The World of Nature

Written By: Kareeb Hassan

A forest fire in a small desolate town rumbles the ground and burns whole homes and structures into the ground. Roads are blocked off by burning trees, and what was once a desolate place of the wild turned into a hellish wasteland filled with burnt remains of what it once was. Homes that were once a place of shelter now only fuel to the flames, a playground that was once full of children and tired parents was now melting like ice cream in the summer heat, stores, offices and schools turning into burned remains. It was a devastating moment as thousands swiftly left the town, leaving their remains to the flames. After officials arrived at the scene, a young boy was later found underneath debris from a water tower and was rushed to the local hospital.

Evan was someone who never really cared about getting friends. To him, the wild in which he lived right by was just enough for him. Since he was 7 years old, he would admire the natural nature surrounding him. It almost seemed like nature and Evan were like family. Every single day he would first go to school and be the nerdy kid he always was. Despite being bullied often, he would tend to usually outsmart his opponents by confusing them with saying something smart, or just doing a quick maneuver to get away from them. He tends to do this just as frequently as he gets bullied. After school, he would then do everything he needed to do, complete his homework for the night, work on any projects and then continue on with the rest of the day. Then, he does what he does best, and he goes into the wild and becomes sucked into the luscious world of nature.

“Mom, do you mind if I can go to the woods for the day?”,

Evan said to his mother. “Sure, “ his mom replied, “just make sure not to-”.

Before his mother could finish her advice, Evan ran off deep into the woods. Excited to see all of nature’s wonders once again.

“That boy sure is a troublemaker,” says his dad drinking coffee at the table, “Kinda reminds me of myself really.”

“He sure is someone who wants to explore, heck he might be willing to climb Mount Everest at this rate,” said his mother looking out the window as she saw Evan run into the deep forest.

“Sometimes, I don’t even understand the kid,” she said with a sigh, “But if this is what he wants to do, then so be it I guess.”

From the tall wooden trees, to the nice small little plants. The wild was a place that he felt he could trust, especially since what usually happened at home… Evan was once an orphan. He was just a kid in an orphanage that was like a prison. The food was the equivalent of cat food, the beds were as solid as rock, and even the playground barely had anything to actually play with. He was kept at that orphanage for almost 5 years. Then, one day, the police came in and swatted the place. Apparently, this wasn’t just any ordinary orphanage. The people running the place were actually child kidnappers. What was most unfortunate was that, not only was Evan not even one year old when upon his kidnapping. But when the kidnappers were confronted by his parents… they were killed. Just two pops of a gun and then just like that, a crying infant, torn away from the family that was supposed to raise him. So, with nowhere else to go, he grew up with a different family, who lived partially in the woods.

He would eventually learn to love the wild and the wild seemed to love him. Even the most terrifying living things, like a snake or even a bear. Didn’t act so aggressive, in fact, one of his proudest moments was when he got to see a beautiful blue jay up close and even got to touch it, and he even managed to successfully gift a bear with berries by leaving the berries in its vicinity and hiding behind the tree. He would never really go to the zoo like any of his usual classmates would, he thought the wild was better than the zoo. Rather than seeing these animals behind cages and watching them, you’re actually with them, you can see them, you can hear them, and you can even interact with them.

He would go to the birds and talk to them, and the birds would sing in response to him.

Once, he saw a rat and rather than get scared like his friends would, he simply said, “Why hello there, perhaps you would want to eat something?”

All the rat responded was a loud hiss before running off.

Today, however, was a little different than all the other days. He noticed the forest seemed very quiet for even someone like him to recognize. Feeling unnerved, he didn’t know what to do. Evan soon thought there was something-like a bear-possibly coming near, so he began to make plenty of noises, which was something that he learned from his adoptive mother. Eventually he thought he saw something, a large animal, peacefully resting. But the way the animal looked didn't seem so peaceful. Evan began running towards the animal, is he seeing what he thinks he sees? No… it can’t be… But when he came upon approaching the animal he saw it was a bear, it was dead.

“How could this have happened?”

Evan thought to himself as he looked at the claw marks stretching from the side of the bear's skin with the blood changing the bear's fur color to a dark red. Evan couldn’t even touch the bear without getting some of its blood on his hands.

“Whatever happened to this bear must’ve been devastatingly stressful. I’m sorry if you had to go through all that pain, Mr.Bear.” said Evan, he always had a childish habit of naming them in such a way that seems like something out of a children's book.

He observed the bleeding marks on the bear's skin. It looked like it went through one heck of a fight. It was something so unnatural. From what he had found he knew that the source of the attack was from another bear. Before he is even able to turn around, he hears a blood-curdling growl…

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr……

He turns around to see that another bear was supposedly here watching him from a safe distance. Evan did everything to convince the bear that wasn’t a threat; that the bear didn’t need to act like this. But the bear wasn’t convinced. The bear began to start charging when a jaguar came out of nowhere, scaring and viciously attacking the bear. The bear, now injured, eventually ran away into the deep depths of the forest. Evan, now scared and confused, tried to not intimidate the jaguar. He couldn’t tell if he was successful with convincing the jaguar or not, due to the look of the jaguar. The Jaguar was in a claiming pose, but had a serious I-will-kill you look. The Jaguar then zipped into the depths of the forest and Evan decided to follow.

“What am I thinking? I shouldn’t go this far, I might lose my way home!” said Evan.

He knew he shouldn’t go this deep into the woods, so why was he following this Jaguar he's only seen for 3 minutes? After a while of following in the Jaguar’s footsteps, he sees a beautiful plain he has never seen before. There was a wide lake that glistened in the sunlight, it was like the lake was made of blue crystals. There were also miles and miles of grass and flowers. There were hills that looked like giant mountains. Then he looked at the Jaguar, who was with a family of other Jaguars,

Evan began to ask the Jaguar, “Is this your home? Is this your family?”

He knew he wasn’t gonna get a response, (after all this wasn’t a fantasy movie) but he was well known for talking to the animals even if he knew he didn’t get a response. When he said “hello” to a bird all it would do is tweet, when he talked to a deer, all it would do is stare. When he talked to a bear, all the bear would do was calmly watch.

A bunch of little Jaguar cubs then began running and playing in the thick grass. “You have wonderful children Mr.Jaguar, can I call you Mr and Mrs Jaguar?” said Evan. All the male Jaguar gave in response was a measly growl. “I’ll take that as a no.” said Evan in response, smiling. In the next moment Evan was playing around in the field and the cubs seemed to really enjoy it. While the Jaguar was calmly watching from behind with his mate. He was almost feeling like carrying them like how a jaguar would carry little cubs. But he knew the Jaguar wouldn’t like it so he kept his hands off the little cubs. But something about the Jaguar family seemed familiar, not just the fact it was a family but he felt like something that felt so familiar, like he was a baby playing with his parents, a feeling he never got to truly experience growing up. He felt…

At home.

He was lying on the ground enjoying this experience when he realized that it was starting to get late and he should probably go home and get his homework done. But then, all of a sudden a loud crash was heard from a distance. The sound of thick metal breaking and scratching against the wood. After a while, he saw a trail of smoke far in the distance.

“Oh no…” said Evan.

The wind in between the trees stopped. The birds flew without their usual cries. And the forest was silent.

A truck that was transporting gas to a nearby gas station veered off the road and crashed into the forest. The engine ignited into flames and it wouldn’t take long for the gas to also be engulfed in flames. The flames were quickly spreading and Evan was worried about not only himself but the animals as well. It didn’t take long for Evan to see birds flying away and other animals zooming past him. Evan began to run towards the direction of the flames rather than away. Oddly enough, when he looked behind him, the Jaguar was following him and was guiding the animals to safety by scaring them in the right direction. Evan began to pick up any animals that were struggling and carried them as far away as possible from the oncoming fire but then, a boom of fire began to make the fire worse. Evan fell to the ground and looked around him, he was now in the middle of the fiery storm.

He coughed and coughed, and screamed, “HEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLP! I'M DYING HERE!” ,but despite his efforts, he wasn’t able to find anyone.

Evan would continue to run through the blaze, scared for his life. He began to wish he had never gone here, he began to wish he just had a normal life with his real parents, he wished he didn’t have to experience all of this. He was running through the choking soot and feeling the fiery breath of the flames as he felt as if he was slowly being cooked alive. The smoke was so thick that he had no idea where to go. Almost everything felt hot to the touch. Evan continued to run and find burning remains of once living animals. Evan then heard a strange call in the distance, there was the same Jaguar, just standing there peacefully, “I can’t believe my eyes, what are you doing here!?” said Evan.

What was the Jaguar doing here? What about his family? Evan was beginning to choke, he could feel the black soot swell in lungs. Evan ran to the Jaguar and hugged it tightly as he didn’t know what to do. Suddenly he felt a comfort he thought he had never felt before. He felt like he was a baby, cradled and comforted by a loving mother and father. It reminded him of something he would have experienced as a young infant, yet here he was, in his sophomore year of high school and he’s hugging a dangerous animal as the flames slowly surround them. As he drops his tears of sorrow he tells the Jaguar one thing, “Can you tell my mother that I’m coming home?” The Jaguar then gives what Evan would have only heard to have been a really quiet purr. He got up as the Jaguar nudged the young boy.

The Jaguar ran into the flames in which Evan followed. They kept running until they saw light. “There it is! Our way out!” said Evan in excitement, ready to leave the now burning forest, but then an overwhelming sense of pain and exhaustion reaches him and he trips on a burnt branch he was unable to see. He fell down and felt like he couldn’t get back up. He was able to notice the Jaguar now going back to him, “No… No… go where you need to go, back to your family, in the wild. Just make sure to tell your family that… they will be safe thanks to you and me.” The Jaguar, though it was silent, stood still for a moment and ran off out into the light in which both were to reach. The fiery gates closed on what seemed to be Evan’s only way out. He closed his eyes and wished it would all go away. But then, he begins to look at his surroundings, possibly finding a way to at least signal for some help.

Despite the soot filling up from within his very lungs. He lunged himself toward a tree that was soon enough to be ignited in the flames of the forest fire. He began to quickly but steadily climb his way up. But his lack of being able to breathe made it almost impossible to do it without feeling as weak as an egg. He felt vulnerable, he felt hurt, he almost felt DEAD. But despite the pain he managed to get all enough to see the fresh sky. Still filled with smoke, but had just the right amount of oxygen for him to breathe. He almost began to cry, he felt like he hadn’t seen the sky in ages. But the sky didn’t seem so happy to see him. The clouds were gray as the sky was almost nothing but a bright orange. Just then, he noticed something out in the distance, a water tower way taller than any of the trees as about to be lit ablaze and collapse. Evan saw this as a chance to really get some help. He climbed down the tree and into the fiery, smokey wilderness. Running in one direction straight to the unstable water tower. His legs were burning in the flames. But he had kept his eyes on the prize as he ran as fast as a leaping leopard and then he reached it, the water tower. But… he was too late.

The very foundation of the tower began to fall under the brink of collapse, as the flames ate into the wood like fast and very hungry termites. Evan knew it wouldn’t be long before it would collapse hard into the ground. But right next to it was an open road to which he could escape. So there he was running as fast as humanly possible. But just as he was about to escape the flames and smoke Evan heard a loud crack, followed by a boom. He looked behind to see the tower quickly falling down towards him. He didn’t have enough time to get out of the way and the next thing the forest would hear would be a scream followed by the crackling of the flames.

When firefighters arrived, they saw the water tower, now partially extinguished because of the water held within it, but then they saw something unexpected. A jaguar was pulling the kid out of the water tank, it was Evan, covered in blood and wounds. One police officer was slowly pulling out his gun before the chief told him to hold back. Then, the jaguar managed to successfully pull the young boy out. All the medical staff came running to the boy and began to quickly lift him in the ambulance and drive off. All while the jaguar just sat there, almost looking kind of saddened to see him carried away. The jaguar makes another sad purr before running deep into the woods with its family where it cannot be seen. The officer and firefighter made a quick salute and for a while, it seemed like even the fire had grown silent for the boy and the Jaguar.

Many hours go by while in the ER. A heavily injured young boy was standing on the line between life and death. Evan’s parents couldn’t have been any more devastated than they already were. They could only hope that their son would live on normally. But unfortunately, their prayers were never answered.

Evan Arsenal was found to have died after being crushed by the burning water tower. His lungs were mainly the issue. After his rib cage broke from the collapse, his lungs gave out, which would lead to his death. But as far as Evan knew, that wasn’t true. He was still at the field playing happily with animals and eating the many wondrous fruits of the wild. To him, he was playing with the same Jaguar that helped him throughout the way and he was still laying down at a hill resting with his real family, the family that could’ve raised him, the Jaguars. As the sun settled, he would fall asleep for now, in his eyes, he was in the world that he dreamed to be in.

In the beautiful skies of nature.

THANKS FOR READING!