Chapter One – The End
He could remember nothing. Well, almost nothing. His mother was a blur, a shadow in the fuddled clouds of his memories. He could, however, recall the warm caress of her tongue. He remembered the rhythmic motions and velvety feel of it across his back. He remembered her life-giving milk that she so generously gave him, and its faint taste of hazelnuts. His mother was a good doe, as he recalled. Her lovely golden pictogram floating atop her head just as his did. They looked so similar, yet so alike. The symbols were their names, for spoken names were deadly in the endless forest.
His life had been normal, wonderful and delightfully normal. His mother would take him on such long, meandering walks, taking large strides as her son would run to keep up with her. They would walk all day and sleep all night. Then the next day, they would keep walking. They walked for such a long time, for his mother always told him that she wanted to see “The End”. He never had understood what she had meant by that. That was, of course, until they had found it.
They had been walking countless days when they had found “The End”. Oh, and how lovely it was! Bright sunlight peeped though the brambles surrounding the forest. He had never seen such a dazzling display of light as the two fearlessly marched through it! “We have found The End to The Endless, my son.” He remembered her say, her sweet voice still clear in his fumbled mind. He remembered the shining smile on her human-like face, and the sweet smell of her pelt as she had said,
"We are free…”
