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The Last Forest

It looked like a stone, but much softer and brighter, dark in color, with a small hole in the front. Janis recognized it from afar as she played near the village, "a seed" she thought, and ran to collect it.

Janis had found a hobby in the midst of the boredom of living in the middle of the arid desert. He had never in his life seen a plant, but his grandmother told him stories of beautiful, leafy trees with green leaves, with fruit and flowers of various colors, trees that once existed before everything was desolation.

"Janis, lunch is served" the mother's cry was heard, Janis departed obediently, but with reluctance as she despised worm bread.

Hunting giant worms in the desert is an arduous and dangerous task, but someone had to do it, sandworms were the main source of food for the village of Thir. Raynier, Janis' father was one of the hunters who fulfilled this mission.

Raynier was very respected among hunters and other members of the village, he was a man who was not bowed down by anything, he had a temperament of steel and never hesitated to do the right thing, even if it meant putting his life at risk. He had only one weakness, Janis, his beloved daughter.

* * *

"Come home soon" seemed to hear a voice whispering in his head, Raynier for a moment doubted. "I have been exposed so long to the sun that it must already be affecting me," he said, and he didn't give it much importance.

That night, on returning from the dunes, he met the face of misfortune. His daughter Janis was lying on the bed, absorbed in a deep sleep and burning with fever, she'd been like this for hours! The doctor had already come and simply did not know what was happening, they were limited to keep her warm during the cold night and wait for her to get better.

It was a long night for Raynier and his wife, that man who never succumbed to the greatest beasts of the desert was now a bundle of nerves and tears, he felt powerless without knowing what to do or to whom to turn.

"The elders are wise" returned the whisper in Raynier's head, but he only thought of his sick daughter.

To the west of the village, in the middle of the dunes, lived an old witch whom many feared, there were many rumors about the witch, some thought that she controlled the sandworms. How could she live safely in the middle of the dunes? others talked about the witch communicating with the dead or could invoke sandstorms, despite all this, from time to time they came to her to solve a problem when the solution was beyond the understanding of the villagers.

Raynier took his daughter Janis to where the old woman, had already spent days and the girl was still in a trance, with a fever that worsened with the heat of the days in the desert and without enough water to refresh her.

"Only Liz's flower can bring her back from the trance" were the witch's words, after examining her for a couple of hours.

"A flower? But if the plants have been extinct for decades, where rays I will get a Liz flower".

"You're wrong," said the old woman "To the north of the dunes, beyond the desert and the mountains lies a forest, the last forest, an oasis to which men have not had access for a long time and which barely maintains the balance of our world. There you will find the flower of Liz".

* * *

Raynier set out very early, a long road full of uncertainty expanding ahead as his eyes gazed into the horizon. "Forward," said the voice inside Raynier, this time he heard her convinced, he would soon be able to recover his daughter.

He had been on the road for two days when he heard the voice inside him again, "Step quickly, the danger is approaching." Raynier understood that the voice was guiding him and decided to hurry.

The small drops of rain that began to fall corroded his coat, Raynier only saw desert to the four cardinal points and as from the east, the ground rose and melted with the blackened sky.

"Run to the east, to the storm" whispered the guiding voice again, it seemed crazy to run straight to the storm, but what other choices would I have? There was nothing but desert around him until now that voice had kept him safe. Safe? Could he really trust that voice blindly? Hadn't it led him to the danger he was now in? All this debate manifested itself in Raynier's mind, yet he ran eastward. A drop fell on his face causing a burn on his cheek, Raynier thought it was the end, but suddenly it fell.

It fell softly sliding down with the sand, it was a kind of underground cave. Everything was dark and there was nothing but sand around it, but Raynier knew at that moment that he had been saved. All that remained was to wait for the storm to pass and find a way out, in the meantime he was able to rest, he fell asleep for a couple of hours.

* * *

Raynier went through many dangers to reach the forest, fortunately, there was an inner voice that guided him, protected him. After saving him from the storm he knew that he could trust her and it was thanks to her that he finally managed to reach the last forest.

He was amazed at the beauty of the trees, he barely remembered seeing a small shrub when he was a kid, but the trees in the forest were huge, leafy and very beautiful. Liz's flower was in the center of the forest and Raynier was guided in that sense, in a couple of hours he would reach the antidote that would remedy the evil that afflicted his Janis.

Liz's flower was beautiful, of an intense golden color that seemed to radiate the light that illuminated the forest, it was on a great rock from which a small spring arose, a thread of water that dripped from the flower and humidified the earth around it. Raynier's eyes lit up when he saw the wonder, he only had to cut it off and take it to his daughter in order to take her out of the arms of fever and awaken her from delirious dreams.

"Don't do it!" this time the voice shouted in his head and Raynier finally understood that it was the voice of the flower that had guided him until now.

"I'm sorry, but I need to take you with my daughter to save her," Raynier lamented.

"If you cut my stalk this forest will perish and the fragile equilibrium that keeps our world on its feet will be broken. All life in the world will be extinguished".

"but haven't you led me here so I can save Janis?"

"No! your mission is much more important than saving your daughter, you have to save the world! You must bring the water from my spring to your village, it will make the land fertile again and a new forest will emerge in your village, life in our world will have a new opportunity".

Raynier hesitated for a moment, he had come so far to save his daughter and now he just had to quit? Even so, he could accomplish an even more important task, Raynier also understood that if he cut the flower it would be the end of everything. So, with tears in his eyes and deep sorrow, he filled a small container with the drops that sprouted from the flower, it allowed him to take just a little bit, enough to accomplish his task.

* * *

The way back was simpler and Raynier a few days was back in the village, never heard again the voice in his head since he left the forest, a mixture of sadness and hope inhabited his heart when he arrived at the village in the early morning.

When he arrived home he ran to see his daughter, the girl suffered horrible spasms, complained and stammered incoherences, Raynier's heart broke, his wife immediately noticed that he did not bring the flower with him and made a reproach. "How could he be able to save the world when he can't even save his own daughter?" he thought.

Janis complained of thirst, it was then that her father gave her to drink the water from the fountain of Liz's flower, the water she had to use to save the world, now she used it to quench her dying daughter's thirst. Janis calmed down and fell into a deep sleep.

She woke up with the dawn as if nothing had happened, in fact, she didn't remember anything about what had happened. Her parents did not come out of astonishment and cried joyfully when they saw their daughter standing again. Something strange had happened, her eyes had changed color, now they were of an intense golden color that seemed to radiate the light that illuminated the room. Raynier was very happy, but at the same time, he felt guilty for not having fulfilled his mission.

That afternoon, while everyone in the village was celebrating Janis' healing, she had gone to her room to once again contemplate her seed collection, she had not had enough time to examine what had been her last acquisition.

Janis watched in amazement as the seed germinated in her hands in the same way she had imagined it so many times before, but this time it was real.

The End.

This is my participation for the the Tell A Story To Me Contest from @calluna and @bananafish. I really enjoyed writing this story and I hope you like it, do not hesitate to comment.

Thank you for reading.