Page 10 - Magazine - Issue 1 - Google Docs_Neat

Binded

The wind blew mercilessly through the trees that already held to little. The crunching of a
little girl's footsteps on the carpet of fallen leaves was the only other sound apart from the
howling wind. The girl sighed sadly for she remembered times when a now-dry creek bed

had flowed happily along, accompanying the merry sound of birds chirping in trees that
were blanketed by the leaves that she now crept across. She remembered swinging on long

vines from tree to tree without a care in the world. It was sad knowing that a forest that had
once held so much now held so little.

But now a deep silence had eclipsed the miserable forest and the only sound was the harsh

wind as it raged heartlessly through the bare and helpless trees.

An owl call broke the spell that had encased the forest for far too long. Upon hearing it the
girl hurriedly dived under a prickly bramble bush and waited with baited breath for the

dangers that she once again was forced to face.

The girl wore nothing more than limpless rags that had once may’ve been white but was now
covered with dirt, grim and even ash. Her face too, was covered in dust and her two blue

eyes shone like lighthouses on a dark night. Her hair was sandy coloured and waist-length
with ragged edges from being hacked at with a stone dagger. Slung around her thin middle

was a belt holding the dagger, some rope and a piece of flint.

After a while the girl’s ears pricked up at the sound of thousands of soldiers marching a

precise rhythm that shook the ground of the lifeless wood. Soon a long procession of soldiers
were walking quickly in four straight lines through the clearing. As the procession came to

an end the girl, as silently a fox, carefully crept after them making sure not to step on twigs
that would crack and give her away. Like a shadow she slipped in and out of the trees

keeping to the darkness and the safety of them.

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