad came back from work.
***
I woke up and began to hunt. I was very hungry and the weird creature was still asleep. I walked outside to explore the strange new forest. I had been walking for a while and was starting to get more and more hungry. Suddenly I heard something; it was a mouse. It was very fat and meaty looking. I tried to pounce on it but it ran away. “I should've paid more attention to my hunting lessons,” I said to myself. Thankfully, I spotted a tiny bird eating some worms. I tried to remember something Birch taught me about hunting birds but I forgot. I tried to kill the bird but it flew away. After a few more failed hunts, I finally managed to kill a skinny chipmunk. It wasn’t very filling.
I went back to the strange creature’s area and heard a sound. I walked toward it and found it was coming from a large, fat, feathery birds, eight of them. They were behind a fenced area behind the weird thing’s house. Two were white, but one of them had black specks and was bigger. Another one was black and tiny. The largest one was orange and white. The other two were gray and orange. The last one was black and orange and had a bush of feathers on its head. They looked slow and meaty. When they saw me, they made a lot of noise. But right before I pounced on them, the weird creature swung a stick at me. I ran away and decided not to come back to the strange thing’s area again.
***
Me and Lily went to visit Edith and the fox. The air was less smoky, and both my dad and grandmother would be gone for a while. When we got to Edith's house, she greeted us and told us about how the fox had tried to eat the chickens that morning.
“I chased him away with a broom,” she said. “I think I might have scared him away.”
Me and Lily went to feed the chickens. They immediately began to cluck when they saw us. We scattered some grain for the chickens that started pecking at it.
“Can we look for the fox?” Lily asked Edith.
“Sure,” she responded. “It might be a bit scared of you now.”
We left the house and walked into the forest across the road. We began walking into the forest dodging the tree branches. We spotted a fox, but it didn’t look like the fox that was living in the barn.
“Was that the fox that had the dead rabbit?” Lily asked.
“No, I don’t think so,” I responded.
We gave up looking after a while and decided to visit our old house. We walked up the driveway to the clearing. The house looked the same except it was a bit more dusty and the grass in the clearing was overgrown. We had to climb through the window to get inside because we didn’t have the key.
All the furniture and pictures were gone. The closest area that looked the same was the bathroom. I walked into my old bedroom that I used to share with Lily. It was empty, which made me feel sad for some reason. My thoughts were interrupted by Lily.
“Hazel, I’m getting hungry,” she whined. “When can we eat?”
“Let’s say bye to Edith and then we can go home,” I said. “Grandma should be home soon.”
***
I woke up after taking a long nap in an empty den I had found. “I guess I should try and find my family,” I said to myself.
The first step was getting out of this strange forest and getting into the other one where my family lived. I began to walk out of the den, when suddenly I began to cough. The air was filled with smoke. “Where’s it coming from?” I wondered. I decided to stay in the den until there was no more smoke.
When it was dark, the smoke had begun to clear. I began walking. I got tired and hungry halfway through the strange forest. I stopped for a quick snack. I looked around for prey but I couldn’t find anything. I kept on walking because I knew that in the morning the smoke might be back. I started to get really tired and decided to sleep and hope it wouldn’t get smoky in the morning.
When I woke up it wasn't as smoky as it had been the day before. I got up and began to start walking. I managed to hunt a skinny squirrel that was surprisingly tastier than I thought it would be. As I continued to walk, the air became smokier until I had to stop walking and go into a temporary shelter and rest. I was still wondering where the smoke was coming from. I woke up and I finally made it to the other forest. It made me relieved to see the forest that I knew so well and recognized.
I kept walking hoping to get to the stream that was near our den. I finally made it to the stream but it looked very different. A large wooden bridge was placed across the surface of the stream. I looked at the other side of the stream. There was a large, grassy field with no trees. The only thing on the field was a red thing that I couldn’t see clearly. “I must be at another part of the stream.” I thought.
I didn’t worry myself because I knew I just had to go south to get to the part of the stream I recognized. I was curious about what was on the other side, and I wasn’t in a rush, so I walked across the wooden bridge to explore. The red thing turned out to be something wooden that reminded me of the place I used to live in with the weird creature, except it wasn’t empty. I could hear something inside of it. I scratched the door hoping to open it. I failed so I gave up.
I turned around to start walking away when I heard another strange thing yelling at me. Next to him was a creature that I think was called a dog (my mother had told me about these creatures. But she described them much smaller than this one was). It had pointy ears, bushy gray-brown fur, and two glaring eyes: one was dark brown the other was a creamy blue. It barked at me and began to chase me as I ran away from it. I would've fought it if I had any experience. There weren’t any big dangers back at home so I had no need to practice.
I ran into a bush so the dog couldn’t get me. The weird thing with the dog stopped it from chasing me but I still continued to stay in the bush and not come out, just in case the dog was still out there.
***
The air kept getting smokier as the days went by. Me and Lily didn’t visit Edith much because of it. Our dad was gone as usual, so me and Lily mainly just watched the news with our grandmother. The news was mostly still about the wildfire that my grandmother kept saying wasn’t going to burn our home. I wasn’t so sure now because the fire was getting worse and closer to our old house, according to the news. We stayed inside for so many days that I thought I was going to go crazy from it.
Eventually the air cleared up but we were still inside because our grandmother made us clean our rooms even though I thought they were clean already. After that, we had to go shopping for back to school supplies, which I hated. Lily was complaining the entire time because she couldn’t get stuff she wanted but didn’t need. I was getting very bored. I wished I could go to the forest instead of shopping. We got home late because our grandmother made us go grocery shopping after. I was sad that I couldn’t go to the forest that day but I was pretty sure I would be able to go the following day.
Sure enough, the next day the air was clear enough for me to go outside. Lily decided she didn’t want to come and promised not to tell grandma if she woke up. When I got there, instead of heading straight to Edith’s, I headed up to my old house. I climbed through the window into the empty living room. I sat down on the cold, empty wooden floor and remembered when the house was full of everything instead of being so empty. I also thought of my mom, which made me really sad. I got up and decided to go home early.
When I got home, something felt weird. Lily was sitting on my bed looking like she’d done something wrong.
“Dad wants to talk to you,” she said, not looking at me.
“He came back from work early?” I asked.
“He meant it as a surprise,” she said while fidgeting with her fingers. “I’m sorry, I told him,” she looked at the floor.
I walked out of my bedroom into the dining room. My grandmother was sitting at the table. She looked disappointed in me.
“Your father’s in his room.” she said sternly.
I thought of just walking away but I knew I had to go into the room. When I walked in, he didn’t talk to me at first but it didn’t take long before he began yelling at me. He seemed really mad at me and I knew why. He said I was grounded for two weeks and that I could no longer go to the forest without his permission. He put a lock on my window so I couldn’t sneak out again. He also said to my grandmother to be more responsible when she was babysitting me. And he told Lily that if she thought I was missing, to immediately tell Grandma.
I was so angry at him. I stormed off into my room and slammed the door. I had dinner in my room even though my grandmother kept saying, “Hazel, come to the dinner table.” I didn’t leave my room. I was too upset. After I finished dinner, I slumped onto my bed and sighed.
***
When I woke up, I peeked out of the bush to check in case the dog was still there. The dog wasn’t in sight. I ran across the field to the stream and decided to fish. There weren’t that many fish in the stream so I gave up and decided to go to the red thing. I noticed a small shelter was on the side of the red thing. “This must be where the dog and the creature live,” I thought to myself.
I peeked under the shelter to find two glaring eyes shining toward me, one dark brown and the other creamy blue. I immediately knew it was the dog. It barked at me as I ran away. That's when I realized the dog wasn’t chasing me anymore. I looked at it and noticed it was chained to the tiny shelter. It couldn't chase me now because of it. I teased it for a while by running in front of it where it couldn’t reach me. Then the strange creature came outside with a stick and chased me away. I ran across the wooden plank before the creature could get me.
“I should start looking for my family,” I thought to myself. I began walking in the direction of my old home. I wondered why the dog and its strange creature were so aggressive. I hope I don’t run into any more strange creatures.
“Hah! That was funny!” I heard someone say.
I turned around to spot a fox laughing. She looked around my age but she was smaller than me and had light red orange fur.
“What's so funny?” I asked.
“That the dog couldn’t fight you because it was chained,” she responded.
Another fox that looked like the first one walked up and said, “Come on, die if you don’t hurry up.”
“Where are you two going?” I asked curiously.
“We’re escaping the fire that's going to come,” the second one responded. Then she looked curiously at me. “Why haven’t you left yet?” I shrugged.
The two foxes began to continue walking.
“Fire?” I thought. “Is that why the air is so smoky?” I turned around to ask the foxes another question but they were already gone and I wondered if I had just imagined the entire thing.
***
The next few days were terrible. I stayed in my room mostly and didn’t speak to my dad at all during that time. My grandmother kept on saying how disappointed she was with me and it was really annoying. Lily didn’t talk to me that much. I was a bit angry with her because she told our dad about our secret, but I knew it wasn’t really her fault.
One day, it was around noon. My father had left for work, Lily was in her room reading, and my grandmother was shopping. I fidgeted with the new lock on my window. “I wish I knew the combination,” I thought to myself. I decided to read my book which I remembered I had put in my dad's office. I walked into the office and spotted my book on his desk. I noticed one of the draws was slightly open. I went to close it when I noticed a piece of paper inside. I pulled it out and unfolded it and read it. My dad had written the lock combination on it! I tucked it away in my pocket and snuck into my room. I had never opened a lock before so I searched online on my computer how to do it. I failed a lot but eventually I got it open. I wasted no time and swung through the window down the ladder and onto the floor as quietly as I could.
Before I knew it, I was back in the forest. I went thicker into the forest. I had never been in this area before but it didn’t matter. I kept on thinking about my family's reaction when they realized I had gone missing. Suddenly I smelled something. It smelled like smoke but this time it was much stronger. I looked up at the sky. I could see the smoke coming through the trees. I covered my face with my shirt so that I wouldn’t breathe in the smoke. “I need to get out of here,” I thought. I tried to remember which way was home but I was in an area I didn’t know. I ran through the forest trying to get to a road or something but the trees went on forever. I looked at the cloud of smoke that had become bigger and I knew I had to escape faster.
***
When I woke up my brain still kept thinking about what the two foxes I had possibly imagined had said. “Is there going to be a fire?” I thought.
I began walking and didn’t spot anything in the forest. “That's weird,” I said to myself. The air was very smoky and I started to think that there might actually be a fire. I spotted smoke in the trees and even though it was far away I knew I had to escape before the fire got closer. As I ran the smoke got thicker and thicker. I tried not to breathe in the smoke so that I could run faster. The smoke was getting stronger and I suddenly fell to the ground.
***
I ran and ran as fast as I could to get out of the smoke before the fire came. I ran through the trees hoping to get out of the forest. As I ran, I heard something. I looked and spotted the fox that Edith had kept. It was laying on the floor of the forest and not moving. I knew I had to go quickly but I couldn’t let the fox die. I knew my dad would say I should leave the fox and save myself first but I didn’t care. I stood over the fox. It was definitely the fox that Edith had kept. I grabbed a stick that was covered with ash and poked the fox hoping for it to wake up. “Come on, wake up,” I said to myself. I finally gave up, and because the fox was a bit small, I managed to carry it.
I ran as fast as I could out of the smoking forest. Finally I realized I didn't know which way was the road. Suddenly I heard someone yell, “Hazel, where are you?!” I ran towards the voice for a while until I got to the road. My dad, Lily, and a few police officers were on the road.
“Are you okay?” my dad asked. He ran up to me. He looked very worried.
I gently set the fox on the ground. “I’m okay,” I said.
I looked at the smoke coming from the fire and knew that the forest would be gone soon. After I explained why I had been carrying the fox, my dad helped me put the fox in the backseat of the car. Even though I told my dad I was feeling alright he took me to the hospital just in case to see if I was hurt. After that, we brought the fox to the vet who said that the fox would be okay which made me feel relieved.
The next few weeks the fire was still burning in the forest. Our dad had told us that the fire hadn’t reached our old home yet. I wondered what it would be like when the fire was over. I didn’t know how long the fire would be there but I knew it would be over one day and that made me feel better.
***
When I woke up, I was in the strange place again with the weird creatures. Eventually they released me back into the forest that was now unrecognizable. Everything was black and covered in ash. The bushes and leaves were all gone. The trees looked burnt and dead. I couldn’t spot a single living thing there.
I walked through the dead forest looking for anything that was alive but I found nothing. I went to the stream that was now covered in ash that had made the water black. I wondered what I was going to do now. It took a lot of thinking but I decided to find a new place to live. I wasn’t sure if I would find my family but I knew I’d be okay without them. I began walking, and felt a bit sad because I was leaving my home, but excited about what the future would bring.
_______