A Short Story

Isiah redirected his swing the second he caught sight of the tiny little sparrow landing on the tree spike and his momentum sent him tumbling head over heels where he promptly landed on his back. Ignoring the pain, he shot straight up and did a complete three sixty looking for her.

With nothing jumping out save the mournful rustling of the trees, Isiah crawled over to the tree to where the tiny little sparrow was resting. Clearing away a small pile of leaves, he sat down in front of the sparrow and cleared his throat to get its attention.

"Why art thou's mistress coming here? I hath not trespassed on her lands. Please little sparrow, tell thou's mistress that I am but a loyal subject without any aspirations of deviltry to speak of."

Before the tiny little sparrow could respond, the ground shook and Isiah suddenly found himself in the middle of a stampede of wild horses. Cowering in fear, he also held onto the tree so that he might survive the terrible onslaught. When the pounding of the hooves finally faded away, Isiah was left with a fantastic headache an a inability to stop his screaming.

Unable to stop his screaming and with the salty taste of blood in his mouth, Isiah could only watch as the tiny little sparrow took flight and came to land on his cheek. Digging his claws into Isiah's chin, the tiny little sparrow took a couple of sniffs, then dipped its beak in and began drinking his fill.

Exactly one minute later, the little sparrow finished its drink, ruffled its feathers like it was trying to get rid of a bad taste, then spread its wings and took flight to the heavens.

Seconds later, a thunderous boom roared through the forest, stripping the tree branches clean and laying wasted to the surrounding vegetation. When it reached Isiah it seemed to pause for a moment, as if it was unsure whether or not it should do the same thing. In the end, it left behind a small protective bubble that encased Isiah from head to toe.

Still unable to stop screaming, Isiah again watched in horror as the thunderous boom continued to lay wasted and obliterate the surrounding forest of all vegetation and animal life in all of is gruesome glory. Suddenly, everything went supernova and the force of the explosion blew Isiah from the tree and sent him flying through the forest.

A pile of freshly harvested pine saplings mercifully brought both his journey and his screaming to an abrupt halt. Slowly turning onto his stomach, Isiah inhaled the clean piny aroma and wondered what was going to happen next.

He didn't have too long of a wait as everything in his field of vision once again went supernova. He started to scream again from the intense pain of the blinding light, but an invisible hand clamped his mouth and turned him over. He struggled against the hand but quickly stopped when he saw the fiery orange eyes and the blackened snakes of the one entity he feared the most.

Kenya.

A raven haired beauty with a complexion that was darker than a starless night, Isiah recoiled in fear when she leaned in and began to flick her snake-like tongue around his face so as to full embrace his scent.

When she'd finished some thirty seconds later, she released her grip and spoke in a tone that hid how truly upset she was.

"Isiah, why are you harvesting in my forest without my permission?"

Swallowing hard, he answered, "Milady, thou art wrong about thou's subject harvesting without permission. Thy subject was simply cutting wood for thy family."

"Yes, but you were cutting live wood. Their mournful cries of pain caused me such sorrow that I immediately set out to find that disloyal subject who was hurting my beloved trees."

"But milady, I--"

"Silence! You were supposed to only cut and gather wood that was bereft of life, not cut and gather wood that was still alive."

"But--"

"Silence! For your wanton destruction of a living thing and for destroying my beloved forest's inner chi, you shall pay the ultimate price."

Kenya pulled Isiah upright and held him in place until his feet were encompassed by Mother Earth. She then took a couple of steps back, snapped her fingers and in that very instant, Isiah realized to the horror of the rest of his short human life, what that ultimate punishment was going to be.

As the final batch of leaves covered Isiah's face and forever snuffed out the last human characteristic he would ever have, Kenya took a long hard look at the gnarly looking tree and smiled.

She smiled because no sooner than Isiah finally became one with Mother Earth, a family of woodpeckers came to roost and began creating a new home for not only themselves, but for their relatives as well.

Satisfied that the forest's inner chi was restored back to health, Kenya gave the little sparrow a light kiss on the beak and sending it on its way, before disappearing into the mist to become one with the forest's chi again.

And perhaps, become one with herself.

(c) 2010 by GBMJr. All rights reserved.