Forest People

Deep breath in, deep breath out, deep breath in, deep breath out. If I didn't make a sound it wouldn't move. I pulled the string back and let the arrow loose. In case more were going to come, I stood there for a moment. None came, so I went and got the deer I shot. A good hundred pounds of meat.

"What are you going to do with that?" I turned around to see Jackson, my best friend. His little brother, Caleb, was behind him, picking berries.

"Eat it, of course. What else? Hang it even though it's already dead? That's something you would do,"I scoffed. Jackson nodded, knowing it was true.

"Need some help taking it back to your shelter?"Jackson asked. I shook my head, grabbed the deer, and walked off.

"So rude. Thinks I can't do anything for myself." As I walked through the woods as quietly as possible, I continued to talk under my breath about how rotten Jackson was. Even though he was my best friend.

Once I got to my shelter (a simple lean-to) I started to skin the deer and prepare it in a way that I could eat it. When I was about half-way through getting the skin off, I heard a rustle in the bushes to the right of the lean-to. I pulled out my bow and arrow, and slowly made my way towards the noise. I was about to just let my arrow loose, when Caleb popped up.

"What do you want?"I asked. Caleb shrugged, walked around me, and went into my lean-to.

"I don't know. I guess I just wanted to annoy you,"Caleb replied. I rolled my eyes and walked in after him. He was sitting down, looking at all of my weapons.

"Where's your brother?"I asked. Caleb reached out and picked up one of my better knives.

"Walking around the edge of the woods. He said that I could come here if I didn't want to go with him. You can see my choice,"Caleb answered. I rolled my eyes, Jackson just sent Caleb here to annoy me.

"Where is Jackson actually?"I asked.

"Oh, he is walking around the edge of the woods, by the town. But the part about him sending me here was a lie. I just wanted to come here to look at your knives,"Caleb replied. That's when I got angry. The three of us made a pact that we would never go near the village alone. Ever.

"Come on, we're leaving,"I said. I grabbed my bow and two knives and walked out of the lean-to. Caleb pocketed one of my knives and followed me. We walked until we got about ten yards away from the edge of the woods. Jackson was nowhere to be seen.

"CJM! CJM! CJM!"I yelled. That was our code for "Where the heck are you?". We waited a minute, and then started to move around, calling as we went. Finally, we heard Jackson's voice call back.

"Notta! Notta!"Jackson yelled. We were closer to the edge of the woods now, and that meant that he was in town.

The reason why Caleb and I weren't too happy about having to go into town is a story. There used to be a whole bunch of forest people. That is, until the town people killed them all because they thought that the forest people were stealing their food and goods. Luckily, Jackson, Caleb, and I were able to hide and survive.

So, now you can see why Caleb and I were hesitant to go rushing into town to save Jackson from whatever was hurting him. For there was no reason for him to go into town willingly.

Caleb and I went sprinting into town, through the trash littered streets, until we got to the square where Jackson was. I was immediately angry, where I think Caleb was plain upset.

"Let. Him. GO! You've already killed the rest of our people, do you really want to kill more innocent ones?"I asked. There were three men surrounding Jackson with guns pointed at his head.

"Oh, it wouldn't be too hard,"one of the men stated. The three of them turned their heads at me, and Jackson took that time to strike. He took out a knife that he had in his pocket and cut each of the men's ankles. They all dropped their guns, then dropped to their knees in pain. I went in and grabbed their guns, while Caleb helped Jackson up and took him to the woods.

"Huh. One forest girl, three guns, and three men. What should she do?"I asked. I saw fear in the men's eyes and then ran off into the woods after Caleb and Jackson. We ran until we got to Jackson and Caleb's shelter, another simple lean-to, but their's was a little bigger since it had to fit two.

"Jackson! What was that all about?"I asked. Jackson shrugged and pulled out the knife that he cut the men's ankles with.

"You stole that?"Caleb asked. Jackson nodded and started to sharpen a stick with it.

"Yup, I thought no one was around, but those three dumb guys saw me and were about to kill me when I heard your call. Thanks. I owe you one,"Jackson stated. I nodded, he owed me big time.

"What's for dinner? I'm starving!"Caleb yelled. We all laughed and then walked over to my shelter.

"What part of the deer do you want?"I asked. Caleb and Jackson both said that they just wanted some cooked meat and that was all. So, I made a big piece of venison, then covered the rest of the deer up in a way so it wouldn't rot. We had blueberries to go with the meat.

We all camped out outside under the stars that night by a fire. It was comforting in a way. But it was also uncomfortable with me. I used to do the same thing with my older brother before the town people killed him.

"Missy?"Jackson asked. Caleb was already sleeping, so I was surprised that Jackson risked talking. (Caleb was a really light sleeper.)

"Yeah, Jackson?"

"Have you ever thought about what those stars are?"

"My parents always told me that they were all of the people that have passed before us, looking down at us with a smile on their face."

"Oh. Does that mean that our families are looking down at us right this second?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Oh. Okay. Good night, Missy."

"Good night, Jackson."