The Deep Dense forest was surrounded my villages. People walked from village to village for petty affairs and made paths around it. And when the sun unleashed its fury, the people walked under cool shade of the trees of the forest, relieved and happy. The cool breeze blowing through the forest caressed many a tired traveler and the bright ripe fruits hanging from the trees soothed many a parched throat. The forest was a part of their life... like the meandering river and the monsoon.
But nobody had ever gone deep into the Deep Dense forest. The young showed off by going a furlong too deep into it and the old told fables about it. They said it was dark as night and the trees made a maze no living soul had come out of. The children stared rapt in attention while the fathers and uncles laughed them off as folklore.
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But long long ago, the forest had borne a child. And for all the goodness of the forest, the child was a demon. It hungered for blood and showed no mercy. But it loved its mother. So she decided to hide it from the world for the good of everybody.
Nobody had ever seen the Demon that lived in the forest. It grew to be as hideous as the forest was beautiful. The caring forest kept it in its womb and fed it with fruit. She kept it hidden for she loved the people of the villages. And though she never told anybody, she loved the demon too.
The demon loved the forest who nursed it like a mother. And so did it abide by all that she said... and ate all the fruit she gave even though it hated the taste. But the demon cannot survive without its kill, and so it grew sick. It lay down in the forest's womb and cried. The forest did not know what to do, and she loved the people of the villages too much to set it free. So she saw her child suffer in pain and bore it silently. As the demon grew sicker, the forest wilted. Soon, the demon died and the forest grew thinner and drier.
The woodcutters could go deeper into the forest and maim her in her weakness. At last, they reached her womb where the demon had died. But it had turned to dust in the rain and the sun. So they cut the dry wood till nothing remained of the forest but barren land and tree stumps.
Today, the old tell of fables of the forest that was... and how it dried away. But nobody knows why.
This story is inspired from a Hebrew Short story titled "The Beautiful Life of Clara Shiato" by Yoram Kaniuk. While Clara was an extraordinary woman who learned to live and enjoy the demon inside her, not everybody does. And in this world, everybody has the right to a beautiful life like clara... even the forest, and the demon.
