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Big Ass Tree (First Real Writing Attempt in Description)

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Chapter 1


           It was just the start of the new year, in the small town of Oldwood. Many of the building still had mounds of while snow clinging to them, although it seemed that it had started melting early. Certainly the children didn’t mind. While it was still quite cold, they eagerly took the excuse to play outside again. After all, who knew when the snow would start back up again? It was best to enjoy the time they had as fleeting as it was.


           One of them, a boy who had just turned 17 a few days ago, had been attempting something that his peers were neither brave nor foolish enough to try. He was trying to climb the Old Wood. A massive tree that stood in the middle of town and easily towered over any of the buildings surrounding it. It had been here since long before any humans had settled the area, and it would outlast them longer still.


           Now the young man was more than well aware of the danger he was in. Naturally he feared for his own life, but ultimately his arrogance won over his fear as branch by branch he got higher and higher. There was a moment that he thought it’d be better to give up and climb back down, but right after that he saw his goal. A black shadow moved just in the corner of his vision. He breathed a sigh of relief, and began to climb towards the shadow.

           “Here, kitty kitty,” he beckoned, reaching out a hand towards the cat as it looked at him with it’s yellow eyes. The small red scarf tied around it’s neck marked it as the cat he’d spent the morning looking for. There was a moment of awkward silence between the two, before it lunged right at his face. Without thinking he used both hands to pry the cat off of his face, causing him to begin tumbling down from the tree. He bounced off of branch after branch as he tried to get a grip on the creature clawing at him. By the time he did, it was to late to slow his fall and he saw the ground quickly rising up to meet him.


           As he fell, however, the wind itself seemed to grab him. Invisible hands clawing at his clothes like the cat had, in some effort to slow his fall. And slow his fall the strange power did, but there was no stopping it altogether. When he landed there was a brief moment where he blacked out. When he came too, the young man looked up to find the cat resting on his chest. Looking past the cat, he noticed a familiar set of silver eyes staring down at him.


           Korvis certainly stuck out among the village as he was most likely the only elf, let alone the only Dark Elf, for miles. The elf wore a wide brimmed hat which obscured his face except for the glint of his people’s silver eyes. Kneeling down, he held out a hand and the cat simply jumped into his grip without any problem. The young man soured a little at that.


           He tried getting up to his feet. Luckily the pain was just shy of unbearable, so he was able to force himself into an upright position. His blonde hair specked with mud and dirt with his shaking legs barely able to hold him up. “When we finally get that ballad written, we’ll have to cut this part out.”

           Korvis nodded, still cradling the cat in his arms. He walked over to a hunched over old woman and handed her the cat. “Oh, thank you dearie,” she said as the cat happily hopped into her arms. Drake dusted himself off as he watched the old woman hand Korvis a few coins. As she did Korvis exchanged a glance with his friend. It was clear he wanted to try and get a few more coins from the old lady but Drake immediately shot that down with a look. The elf’s ears drooped a little at that but he didn’t say anything, instead just putting the coins safely into a small tan pouch on his belt.

           

           After that the two of them went on their way. “We’ll never save up enough like this,” Korvis said, clasping his hands behind his head as he walked beside his friend. “Korvis, we don’t need to squeeze out every coin we can when we do a good deed. Kinda defeats the whole ‘good deed’ part. Ms. Murtle doesn’t exactly have much to give,” he explained as he limped along. The elf rolled his eyes at the term good deed. “Doesn’t have much to give,” he repeated, rolling the phrase around on his tongue. “No one in this town does.”

           Oldwood was a small town, on a small island, in a vast sea. If you went to the far east of it, you could see the mainland if you used a telescope. It was at most a brief rest stop for those on their way to more important places. Naturally all of these travelers were sailors, with one exception. Or at least, Drake hoped to become the exception. Inspired by a book he’d once bought he had been working on something to finally get him off the island.


           He tried to keep this quite, which was surprisingly easy since no one understood what the machine was when they saw it. Certainly not his own family. In truth the only one he’d met who understood what he was trying to do was Korvis. The elf had once gone to an exceptionally prestigious school, or at least claimed too. In truth, no one was quite sure where he came from. It was as if he just appeared out of thin air one day.


           Still, he and Drake had become fast friends, and could rarely been seen away from each other. For the past few weeks he’d been working on Drake’s family farm, seemingly knowledgeable about anything, the one place he lacked knowledge seemed to be farm work. However, his wind magic helped keep the crops clear of birds.

Drake’s family had never left the island for generations, with the one exception being his older brother who’d left to join the military. This left his grandmother, and three older sisters. The farm itself was relatively isolated, considering the size of the island. The only structure visible from it was the Oldwood itself, which could be seen from across the entirety of the island, and the island’s lighthouse.

           As he made his way home, Drake looked at the lighthouse. It always creeped him out, although he could never quite put a finger on why. There was an old rumor that it was haunted, but he put that thought far away from his mind, or at least tried too. Drake figured as long as he ignored it, he wouldn’t have to deal with it. He took a long breath, as the smell of a fresh dinner passed by his nose. Seemed that his grandmother had made dinner. This made the pain of falling several storied earlier almost disappear as he started going full sprint home. It was probably for the best that the door hadn’t been locked, otherwise he might’ve just knocked it down.

           The kitchen was fairly dark, as it was late enough in the day for the sun to start going down, but not late enough for anyone to light a candle. Right on the middle of the kitchen table, framed by the light from the open door, is Drake what assumed was going to be his dinner. It seemed that his grandmother or perhaps older sister, had gone out of her way to get a fresh roasted duck for the family. However, now it seemed to have been ripped a apart, leaving only it’s bare skeleton on the tray. Just behind that, in the dark of the room, a pair of red reptilian eyes shimmered out from the darkness.

           Drake stood there frozen, taking a moment to properly register the sight before him. He noticed just barely in the light a green clawed hand held a single leg of duck meat. Drake’s blue eyes locked with the creature’s red ones, for a single second that seemed to drag on for an hour. The boy made the first move, lunging at the beast. Bad move, as it simply hopped on his head and leapt over him, using his head as a springboard to launch itself far out of his grasp. To add injury to insult, the creature’s tail whapped him right in the face, a spiked club that left a small gash on his cheek.

           The man was not beaten so easily however, and immediately roared “Get back here!” before chasing after it full sprint. It was a good thing Drake had forgotten that he was supposed to be in pain from the fall earlier as he chased after the duck thief. Kovis, for his part just saw his friend suddenly start chasing after what appeared to be a wild animal. He then proceeded to shrug and walk off in the opposite direction.

           Drake kept running, just barely managing to keep the creature in sight as it ran into a nearby woods. This proved to be a mistake, as the man knew the maze of trees better than the beast did. Eventually he was within arm’s reach of the tail that had smacked him in the face before, then wham! Suddenly the boy found himself face first in a cobble stone wall. Looking up, he was the creature climb up the wall and into a nearby window.

           At that moment all the exhaustion caught up with him, and he fell back onto the grass and dirt staring at the window where the beast had run into. It seemed he’d found an old tower, long since abandoned and looking about on the verge of collapse. It was a ruin from when his parents were his age and the years of neglect showed in it’s many cracks. Not even having the energy to turn back, he briefly considered just staying there, spread out on the forest floor, indefinitely.

           Most likely he would have, had a bone of bird hadn’t been discarded out the window and bounced off of his forehead. Now, Drake realized, he didn’t dinner anymore. Just revenge. As he stretched and tried to regain some energy. Certainly he wasn’t eating any or the bark of any tree, but a breather did help him asses the situation. Around the tower he noticed a tree having over taken it’s main door. While the tower most likely did have more windows, he was going to bet on the creature inside having no other way out. Thus he found a hold in between the cracked stones, and started to climb.

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Jun 7, 2024
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