This story begins in the winter of 1831. It's not a clamourus story, it's not a happy story, it's real life, and It's not all fun and games, or candy and puppies. It's hard work, and it's tough, it's dark and it's sad.
The month was November, the day I can't remember. All I remember was it was cold, and my people were dying. The plague had been going though the streets Dublin for a while now, and there was nothing I could do to save them. I was lucky I never died myself, but as a land my body was able to withstand more than a human, though I came close once, and it was terrifying.
My people had been asking for more leway for a long while, as things were advancing, and things were growing, I was trying to keep hold of what I had, trying not to let it get out hand, and I was losing my grasp at an alarming rate, and there was nothing I could do to keep hold. There was nothing I could do...nothing...
I fed who I could...housed who I could...but they all died, and it broke my heart. I used to be a happy capital...naturally happy...now I had to struggle to keep a smile on my face, and eventually I got too good at it. If I wasn't depressed in my house watching more and more people die, I was pretending to be happy, and that hurt me as well, because it wasn't ME.
I had people walk up to me, and tell me this was all my fault. People walk up to me and beg for help, and I had to shake my head and say there was nothing I could do...I'm sorry. It broke me. I finally locked my doors, closed the shutters and shut the world out...

Christmas with the family came and went... they all wondered why I was so gloomy, they were all going though the same thing but they were enjoying the festivities. They were sad yes, but they were used to it. I hated seeing my people diying, regardless if it was normal for a human to die when they got sick. Back then it was all too normal, because there were no antibiotics, no vaccines, no nothing.

When Febuary came along I finally dragged my sorry butt outside. The snow covered ground was cold, but it was home...And it was dark...
the ground was too frozen to bury the dead, so they were done what was common for back in the times when people died in large quantities. They were thrown in ditches to wait for the thaw that wouldn't be for another month or two. I walked the streets and got a lot of dark looks. I had been gone for four months, so maybe that was what was wrong. Or they still hated me. Or both. Sadly both was the most likely reason.
Walking around I saw the sadness in the eyes of the humans...The homeless children filling the orphanage home that was already too full, most were hiding, starving, most gave me the same evil looks the adults gave me, but one...One kid.
The boy was hiding behind a wall at the edge of Dublin, and when I saw him he didn't give me an evil look...he gave me a look of fear, loneliness...a look I bet I had, and sadness...
"Dia Duit..." I said not approaching him. A simple hello, nothing threatning.
"Dia Duit..." He said in return. He was a small boy, maybe four or five, so young, and starving. You could tell he was thin just by his thin face that people didn't normally have. He had black hair and green eyes with freckles, and if I could see him smile, he'd look so happy...
"You hungry?" I asked crouching down near him, forcing a sad smile on my face. The boy nodded so I held out my hand.
"Then let's go find you something to eat, aye?" He took my hand and I picked him up. He was wet and cold. He'll stay with me till he's strong, then I'll find him a home, I told myself. But the boy clung to me as if I were his last chance for survival, and I was.
"What's your name?" I asked as I walked home though the cold streets. He replied with Jack, he didn't remember his last name, but he said he'd lost his family to the plauge and that he was all alone. "You won't be alone anymore." I promised him, not knowing how true those words would be.

Once back at the house I set him down infront of the fire, took off his wet dirty clothes and gave him a blanket.
"I'll go put some tea on the stove, and maybe some stew?" Jack nodded clinging to the blanket scooting closer to the fire for warmth. I turned to the kitchen and put a tea kettle on the woodstove to heat up, then dished up a bowl of stew and carried it back to the main room handing it to him. It didn't last long, that's all I could say.
"Want some more?" I asked. He nodded. So I went back to get more and brought back some tea with me. I sat down in the nearby chair watching him till he finished and stood. "Hmm?"
He walked over to me and crawled into my lap with a yawn. I couldn't help but wrap my arms around him holding him close, maybe even a little protectively. "I'm alone..." he said again.
"I am too, Jack...I'm Finnegan by the way, but you can call me Finn..." I smiled a little bit at him as he yawned again falling asleep.
"Finn...We'll keep each other company?" He said looking up with hopeful eyes. I nodded regardless of what I'd told myself before.
"Yeah, we'll keep each other company. Forever." He nuzzled against me a small smile on his face and fell asleep. I wrapped the blanket around him tighter holding him close just sitting there quietly singing a small song I'd heard mothers singing to their kids before. He slept soundly. Warm, fed, comfortable, safe. And I was his protector.

Day's passed. Months passed, and he grew used to being at my house. He enjoyed exploring, and once in a while he'd give me a heart attack and dissapear for a couple hours and I'll find him in some random tree outside. The more I was around Jack the more accustomed I'd come to taking care of the boy I'd found in the cold.
"Finn!" Jack called one day around mid April. The snow had melted in the valley, though it still stuck in the mountains. The birds were finally out again, more active, the flowers were blooming. Jack has been dissapearing for a while, though to where I didn't know, but I got over it because he'd always come home.
"Yes Jack?" I said coming into the main room from my office. My people were still at it, and it was getting way too stressful...
"I made a fort! Come see!" I chuckled and followed. What else could I do? Tell the kid no and go back to work? He'd become like a son to me, I couldn't do that...
"I'm coming, Jack, I'm coming." The fort he showed me was a few branches pressed up against a tree. Nothing special, but he was very proud of himself.
"I made it for when I'm bigger! I'll live here!" He was very dead set on that. The innocece of youth. It was nice to have someone who didn't give me a death glare whenever they saw me.
"It's a little small don't you think, Jack?" I asked with another chuckle. I looked inside and there was barely enough room for him to sit down in at five years old, let alone when he was grown up with a family.
"I'll expand it! It'll have bedrooms, and a kitchen, and a fire place room and everything!" He hugged my leg excitedly. "I can't wait to grow up. Then I can help you with your job!" Then it hit me...He was human, I was a land. He'd die and I'd live...and that thought broke my heart. "Papa?" He looked up at me when I'd taken a deep breath to try and keep calm.
I blinked down at him. He'd never called me Papa before... "Papa?" I asked curiously with a small smile upon my face.
"Well...you take care of me...and you love me...that's what Papa's do! And you play with me! You're my papa!" He hugged my neck with a giggle.
I smiled at him and held him close. "And you're like a son to me, Jack. You know that?" I started to carry him home.
"Yes, I know! I love you, Papa!" He smiled up at me.
"I love you too, Jack!" I ruffled his hair with a smile and kissed his forehead. "Now. How about we wash up and have some lunch?" He practically jumped from my arms and ran home, myself in close pursuit.