Rite of Passage

“Beyond that wall is where the monsters live,” my father said. “And if the river doesn’t take you, they will. Stay far away from here Marcus.”

I looked down at the water gushing by, it was remarkably clear, yet so deep you couldn’t see the bottom. Across the expansive river was a large pile of old stones stacked high that followed the water's twists and turns as far as the eye could see. Fluffy soft green moss cascaded down the rocks like a blanket, I almost wanted to traverse the river just to nap there.

I would often watch the fish swim by and wonder what it would be like to swim like them. It was one of my favorite places to play for the few weeks I had known about it. How could a place so beautiful hold monsters so gruesome that even my father, a strong and brave man, shook when he spoke about it.

I'm not sure why a memory like that would come to me at a time like this. Lost in the woods, days without food, the only reason I wasn't dead yet was the pond I found a few days ago, but I had lost sight of even that now. Maybe it was the thirst that brought me back to that river. I did always wonder what it would've tasted like, water that clear.

I continued to walk in search of life. I never had learned how to get water from plants, and chewing on leaves, I had learned, was not the way. I had built a trap but was so poor at navigation I lost it. Some animal was probably just dangling waiting for me to come back.

My head snapped in the direction of cracking twigs and the rustling of fallen leaves. I froze. Sniffing the ground was a fawn, no more than two months old. My stomach growled at the sight, which perked its ears. It spotted me and bolted through the trees. My hunger and thirst disappeared as I chased after it.

Through some bushes and down a short hill, I spotted it again, only a few hundred feet away. I broke into a sprint, it bleated and moved as fast as its legs could carry it, but I was quickly approaching. The wind rushed by my ears as I opened my arms for a tackle and lunged. The fawn made a sharp turn and only my fingers brushed its back, my nails breaking skin.

I fell and rolled into the dirt and leaves, the fawn took off in the opposite direction. By the time I stood up it was gone. Fatigue and hopelessness quickly set in.

Fortunately, the only thing I had to fear was hunger. As my dad had told me, this part of the woods had none of the monsters from the deeper wood. These were our hunting grounds, the perfect place to prove I was finally a man.

I sighed and began sifting through the leaves for any sign of tracks, but found nothing. The sun was beginning to set and I would soon need to find shelter. It was another failed day of hunting, another day without food. My stomach grumbled as I began searching for a place to sleep.

I ascended a large hill, hoping that I could spot some natural shelter or water, but it was only tree tops as far as the eye could see. I stood enjoying the breeze for a moment when something in the distance caught my ear, bleating.

I continued cautiously up the hill. The slow rhythmic bleating got louder as I approached a tall cliff side that overlooked the tree covered valley below. I was startled by the loud cries from just beneath my feet. I laid down and peered over the edge to find the fawn that had escaped, trapped on a thin ledge.

My stomach grumbled loudly but there was nowhere for it to run. I reached my arm down over the edge. If I could just get a hand around its neck I could pull it up. I reached, straining, my fingers brushed its back and it moved over a couple steps. I shimmied forward and stretched. A gust of hot breath caressed my leg following a loud deep snort. I looked back to find a large doe angrily stamping the dirt.

I quickly slid back onto solid ground and stood up but the doe rushed me and stamped at my feet. I stumbled backward and the ground crumbled beneath me. I slipped off of the ledge falling past the fawn bleating for its mother and hit the hard dirt and rocks, tumbling down the nearly vertical drop.

I rolled and flipped, getting a few seconds of air before slamming my shoulder into the compact earth wall. I tried to dig my fingernails in but I was moving too fast. Another few seconds of free fall and a solid hit to the back knocked the air out of my lungs.

Another few seconds and I flew through a bush. I scrambled to grab onto anything but only cut my arms with sharp branches. Another few seconds of air, a moment of extreme pain, and everything went dark.

“Hey, are you okay?”

A voice shook me from unconsciousness. A boy stood over me, probably my age or younger. He had brown hair, brown eyes, and a thin frame. He leaned closer to me, “Can you hear me? Are you alright?”

“Where am I? You're not from my village,” I stated.

“You're not from my village either, I guess there's just more than one out there. What are you doing this deep in the woods, don't you know there's monsters out here?”

“Monsters? I…” I looked up to see the sheer height I had fallen from, I couldn't make out the ledge or the fawn that stood near it. I realized it was early morning, I had been unconscious all night.

“I fell,” I said.

“You fell?” The boy asked, looking up. “The only ledge is over a hundred feet up, you should be dead after a fall like that.”

“Can you walk?” The boy asked offering me a hand. I took it and pain shot through my arm. A thick sharp branch had pieced clear through my forearm. I gripped it to pull it out.

“Wait! If you pull it out you'll bleed too much and die, I can take you to my village and our doctor can fix you up,” the boy said.

I hesitated and released my grip. Rolling over I slowly managed to get my feet under me and stood. I wobbled and the boy steadied me.

“I'm Toby, what's your name?” He asked

“Marcus.”

After an hour of hobbling through the woods we finally reached his village. The people gave us strange looks as we entered and several men with spears quickly approached..

“Please let us through, he's injured and needs help,” Toby pleaded.

A tall man pushed through the crowd, grabbed Toby's arm, and pulled him away from me. I collapsed to the ground and the spears closed in around me.

“Son, who is this?” the man asked.

“His name is Marcus, he's from another village and he needs the doctor's help!” he said.

“What other village? Where did you find him?”

Toby hesitated a moment “Along the western mountain.”

The man slapped Toby, “How dare you go that deep into the woods, you could've been taken by the monsters!”

“I’m sorry father, but he would be dead if not for me!” Toby yelled.

His father paused and stared, “Bring him to the doctor.”

Two men lifted me off the ground by my arms, I gritted my teeth through the pain. They set me down in a tent and tied me to a wooden pole. One by one the men entered with their spears at the ready, then an odd looking man approached me. Wearing only a fur skirt, his body was covered in tattoos, a band around his head was covered in green moss, and he walked with a long staff curved at the end into a pointed hook.

He stood silently and watched, I followed him with my eyes as he circled around me. “Who are you?” he asked.

“My name is Marcus,” I said hesitantly.

“Where are you from?” he asked.

“Another village I guess, I didn’t know there were more villages than our own,” I said.

“How did you get here?” he asked.

“I was going through my rite of passage and tracking a deer fawn when I slipped and tumbled down the cliff, I got really hurt,” I said, showing him my arm.

The doctor paused and stared at my injury. He then plucked a small bunch of the moss from his headband and approached me. The men with spears closed in as he rubbed it along my arm then quickly backed away. They all observed me then seemed to ease up.

He then brought over a basket of cloth and a bowl of water. He asked to see my arm and examined the wound. He held my arm out and slowly removed the wooden spike, my arm began gushing blood. The doctor stared very closely at the wound and held my arm still as it dripped onto the ground.

I was light headed and started to pass out, the spear men quickly approached and I sat back against the pole. “Please help me,” I begged.

The doctor hesitated for a moment longer then began to wash my wound and packed it tightly. He then quickly left the tent. I was alone with the spear men for an hour or so fading in and out of consciousness until the doctor reentered with Toby and his father in tow. Toby walked in with a bundle of cloth and laid it open on the ground next to me, it contained fresh fruit. He began to untie me so I could eat.

“So you come from the village over the west mountains? That’s quite a distance,” Toby’s father said.

I nodded dejectedly. “I got very lost in my rite of passage, I don’t know that I would even be able to find my way home from here.”

“Well you can stay here with us until we encounter some members of your village again. We traded with them a year or so ago, I am certain we will run into them again. However you must know that we expect you to work in our village, especially as a man of your age, we will expect you to fight alongside us,” Toby’s father said, monitoring my reaction.

“Fight against who?” I asked.

“The monsters,” Toby answered.

“The creatures that live in the woods have been terrorizing us for far too long and we are sick of living in fear of them. Next week we are launching an assault and we’ll need every man we can get,” said Toby’s father.

I thought for a moment about my failures over the last few days. “My village also lives in fear of the monsters, my father and all the men of my village are terrified to go near the deep wood. To help save my village would be an honor I can’t refuse,” I said proudly.

“Then welcome to our village. Toby, you're responsible for training him with a spear, make sure he’s ready by the end of the week,” his father said.

Toby nodded excitedly and helped me to stand up, bringing the bundle of fruit with him and guiding me out of the tent. I took a few days to rest before we began training together. The doctor said my wound would likely take several weeks or even months to heal and that I should practice fighting with only a short spear in my right hand.

“Wow, you are so fast & strong, is everyone like that in your village?” Toby asked.

“I suppose, it might just be because I’m older than you though, do you all use these spears when you hunt?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’m not strong enough to use a long spear yet, but I’d bet when your arm is healed you will be,” he said with enthusiasm.

“Hmm, when my village hunts we just use our hands,” I said.

“How can you kill a deer with your hands?” he asked.

“If you grab its neck and twist or squeeze hard enough it'll kill them,” I said. The short spear felt as light as leaves.

“Wow you all sound so cool, I wish we could get your whole village to come help us fight the monsters,” he said.

“You know, I’ve never seen another village before but you all look a lot like us. Same clothing, same buildings, same voices, and faces, do you think all villages look like this?” I asked.

“I’m not sure. My dad said we’ve traded with your village before but I don’t remember seeing anyone different so maybe,” he said.

“Well, should we train some more?” I asked.

“I think you’re about as trained as you can be. You should start teaching me how to twist a deer's head off!” He said with a laugh.

After a few days we were prepared for battle. Thick animal skins were donned for protection and all the village men were covered in red war paint. We stood in a large group at the forest's edge and waited as Toby's dad stepped up on a large rock.

“For years, these monsters have terrorized us, copied us, captured us, and eaten us. They forced us from our hunting grounds, from our homeland and into the prairie, forcing us to survive on grains and fruits. No longer will we allow them to infest our lands, our village once was rich in meat and plentiful in skins, and it shall be again, even if we have to kill every last one!”

Every man cheered and roared as they marched into the woods, ready to attack at the first sight of a monster. As we moved I began to wonder what the monsters might look like. I prepared my spear ready to stab a charging beast in the head.

“What if they are really tall with long craning necks?” I thought. “Then I'd have to jump up and stab it, but what if it has armor plating?”

My mind began to run wild, envisioning all the horrifying creatures we could encounter. Toby could see the fear in my eyes. “Hey are you okay?”

“How deep in the woods are they?” I asked.

“See that stone wall? We built that to keep them out, the monsters are on the other side of it,” he said.

“They just stay over there?” I asked.

“No, there's a huge river that keeps them out, apparently they aren't able to swim like we can,” he said.

As we approached I could hear the rush of cascading water. The men began to scale the hill of stones that led up to the wall and disappeared over the top.

“What do they look like?” I asked.

“They look exactly like us and they sound like us, but they're stronger and faster, and their injuries heal super fast, so they aren't people, we call them doppelgangers.”

“Then how are we going to kill them?” I asked.

“There's a green moss that grows on the other side of the wall and it's poisonous to them, that's our secret weapon,” he said.

We climbed the rocks and I looked down at the water gushing by, it was remarkably clear, yet so deep you couldn’t see the bottom. On our side of the expansive river was a large pile of old stones stacked high that followed the water's twists and turns as far as the eye could see. Fluffy soft green moss cascaded down the rocks like a blanket, I always wanted to traverse to this side of the river just to nap here.

My heart began to sink as I unwrapped the bandages around my forearm to find my wound completely healed.