Chapter 1. The Timberland
This story takes place on a quiet day in Autumn just like the others that week. It was tranquil out in woods. The songbirds sang, the moose gingerly sipped from the not yet frozen pond, and the harbor seals lied in the afternoon sunlight on the shores. In this tranquil coastal forest was where a young boy and his parents lived.
The boy and his parents had grown up out in the wilderness. His house was not far from the sandy beaches that bordered the wild land of Maine from the vast and cold Atlantic Ocean, and the boy would regularly walk down through the tall pine forest to the shoreline. He’d sit down on a piece of driftwood or a large stone in the sand and watch as sometimes seagulls flew through the air and squawked for what it seemed, pointlessly. Once the boy watched as a harbor seal that was lying on the beach and a red cardinal from the pine forest swooped in and onto the harbor seal. The seal rolled over in annoyance but the cardinal jumped back onto its head. The inquisitive bird looked at the seal’s ear hole mistaking it for a nook that may be hiding a berry or nut inside. The tiny red bird poked its small beak right down the ear hole. The seal flipped over and snorted at the cardinal as it disappointedly flew back into the forest. Walking around the forests and beaches was mainly what the boy would do in his spare time since he was an only child he got lonely and bored. His father was a lumberjack for a living and early each morning he’d get in his yellow truck and drive down into the Great Forest miles back inland. The boy’s mother was a worker at the large supermarket in town and she too had to wake early and leave. So most days except Sundays and holidays, the boy walked in the forest. His parents trusted him in the forest by himself because he had grown up doing it and quite enjoyed it when the loneliness didn’t get him down. He had been walking for a while now after watching the harbor seal and the cardinal. He was taking his favorite path, The Honeysuckle Trail. He named it The Honeysuckle Trail because of the many bees that would come around the flowers that grew on the path, but during that time of year they weren’t present. He knew kicked a small pine cone along as he walked, hands in his trouser pockets. The sun was getting lower and lower as the day declined and he knew his parents would be home soon, so he picked up the pace so that he’d get back home before they arrived. He started to speed walk but abruptly slowed down and finally stopped. The boy stared, mouth gaping open at a large pine tree that had been uprooted and flipped on its side.
