Maple Forest.
It grows naturally to a height of about thirty-two to one hundred and forty feet. The leaves are like fingers and have color variations every time they bloom and fall. The sap is what sweetens the kitchens of every Vermont home and the stems are also sometimes used as the walls of treehouses. Plus, the evening forest sun shone like a bunch of gold grains. This is standard information that even an elementary school kid would know. Then, this should be a beautiful forest. But the reality is not so.
At least, in his case.
This problem started with the piglets running away… No, the problem originally arose due to Luke's trauma from disgust every time he saw these chambers of the pigsty. Then Luke doesn't close the door properly, then the pigs sneak out, then you all have to chase them, then the two piglets make it out of the school grounds, and then… then… then Luke is here.
Even though Luke felt that he had only run a few meters, the density of the Maple trees was second to none. It was quiet, it was quiet, and even Luke couldn't find the sound of the two damn piglets that had run away just now. The beauty of this Maple forest faded gradually like the color of the leaves ready to fall in autumn, which, on the contrary, brought out a heightened level of self-awareness to quite an extreme level.
Swallowing hard, he stepped out to look for the two piglets. Hopefully they get scared as well or stop somewhere. Luke was no longer running because he felt that if he ran something could catch up with him suddenly. Luke knew this was an odd thought, but it just crossed his mind.
By now Luke could no longer tell which Maple trees or that one. Even the farther Luke walked, the more Maple stems that grew taller and thicker. He found nothing alive here besides Luke and a row of trees.
Ouch … just now his cheek was hit by a low crossed tree branch. It hurt so that Luke returned his focus to the situation at the same second.
Crazy. This is crazy. It's too quiet. The silence that seemed to want to reveal what was hidden from between the trees, from each stiffly curved branch, from the branches that stretched forward. The wind was not heard, his footsteps treading the leaves were also not heard. In fact, last night his ears were still very sensitive to sound. Luke could even hear three boys in a room three rooms away debating who deserved to approach someone named Michael Pejic.
The first and most logical clue offered by his brain was, "Turn around and come back."
So Luke turned around, heading for the original path when he entered and was determined to forget about the two stray piglets. Let them get lost and turn to dust or fall into a ravine or be eaten by deer—yes, even though Luke knows deer don't eat piglets. But Luke was in such an exasperated state that it just came off as meaningless.
But nothing.
There is no footpath. It suddenly disappeared. No matter how far Luke has run, no matter how tiring he has been running, no matter how long Luke has stepped; but Luke seemed to just move in place. His knees were already shaking and his sweat was dripping and only one thing had not changed; The view of the forest that as far as the eye could see was just filled with leaves and tree trunks, felt like it was going to swallow him up and Luke just realized he might have gotten lost when his foot stepped on a rock and made his whole body feel electrocuted.
“Ergh…!”
Luke didn't scream spontaneously because the mechanism of some humans is like that. A split second after his foot hit a rock, the brain sends a signal to the soles of his feet that something is stuck there, then the nerves send the pain and that's how his body shakes automatically, his eyes close, and as he bends one leg, Luke can only growl. It was so painful, that Luke was too affectionate to waste a sound.
“Damn…”
Luke had to apologize to the ground and grass because Luke punched them to release pain and anger. Luke also swears at these two Earth elements.
Ah, tired Luke finally sat down. He leaned on Maple's trunk which was starting to crack not bad either. It does feel like there is a wedge because of the uneven surface. But, sitting and cooling the mind for a moment, is not bad.
To be honest, at that second his guts had actually shrunk like a raisin that was shriveled up. This is all odd. How odd. Even if this were a film, Luke thought the director or screenwriter was working on this project in a half-drunken state of mind. Forcing the will to make the main character in a tense unexpected situation. But all these irregularities are real. Not contrived. Luke was absolutely sure, that it hadn't been five minutes when he chased the two piglets into the woods, then suddenly got stuck here with no path to return to, as if Luke had walked miles and miles.
With a low tolerance for illogicality, Luke can't take for granted the fact that Luke is indeed lost now. Something inside of him pushed him to scream out names. Anyone's name. However, on the other hand, there was also something holding him back from making a sound in this quiet situation. Oh, it seems that Luke also forgot to mention that his breath was completely silent.
Is this really the strange forest or is Luke suddenly deaf?
And at that moment, Luke saw the leaves in front of him start to move. Not moving like walking alone, but moving in circles upwards as if being toyed with by a small tornado. Again and again, the leaves that should rustle when they rub against each other, which this time did not. Just a silent movement. So Luke immediately understood that it was indeed his forest that was strange.
Not long after that, after the leaves that had been blown by the wind had fallen again, from behind the small tornado a unique animal appeared. Which looks quite familiar. Fur as white as snow, petite body, a pair of large pointed ears, and has a bushy tail. Luke immediately knew that it was a white fox, but Luke doubted that it was the same fox that Rei had.
“ Hi, are you okay ?”
Wait.
Wait, wait, wait. Before Luke explained further, he took a look around his body first. Checking that the nectria mushrooms stuck to the maple tree trunks, didn't make people hallucinate. The reason is, the first sound that Luke heard after this unnatural silence was a greeting sentence. Surprising him even more, the owner of the voice was that white fox with a bushy tail.
Luke had looked around as far as the eye could see five times, but still the only living creatures he encountered other than trees, yes, were only the white fox. Okay, his brain is starting to mess up. Luke is probably going crazy now from the confusion of finding a way. Let's take a look at the sky. Still afternoon. Even though it was covered in leaves, there was still a slight gap to see that the sky was still blue and golden. But on second thought, wasn't the afternoon too long? Was it because it was nearing summer that the afternoons were getting longer?
Then Luke looked back at where the white fox was and he was still there. Still in the same position. What was different, this time the fox wagged its tail and its round eyes twinkled. Fifteen seconds later, the fox's movements became strange. It rubs its nose with its forepaws, then begins to crouch and walk cautiously, its tail also wagging like a fan. He slowly tiptoed while his eyes never left her.
A moment.
He felt his eyes were not on him, but on something behind him. Damn it. Luke got scared. And before Luke could even look back, behind this maple tree trunk, he heard another voice. It goes like this.
"We told you, didn't we? We have found you, O imperfect one."
Luke twisted his neck and felt very weak when Gaelic was behind him. Standing with some kind of gun in his hand and… he grinned
***