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Two Figures In The Forest

It was the story of the man. The man with his wife alone in the forest both in the day and in the sinister night. They were searching. They have been searching. Perhaps with the hope that one day they would find it. They braved the evil night, stood under the cover of the tree to pass through the rainy days. In different times and seasons they had been together without any companions. They were afraid, this time, of nothing. They had lost so much in the struggle - in fact, they had lost everything. So, they were no longer afraid of anything.

How did they get here? How has life become so cruel and cold to them? Do they have any hope of surviving and for how much longer? Even, do they still have hope of finding what they were looking for or have they suddenly even forgotten why they got there in the first place? Sometimes the man would look into his wife - or what used to be his wife - and they both would stare at each other for quite a long time not even knowing what to reply themselves. Do they still even know why they were here? Unfortunately, they could not even now decipher what exactly it is or it used to be they were looking for.

It doesn't really seem like they still had a mind of their own to recollect the turnout of events: how they once lived happily in The City Close to the Forest; how they eventually got ensconced into the events that warranted them working deep into the forest all alone; and how they had eventually come into the forest and after such a very long time, not finding what they were looking for, they had begun to live and adapt to the Way of Life of Forest Dwellers - not even recognising themselves anymore as couples but as two individuals with some form of dementia but who were bound by the believe that they were both in search of a common purpose.

The City Close To The Forest

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Once upon a time, there lived a man in The City Close to the Forest. He had a Beautiful Wife. They had been United in Marriage for quite a long time. They had stayed very happily and always did things in common without grudges or grumblings. The man loved his wife and his wife was always very obedient and submissive to him. He was a hunter and would always go out in search of games. In his absence his wife would tend to the garden at home and prepare the meal for the day. Whenever he came back his wife would collect all his catches for the day and dry them under the sun or above the heating place. Then he served him his meal and they would both eat happily.

There was no history or record of where they had come or originated from. History suddenly opened up on the Two Creatures in the City Close to the Forest who were living happily but were believing the Creator to bless them with a baby in order to Complete Their Joy. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months and months turned into years and the couple were still expecting a reply from their creator. Every morning they would wake up and bring the best games out of his catch and offer burnt offerings to The Creator as a prayer for him to release a child to them.

After more than 30 years being together and childless they were beginning to become weary of the repeated sacrifices every morning which didn't seem to be yielding any results. It was not until one day that their creator smiled upon them and the wife took in. After nine months of carrying the baby the wife produced a bouncing baby girl that smiled at them the moment it landed in the City Close to the Forest. The man was very happy and had cut the baby's umbilical cord and buried it in Mother Earth.

The next day he stayed home to take care of his wife. When his wife had recovered fully and had become strong he returned to the forest to look for a big catch which he would offer to The Creator in Thanksgiving for his blessing. That day he made a very huge catch and when he returned with so many games he offered everything as a burnt offering of Thanksgiving to The Creator. He thanked the creator for releasing the baby girl who had been sent to Complete Their Joy.

The baby girl grew very strong and became very wise and knowledgeable. She seemed to be learning very quickly and had taken on a lot of characteristics from her mother while equally learning quite a great deal of Brave Acts from her father. The father was very happy with the baby and the mother was so pleased and blessed to have received this wonderful gift from The Creator. They lived happily and stayed together. They played together and enjoyed doing things in common. They loved every single moment they spent together and were always playing with the child in the sand as they built sand hills together.

The Creature And The Family

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One certain day they woke up to discover that the child was nowhere to be found. The man and his beautiful wife became very worried and concerned. They began to search different nooks and crannies of the city looking to find the child. Night was beginning to fall that day and the parents of the child had become even more worried. They had asked all the people they knew they could ask but didn't receive any reasonable or satisfactory answers.

The man and his wife had begun to cry profusely. They quickly remembered how they had stayed decades without the child. They remembered all the things I had to pass through, the several and repeated sacrifices they had to make to their creator before they received the child. They could not now be able to bear the pain of having to lose their only source of complete joy. The night came closer. The man and his wife grow more impatient. They prayed the most to The Creator to restore their child.

They had hope but the hope was darkening out as the sun was receding behind the clouds as it gave way to the darkness of the night. The man's sorrow increased the more and his wife was even wailing more profusely remembering how she had come to have the child in the first place and how she had been unable to have another since then. The man didn't know how to comfort his wife and they were beginning to resign to their fate when all of a sudden a Certain Creature that looked very huge and mean began to appear from the far distance walking towards them.

They seemed to have developed fear for the creature when suddenly they discovered that it had something strapped to its back. Quite calmly the creature kindly lifted the child from his back and brought her in front of him. The man and his beautiful wife discovered it was their child. They ran quickly and lifted her gently. They discovered she was in good shape and was crying telling of how the creature had helped her find her way home.

They were happy and grateful that the creature had helped bring their child home. They made a great feast and brought out the best of the games which the wife had dried and kept for her to use in preparing their meals. They prepared a very delicious and sumptuous meal and ate to their satisfaction. They made merry with the creature and treated it as an honorable guest. They couldn't imagine living life without the only thing that would have been the main source of their complete joy.

Early the next day they woke up and made a sacrifice in thanksgiving to the creator for restoring their source of joy and bringing a new companion to their family. They became very good friends with the creature and would normally watch as it played with their child in the sand. They would often join them in their place and we are very grateful to The Creator that the furry creature had brought back their only source of hope and joy to them.

The Friend And The Creature

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Over the weeks and months the child became more fond of the furry creature that had brought her back to her parents. Sometimes they went together with her father to go and check some of the traps he had set for bush meat and animals with which to prepare meals. Anytime they made a catch the creature would help in carrying some of it while also carrying the girl to his back. They became like family.

Along the line a certain man who used to be very close to the family but had gone away for a very long time came back to their greatest surprise and amazement. The man had been lost for a very long time. He used to be very close to them and had lived with them, the man and his beautiful wife, for some time before a quarrel broke out between them and he left. This happened in the years that the couple were still praying to The Creator to give them a child. So, the man was very happy to return now and discover that the creator had answered the prayers of the couple.

He began to stay and live with them again until one day when the creature came along to play with the girl child. There was some sort of unease between this friend who came along and the creature. The friend seemed to be quite suspicious of something sinister and uncanny about the creature though he couldn't quite place his hands on it. He tried so hard to remember where he got to know of this furry creature being fully convinced that he had earlier encountered him as a wicked beast.

One day the man, his beautiful wife, the child and the friend that had returned were all asleep in the night. Suddenly, there was a loud cry. They woke up to discover that the roof of the room where the child lay was on fire. They couldn't decipher what had happened or what had caused the fire outbreak. They made frantic efforts to put away the fire to see if they could go into the room that had been fully engulfed to save the child. The mother cried more as the man and his friend struggled to find their way. Suddenly, they heard the cry of their child and they looked into the far forest where a figure that looked like the furry creature had strapped the child to the back and disappeared into the forest.

It was then that the friend remembered where he had met the creature before. He could now remember that indeed this was the same wicked creature that had actually stolen his entire family away from him by setting his house ablaze
The furry creature would normally come first as a friend. He will then fall in love with the baby girl in the house and will plan an evil way to take away the child. So, the moment he discovered that the friend had reunited with the family, he sensed that this was the man whose child he had taken away a very long time ago he began to plan on ways to steal the Complete Joy of this family with whom he had fallen in love to a safe hiding.

The Way Of Life Of Forest Dwellers

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The friend regretted that he had not been able to quite recognise this furry creature at first. He felt very sorry that his loss of memory had resulted in a repetition of the same scenario that led to the loss of his entire family to the wicked creature. He had gone through so much over the years searching for his family that he could not quite remember anything since he had gotten over the whole experience that seemed to have happened more than 100 years ago.

The friend set out with the man and the man's beautiful wife into the forest in search of the complete joy of the family. Along the line the friend decided to go his own way in search of the child while the man and his wife took a different route together. After so many decades of being in search of the child without any success the man who had stuck to his wife lost contact with the friend and the creature was nowhere to be found.

Having lived in the forest for long they began to adapt to The Way Of Life of Forest Dwellers. They had learnt over the years how to take cover anytime they were confronted by wild animals. Being faced without food and basic amenities they began to adapt to ways to obtain directly from nature the things they needed. They learn to kill animals for food; they learnt to use banana leaves to shelter in the rain; they learnt to combine roots and herbs to heal themselves of diseases; they learnt to pluck the edible fruits from some plants to cure themselves of hunger : they had simply learnt to adapt to the Way of Life of Forest Dwellers.

The man and his wife had become forest dwellers all together. Earlier they had begun to seek ways and means to survive the different weathers and climates of the forest. They had lived here for centuries such that they could not even now remember why they had come into the forest at first. They had forgotten about the child and the creature and we are now more focused on how to survive the harsh conditions of the forest. In fact, they had become accustomed to it and had simply remained together just because of the Common Purpose which they could not even now decipher.

CONCLUSION

Suddenly, the man was startled. You rose up very quickly and was still heavy with his eyes quite dizzy. It was already morning and the rays of the sun had meandered through the open space in the window and through the passageway. Squirting, he struggled to beat the harshness of the sun rays. Very quickly he was startled to reality. He felt around the bed as if he was searching for something.

His heart skipped but he immediately felt the warmth of his wife. He discovered that his wife was intact. He rushed out to his daughter's room and discovered that the girl child who had come as a complete joy to his family was still lying heavily asleep on the bed. Quite safe.

Everything seemed to have been a dream but then he could still vividly remember : the Two Figures in the Forest - it was exactly that of him and his beautiful wife with their forlorn looks due to hopelessness. He felt heavily relieved. At least, it was just a nightmare. He opened the door to the backyard and beheld a strange furry creature he had never seen in his life before standing afar off watching him; it was exactly the replica of that which he had seen in the dream.

I invite @gabikay, @davchi, @josepha, @wealthmary and @johnvin to participate in the contest. Meanwhile, if you were the man what would you do on sighting the furry creature.