A Boy Alone Finds a Friend
Fiction short
One day a boy left his home to become a man. He scavenged for food and slept atop trees with thick trunks, their bushy necks wavering in the wind, laying down upon their shoulders where it became wide as a seat and as a bed, large enough to rest his weary body.
Wild animal sounds frightened him, so he fashioned a knife from carving wood with sharp stones, its tip pointed like a dagger. He found a stream abundant with fish. He set about making a fishing pole from branches and long, flexible reeds to dip into the waters. Worms provided bait. He caught many fish which kept him from starving.
When the moon was full, he often thought about the home he left. He had no choice. His father sent him out into the wild so that he would become a man of experience. It certainly seemed crazy to him because he was only twelve and still in school. But his father said life was his schooling, not books. That he had to know the ways of the wood and learn to survive. And one day he would return to them a man. He often wondered how his father could know that he would return. What if a wild animal made him its supper? What if he couldn’t find food or water to survive? What if he became injured not being able to move or return home? These bothersome questions would always plague him, especially on nights of a full moon.
