by

Huseina Juzer (XA)

Thousands of years ago, people of the south lived happily near Haldon Forest in their small huts with their families. In the day, they hunted and at night they spent a good time with each other. They wore the skin of animals, they ate their flesh and filled their stomachs. At that time no one was responsible for anyone they had to live their lives with their hard work and their problems.

One day in the middle of the night a small boy was heading to his house, but he heard a strange voice which was never heard there. The boy thought that it was his hallucination and went to his house. The next morning when everyone went out for hunting the small boy went to the side from where he was hearing some sounds. Eventually he saw something and fell down. Some hunters saw him there and took him to their house. After a few days when he opened his eyes he saw that everyone was gathered around him. He was confused about where he was and what had happened. The people who had gathered there told him what actually had happened.  He thought about what had happened and a voice started to tremble in his mind. He told everyone that something was wrong and something was going to happen. Everyone thought that he had lost his mind.

After a week a whole family disappeared, where and when no one knew. Day by day many people vanished. People started to live in fear, everyone stayed at their houses time to time. It was hard to survive with no food and no water. The population was reduced. The sound of that forest and every leaf moving from its place would make their heart beat fast.

After a month a man with a sword in his hand came outside and said to everyone, “Come out from your houses and see what has happened. See yourself… haven’t I alerted you before but no one believed me and said that I was sick.’’ This made people realize that if they would have believed him earlier there would have been no chaos like this.

The man told them, “I had a dream that there is an unknown creature made by God and this is a test for us. So to survive we have to live for each other with understanding and brotherhood.”

The people were having such a tough life that they agree to this point. But the scary thing was to see what the creature was like. To make some weapons everyone came to the middle of the forest at night. Breathing slowly they took steps forward. Gazing beyond the tree and every house they heard a loud noise which tore their eardrums that they started to bleed. After that a man started to run to his house. Everyone tried to stop him; everyone shouted but he ran and ran and ended up being the food of that creature.

The man who knew what was happening again said, ‘’See what happened. If you want to be his dinner you can go. But with more support and courage we can kill the unknown thing.’’ Everyone once again agreed to his point. The man said, “See there is a shadow.”

They all went at that side and they heard the creature’s breath. They were startled to see that the creature’s eyes were closed. They tied a rope slowly and they stabbed a sword in every part of his body and killed it. Then everyone went to their homes with relaxation on their faces. They all celebrated for killing the wretched animal.

They all slept at their houses. The man who had some strange dreams before had an unbelievable dream that night. He stood up from his bed and was sweating all over. In the morning he went out and saw that the tree had fallen down and everything was destroyed at that forest except their houses. He shouted aloud and said, ‘’Come out everyone and see what is happening.’’ Everybody came out surprised and asked who had done this to the forest. The man said that he had a deadly dream in which he saw that the one we killed that day was just a small one. There are hundreds of such creatures roaming around. They live underground which we cannot see. These words made everyone cry.

The man said, “I think that these are our sins for which we are having these problems. We hunted different creatures who could not say that how much pain it was to be killed. We killed them and filled our stomachs. We ate Gods belonging so this is happening now. Animals are filling their stomachs by eating us so what’s wrong with that.”

Everyone were feeling ashamed for what they had done. They all stood facing the sun and cried and said that what they had done was wrong and shouted loudly to the unknown creatures and said “Where are you. Come here, we are contrite for our sins. From our heart we make an oath that we will never ever eat God’s belonging and will feed them as a responsibility.”

Suddenly there was a shiny light coming from the other side of the sun that made that forest full of greenery and the unknown creatures disappeared. People thought that this was the sign of God and that that their lord had forgiven them.

They started to feed the animals and helped each other in their endeavor. After helping each other and animals they found that what is life and for what reasons they are here. These problems taught them many things and because of that they lived their lives at ease.