In The Woodland

~Part 1~ 

While walking through the evergreen Jungle, I caught a glimpse of how much love and affection this beloved place gave me. It always made me feel welcome like a sweet home. Because this is where I belong. Not anywhere else.

After my mother died, I was left alone with my namesake dad who was an alcoholic. 

When I was a kid, he used to hit me everyday and blamed me for mom's death. Sometimes he got so worse that I used to faint unable to suffer through this excruciating pain. He didn't even send me to school. That was way too much to expect from him.

Every day, I used to write a letter to my uncle, lying about my pathetic life. I didn't want him to get worried, unnecessarily.

After I turned 12, I finally got some brain to run away from the house. And I did so. 

It felt like I finally got some air after being suffocated in that man's hold. 

When my real-life began, I blinked twice and saw something totally mesmerizing, which made me smile after 6 years.

A forest. 

With the splendid beauty that brought chills through my spine. 

I took my first step forward, into the forest, feeling the cold grass underneath my bare feet. The moment took the step, I couldn't stop myself to explore more. 

I got tears in my eyes after I saw some lovely creatures we call animals. 

At the sight of me, some were friendly, while some of them trembled. But I loved the way they all lived together in peace, like a family. Because I'd never experienced what a real family was. 

 ~Part 2~

I blinked twice and opened my eyes to welcome another lovely morning filled with endless love and happiness. The sweet chirping of birds enriched my ears and I could feel the heat of the glittering sun on my skin.

I stretched my arms and got onto my feet with a wide smile on my face. While strolling towards the pearl blue, a refreshing river I could sense someone following me.

I turned around to see nobody standing in there, but to re-assure, I tilted my head to my left, right... Still no one.

That's when something squealed loudly and hopped right in front of my eyes. I laughed and released all the tension.

"Ooooh so is my little Poppin hungry...?" I said, taking my chubby little rabbit into my arms.

He moved uncomfortably, trying to get out of my hold.

"Alright. Alright." I spoke softly and settled him to the ground, when he squealed again, this time-hopping joyfully towards the south. He jumped and turned to look back at me.

"So you want me to follow you?" He blinked and continued jumping. I would take that as a yes.

He led me to the waterfall and there, I found Mojo (the cutest monkey in our animal family) She was standing in the corner of a big rock and hiding something behind her back.

"What is it?"

Mojo pointed to the rock and she looked impatient to show me something.

"Oh sure," I sat on the rock and waited. After a second, she pulled out something which warmed my heart in an instant.

It was a charming little tiara made up of rosewood and blossom flowers.

"Oh my. You both made it for me?"

Poppin and Mojo jumped in excitement. "Awww come here," I hugged them and it made me emotional that they remembered it was my birthday.

~Part 3~

"Oh my gosh, Elysia!" I dropped to my knees and softly caressed her forehead. I let the tears of happiness flow through my cheeks. 

Elysia was a baby elephant when I'd seen her for the first time. She was a rare breed of light grey elephants with a beautiful tinge of golden in her eyes. I would agree she was the friendliest amongst all of them in the very beginning. Who could not fell in love with such a lovely and gorgeous baby elephant?

We shared such a deep bond of love that no one could. We couldn't be satisfied if we didn't see each other at least once a day.

I used to climb trees to collect peaches and apples for her and when she grew up, she started giving me rides, through the forest and to the nearby seashore. Collecting seashells was my favorite hobby. And the sweetest part of all, we used to play by splashing seawater on each other. 

Time drew so fast that now, right in front of me, stood my matured, beautiful Elysia, giving me the best news of the world on my birthday, with her blue watery eyes. I could sense that she was happy. So happy that her eyes were covered with tears in the overwhelming sense of her becoming a pregnant mother elephant. 

We both stood there, crying in peace, Elysia let out a loud trumpet, telling every animal around, the reason for her exuberance. Eventually, the forest burst out in loud hubbubs, that seemed to cheer, spreading out the sense of pleasure and joy. 

It made me jump when woefully, those loud cheers were replaced by totally unpleasant creaking screams.

I looked at Elysia with my terrified eyes.

"Elysia, y-you go and h-hide" I clenched my fist harder than ever as I realized who it was. The wicked hunter. 

~Part 4~

My heart sped up as I reached near the oak tree, where he was sitting cross-legged with an apple clenched in his fist.

I gulped, took a deep breath, and walked towards him trying to take a bit of my courage with me. The moment he noticed me, he smirked and offered me a wink as I tried to look out for some lenient words.

'I-I don't like that you kill animals" He looked up at me with wide eyes. 

"Please...don't...they are innocent...they just want to live their lives..."

He pursed his lips and gave me a side smile.

"I didn't expect a little girl like you to understand the moral dilemma of hunting." 

"But w-why? Why must you kill them? They are all I have left in this world." He snorted as if this was a joke and stood up to leave. 

"WAIT! I-I can give u something...for not killing them..." He turned around and raised his eyebrow. 

"Look, I have some money" I handed him a fat roll of hundred dollar bills. Now the thing happened which I had feared the most. He let out an unpleasant snigger and went past me, throwing over his shoulder. 

"Hunt better, little girl," He said before he left, into the woods. I knew, I was too late to follow him and was already broken but I didn't know there was more to suffer. 

My heart sank as my eyes shifted to the ground. I saw something really terrible. So terrible that my throat went dry and my legs started shaking fiercely. I wanted to scream out loud with all of the force I had. But all I could do was, burst into the useless tears of pain, misery, agony, and the fear of losing someone. I'd lost him. My dearest Poppin lay in front of me, no longer hopping or squealing. I couldn't forgive myself for saving a regret of this moment. I was shattered and knelt to the ground with uncontrollable tears spilling over my cheeks. 

~Part 5~

I swallowed a scream and sensed myself unwillingly running away from there. I didn't dare to turn around because it would kill me if I see my family dying. That hunter was a wicked sinner. And because of him, here I stood, making everything even worse. Being brave wasn't a part of my history. At least not for now.

Twilight passed, I was standing right there on the grass, paralyzed in deep dejection. As it began to drizzle, I felt all of my emotions getting puzzled up. I threw myself to the ground before I took out a blank old page from my little rosewood basket and dipped my feather inside the tiny ink bottle, to begin with, my letter.

𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒖𝒏𝒄𝒍𝒆,

𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏'𝒕 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆. 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒅𝒖𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒋𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒏𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒔. 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆, 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕. 𝑩𝒖𝒕...𝒏𝒐𝒘... 𝑰 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒑𝒕 𝒎𝒚 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒃𝒓𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒎𝒂 - 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍- 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓. 𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒃𝒂𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒏𝒐𝒘. 𝑰'𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈.

~𝑺𝒖𝒔𝒂𝒏

Lying to my uncle wasn't a new thing for me and I did cringe at every incorrect word I wrote to him. He is the sweetest person I know and making him worried about this...this...thing...will hurt my heart. I wiped off a tear and went off to deliver my emotional letter. I had no idea what would be his reaction to this. 

~Part 6~

𝑨𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒚𝒔...

Everything was over. I cried to myself every night and barely could get any sleep. The hunter came every single day leaving me breathless and horror-struck about him hurting my beloved animals. I tried my best to stay up close with all of them, but the wicked smug smile of the hunter was all to scare the hell out of me. It burned every inch of me to think about the fact that I had to 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒 this place soon...soon but tomorrow. 

Today's night passed in a second, staring at the dark sky, with my mind jumbled in thousands of thoughts from the past, terrifying present and my rest of the life will be gone staying with...you know who I am talking about. 

In the early morning, I asked myself repeatedly- 

𝑨𝒎 𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕? 𝑪𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒚 𝒔𝒂𝒇𝒆? 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒘𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒉𝒖𝒓𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒔, 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚? 

This was too hard for me. But staying here couldn't change anything. I would die watching these terrible killings. 

I clenched the flower tiara close to my heart and hugged the animals I have grown to love. Mojo's cute little eyes were filled up with tears and Elysia gave me her ever emotional look. 

𝑺𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝑬𝒍𝒚𝒔𝒊𝒂, 𝑰 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒃𝒂𝒃𝒚, 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒉𝒊𝒎.

I sighed heavily and took a last at the forest. 

Soon, Uncle's yellow 𝐴𝑚𝑐 𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑙𝑖𝑛 stopped by the road leading to the city from the address I had provided in the letter. 

He pulled down the window and waved his hand while I gave him a thin smile. It was delightful to see him after so many years. 

I loaded my things in the car and traveled in silence, watching the trees until they became blurred.

I froze when I could feel loud gunshots ringing in my ears. They became louder and louder, hurting my ears as the car steered forward. I pushed my hands to my ears but nothing could help.

"UNCLE! STOP THE CAR!"

"I HAVE TO GO" I yelled. 

"Not more...Not anymore..." I mumbled to myself, feeling the warmth of anger arising inside me. 

~Part 7~ 

I hurried and panted along the roadside, followed the triggers of the terrible gunshots until I finally reached the absolutely dark, bushy trees where I spotted the hunter loading some stuff into a Huge pick-up truck. 

"Ugh, they are getting so old" I heard him say, holding his wrinkled nose before I let out a quiet gasp when I realized who he was talking about. That stuff was none other than my dying family... Dead animals. 

That's it. Now he had to die. 

I clenched my teeth and made a fist with the rock lying on the ground. I approached the hunter and got prepared to throw it, aiming at the center of his head. But I had inched so close that the hunter eyed my shadow, flipped, and grabbed my hand, crushing the rock I held. 

"Ouch!" With the force he'd applied, the pointed rock roughly scratched through my thin skin dripping out some warm red fluid we call blood. 

"Ah, so you are back, huh?" He smirked as his hands traveled up and got clutched tightly to my hairs. 

"Sorry, little girl but you've left me with no options." He whispered into my ear. 

"See. You can't just-" But before I could say anything else, he released me from his grip which left me puzzled. He turned away and walked silently towards his truck not giving a single clue on what was going inside his head. 

Moving away like that wasn't going to change anything. I looked around for another rock or something. And that's when my eyes met a big heavy wood branch, laying on the ground, few inches away from me. I took small soft steps, trying my best to avoid making a single noise. 

The moment I bent down to take it, I froze when I heard the gun's trigger pull and the hunter took his shot on my left arm, which threw me to the ground. I pressed my other hand to my bleeding hand and screamed at the top of my voice in agony. 

"Too bad, you didn't listen to me, girl." His evil tone and side smile was the last thing I noticed before my eyes faded into the darkness. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

𝑺𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒉𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓'𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒗!!

𝑰 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒗𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒋𝒐𝒚𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒏𝒐𝒘...𝒙𝒙𝒙

~Part 8~

𝐇𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐯

Killin' that extremely nasty, the exasperating girl was a straight necessity. I cracked my knuckles, cocked my head to both sides once, and rubbed my eyes thoroughly with the sticky fingers they'd gotten coz of the small daring of the little infuriating girl. A stale, metallic scent hit my nose. Then, when I looked down at my hands, I almost felt thankful for the strange gift I'd got. 

Smellin' the blood of creatures from a small rat to a giant African mammal has always been useful to catch the innocent eyes of what-the-girl-says? 𝑯𝒆𝒓 beloved animals.

Now that I had her blood on my hands, I ought to wipe it off on her lovely creatures' dead bodies. Few of them were left, weren't they? 

I took out my gun to see how many bullets were left. I pulled the trigger. 

No reaction. Nothing. No bullets. At all. I groaned loudly and threw the gun to the ground, kicking it forcefully with my boots. My ears pricked up as I wrinkled my nose when I heard somethin' coming. I could smell it, coming closer as every second ticked. 

A giant, high-tempered mammal shadowed over me, trumping so loud that I could lose my hearing senses at any moment. "GO AWAY!" I barked sourly taking heavy steps backward. 

"I SAID GET OUTTA MY SIGHT YOU BLOODY ANIMAL!"

I had no bullets left. And the elephant must be killed. This animal was not indifferent to others which left my mouth wide open. It would be a use of a great deal in the local markets. It could be such a big profit for us. 

That mammal crashed to the ground, quivering and shaking in deep pain whilst blood flooded from the deep cut of its trunk. I smiled darkly and moved forward to its dead body, with the secret weapon tight in my hands. I knelt to the ground an- 

I shook my head, got to the present, and my willing thoughts got interrupted when I saw something almost unbelievable. The girl I had killed just a few minutes ago, was standing on her feet, moving towards the dead-in-my-thoughts mammal with her good hand pressed to injured one. And right exactly at that moment, she shot me a death glare, stepped towards me, giving me a sarcastic smile.

"The group of living beings, that live for each other, cherish love, and are always there for them in their 𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 are known as a family. A real, lovely family." She whispered into my ear while the huge mammal thumped towards me in great anger, making the ground beneath me. 

~Part 9~ 

Susan's Pov

I sensed my heartthrob with my eyes widening when I fixed all of my attention to the courage my brave Elysia was holding. But deep inside, I didn't want her to do that. How can I not fret that I brought her into such a deadly conflict? She was ill. She was pregnant. Still, I could see her not caring about herself and trumping so raucously that at any moment I could jump to wrap my arms around her, tightly and caressing her forehead I would whisper, 

'No Elysia, you don't need to do anything, love. Go and rest. That's what you need right now. Even more than me.' 

But after a while, I couldn't believe my eyes. There was a HUGE THUD and Elysia threw her foot upon the hunter, making the ground crack. The hunter yelled for his life with no voice coming out. A creaking scream with useless tears spilling out. Elysia seemed to be applying more and more pressure until the life slipped away from his body.

'OH MY. ELYSIA!' I yelled with all the little power left inside me and ran towards her, not caring about the tiny rocks pricking under my bare feet. 

Before I could hug her, my body felt triggered when she fell down to the ground, trumping loudly in pain. 

"No no no no! Oh my dear, are you hurt?" I touched her forehead but she shook it away in great anger trumping even more fiercely. 

It took me a second to realize what was it all about. 

The baby. It was coming. 

"Shhh relax, love. Don't worry I am here with you. Everything is okay...All well..." I softly stroked her head as she continued to scream in pain, small pearl tears coming out of her eyes. 

A minute passed, 5 minutes passed, 15 minutes passed and that's when Elysia's trumping relaxed. It got replaced by a low, thin, creaking trumping of a newborn baby. Water sprang up in my eyes when the small, light grey baby elephant tilted its small head in my direction, his diamond blue eyes shining in the Morning Daylight.

"Gosh. I can see that reflection of your mother in you, my sweet." I whispered softly willing to cry my heart out.

All the memories of baby Elysia flooded back to me. I grinned widely and bent down to kiss the baby elephant. My eyes got charmed by the beauty of his. Maybe that's what I'll call him... 

Calix, as gorgeous as the shine of heaven. 

~Part 10~

I rested my injured self beside the bushes near the oak tree (it seemed to be healing by time), inhaling the familiar sweet scent of the forest. That thought came to my mind again.

𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒕 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆. 𝑩𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝑰 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈. 𝑵𝒐𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒆𝒍𝒔𝒆.

But I would never forget about these fierce unworthy killings. My dearest animals flooding blood just because to 𝒖𝒔𝒆 them for enough sale and profit in the markets? After all, Humans cannot be called humans when they don't understand that there's a fact known as humanity.

I sniffed, wiped off a tear, and tried to shift my mind into a positive state. I would never let this happen again. Ever. The hunter got killed and he did deserve it. Next time I won't even let a single hunter step into the forest. If he did, he would regret it, forever.

I blinked my eyes twice and prepared to close them off to doze into a deep sleep after so many days. But they flapped open before I could close them completely as I felt something brush my wrist.

Oh.

It was my Mojo. Looking at me with the joyful tint in his small cute eyes.

"Oh my sweet, I missed you so much, Mojo"

He jumped and shook his body like he was dancing. I chuckled.

"So...Where are others?" I pursed my lips as I couldn't stop smiling. Jojo grabbed my hand and hopped towards the blue river where I spotted two beautiful figures, drinking and splashing water on each other. Elysia and baby Calix.

Elysia met my eyes and gave me an affectionate trumpet which signified love and happiness. She poked Calix to do the same but when he tried, he produced a funny and sharp high pitched sound which was almost familiar to a sound old merry-go-round that needs to be repaired.

We all laughed together in harmony as Mojo handed me my tiara which I remembered, had left in the dark woods. I smiled my heart out and pressed the tiara to my heart, closing my eyes.

𝑰 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖, 𝑷𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒊𝒏. 𝑰 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐝

Animal cruelty isn't taking a stop because many people (even now) have lost their humanity. Even Animals have life, they have hearts and emotions, and as I am personally so much connected to them I'd decided to write a story on the same, to create awareness that animals aren't an object for the market. Not at all! Imagine if all the animals get extinct, what will happen to our world? Such a cringe to even imagine, right? That's because animal cruelty is totally wrong and Illegal. And 𝒘𝒆 have the power to stand against it. We do have the power to change the mindset of people like the antagonist (hunter) mentioned in my story.

So please share this story with many people possible because doing a small thing can lead to a big change in the lives of animals across the world.