Living where there are no trees

A Story by Word Girl

A girl- sixteen- from New York living alone in the wild. The only issue is- People will find their way into your home, no matter where you live. And then they will ruin you. And it will be bad.

It was dark. Very dark. And the wind would be up soon.

I jumped out of my ten foot tall pine tree and landed on hard dirt, with perfect balance, and looked around.

During warm-season, everything was fun. Especially fishing! I loved fishing in warm-season.

During cold-season, life was just a big panic where I tried to stay alive. Not really boring, however stressing it may be.

During rain-season, there were lots of berries around, and I would pour hard-dirt rocks on them to keep them from rotting, and then around cold-season I would have a head start.

But during dry-season. This was perhaps the safest, because I wasn't risking my butt fishing, or starving and freezing to death either.

But during dry-season- what was happening now- I was bored.

It was started to get light. I could see clearly.

Really, really, bored.

Then I saw something that caught my eye. A glimpse of shiny stone.

Shiny stone was rare around there. It was yellow. I picked it up and touched a part of it that stuck out.

Weird.

Suddenly, random sound blared through my forest!

There were noises I was confused about, and others I thought I could make sense of.

One sounded like somebody banging on a fig tree.

Then I froze. And I sobbed.

I was too scared to hunt, so I ran top speed to my hole.

Tentatively, I nosed my way into my nest.

The fell of the soft pines and moss comforted me, and I fell asleep thinking of well-cooked turkey- A treat I only got during dry-season, and set out to catch today.

I would fix this mess in the morning.

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The next morning I was ready.

I looked back at the noise-maker.

I had seen something like that before.

It had killed my best friends, and it's hard to kill wolves.

The noise-maker looked just like the tree eater.

I gathered what berries I could find.

I went for a run, maybe a sun-shift long.

Then I veered around back to my hole.

Grabbing my bow and arrows not so gently, I ran back to one of my favorite hunting areas and made four kills: a neat one, two average ones, and one that I almost left behind because it was so bloody. But then I remembered. I might go a moon cycle or two without any food.

And with that, I turned back for my spear, headed for the lake, and caught six fish.

Then I dropped off my kills and ran for the meadow.

There, I gathered something I knew I might need- all the plants with healing properties in sight.

Next, I went for the cliff. There was burned wood here from the great fire, which I started and put out.

It hadn't been great, it had been a disaster.

But I digress.

I ripped some wood off of a weak looking tree.

I hauled it back and went for more.

Wood would be the difference between life and death, because I needed it to start a fire and to seal up my hole safely.

There was a stream that ran into my hole from the inside, but it wasn't safe to drink so I always had to cook it before I could drink it.

After dropping that off, I returned with a small hollow log to dig my hole deeper.

Next I brought huge armfuls of pine needle, because with aching flesh, however trivial it may be, I was unable to run when it was ailing me.

Again and again I returned with more useful things.

More water in case my stream were to dry up. Dry leaves in case I had trouble with the wood. My favorite dirt for creating mud, so that I could blend in if need be. Fig leaves for added warmth. Then I jumped into a stream because I wouldn't be able to clean myself over the next few days.

I dried off by rubbing myself against a dense bush, like I'd always done.

Everything felt so last. "Last time panicking," I thought.

Next I grabbed some leather I'd once made and tied it to myself to prevent injuries.

I ran top speed back to my hole and made sure everything- I mean everything I owned-was on my nest- the deepest part.

I used the hollow log to dig at a 100 degree angle. (For those of you who have hollow brains, that means almost straight down.) I wanted to dig like that so I could get as deep as possible.

It wasn't like the rest of my hole- most of it had been carefully carved (By me) so that I could walk with ease without hitting my head. This tunnel was just big enough for me to fit through- If I was crawling. I had figured out how to dig so that my stream flowed into my newest area in my hole.

I went back outside and carved wood into a shape that could hold water. (To burn.)

I put that into my hole, arranged my hole, and went outside to swim.

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A while later, I was still swimming.

And then it started.

The rumbling.

The entire tree eating monster emerged from around the corner.

"Apparently I was right to prepare my hole," I thought.

I came into my den and crumbled the entire front, hitting it with a stick so it would crumble, cave in, and block the opening. I had already crafted a hidden air hole.

I stacked sticks against the opening to make sure nobody, or nothing, would get through.

They were not ready to burn, but by the time they were, and I needed them, the dirt would have hardened in it's new position and I would be fine. Besides, I could always replace it with the wood I'd already burnt, the charred stuff. I moved my nest to the new deepest part of my hole, and build a fire to help with it being too dark to see. The rate this was going, I'd go through a half a log an hour.

I was right to bring so much, but I wished I'd brought more.

Comforted by the fact the fact that I was so deep, I poured water on the fire and went to sleep.

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© 2017 Word Girl

Author's Note

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Featured Review

matrixmark

I jumped out of my ten foot tall pine tree and landed on hard dirt, with perfect balance, and looked around.
Change it to this......I jumped out from the ten foot pine tree, looking all around as I landed with perfect balance on the hard dirt.

The reason for the above chage is because you don't need the word 'tall' in the sentence because of you also describing it as 10ft. Also the word 'and' is used twice very closely together. I have oly changed it as a guideline - do with it was you please.

Then I saw something that caught my eye. A glimpse of shiny stone.
Change the above to....Then a shiny stone caught the corner of my my eye.

The reason for the above change is because to have the word 'glimpse' and also 'caught my eye' in the same sentence doesn't make sense. You are saying the same thing twice. - Again this is just a guidline to help, not to mock your writing in anyway whatsoever.
And then it started.
The rumbling.

Change it to....And then the rumbling started.

ALL THE ABOVE IS THERE TO TRY AND HELP AND NOT MOCK YOUR WRITING IN ANY WAY.

I did like the story and was impressed with your imagination. I particulary liked the tree monster - pretty cool I thought.

Good piece.

Mark.