A Life in the Forest

Not too long ago, on an island about five miles off the coast of Washington State, lived a boy. This boy was tall and lean with dark brown hair. Dave was around the age of fourteen. He lived with his brother and dog. His brother, Curtis, was 6 feet tall with long, black, wild hair. He was around the age of fifteen and only took care of his brother because their parents were dead. Dave’s dog was a rottweiler named Blacky. Unlike most rottweilers, Blacky was very nice to people. Dave found Blacky in a bush when he was eight and brought him home. Needless to say, they were best friends since then.
Our story begins on Dave’s fourteenth birthday. Dave wasn’t expecting anything for his birthday except his brother yelling at him for being a waste of money. So when he got a cake for his birthday he was suspicious.
“What the heck is this?” Dave asked, staring at his brother.
“It looks like a cake to me,” Curtis said with a smile. That’s weird, Dave thought, Curtis never smiles. It was true, ever since Dave could remember Curtis never smiled and now it was ominous.
“You should eat it now,” Curtis continued. “So no one else will before you get a chance to.”
“You first,” Dave challenged defiantly. Curtis thought he heard suspicion in Dave’s voice.
“Fine,” Curtis said with mock defiance. Dipping his finger into the frosting and licking it clean he said, “Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, de-e-elicious!”
Then Dave reached out to grab the cake and Blacky started growling madly. He jumped in front of Dave and looked into his eye as if to say, don’t touch that!
Curtis came up and grabbed Dave’s head, growling, “EAT THE CAKE!”
Dave tried to twist out of his grip but to no avail. Suddenly Blacky bit Curtis on the – I’d rather not say where – and Dave was able to duck out of Curtis’ grip and grab Blacky.
“Give me that crazy dog, boy!” Curtis screamed in a much higher voice than usual. “I want to skin the beast alive.”
But by then Dave had harnessed a rope around Blacky’s torso and rear legs and then started to run. They ran down the trail, trying to get to Dave’s secret hide away.
Seconds after they skidded to a halt, they saw that the clubhouse had been burned to the ground. Dave’s friend, Toby, stepped out of the redundant ashes. His face was beet red and hot tears slid down his cheeks.
“I can’t believe someone would burn our clubhouse. No one knew where it was; no one but us.” He sobbed.
“I think I know who burnt it to the—“
“Who?! Tell me who and I’ll go kill him!” Toby screamed hoarsely and a little dramatically.
“No!” Dave said quietly but forcefully. “If you kill him, you’ll be convicted of murder. If you promise me that you won’t kill-“
“But he deserves it for burning-“
“But you won’t forgive yourself if you do. Promise me because soon he will be here and I don’t want to be here when he comes. Promise me, Toby.” Dave begged urgently.
“Okay, Okay. I promise that I won’t kill him,” he said reluctantly but Dave could’ve sworn that he whispered “yet” under his breath.
“It was Curtis,” Dave stated sadly as Toby gasped in surprise. “He gave me a cake today, which he's never done before, and I think it might have been poisoned because Blacky, here, started barking, not wanting me to touch it. Then Curtis tried to stuff my face into it so I ran and found this.”
“I always knew he didn't like you but I never thought he would try to kill you.” Toby whispered in shock.
“Yeah, me either, I—“ Dave was cut off by a rustle in the bushes. When he started to run again, he looked back and hollered, “Bye!”
Dave tore through the village with Blacky in front of him clearing the way. He was barking fiercely at anyone who got in the street as they passed. They reached the edge of town and found the way to the forest blocked with age old stone.
“Okay, Blacky, we need to find a way to get around this blockade.” Dave explained. Then Blacky began scratching at the ground. Dave noticed this and said, “No, Blacky, we can’t dig a hole because it would cave in on us.”
Blacky stopped and whined. After much thought, Dave figured that the best way would be to climb.
A quarter of the way up Dave felt the bricks tremble under his feet and saw parts of the blockade cave in. He swung Blacky’s rope over the nearest branch with Blacky still on it and hung onto both ends. The rest of the barricade collapsed and left a ditch that was 20 feet deep and 30 feet across. Debris as sharp as swords littered the bottom of the trench.
“Now what are we going to do?” Dave whined. “We can’t go over because it’s too wide and we can’t go through because we might get stabbed.”
Slowly Dave pulled himself and Blacky up into the trees. The branches were thick enough to support their weight. They almost touched just above the center of the ditch. The only question was how to get Blacky across.
If I tie the rope loosely around the branch, Dave thought, I could slide it across until I’m close enough for Blacky to jump to the other side.
Dave and Blacky crawled slowly to where the two branches crossed. The branches went up and down but they weren’t very steep. Dave reached down and untied the rope.
“Blacky,” Dave said encouragingly. “Jump over to the next branch so that we can get out of this tree.” Luckily Blacky’s fear of heights was greater than his fear of jumping.
Dave was lost in thought until Blacky yelped as he fell. As quickly as he could Dave grabbed the rope and he tipped over the side. Hanging on with just his legs, Dave tied the rope to the next branch and swung over with his feet touching first.
For Dave every twig was the handle of life, every step was another path away from Curtis. To Blacky, though, every step was the best way to get to the ground.
At the end of the branch Dave asked Blacky, “How are we going to get you out of this tree without you getting hurt?”
“You go down and I’ll jump to you,” Blacky’s eyes were saying. The problem was that Blacky was heavy and Dave wasn’t that strong, yet the ground was moist because it was the middle of winter, so it was semi-soft.
That’s just what Dave did. After untying the rope he jumped from branch to branch until he reached the ground. The moment he whistled, Blacky fell heavily into Dave’s waiting arms.
After several minutes of catching their breath, Dave and Blacky made their way to the safest place they could find which happened to be a clearing with a giant oak tree so they would be safe from most animals.
“Okay Blacky, we’ll have to build some type of shelter that will protect us for a while. I think I’ll go to the village and get some supplies that we’ll need and-“ Dave was saying, but at this point Blacky started whining mournfully.
“Come on, Blacky,” Dave said, “it’s only going to be for a few hours so that we can live here for a while and I know you don’t want to sleep on a tree branch without a sturdy foundation or you might fall.” At this, Blacky stopped whining abruptly and let Dave leave.
Dave was able to hop from branch to branch on his way back, making his trip back faster than his way to the clearing. He didn’t see his brother anywhere on his way to or at the house so Dave grabbed Blacky’s bed, took blankets and some of Curtis’ money for food, wood, and tools to build a bridge and then a house to live in.
Dave went to “Build Smart Carpentry” for wood and tools. Then he went to build the bridge. There was a simple design in Dave’s head that should allow him to get the supplies across the ditch. There would be ropes as hand rails and a long, thick piece of wood for the walk way.
Dave started bringing supplies over after about mid-day. When he finished, he dragged the heavy board to the side of the ditch and pulled up the ropes so that Curtis wouldn’t be able to get across. Then he ran to the grove to build a shelter. It would be about ten to twelve feet off the ground so that people could easily walk under it without noticing that there was a difference in the tree. It was a basic box with a slanted roof for rain to run off of. Dave also decided that, to get Blacky in the tree, he would make an elevator of sorts with a pulley and rope.
Dave went to work right away and started climbing the giant oak tree. Meanwhile, in town, a news article was flying around!

Boy Missing

Today around 8:00 AM a boy, named Dave Wood, and his dog, Blacky, were not seen since they were eating breakfast with Curtis Wood, boy’s brother, who is very concerned. He told the media today “My brother ran away from home today and my parents… My parents trusted me to look after him and I tried my best but he ran away.” If you have any info please contact Curtis Wood at 632 Forest Creek Lane.
In the next few minutes the manager of “Build Smart Carpentry”, Bob and the manager of the local grocers, Bill, came up Forest Creek Lane to tell Curtis what they knew.
“So Dave got r-rope, wood, and t-tools from you, Bob, and f-food from you, Bill. Did he say wh-where he was g-going?” asked Curtis, pretending to cry hysterically. Both Bob and Bill shook their heads. I guess I’ll just have to find out myself, Curtis thought ruefully.
That night, Dave had put the floor down for the fort, yet they still had to sleep on the ground because Dave hadn’t put the elevator in.
Dave didn’t know what was going on in town but he did know that somehow, in some way Curtis was going to find him, and when he did, Dave would have to be ready.
3 Years Later…

“Okay, Blacky,” Dave said with a yawn. “What do you want to do today?”
They were taking the elevator to the ground.
“Arf, Bark, Bark.” Said Blacky. Dave took it to mean let’s visit friends!
Over the past three years Dave and Blacky became great friends with squirrels, rabbits, snakes, and deer. Together they grew a garden for everyone to eat, using the seeds that they grew the previous year. Curtis hadn’t shown up at all over those years.
Dave was making weapons for the time that Curtis would show up and try to kill him again.
Dave wanted to see their animal friends too because he had an uneasy feeling about that day and wanted to get it off his mind, so they headed down a small, overgrown trail that Dave had made so it was easier to get to a water source. Dave and Blacky dodged all the vine nets and pitfalls that were set out for followers and went to the waterfall.
Blacky found the waterfall when they first got there. Blacky was bored of waiting for Dave and smelled something like rain after a hot day. He had followed his nose and found it in seconds. Ever since then, they had used it as their main water source and their way to keep cool. They found a large, deep cave behind the falls where the animals slept at night.
They moved quickly across the cliff and into the dark and dank. Their friends were scurrying about and came running up to them chirping, hissing, and stomping nervously. Obviously there was someone near them who they didn’t like.
“Well, I’ve finally found you and that rotten mutt,” said a voice Dave hadn’t heard in three years.
Dave turned around slowly, and, seeing it was Curtis, asked, “How did you find me?”
“Oh, it wasn’t easy, but when I saw that ditch and plank the other day, it was pretty obvious where you were.”
“What were you doing that far out of town?”
“Haven’t you heard, the town was extended about a quarter of a mile?”
“A quarter mile? That’s still a long way to the pit. What, were you gathering food or something?”
“No. I was waiting for you to come out of this forest in hunger, but after three years I realized I had to come looking for you and that mangy mutt. I had to take care of you for years after Mom and Dad died and I didn’t want to have to do that anymore. Then that stupid dog had to bite me so I knew I had to come and kill you both to make sure you didn’t blab to anybody about me trying to poison you –“
“Hey Curtis,” Dave interrupted. “You know all those books where the villain unravels their plot?”
“Yeah, wh-” Curtis suddenly grew angrier.
“You’re just about to say how you were going to attack me. You want a fight so I’ll give you one!”
Curtis was blocking Dave’s way to the weapons that Curtis had smashed, so Dave dived out of the cave, through the waterfall, and down into the lake. All the animals in the cave rushed Curtis angrily. He fell off the cliff under their weight.
“AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!” screamed Curtis. “HELP! I CAN’T SWIM!”
He hit the water with a tremendous SMACK! and was knocked unconscious. Dave swam over and took him to shore before he drowned because even Curtis didn’t deserve a fate such as drowning.

2 days later…

Curtis sat up sputtering, head swimming, and looked around. Above him was a tree fort in an oak tree and under him was a dried, grass woven blanket. Dave was sitting next to him with what looked like a quarter staff yet he was holding it like a walking stick. He was staring into the distance with an all-knowing look on his face that made Curtis go crazy.
“Where am I, Dave?” Curtis asked quietly.
“Right underneath my house,” Dave said calmly. “You almost drowned in the lake two days ago and you haven’t been awake since.” Dave grabbed a bowl and filled it with an interesting looking soup. It smelled like chicken noodle.
“Here,” Dave said. “I figured you’d be hungry.” It turned out that the soup was comprised of rice, an assortment of vegetables, and chicken broth.
“Where did you get chicken broth and rice from?” Curtis asked curiously.
“Simple, I grew the rice and slaughtered a chicken.” Dave stated plainly.
When Curtis finished eating he got up and looked around some more until Dave said, “You better go before more animals decide to attack you for coming here with a bad attitude and trying to attack their friend.”
“What about you? Are you going to come back to the village?” Curtis asked pleadingly.
“No. I have a good life here and I wouldn’t leave it for anything.”
Curtis left after promising that he wouldn’t reveal the location of Dave and the lake.