To Protect True Innocents
Jul. 19th, 2016 09:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katleeptTitle: To Protect True Innocents
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: Original
Character/Pairing: OCs
Rating: PG-13/T
Challenge/Prompt:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
faerie_wish13 July 2016: Fireworks
Warning(s): Character Deaths
Word Count: 1,461
Date Written: 19 July, 2016
Summary:
Disclaimer: This one's all mine, gentle readers.
She knows the very instant they enter her home. They dare to call it theirs, but she knows the truth. They will never belong in the forest. It takes everything she and the animals can do to stay away from the intruders. She could send them fleeing in a second, but she's promised to be good. She's sworn never to take a life of another, and if she lets them live, they will return with reinforcements. There will be more guns, more violence, more death. There will be more humans.
So she stays hidden within the depths of the forest. She pretends not to notice when lives disappear from its safety. She struggles to keep their prey shielded when they intrude further into her territory, and she repeats her vows every single day as if repeating them constantly can help her stay true to them and to herself. But she's watching the forest die slowly because of the humans, and slowly, her resolve is crumpling. There's a part of herself dying with the forest and the animals who have always called it home, and that part is the only thing keeping the humans safe.
She feels the earth tremble beneath her bare feet every time they return. She watches as the birds take flight. She sees the smaller animals tremble as they run under cover and notes that even the bears and panthers keep to their caves. And still, with every time the humans return, another of their own goes missing.
The night is hot when they return again. The sun is not even awake, and yet they stomp along the forest's borders like they own it as always they do. She wakes between trees, pressing on each trunk and trying to calm the frightened spirits within. Do something, they cry out to her. Do something before they kill another!
Maybe they won't, she thinks this time. It's late. Perhaps they'll at least wait until tomorrow to set foot actually within the forest. They have a small house just on the outside, she knows. Maybe they'll go in there and keep quiet. Maybe they won't have to run tonight just to keep their very lives.
The tree spirits are calming, a gentle breeze whispering through them. An owl lights beside her. He starts to hoot, but she shushes him with a finger to her lips. There are still bunnies, squirrels, and a cat who lost her way into the forest as a kitten long ago curled around her feet and sleeping soundly. The owl settles into preening his feathers, and she lets her eyes close once more.
That is when they begin again. Enormously loud noises that sound as though they must be coming from a gun bigger than any weapon she's ever seen before explode in the still night. The animals scream and set to running. The breeze in the trees shifts directions. We warned you, the spirits say. We warned you, and you did nothing! Now we will all suffer again!
The earth shakes violently beneath the soles of the Witch's feet. She calls out to the animals, calling each by name, but they simply continue to run pass her except for one tiny chipmunk who scurries up and hides inside her bodice. She feels his heart beating next to hers.
A shadow moves within the shadows, and she looks to see the oldest predator within the forest. He will not take any lives while she is near. They've always shared a mutual respect, but now he looks at her through glowing, green eyes. "I should take them," he says.
"If you do, more of their kind will come!" She clings to the nearest tree to keep from falling as another explosion resounds. They seem to be trying to rip the very forest apart tonight!
"Not," the panther returns darkly, his long, black tail swishing in the night, "if there is nothing left for the other humans to find."
He starts to run in the direction of the explosions. She runs with him. "No," she cries out, reaching for him, "let me! They will shoot you!"
"Let them try," he thunders in response even as another gunshot goes off.
"No! Please!"
He stops and looks at her. This time, she does fall with the new explosion. The chipmunk leaps from her blouse and scurries up the ancient bark of the nearest tree. She holds out a hand to still the panther who's been here as long as she. They have both called this forest their home their entire lives, he since he was a cub and she since she was a baby. It was the very animals and trees here who raised her.
"It's my place," she tells him. "I am the protector of this forest!"
He bares his fangs in protest. "Then it is pass time," he says, his mighty tail cutting through the steaming, night air like a jagged knife, "you do something, Witch."
It is pass time. She has let this go on for far too long. Her vows are gone now. She will take lives but never of the animals, never of the world's only true innocents. She stands and walks determinedly toward the explosions, calling power to her as she does so. This forest is more than her home. It is an ancient sanctuary for all innocents who call it home, and now its power wraps around her.
The earth still shakes as she walks. The animals are still running, all save the one black panther trailing at a small distance behind her. But she does not fall again. She does not hesitate. She stands erect, tall, and proud and seems almost to glow herself in the night.
She stops at the very entrance to the forest. All this chaos, all the deaths they've suffered over the last few years, have been caused by only two of the humans. Those two men are shouting slurred words again as they perform a strange sort of slipping and falling dance over the bottles they've littered onto the ground that once, before they ever came, was clean, pristine, and whole.
She scoops and touches the soft earth, calling more power as she watches the humans. They're laughing and shouting, so crude in their natural behavior. They have some sort of strange sticks, and she watches as they start a fire with a new batch. She jumps backward, heart pounding, as the sticks explode into the night sky.
They perform the same act several times as she slowly inches closer, her head cocked to one side as she watches intently. These unnatural sticks are what's making the noise and shaking the entire forest tonight. They are new weapons, and although the men have not yet aimed them at animals, she has no doubt they will. They sound louder than any gun, and from the way their fire explodes, she's quite certain they'll hurt worse and take even more lives.
"No more," she whispers, and then her words change into a language as old as the forest. Her hands raise into the air, and the spirits move with her as she commands. Just as the sticks raise into the air for a new display of their power, they change direction. The men are too drunk with their own senselessness to understand what they're watching and stand still in shock until the sticks ram up their rear ends. They scream and start to run in terror, then, but it's too late.
They explode with the fireworks, and the Witch smiles. She'll remove the house and the metal thing in which they always travel tomorrow. They'll be no sign of the humans left to draw others. The forest will be their own again, as Mother Nature always intended.
She hears a soft, deep chuckle as she reenters the forest. "There," says the panther when she looks at him, once more swishing his tail. He bares his fangs again, but this time in a friendly way. "Isn't that better?" he asks, and she has to smile.
"Much," she answers, and the night breeze singing in the forest agrees. No more will die in this forest because of the humans, she vows, as the animals come to gather around her once more. She lays on the soft, cool grass and strokes each innocent head that comes near her kind hands. No more will die ever again here on her watch, and she will watch for eternity.
The panther lays down himself, ignoring his natural prey and smiling as he watches the Witch. His tail curls up beside his sleek body, and he begins to doze, finally feeling safe and joyful again. Their home is safe once more. Their happy ending has come at last.
The End
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: Original
Character/Pairing: OCs
Rating: PG-13/T
Challenge/Prompt:
faerie_wish13 July 2016: FireworksWarning(s): Character Deaths
Word Count: 1,461
Date Written: 19 July, 2016
Summary:
Disclaimer: This one's all mine, gentle readers.
She knows the very instant they enter her home. They dare to call it theirs, but she knows the truth. They will never belong in the forest. It takes everything she and the animals can do to stay away from the intruders. She could send them fleeing in a second, but she's promised to be good. She's sworn never to take a life of another, and if she lets them live, they will return with reinforcements. There will be more guns, more violence, more death. There will be more humans.
So she stays hidden within the depths of the forest. She pretends not to notice when lives disappear from its safety. She struggles to keep their prey shielded when they intrude further into her territory, and she repeats her vows every single day as if repeating them constantly can help her stay true to them and to herself. But she's watching the forest die slowly because of the humans, and slowly, her resolve is crumpling. There's a part of herself dying with the forest and the animals who have always called it home, and that part is the only thing keeping the humans safe.
She feels the earth tremble beneath her bare feet every time they return. She watches as the birds take flight. She sees the smaller animals tremble as they run under cover and notes that even the bears and panthers keep to their caves. And still, with every time the humans return, another of their own goes missing.
The night is hot when they return again. The sun is not even awake, and yet they stomp along the forest's borders like they own it as always they do. She wakes between trees, pressing on each trunk and trying to calm the frightened spirits within. Do something, they cry out to her. Do something before they kill another!
Maybe they won't, she thinks this time. It's late. Perhaps they'll at least wait until tomorrow to set foot actually within the forest. They have a small house just on the outside, she knows. Maybe they'll go in there and keep quiet. Maybe they won't have to run tonight just to keep their very lives.
The tree spirits are calming, a gentle breeze whispering through them. An owl lights beside her. He starts to hoot, but she shushes him with a finger to her lips. There are still bunnies, squirrels, and a cat who lost her way into the forest as a kitten long ago curled around her feet and sleeping soundly. The owl settles into preening his feathers, and she lets her eyes close once more.
That is when they begin again. Enormously loud noises that sound as though they must be coming from a gun bigger than any weapon she's ever seen before explode in the still night. The animals scream and set to running. The breeze in the trees shifts directions. We warned you, the spirits say. We warned you, and you did nothing! Now we will all suffer again!
The earth shakes violently beneath the soles of the Witch's feet. She calls out to the animals, calling each by name, but they simply continue to run pass her except for one tiny chipmunk who scurries up and hides inside her bodice. She feels his heart beating next to hers.
A shadow moves within the shadows, and she looks to see the oldest predator within the forest. He will not take any lives while she is near. They've always shared a mutual respect, but now he looks at her through glowing, green eyes. "I should take them," he says.
"If you do, more of their kind will come!" She clings to the nearest tree to keep from falling as another explosion resounds. They seem to be trying to rip the very forest apart tonight!
"Not," the panther returns darkly, his long, black tail swishing in the night, "if there is nothing left for the other humans to find."
He starts to run in the direction of the explosions. She runs with him. "No," she cries out, reaching for him, "let me! They will shoot you!"
"Let them try," he thunders in response even as another gunshot goes off.
"No! Please!"
He stops and looks at her. This time, she does fall with the new explosion. The chipmunk leaps from her blouse and scurries up the ancient bark of the nearest tree. She holds out a hand to still the panther who's been here as long as she. They have both called this forest their home their entire lives, he since he was a cub and she since she was a baby. It was the very animals and trees here who raised her.
"It's my place," she tells him. "I am the protector of this forest!"
He bares his fangs in protest. "Then it is pass time," he says, his mighty tail cutting through the steaming, night air like a jagged knife, "you do something, Witch."
It is pass time. She has let this go on for far too long. Her vows are gone now. She will take lives but never of the animals, never of the world's only true innocents. She stands and walks determinedly toward the explosions, calling power to her as she does so. This forest is more than her home. It is an ancient sanctuary for all innocents who call it home, and now its power wraps around her.
The earth still shakes as she walks. The animals are still running, all save the one black panther trailing at a small distance behind her. But she does not fall again. She does not hesitate. She stands erect, tall, and proud and seems almost to glow herself in the night.
She stops at the very entrance to the forest. All this chaos, all the deaths they've suffered over the last few years, have been caused by only two of the humans. Those two men are shouting slurred words again as they perform a strange sort of slipping and falling dance over the bottles they've littered onto the ground that once, before they ever came, was clean, pristine, and whole.
She scoops and touches the soft earth, calling more power as she watches the humans. They're laughing and shouting, so crude in their natural behavior. They have some sort of strange sticks, and she watches as they start a fire with a new batch. She jumps backward, heart pounding, as the sticks explode into the night sky.
They perform the same act several times as she slowly inches closer, her head cocked to one side as she watches intently. These unnatural sticks are what's making the noise and shaking the entire forest tonight. They are new weapons, and although the men have not yet aimed them at animals, she has no doubt they will. They sound louder than any gun, and from the way their fire explodes, she's quite certain they'll hurt worse and take even more lives.
"No more," she whispers, and then her words change into a language as old as the forest. Her hands raise into the air, and the spirits move with her as she commands. Just as the sticks raise into the air for a new display of their power, they change direction. The men are too drunk with their own senselessness to understand what they're watching and stand still in shock until the sticks ram up their rear ends. They scream and start to run in terror, then, but it's too late.
They explode with the fireworks, and the Witch smiles. She'll remove the house and the metal thing in which they always travel tomorrow. They'll be no sign of the humans left to draw others. The forest will be their own again, as Mother Nature always intended.
She hears a soft, deep chuckle as she reenters the forest. "There," says the panther when she looks at him, once more swishing his tail. He bares his fangs again, but this time in a friendly way. "Isn't that better?" he asks, and she has to smile.
"Much," she answers, and the night breeze singing in the forest agrees. No more will die in this forest because of the humans, she vows, as the animals come to gather around her once more. She lays on the soft, cool grass and strokes each innocent head that comes near her kind hands. No more will die ever again here on her watch, and she will watch for eternity.
The panther lays down himself, ignoring his natural prey and smiling as he watches the Witch. His tail curls up beside his sleek body, and he begins to doze, finally feeling safe and joyful again. Their home is safe once more. Their happy ending has come at last.
The End
