Team: Wigtown Wanderers
Position: Captain
Prompt: Change the world
Word count: 1,327
Warnings: Racism, hatred, ostracism
The forest was large and sprawled over much of the nearby land. It was a dark and forbidding forest—the type of forest where you wanted to be sure of your welcome before entering. There were tales of this forest. The tales spoke of a siren who lived in the middle of this dark forest who either sheltered you or threw you back to the forest's unkind embrace.
Some said the siren was trapped by dark beings in the forest, a prisoner of some devil who had become enamoured with the siren. Others said the siren was the devil of the woods. Some ventured in to try and rescue the siren, while others entered with the intention of slaying the siren.
But the siren was not easy to find for the purposes of either saving or slaying. She was hidden deep within and protected by all manner of beings. Centaurs—those beings that were half-man, half-horse—patrolled the trees and threatened unwelcome visitors with sharp arrows; invisible winged horses trotted through shadow and you could never be sure you weren't being watched; deadly snakes stared at you from the underbrush or tree branches.
If you were welcome, these beings and more would act as guides. If you were not, then you were surely heading to your demise. It was a forest for the foolhardy and boastful. It was a forest that children dared each other to enter on dark nights or cloudy days. It was full of the unsightly, the dangerous, the outcasts. Those who called the forest their home were those who were only good for killing, some people claimed.
In truth, the forest was a guarded sanctuary with a kind woman at the heart of it. She had created the forest from a small glade she had stumbled into—bleeding and close to death. Her blood had soaked the earth and the earth had responded to the desperation and fear it heard. Protection had been sought and given.
Seeds long ago taken by the earth were given life from the woman's blood and grew tall and far. Shadows grew to hide and protect the weary human who had cried out for help as she collapsed too close to her attackers to remain safe for long without aid.
Where once there had been fields of green grass, there were now looming trees that obscured all within their domain. Vines hung just so in order to catch any who were not welcome—who did not know the way. Wildlife flocked to the new forest that had grown in a day and thrived, safe from any hunter that might want them for a stew.
At the heart of it all, a woman who had given her life blood to the earth for protection. She lived simply now—grateful that she lived at all after drunken ranting about the colour of her skin and her ungratefulness had escalated to deadly attacks. She walked the forests with her companion—a basilisk she had happened upon during her second day of living in the forest and healed of a deep gash caused by a shovel.
She did not wander outside of the protective trees. It was safe in the shadows and while she may not be able to change the opinions of the ignorant while within her forest, she would at least be safe from future assaults. The first visitor she had was a curious thestral touching down to investigate the forest that had not existed the last time it had flown by.
She had greeted it kindly, not at all afraid of its skeletal appearance. She knew better than to judge by appearance alone. The thestral had flown off and she'd thought it gone forever, but it soon returned with a herd behind it. The forest was a sanctuary, and not just for her.
The next to come were the centaurs, citing movements in the skies and the call of magic. She greeted them all and welcomed them to her forest. After the centaurs came her first human resident. A giant of a man barrelled into the trees with arrows pursuing him and jeering calls. It was the first time someone had been driven to the dark forest by hatred and blindness. It would not be the last.
The man was welcomed as all others had been and it was he who set the ideas whirring in the woman's mind. This forest had been created as a sanctuary for her and had already accepted those who were considered abominations by some. Perhaps she could make it truly a sanctuary—for any who were cast out from their homes or unwelcome anywhere else.
She knew she would not have hesitated to leave her previous home had she known there was a better one out there-one that accepted who she was and did not give her the most demeaning chores purely because she looked different to the others around her. The place she had lived had never truly been her home, merely a place she had been taken to when her parents had been killed by brigands.
It would have changed her entire world to know there was a place where she would be welcomed no matter what. There hadn't been such a place for her in her youth, but now she could provide that place for others who struggled.
The man—who confessed he was half-giant and was called Godric several days after she had patched him up—was eager to help, as were all the others she and the forest had previously welcomed. Centaurs patrolled the outskirts and would fire back at anyone chasing a so-called freak into the forest; thestrals flew out to find those in desperate need of help and carried them back; birds flew out and spread the message of sanctuary to those who needed to hear it—acting as guides should one have need.
To outsiders of the forest, it was considered a deadly place, full of monsters and abominations, all of whom wouldn't hesitate to kill you if you stepped foot inside. There was a siren who called these freaks to her and controlled the dark powers of the forest.
To those who lived within the forest, it was a haven. A safe place to be who you were without care or worry. There was a kind woman who sent out word to any who needed it, who healed, listened, and comforted. There was a community of those who had been shunned by society and had founded their own society away from the cruel world outside.
It was only a small part of the world, but it was theirs and forever changed. There was no hatred for each other beneath the sheltering trees. There was no fear that the breaking point would soon be reached, and one would find themselves without a home, being pursued for something they couldn't help—for merely being themselves.
Helga—a woman who had been chased out of her home by stones and swords—had created for herself a safe place and then opened her arms to everyone else who needed one just as she had once. There were even talks of building a castle in the centre of the forest to act as a more permanent gathering place of the residents. Rowena—shunned for her twisted spine and carried to the forest by a thestral—was already fiddling with plans for such a place.
Salazar, with his ability to talk to snakes and his otherwise mute voice, patrolled the forest with the centaurs and the serpents that had brought him to this place. All of them worked together to create and protect their home. They planned to help everyone who was like them—who stood against the world alone.
They planned to make sure no one had to stand alone when the world came crashing down on them. And eventually, they planned on turning the world around so that there would be no need to stand against it at all. A forest now, the world later.
