Young Writers Society

We were drenched in sweat, as we were walking through the forest. The rifles were getting heavier and heavier for us to carry. There were'nt enough trees to block out the glaring sun, scorching our skin and tanning it badly. Hugo, Terence and I planned the trip to this forest ofJerix. We thought it would be a dense forest, but when we reached there, things looked so different!

"Jason!" Terence panted and continued, "We have been walking for three days! Are we really going to get out of this forest?"

I stopped walking for a while and asked Hugo to open the map.

Hugo pulled out the rolled map from the side pocket of his bag pack, and was holding it stretched in front of me. I looked at the compass, "23°NE". I tried to calculate the time that'd take us to get out of here.

"Considering our pace and counting 5 hours of sleep tonight, we will be out of this tree maze by tomorrow evening."

"Are we seriously that close!?" Terence asked in disbelief.

"You guys seem to have lost the hopes." I laughed. "Believe me, we are close."

"Okay. Let's go and not waste time," said Hugo.

We continued our journey, but shortly grew thirsty, however we had finished the last of our water the previous night. We were jumping and avoiding the wild little shrubs, the dried twigs and thorny branches of the dead trees.

"Hugo... Ah. Jason!" Terence called out. We turned back and saw him leaning over the trunk of a dead tree. His rifle was lying on the ground.

Hugo started to panic, "Oh my God, Terence! Are you okay!?" He rushed towards him.

"Calm down, both of you. Look there's that village. We'll go there, rest for a while and continue walking. Okay?" 

"I--I can't..." Terence was about to faint. He was already lanky and he was getting dehydrated. I didn't let him lose his balance, and supported him in my arms. I strapped the rifle over my shoulders.

"Hugo, you go ahead and ask for the villagers for help. I'm coming slowly with Terence." I suggested a solution for the problem.

"Yeah, good idea, Jason." Hugo picked up Terence's rifle and walked ahead.

I placed my hands over Terence's shoulders and tried to distract his mind.

"Look at that bird. It's a special little bird found only in this jungle of Jerix." 

"Oh, is it? Zoology must be interesting, right?" He asked me.

"Yes, it is! Zoology is my love." I answered him.

"Like botany is," he stumbled over the stone in our path; I didn't let him fall down, he continued, "for me."

"And photography is for Hugo." I added.

We both smiled and we shared our knowledge of our subjects as we were enjoying the serine beauty of nature. 

"Hey! That plant!"

"Where?" I lost my focus on the ground, and the thorny branch of a wild plant got stuck in the fabric of my socks.

"There--- that's an extremely important plant! It's used to treat injuries in humans. It's speciality is that it works on many animals too."

"You can go and take some leaves from it, if you want to."

"Yeah, I will just get it right now." Terence went into the bushes and plucked a handful of leaves, and stuffed it in his bag-pack. I achieved success in removing that stubborn twig from my socks and we again continued walking slowly and steadily. Finally we reached the village, where Hugo was waiting for us. He told us that the village is ready to help us and give us shelter.

We drank water to our heart's content. 

"Boys, have these parathas I made for you!" The middle aged, fat woman offered us some food. 

While we savoured the spinach Parathas with the green chutney of corriender, lemons and chillies, we asked the villagers about how the forest became so scanty in trees. 

"Those selfish woodcutters of the village kept cutting down those trees until the pack of wolves started attacking on us." The old man told us the story of the woodcutters that used to dwell there a year ago. 

"Pack of---" I was astonished.

Terence interrupted, "wolves!"

The old man told us the story in his feeble and shaky voice, "Yes, children, the wolves." The old man's eyes had a strange twinkle. The 'n' number of wrinkles on his tanned face was directly proportional to the amount of experience he has had.

He continued the story, "The woodcutters disturbed their natural habitat, and therefore they started attacking our sheep's and cattle." The old man shuddered, "That was a difficult time. Women and children were not safe to roam around. There was a constant terror of the wolves."

"Then?"

"Then what? We expelled them from the village last year," he laughed, but he was too weak and coughed a little. "The trees will grow again slowly."

"Oh. You did a great work by asking them to leave the village." I said.

Then Hugo added, "Every village should do this with them. They'll learn a lesson one day."

We had our lunch and left before the sunset. The villagers refilled our water bottles and gave us some meat, more than enough for that night's dinner. While we were walking, we heard a feeble roar. "That must be baby lion!" I exclaimed.

"He is in danger!" Terence shouted.

We rushed in the direction from where the sound was coming. After sometime, we saw a little cub, terrified at the guns of the hunters.

"We are from forest department. Leave that cub, or you'll go in jail!" Terence lied. We were just a group of three adventure lovers.

The hunters surrendered and fleed away.

I went towards the baby lion and saw that there were a few scratches on its legs that were bleeding.

Terence removed the herbs that he plucked off earlier and applied it over the wounds of the cub. "You'll get well soon. Don't be scared, you son of the brave!" Terence was talking softly to the cub. Hugo clicked photographs of the cute little cub. We waited for sometime for the baby's mother or father to come. Shortly after that, we heard a loud roar. We took out our rifles to keep ourself safe. And we cautiously started walking in that direction. We saw the lioness from a distance and the cub ran towards her. She recognised the smell of the herbs being medicinal and looked at us, bowed down as if she was thanking us, and left with the cub.

It was getting a little cold and we decided to stay for the night. We lighted the campfire and roasted the meat that was given to us by the villagers. We had it and slept in the tent. We continued walking till the next day's evening, and finally got out of the forest, safe and sound.