The Man in the Woods

Out of nowhere, three wisps appear in the wind, fast as lightning, followed by three muffled thumps.  Three deer fall down to the ground and lie there, motionless, limp, and dead.  Seemingly out of nowhere, a man mumbles, “Thank you for helping me survive at the cost of your own life.”
         A figure drops out of a nearby tree, holding a bow and a quiver full of arrows.  He retrieves his arrows from the dead deer and throws two of them over his shoulder.  He puts the third one in a bag made of leather and takes all of the deer back to his hollowed out tree, cleverly placed in a sycamore, hidden deep in the forest.  He returns to the spot where he hunted the deer, ruffles up the leaves, and washes away any blood that may have been left in the area.  The man, it seems, was never even there.  He didn’t exist.
         The man’s name is Zezima, a rather short, muscular man with yellow hair.  Zezima is a man who lives in the forest, only he is more than that.  He is a myth, a mystery, and a secret.  He has lived shrouded by the trees all his life.  Zezima was taught by the forest how to survive.  He has hardly talked to anyone, as a matter of fact he talks to animals and trees from time to time so he doesn’t forget how to talk.  Zezima has had an extremely adventurous life, and many people think that all he will ever do.  But Zezima is about to have the ultimate adventure of emotion and bravery without ever leaving his home: the forest.
         The next day Zezima steps outside.  Zezima suddenly sprawls on the ground and listens to the forest.  “It’s not right…,” he whispers to a nearby tree.  Something is different in the forest.  It’s different in a way that no one except Zezima could understand.  It could have been the volume of the forest, the freshness of the air, or even the texture of the mud and grass he walks on.  No one knows, but something is different.  Zezima rushes to a nearby stream and hears a ruffle of leaves and a quiet “ugh…” coming from across the river.  In just an instant, Zezima pulls back his bow, arrow already on.  He sprints forward and soon has a mere child pinned to the ground, bow and arrow pointed straight at her, the child clearly being a girl.  He says boldly “Why you here?”
         If the girl was conscious, she could clearly tell that he couldn’t talk very well.  But alas, she wasn’t, making Zezima wonder what to do.  He picks her up and carries her to his home and lays her on a pile of deer pelts.  It’s clear she won’t wake up for a few days and he leaves to find out why she is in his forest.
         Shortly after leaving the girl at the hut, Zezima found out why the girl was there.  Rather, he discovered who caused her to be there.  But he didn’t understand what these men could possibly be doing, cutting down trees and burning them?  Remember, Zezima has never left the woods.  As he looks down at the sweaty men destroying his home, he hears one thing:  “We will destroy these woods.”
         Zezima went back to his tree and thought long and hard about what had happened.  Why had the people been destroying his home?  Why did they want the girl dead?  And why should he even care about the girl?  He thought about these for a long time, and realized that the girl wasn’t there to harm anything.  She was there to protect the forest.  And they were going to succeed.
         Zezima sits perched at the top of a tree, examining the devices being used to cut his trees.  No, he didn’t mean his trees.  They are everyone’s trees.  And he wouldn’t let these men take that away from them.  Finally, he sees how to stop the devices.  In mere seconds, six arrows fly, all directly hitting the machines in the side, puncturing them and causing them to smoke.  The wires inside them make it work!  Zezima thought.  The men, startled, ran away.  Zezima, feeling accomplished, returned to his tree.
         The girl was finally awake, too weak to move however.  Zezima entered the tree cautiously and greeted her.  “Hello.  You okay?”  The girl seemed very scared.  “Who are you,” she whimpered very softly.  Zezima had her sit down and he explained the story to her, with his best speaking abilities.  Eventually, Zezima discovered her name after she accidentally told him.  Isabel, a small girl about 11 years old with blond, almost white hair.  After much encouragement, the girl’s story came out as well.
         “My name is Isabel.  I have always come here.  All my life I came here.”  Zezima blinked.  He’d never noticed her here, and someone like him should have.  ”Until the men came to destroy the forest.  Sure, they have ‘legal rights’ to do this, but they can’t.  I have been sabotaging their equipment until they attempted to kill me.  But if I told the police, no one would believe me.  I couldn’t let them destroy it!”  “Yes.  You and me protect our woods,” said Zezima.  They formed a plan to stop the men.
         Many weeks past, and Zezima remained in the woods.  No men came to disturb it ever since.  They had attempted to stop the demolition of the forest by being very tricky.  Zezima had received a video camera from Isabel and recorded the men threatening her, which he rather enjoyed.  He pelted arrows from the trees so Isabel could escape.  The footage was thought to be enough to arrest the men, but Zezima never found out what happened.  Until Isabel finally came back, joyfully saying, “Our forest is safe.”  Zezima smiled and replied, “Visit anytime Isabel.  Remember though…I don’t exist.”  She smiled and ran back to her home, as a tear formed in Zezima’s eye.