The Forest: Chapter 7

Prophesy of the Final Son

 

 

Marta found her parents' lack of concern disturbing. Her dear brother was lost in the forbidden forest, out of which he will likely never return, and her parents were going about their business as if nothing was out of place at all. At the evening meal, she confronted her father even though he disliked being disturbed while eating. "Father, Kieran is not here, have you not noticed?", she said making solid eye contact with her father.

 

"Yes, of course, Marta, but there is nothing we can do about it.", he said, but did not appear troubled at all.

 

"How can you not be troubled by this?", Marta asked quietly.

 

"Oh, Marta!", her mother placed the dessert dish on the table, and finally sat down at the table with them. She had a habit of not sitting down to eat until everyone else was nearly done eating. "We will have to tell her, I suppose, dear.", she said looking over at her husband.

 

Marta's Father solemnly nodded. "It is such a secret to bear, to be sure. Of course we must, now that it seems clear the prophesy must be true." His big hands pushed back his plate and he put his elbows on the table and crossed his arms. His eyes betrayed a deep, inner excitement coupled with a relief, as if a long and troubling story was about to come to an end. Marta began to listen as her father began to tell the story; it had none of the usual embellishments his customary stories had, he had obviously never told this one before.

 

"When I was your age, child, my father told me a story much like the one I will be telling you now. For my entire life I have been the keeper of this information, and I have only shared the story with your Mother, once. My father, and his father before him, and I have been told many generations of my family before him. My father did not know exactly how many generations, nor how many years the story has been kept alive in this way. Certainly it happened before recorded history, and it has been kept entirely secret. Only we will know, us three, when I have finished the telling." Marta's father paused for effect.

 

"Now, this story has been passed through so many ages and so many people that the original truth has likely been lost. Indeed it doesn't seem to make much sense to me, but I will try to remember how it was said to me. I was on a hunting trip with my father. I was the only male child in my family, as you know, the rest being your aunties. Father had asked that only I accompany him on the trip, and when we were alone on the second day of the trip, he sat me down on a stump. I was afraid I was in trouble for something, as it was unusual to talk to my father about anything besides my own wrongdoings. He explained to me that he was going to tell be a secret, and I must tell no one besides my future wife and my son. Alas, I fear my own son will learn of his own accord about the prophesy, for it is his fate. But I tell you now, Marta, because the story is at an end." He reached out and clasped Marta's small hand in his. The image of a caged bird flashed in her mind. But he let go again, and continued.

 

"My father told me that in the far distant past, our land did not exist. Instead there was only fire, and nothing could live upon fire. One day, a great being, outside our realm, decided to create a sanctuary out of the fire and sent enough water to quench the fires. Once the fires stopped burning, and the raging floods had subsided, he populated the lands with creatures of his own design. Then he created man and woman, and made them caretakers over the lands and all of its inhabitants." Marta was quite sure she had heard this story before.

 

"Father, I have heard the creation myth before. We learned it in our first year of school.", she remembered her crabby old teacher telling her the same story.

 

"Yes, of course, it is the same story told to everyone as children. However, my father continued to elaborate. He said that the original man had been given a great gift by the being from the nether realm. In his very blood was a message that would be passed down through the generations of his direct male bloodline. The first woman was given the prophesy that one of her distant sons would be holder of the keys of the sanctuary and would be the only one allowed to enter, and that he would become ruler of not only this realm, but the next realm as well. The keys would be given only to the first son of the first son, and his first son, and so on down the line. And so our family has held this secret, not only that we are descendants of the first family of our realm, but that our blood line has been unbroken in all that time. It is as if our family has had a strange charm placed on it, protecting the firstborn sons from harm." He looked at Marta, and continued.

 

"We were told that one of our family would enter a forbidden forest, and be the first ever to return from it. Marta, I suspect you know something about the fate of your brother that you have not shared with us." Marta's father looked at her hopefully.

 

"Yes, father. He has sent word to me in the most amazing way. He has been sending messages to me by way of a raven!", she said with excitement.

 

"As I had suspected." her father said, without reproach in his voice. "I believe him to be the prophesied son. The fact that he has not been consumed by that dark forest, that he has survived and learned its ways, is confirmation enough that he will pass its tests. I believe that, soon, we will know that he has succeeded in winning the final test."

 

"In his last message, he mentioned he was nearing his destination, however I had not written back as he bade me to. The bird is staying close to the edge of the forest in case I wish to send him a reply, I'm sure." Marta said.

 

"Then we shall write him together, and tell him we are proud of him." Marta's father seemed to radiate, he had a smile on his face and his deep blue eyes twinkled brightly. Her mother looked similarly proud, as they wrote a response together. After they had all finished their letter, they rolled it up and tied it with a small piece of twine. The large black bird dutifully came when asked to convey the message to Kieran, picked up the message in its shiny beak, and flapped its wings in takeoff.

 

 

***

 

 

Kieran had not yet reached the door when he heard the wings of the messenger bird behind him on the path. He turned in time to see the bird set down the parchment it had been carrying in it beak. Marta had written back! He excitedly unrolled the message to find the crowded script of his father's pen.

 

 

Dear Son,

 

Your mother, Marta and I are writing you with excitement in our hearts. I hope that you have, by this time, passed the feline guardian, and are walking toward the door in the hill. I, myself, made it as far as the gate to be turned back, for it was not my destiny to enter that glowing doorway. But, I was told by the guardian that it would be you who would be accepted. Somehow she could tell. I want you to know how proud I am of you! Whatever is to come, take at least that with you. Guard it, and always remember.

 

I dearly wish I had had a chance to talk to you about your destiny before you had committed to embarking on it. But of course, now you know the most of it. The secret of the hill will be yours, and yours alone, for knowledge of it has been lost in the depths of time. Guard the secret well, but I hope you will let at least us know of it.

 

I hope you will come home soon, so you can tell us the full story of your adventure. Our love will always be with you.

 

 

Mother, Father, and Marta.

 

Kieran read the note twice, and smiled inwardly. So, he thought, they had known. That explained why they had seemed not to care. They were holding this secret all along, waiting for him to be brave enough to embark upon the path that has now led him to this place. They were proud of him. That in itself was a salve to his wounds. He felt powerful emotions welling in him, and he paused before the open doorway and its glowing symbols. With a sudden flapping, the crow took flight and entered the doorway and suddenly it was if all of the feathers on the bird suddenly left its body, evaporating into the darkness itself. The bird had disappeared entirely!

 

 

Having seen stranger things on this adventure so far, Kieran decided to continue walking through the doorway. He found himself in a corridor, leading to a large chamber within the hill. He was quite certain it must be some sort of haunted, burial chamber. As he walked into the chamber, a single chair became lit from unseen fire from above it. The chair was not ornate, and was constructed out of what looked like a black metal. A female voice, that he recognized as that of the fairy Tess, came to his ears from an unknown source, and simply bade him to sit in the chair. He walked over to the chair, and sat down. Immediately the light above his head dimmed, and the dark walls disappeared around him, and became the forest. He could see the gateway he had just entered through, and the pathway beyond that, upon which he had traveled. As he questioned what was happening, his mind was filled with answers as if his head were a reservoir being filled from an unseen aqueduct. It was a strange feeling to suddenly know the answers to all of the questions he'd had along the way, but not only that knowledge was made available to him. He was now aware of the complete nature of this hill, and all of its secrets. He knew everything he needed to know about its operation, and how it came to be here in the first place. The grand design was laid bare, and he sat in awe for a long while absorbing these facts.

 

 

He decided that it was time to visit his old home, not just to say goodbye, but to satisfy his curious father before he left. He stood up and as he did so, the chair disappeared behind him, and through the break in the trees in front of him he could see the little cottage that was his home. Walking through the trees was easily done this time, there was no resistance because he was not really there. He was still inside the hill, being shown what his projection was doing. His projected self continued to walk toward the house, and then it knocked on the door. His mother answered the door, and immediately hugged him. He was amazed that he could even feel her arms around him, and feel her wet cheek on his, and for a long while he forgot he was being projected and immersed himself entirely in the projection so that he could experience it for himself. To his mind, there was only one difference, and that was that he knew he could instantly be back in the hill whenever he wanted to. Otherwise, his parents and sister would never know he was not really there. To them, the illusion could not be discerned.

 

 

His father was very happy to see him, and put his huge hands on each of Kieran's shoulders looking him deep into the eyes. He said, "So, you have made it through the gate and into the hill, I can see." They all moved toward the table and sat around it.

 

"Yes, father, I have. I must be going back to the hill again to complete my journey, but I wanted to come home and say farewell before I do." Kieran replied.

 

Marta looked shocked, as did his Mother and Father. "You are leaving?" Marta asked sadly.

 

"I'm sorry, I must. What I have discovered is so incredible I really must use it. And when I do, I will not get another chance to say what I want to say." Kieran sounded torn.

 

"Go on, son. Tell us what you can." his Father encouraged.

 

"Alright, even though I know you will not be able to fully understand, I have been given a great gift of understanding inside the hill, and will try to explain what I know in such a way that you will someday be able to understand." Kieran paused to collect his thoughts, and then continued. "Inside the hill lies an ancient ship, Father, but not a ship build for traversing the seas. It is a star faring ship, left here by the ancient builders of our planet. Yes, incredibly, our entire realm was fashioned in some way by the hands of countless tiny machines, mechanisms so small they cannot be seen by our eyes. Through their effort over many, many years, our lands became fertile, and the animals came to live here. I cannot explain this any more simply, I'm afraid."

 

Kieran's father did not look confused, but instead looked like a great light had gone on inside his head, and he was eager to know more.

 

"After I passed through the gate guarded by the feline sentinel, I walked into the hill and found a room with a chair. I was asked to sit in the chair and I felt a great rush of information directly into my head, Father. It was as if I was instantly given a lifetime of information. I was curious about all things, and immediately satisfied. I understood such things as Terraforming and Interstellar Travel and even though I can't explain these things to you directly, I can say that it all confirms the creation myths we've all been told as children. I will be the first of us to be able to go back and meet our cousins from the stars. They have waited many generations for this visit, as you know. I can hardly wait to meet them!" Kieran looked genuinely elated.

 

"Son, what an honour has been bestowed upon our family. I am certain you will make a great impression on our distant cousins. I can hardly believe what you have told us now, it seems so unreal. However, what can I do but wish you well? This day was foretold, and destinies can not be stopped." After his father had said this, he stood up from the table latched his hands again on Kieran's shoulders, and stood him up. When Kieran was standing, his father embraced him tightly and quietly said, "Goodbye, son. Journey safely!"

 

 

"I will." Kieran replied. He hugged his mother, and then stood before Marta and said "Goodbye dear sister. Remember when you accused me of not being real? Strangely enough, if you had accused me this time, you would have been right. I must go, do take care of Mother and Father." Kieran smiled.

 

"I will, brother. Be well." Marta said, with a tear in her eye.

 

With that, the image of Kieran disappeared from their home, quickly and silently. They all looked at one another with amazement. Kieran had wished himself back at the hill, and so he had instantly gone there. Back in his own body, standing near the black chair. He sat, reached into his mind to send the command to leave, and the hill erupted sending the ship into the sky, tearing a rent in the atmosphere itself, and finally leaving the realm far behind in both space and time.

Done