The Woodland Child

When you go into the forest you think that everything is against you. That when a snake bites you that they are doing it on purpose or when a bee stings you it doesn't like you. How would you react if someone trampled on your home, or stepped on you, or even bothered you while you were minding your own business. That is how the animals all react to us, they wont mind us unless we mess with them. How do I know this you ask, well when all they do is talk to you, you don't really have a choice.

I discovered my gift by accident, when I steeped on an ant hill they all screamed. I was terrified, all those thousands of screams sounded like a massacre. I looked down and then, whelp I decided to test my new ability out. I found a bird sleeping in a nest and I called out to it saying, "Hello little bird, what a nice day it is in those trees, isn't it." The bird tweeted back sweetly saying, "Yes it is isn't it, I love the way the sun shines through the trees and makes the ground look green and not brown." We talked like that for hours neither of us scared of each other, we just talked like normal being would, not a kid and a bird.

Things stayed like that for quite a few days, I would visit the bird every day after school and we would talk. Soon she showed me her lovely eggs, she was still a little skeptical of me. Then when I proved that I wouldn't hurt her then we became as tight as thieves. Then there was a long black and green speckled snake, slithering as quietly as possible. I saw it slither past my foot trying to get to the birds eggs when I yelled, "Hey! Back up from those eggs!" He snake looked at me and hissed, "Eggs? A boy? No,no,no, see I am nearly blind, I can't see anything but shapes and those are even blurry." The child looked at the snake and asked, "Really? Well, do you think I can help you?" The snake would love to be helped if the boy knew how. The snake laughed, "Oh, how I wish you could." The boy ran to his home grabbed his sisters doll, took the glasses that was on them, and ran back to the snake. "Here, try these on," the boy exclaimed happily as he put the glasses on the snake. The snake's eyes went wide as he could finally see, "Why, the world looks so clear now, thank you little one," the snake said as he smiled the best he could.

The boy, the lovely bird, and the snake with glasses made the most unusual group. Except, all the creatures of the forest loved the boy who could hear them. They came from far and wide to see the boy and for him to see them. The boy was so well known that the Queen of the forest wanted to see him. "You must be the boy that can hear," the Queen said. The queen was a horse with a pearl white body, a long shimmery mane, and a spiral horn the sat right on her head. The boy bowed down to the queen as the bird and snake had told him to do. He then shot straight up and smiled widely, "You are beautiful, I am so happy that I can come and see you!" The Queen smiled softly, amused by the boys sweet innocence and positive look on the world. The Queen then turned to face the other creatures of the forest and commanded, "All animals here, we have finally found him, we have found the Prince of the Woods!" The boy was confused as he asked, "Prince? How am I a prince?" The Queen smiled once more and took the boy to an old oak tree. the old oak had inscriptions the brown bark. "this prophecy is older than me, it tells the tale that someone would come and make the prey and their predator become friends. We have searched for this person and here you are," she had said in a booming voice as if this story was the thing keeping her alive. The boy was astonished by the tree and its pattern, the tree seemed to breathe in the fresh air and breathe out the life that makes up the forest.

The boy looked once more at the tree and thought heavily on what this would do to his life. How would he live here? How would he live at his home? How would he live as a boy and a Prince? These thoughts ran through his head, but the Queen sensed his doubt and comforted him. "The woods will always be here, you can live like a normal human and be a creature of the forest just like the rest of us," The Queen had said as she lead the Prince to be back to the crowds of animals young and old, prey and predator. The world before him was open to his feet, he was so filled with everything that he didn't know what to feel first. To feel scared about his role, happy about the forest, angry for the long wait, and just every feeling in between. Nothing in the world would make him feel down if he had the woods, bullies wouldn't bother him, all his problems would go away, and he would have friends for a very long time.

"I accept my Queen, I accept the challenges of being a Prince," he said to the Queen in acceptance. The Queen looked at the crowed and boomed once more, "My subjects! He has accepted his fate as the prince of the Woodland Kingdom!" The animals roared or sang in cheer, the Prince was here and was going to stay until he died.

From then on the boy would do what he would in his human life and then come to the woods to live as a Prince. He was happy, this was the opposite of his regular life. It was all fun and games, beauty and magic the thing he had dreamed of for years. Until, he had woken up from his sleep, back in the orphanage he was supposed to be in.