orn phil Once there was a boy, who sat alone with his thoughts, he thought an awful lot, about what he was taught. But he never talked. He slept on a lump on a hill by a tree, with a brick in it. As he grew up the tree grew too, and so did the lump, but the hill slumped. A yellow wolf and a red buffalo, who were talking together, came by him. The buffalo wanted to live with the boy but the wolf wanted to run free. The boy lived on the hill with the buffalo everyday until the tree lost all it's leaves. The buffalo became very old, and he slumped on the lump, where the boy had been sleeping. The boy wanted to find yellow wolf, but the buffalo was mean and wouldn't let the boy go, but as the buffalo slept, the brick fell from the tree, and crashed down on his head. The boy made a coat out of the buffalo, and ate his meat. Then the tree picked up it's leaves and yellow wolf came back. When he saw the boy was wearing a red buffalo skin, he tried to kill him with his claws. But the buffalo skin defended the boy. The wolf, who was spent, showed the boy he had no teeth. With sadness the wolf said he lost all his teeth and could no longer eat, and he wanted to die here. The boy took out the wolf’s claws, and buried the two of them together. The boy stayed a while, and looked at the tree, while it slowly grew. He cut down the tree and carried all the wood he could down the hill. He set them by a large pile of rocks. Inside he found a family of wolves. They were all gray, but one had a fiery coat. The boy made a fire outside and told them to come and sit by it to stay warm, but they were all afraid. So the boy had to go out in the forest, and find food for the wolves, he found berries, and honey. When the boy came to fish lying in a puddle, he said, "I came here to find food for my friends, and I do not owe you my life." The fish said, "Then throw what you have into the river, and take me as food for your friends." The boy did just that. He took the trout back to the fire and cooked his body, and fed it to the wolves. They all slept together in the cave. He stayed there for years, growing into a young man. One morning he was awoke by the eldest wolf, who had brought back food for everyone. He asked the boy to cook it, and eat it with them, as he had always done. The boy traveled to the river, to pull dry branches off a tree, when he got to the riverbank he saw a bear in the water looking for fish. The bear noticed the him and said, do not fear me, I do not want to eat you. A mouse, that had been watching, ran up the tree and warned the young man he was about to be eaten. He thanked the mouse and ran back to the cave as fast as he could. The wolves, hearing about a bear, came to the river with their friend, but by that time the bear was gone. The young man returned home and they all started searching for food. When night came they returned back to the cave, and to the fire. The young man saw in one of their mouths the small mouse that had saved his life from the bear; he went and grabbed it. He told them all the story, and the wolves apologized to the mouse, but still wanted to eat it. So the young man took the mouse back to the river, but the mouse was not satisfied. "They will return to this river and catch me again, or the bear will come back to get even with me." They walked west, down the river, away from where the bear lived. They walked for days, until the mouse was satisfied. Both had eaten very little, and the mouse had no food. The young man asked "I am famished, how am I to get home?" It was getting colder outside and he had not eaten for some time. "Cross the river back where you saw the deer tracks, and then go north further than you went east." The mouse explained, "You will find a place where other people live and they will feed you and give you a horse, which will carry you quickly home." He thanked the mouse and took his advice and crossed the river back upstream. As he was crossing he saw a big monster moving in the woods behind him. "Stop there! Foolish boy, I have eaten your friend wolves and all the mice, I could find." The bear walked out of the woods, high above on a cliff. "If you do come back I will eat you too." He saw how much blood was on the bear and ran in fright. The young man was unable to find his way to the farm, for he was saddened by the wolves’ deaths and couldn't walk straight. He found himself in a large swamp without any way to go. He had not eaten for so long, and the bugs had bitten him so many times it made him sick. Dusk was blanketing the swamp, and it was a dark place to be at night. He walked towards voices he heard coming from deep within the swamp. He stumbling up to the great mound of a tree, it was ridden with ants. A rusted handle was in the tree; the voices beckoned him to enter. Opening the door, a rush of air blew by that the voices seemed to follow into the opening; a strange smell filled the air. The wind did blow even more fiercely around the tree. Lights began to flicker and the young man tumbled, fast into the tree, the door snapping behind him. While roots dangled all around him, he crawled in complete darkness until he found he could stand again. All the walls surrounding him were made of dirt, sounds echoed from far beyond. A stale air filled the room, and the steady sound of gurgling water could be heard elsewhere below. Slowly the floor drooped from his weight. No light could be seen and before he could find a way to leap the floor of the cave completely collapsed and he fell deep down into the lagoon below. Blind and confused, the water churned his body over and over, until finally it drug him under. The current took him swiftly to another mouth of the cave, where he was forced up to the muddy opening, with a crash of the wall he lunged out into daylight. Followed by a flood of water, which carried him over grass and pebble bed. This flood overflowed a stream, which ran by a mill, in sparse woods. He was caught it the spokes of the giant mill's wheel, and when the water stopped surging, crawled himself back onto drier land. He stood and entered the mill and found it full of food, he started eating, and was still eating when dusk began to settle in. Only there was a man at the door, watching him, before he could say a word, the man turned away closing the door behind him. In the morning there was talking outside, and the boy sat inside the mill listening to every word of it. "We will have to offer him something..."said one voice. "What if he wasn't working and he couldn't...” said another. The talking continued until it stopped, then the door was opened. They shivered, looking at the young man sitting there, flour caked to his lips, with open sores and rotting teeth, in his thin body. He stayed at the farm and worked all winter long, brushing the horses and taking out water, from the stream. He worked all spring too, with a hoe turning the ground, and placing seeds into the ground. And in the summer he worked watering the ground, and taking the plants out of it. He was fed a reasonable portion, and at the end of the year was given his own hoe. Which he could keep. He was loaned a horse, since there was no work for him to do on the farm, he left to return to his old home. The way was shorter than he had imagined, and easy to get by on a horse. As he trampled across the water he saw many deer standing on the opposite bank, watching him cautiously. He turned and rode. The boy, now a man, came to the cave he was brought up in, he dreaded to find it empty with no sign that anyone had been living in it for the last year. Filled with rage he yelled out into the sky, his voice was carried a long ways before disintegrating into the rustling of the fall leaves. He even went back to the slumped old hill, where two mounds of dirt sat, with a brick marking the grave of his long forgotten friends. And the rotten trunk of the fruit tree, that he sat by as a small child. He took out the pendant of claws, which he had kept this entire time and set them on the ground, he wept a short time before leaving once again. Descending the hill, a great red wolf met him. Nearly the size of the bear he had seen in his nightmares. "Why do you weep here?” asked the wolf "Because this is your parents grave," said the man, "don't you remember who I am?" "Orn, is what I call you now, but I have not seen you for so long, why have you not returned to us?" asked the wolf bitterly. "I was lost in the woods, and the bear came after me. I have been unable to return for so long." "The bear, I have slain him myself." said the great wolf smiling "I ate his bones" Orn's horse felt uneasy and backed away, as if some danger was told to him. "Red wolf, aren't you my great friend?" asked Orn. "Why do you seem nervous, aren't you happy to see your old great friend?!" Just then the red wolf jumped in the air, knocking Orn off his saddle, and into the earth. The wolf stood above him, as the horse ran into the woods. "The bear came to us that night," growled the wolf "he took two lives, but he was not able to bring the rest of us out of that cave." The wolf glared and leaned on Orn. "He said he would not leave. We thought he had left once but no one dared look. We hoped you would return, and set fire to him, but you never returned. The couse came to me, and I ate him." He smiled for a moment, and glared at Orn once again. "My brothers and sisters went out to kill the bear, leaving me the youngest behind" Just then the wolf shrunk, from a fierce warrior to a scared cub. He searched around, and then fled off, like the horse, with his tail between his legs. A low deep voice fell down to Orn. "In the end I will eat the wolf, and the mouse as well. But you have returned. And as promised you will die before this." Crashing out before Orn, as if the forest had collapsed and a mountain rose from the ground, the bear stretched out before him, a gray blanket overpowering the sky. Orn trembled in fear. The great bear dropped down to his feet, the earth shuttered. Orn moved his hand and touched the wooden handle of his hoe. He rolled to his feet flailing it against the giant bear. The hoe's sharpened edge struck into the bear, slicing open his arm. The bear, never feeling such pain dropped stumbled down. Orn lifted the handle and struck again, in the face of the bear. The bear lashed out against Orn ripping the hoe from his hands. With a roar coming from his torn face, the bear charged into Orn, striking his chest, and pounding his body under the great weight. Then, beyond the corner of the bear's eye, the giant wolf leaped on him. Pulling the bear off Orn, producing a tight grip on the back of his neck. Orn's massacred body lifted off the ground, and he staggered to his feet. Orn later returned home, on his horse. To the surprise of the family his wounds healed quickly. THE END 020519 ... god thumbs up 020520 what's it to you? who go blather from