The Journey Through the Wilderness

Does the wilderness pull at you? It sure pulls at me.
Well you know what? I ended up a poor girl, living with her family in a dingy shed, bordering a forest called Mia’s forest.
And since the shed is just miserable, I spend most of my time outside. I live with my parents, and my two younger sisters, Rose and Morning Dove. My parents were both nature professors at one point but lost their jobs when I, their first child, was born thirteen years ago.
So now we live in a shed, one covered in spiders and every once in a while, nasty crows surprising us in the night when they realize we don’t have any trash for them to pick on.
A warm tongue begins to caress my hand and I look down. My sweet little dog, Beary, is licking my hand.
“Aw, you’re such a handsome boy!” I tell Beary.
His eyes seem to be telling me, “You’re a good girl, Sophie.”
I smile and take Beary by the collar into the woods for a nice walk. I sigh and breathe in the smell of plum blossoms as I drag Beary to my favorite place in the forest – a small cave where many beautiful wilderness creatures live. Beary rather doesn’t care for them because he thinks I like them better than him, which of course isn’t true. I love Beary with all my heart.
Strangely, instead of bustling happily about, the animals are gathered around something. When I take a step closer, I see the awful truth. My favorite bunny rabbit, Snowpuff, is squirting blood from her side.
“Oh girl!” I run to her and begin to cry, “I’m so sorry!” It’s obvious that she has been almost-prey of a fearsome coyote.
Luckily she escaped. But with a heavy price. I grab Snowpuff and take her in my right arm. With my left, I grab Beary’s collar. We walk back to the shed.
As we approach, my sisters wail as they run to me. When my mother hears my sisters, she comes running. She comes to me quickly.
“Why are you bleeding?” she gasps.
“It’s not me, Momma! It’s Snowpuff!”
Mother gasps again, “Oh the poor thing!”
We race inside and to my father. We wake him up from his snooze on a pile of hay, and tell him Snowpuff’s dilemma.
“Don’t you worry,” he says, “we can fix him up, good as new!”
“Papa, she’ll never be as good as new ever again! Just look at her!” I say to Father.
“Well, she might never be perfect again, but it’s the best we can do,” Father says.
I agree, and we patch up Snowpuff. We put a bandage on her wounds and find a soft spot in the shed for her to lie down. She breathes heavily, but is alive.
To me, it looks like Snowpuff is telling me, “Thank you, friend.”
I smile at the tiny rabbit, and she smiles back.

“Papa?” my littlest sister, Morning Dove says, “Do you have any healing medicine to help Snowpuff?”
Rose, the middle child, says, “No silly! That’s only in Harry Potter!”
I elbow her and give her an icy glare. Rose glares back at me.
“Now, older girls,” Father consoles us, “Don’t argue with one another. And beautiful Dovey, I do not have any quick healing potion.”
Mother tells us, “I know where to find a healing powder…”
She seems to disappear into her thoughts, enraptured by an old memory. Everything is silent as we wait for Mother to talk again. It takes quite a long time, so I try to imagine what she could be thinking of, but it’s impossible when I have Harry Potter on my mind.
Finally, after what feels like literally forever, Mother speaks again, “You can find it in Mia’s forest.”
“Who’s Mia?” Morning Dove asks.
“Well,” Mother says, “ that’s not exactly what I meant. There’s a forest called Mia’s forest, the one in front of our house you know. But the person it was named after, Mia, is rumored still to be alive. She’s also rumored to be very beautiful, yet very selfish.”
“Oh,” Father says, “well it’s time for a family trip!”
“But wait!” Mother exclaims, “she’s also rumored to be very shy. Large groups of people upset her!”
“Oh,” Father says again, “but that’s rumors!”
“Yeah, but nobody knows much about her! So how would they know if the rumors were true!”
“I’ll go,” I say, “I’m the one who wants to help Snowpuff.”
“Now that’s a good idea. Why risk the lives of our whole family for a silly rabbit?” Rose says.
I shake my head and rub my temples. Going alone would be so scary, but do I want to “risk the lives” of my family?

Early the next day, I am awakened by a raccoon screeching. I can hear Beary – a good hunting dog – barking. Though I always hated to do it, I picked up the old baseball bat we found in the woods once, and went to beat the raccoon away.
When I got there, surprisingly, I saw the raccoon heading for the door. My moment of pride of finally being able to scare the raccoons away only lasted for a second, because when it reached the hole where all the wildlife gets in, it turned around and bared its teeth nastily, before turning to run straight at me. Oh boy, here was the revenge he was finally going to get for all the times I had scared him away.
He ran at me, like I was saying, as I squealed in terror, and jumped full on my chest. I felt his sharp claws slash the thin fabric on my dress. I try to shove him off, but as an expert tree climber, he clings to me like a tongue stuck to an icy, metal post.
Thankfully, Beary pounces on the raccoon, and brings us to the ground. Unfortunately, we are a big pile of growling, screaming mess. I get up quickly in time to see Beary chase the raccoon out of the shed, and peace falls here again.
Phew. As I’m already up, and I’m eager to help Snowpuff, I start packing my backpack – we had some money in past years, so we were able to spare some of our money for supplies.
I put some home grown food in a lazy camper’s sort of rusted thermos, gather up Beary, and put some cheap dog food in my backpack. After very much time, I’m ready to go…
Part of me wants to tell my family I’m leaving, but I know that if I do, they will resent me leaving, and beg me to stay. But I do need to say goodbye. I decide that I’ll just tell my mother. She’s always been the most supportive of me.
Tiptoeing through the shed, I find her, curled up on a pile of hay. It kills me, but I have to wake her. I shake her softly, then pull on her arm. She stirs as the first rays of morning sunlight creep their way under the door.
I pull Mother to my corner of the shed and begin to talk to her. I make sure she’s fully awake before I tell her I’m leaving home.
Her response is not what I expected, “No honey! I didn’t think you really wanted to go!”
“Mommy!” I exclaim, “If I have a chance to do good in this world, I will do good in this world!”
I resist the urge to swear defiantly, as Mother would probably hit me for that. She may be a nice mother on the outside, but on the inside, woohee, watch out for Lavender Poach, the strongest mother in the world!
“Honey, I love you so much, and I love your big heart! But I-”
I cut her off, “Sorry for interrupting you, but I want to go! I promise I’ll be safe!”
“Fine!” Mother gives in, “But wait a few minutes. I have something for you.”
I sit down and die of anticipation as she goes to her corner, grabs a box, and comes back. She gives me the box. I open it. Inside – and I can’t believe it – is a brand new, no distance limit, walkie talkie! It’s the best thing I’ve ever seen. I fly into Mother’s arms and give her the biggest hug I have ever given her.
She pats my back and says, “That’s not even the best part!”
Out of the back pocket of her dress, Mother pulls out another walkie talkie! Identical to mine!
“Sophie, if you must go, then we must stay connected. Please take this with you?”
“Of course, Momma, you’re the best!”
I tuck the walkie talkie safely into my backpack and say, “Channel seven? Our lucky number?”
“Yes,” Mother replies, “I like that.”

After my talk with Mother I hug and kiss her goodbye, tell her to tell the others I love them, and will be back soon. She promises to tell them, and with that, I’m off with Beary to find the healing stuff, which I learned from Mother is moondust, only to be found at Mia’s fortress, at the other end of the forest. Mother also gave me a map to follow, which she said was drawn by her grandfather.
“Oh and one more thing!” she says as I’m walking out the door, “The walkie talkie’s battery dies in a week. Complete your mission before then.”
I nod and go over the plan in my head. Go brave the dangers of the forest, bargain for moondust with Mia at her temple, keep the precious moondust safe as I travel home, and do this all in one week!
I can do this, I know it!

The first hour of walking is easy. Beary even runs most of the time. But after that, I wish there was another option. It’s obvious I’m bored of walking.
When the sun begins to set, I check the map and I check my surroundings. With a gasp, I find that walnut trees circle all around me! I check the map again, and sure enough, I’m in the Grove of the Walnut Trees. I walked about a quarter of the distance today, which is great progress!
I grab my walkie talkie and flip the switch to channel seven as I settle down on a bed of leaves, Beary by my side. I pull out food for us to eat as I wait for Mother to pick up.
When she does, she is excited to hear my voice, “Where are you, are you okay?” she blurts.
“Yes, Momma, I’m fine. And I’m at the Grove of the Walnut Trees. Also, Momma, can you wake me up at dawn every day until I get home? I want to get an early start.”
Mother tells me she’d be happy to wake up “her baby” as she puts it, and I settle down, happy as can be.

In the morning, the soft voice of Mother wakes me up. I tell her I love her. Beary and I start off again.
After about half the day, Beary and I stop to rest. We eat a snack. I check the map again, and look up. I see a river snaking its way along by my right. The River of Promise! I’m halfway there! This isn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be!
As if the wilderness read my mind, there is a rustle, and I whirl around just in time to see Beary’s rear end disappearing in a thicket. After studying the plants around me, I decide that they all contain some sort of poison in them – Poison Ivy, Poison Berries…
It’s hard to accept it, but my poor little dog is gone. I wait for a few minutes, half expecting him to pop right out of the bushes, but he doesn’t. He’s never been a very loyal dog. I don’t think he can understand me.
“I’m wasting time,” I mumble to myself.
I heave myself off the ground, gather my things, and take one last, lone look around the place. It would be beautiful except for the fact that it took my dog.

When dusk falls around me, I set down camp. I eat some food once again. For what seems like the one millionth time, I check the map. It seems as if I am in the Ancient Hallway, I presume, due to the huge stone pillars around me.
Instead of pausing for the night, I figure I’ll just go for it. The fortress is only two miles from the hallway after all.
So taking a deep breath, and steadying my nerves, I walk along the crumbling stone path to the fortress.
The sight of the castle-fortress makes me gasp. It is so well preserved, it looks as if it had just been built.
I clasp my hand around the marble handle of the glass door. The glass is blurred, so I can’t see inside, and it makes me just a little bit nervous about what I’m getting myself into. I pull the handle. The door opens. It surprises me that I don’t have to go off of my “climbing-the-fortress” plan.
I take a deep breath and walk into the fortress. What I see is beautiful. There are gorgeous chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. I catch a glimpse of a few servant-looking men. They are wearing wilderness colors – dark green, scarlet, and some even wear brown!
It’s absolutely beautiful here!
“Hello?” I call out.
There is no answer. The servants even act like they don’t notice me.
Breaking and entering is like my nightmare, so I shudder, and tears squirt from my eyes. I wipe my eyes with my hand. I take deep breaths.
Finally, when I am steady again, I take one step forward. And I take another step. And another, until I’m walking confidently down the stretch of leaf patterned carpet.
In not much time, I see a huge empty chair. I stare, confused. Shouldn’t Mia be sitting on the throne? I walk around a little bit, but she’s still not there.
When it seems like I should give up, I start towards the door. I am homesick after all. My emotions are already high, so I start to cry. I’ve gone all this way and Mia doesn’t exist. I’ve lost my dog, and a rabbit is suffering because of my failure.
I’m almost to the door when I hear a soft voice call out, “Don’t leave yet…”
I turn around slowly, “Mia?” I ask.
“Yes it’s me. Welcome to the Fortress of Wilderness,” I see tears are staining his beautiful eyes.
“You’re, you’re a boy?”
“Yes, I am. Mia is short for Jerimiah,” he says.
“I’m sorry I’m crying,” I sniffle, “I’m just so happy you’re here. It hasn’t been an easy journey up here.”
Mia shakes his head, “No, no, I don’t mind,” he points at his eyes, “Look at me! I could see your passion and struggling in your eyes, and it made me emotional!”
I bite my lip.
“This is not how I expected you. The rumors say you’re selfish, beautiful, and shy,” I mutter.
“Nobody expects me to be like this. Most of the time they don’t know who I am, and look disappointed.”
“Well I’m not disappointed,” I say.
I run back to the throne, and he runs to me. We kiss, perfectly, like in movies.
“Oh hey,” he says when we break apart, “I have something for you.”
Then Mia hands me the two best things in the world. One, he hands me a box labeled, “Moondust”, and two, he goes behind the throne and grabs something. When I see him again, he has Beary by the collar.
“Oh Mia!” I gasp, “Thank you so much!”
“My pleasure,” Mia says, smiling.
I turn towards the door and say, “Thanks again, but I have to go.”
I pause, just staring at him.
“Let me take you home, Sophie,” Mia begs me.
“Oh all right,” I say, smiling.
He beams and drags me to another room where there is a beautiful hot air balloon.
“After you, Madam,” he says.
I step into the hot air balloon, Beary, the box of moondust, and my backpack of things along with me. Mia steps in after me, and pushes a lever down. The hot air balloon lifts off, and soon we’re flying over the forest, bathed in newly born sun rays.
“You know,” Mia says, “My father told me something when I was younger. He told me that one day the wilderness would pull me in the right direction.”
“And look at you now,” I say, “I think the wilderness pulled you in the right direction.”
“I think so too.”

Later:
Narrator: Our wonderful heroine, Sophie, flew home with her beloved Mia. On arriving home she consulted with her mother on how to convert the moondust to healing potion. Within hours, all of Snowpuff’s wounds were healed.
The family all got to know Mia, and they all liked him. Sophie even liked to tease Rose by telling people that Rose was in love with her boyfriend, which she rolled her eyes at, and giggled nervously. Yes, boyfriend. Fifteen year old Mia, and thirteen year old Sophie were dating.
Jobs were found for Sophie’s parents when Mia gave them a little money to get back on their feet, allowing them to rent an apartment. Sophie’s father asked if Mia wanted to stay with them, and he happily said yes.
I can say that Sophie’s parents were very, very, happy that Sophie had found such a wonderful boy.
Oh! Going a little farther into the story, when Sophie was 23 years old, she was married to her long and steady boyfriend. They stayed together for, well I’ll leave that for you to decide. Was Mia the right one for Sophie?
Well Reader, all I can tell you is that they all lived…
Happily, ever, after 🙂