Reclamation

Jun. 4th, 2011 11:57 pm
charisstoma: (faun with panpipes)
[personal profile] charisstoma
Title: Reclamation
Author: charisstoma
Rating: G
Content: He’d grown up in the woods, they were home and family more than those that feed and clothed him. Life moves on and he returns.
Every year people are told that if they find a faun, that it is not lost or abadoned and they are to leave it alone, the doe will be back to get it.
*sighs* This is not sweetly romantic enough to be a Sunday Snuggle.
Word count: 669


When he was younger he’d run wild through the woods that blanketed the area. As long as he was home for meals during the summer and got his homework and chores done during the school year, he could pretty much go where he wanted within limits. He’d learned early that mentioning that the woods were full of spirits that spoke to him and kept him safe earned him extra time at church with Bible classes. Seeing the Lord’s works and worshipping Him amongst the grandeur He had created was one thing but Nature Spirits was quite another. So he didn’t mention what he knew to anyone and the world changed even as he did.

A maternal grandparent had bequeathed money for his education. He missed the woods of home and the freedom he’d had there. There was a grove of trees around the boarding school he’d been sent to and again at the University that he’d earned the right to a scholarship to attend, but they weren’t the same as home and the buildings pressed in on him with their manufactured stone and metal. Graduation had found him free again to live away from all the people. The understanding of plants and how they worked had brought a patent for an herbicide he’d created that was all natural and actually worked as well as the unnatural herbicides. He never told them that what it was was a magic that convinced the plants one didn’t want, to find root elsewhere. No one would have believed him anyway.

With enough money to choose where he wanted to live and the death of his parents, he decided it was time to return to his woods. The land all around was still as wild as he had been while young. The state had made it into a park, protecting the old growth trees from lumbering and the encroachment of civilization. Driving up to the house brought back memories but he wasn’t really home until he set foot into the land amongst the trees. He’d set all his affairs in order. The property would become part of the forest with official declaration of his death.

The forest was unchanged and yet changed. Life moves on making improvements here, recycling of materials there. He heard the whispers first in the ringing music of the air as it moved through the branches. The snagging of hands that gave appearance of being the odd twig or branch; this he was used to from his childhood. Finally he found his tree where his feet had led him so easily with memory being their guide. He reached and hesitantly touched the wood, feeling the kinship in her as she recognized and greeted him. The ringing grew as his return spread through the grove. Another tree that he’d played under while it was a sturdy sapling grew off to the side. Now it was a strong fine tree with a trunk that he could barely reach his arms around. He tried and that’s how he knew. It shimmered and became like him, the playmate he’d spent hours with grown into an adult man who reached out to drag him close.

“Love. I’ve waited.”

“And I’ve come back to you,” he answered, “to stay, Beloved.”

The shimmering started again but this time what was was two trees grown around and together. The forest whispered around them but they were still too new together to do anything but glory in their joining. Acer had returned to his people.

They found the car at his parents old house, the building now broken down and being reclaimed by the forest. There was talk about how his parents were said to have found him as a baby within the forest around there. The state have given them permission to adopt him when no relatives had come forward to claim him. What the forest had given, the forest had reclaimed, was what was local human thought.
The dryads, if asked and listened to, would have agreed.

Date: 2011-06-05 03:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] saskia399.livejournal.com
Nothing honey, you're just being you! *hug*

Profile

charisstoma: (Default)
charisstoma

October 2023

S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031    

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 14th, 2025 03:10 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios