This story is written for August 2022 News, Announcements and New Contest from The Ink Well Prompt “ WILD”
Carol is on a long-distance trip with her parents for the weekend, Carol's father is a forest department contractor and his job is to supply food and other supplies to forest officials and forest guards working in the forest department.
That's why this time he was going to spend the weekend in a guest house built in a dense forest at Carol's request. With the permission of the forest officials, arrangements were made for them to spend two days there.
As soon as they entered the forest boundary, their car was left at the same place and to go inside, they were taken to the guest house by a special vehicle covered with nets provided by the forest department.
The person on the welcome there instructed them that they should not go out of the fencing in this prohibited area without permission or else their life will be in danger. Inside the guest house, there is a provision for every food item, and there is also a cook for cooking, if needed, we will also show you the interiors of the forest.
picture https://pixabay.com/photos/girl-firefly-fairy-tale-354579/
Carol is just 6 years old and the only child of her mother and father, she is very stubborn and wicked, her mother is very upset with her mischief and stubbornness, but also loves her a lot. The next morning, they were taken by the special car of the Forest Department for a walk inside the forest, in a very dense forest, the vehicle kept passing between very huge trees, they found many animals on the way, deer, rabbits, dogs, Pigs, foxes, horses, elephants, otters, zebras, monkeys, langurs and other wild animals. Beautiful birds were chirping on the trees, there were also fireflies, which were increasing the beauty of the trees even more.
Carol and his parents were very happy, they also saw a water spring and a water pond inside the forest, there was a tree from which drops of water dripped, some trees were bearing fruits, the forest guard broke those fruits and gave them to Carol.
When the wind was blowing from a tree, such a sound was coming out as if someone was laughing and sometimes shouting. A herd of monkeys had climbed on top of his car, seeing this sight, Carol was scared and also enjoyed it. After spending the whole day inside the forest, they returned to their guest house in the evening. At night, the family fell asleep discussing the difficulties of the forest and its beauty.
Very early in the morning, Carol saw from the window that a white rabbit was roaming inside that house compound, Carol reached there, then the rabbit walked outside from there, Carol also came out behind it, from under the wire to the forest. Walked towards the side, Carol also somehow entered the forest. Carol is a very curious girl, she loves small animals but she is also very stubborn.
Now Carol started enjoying it, she started following him and while walking, she did not realize that she had come far away from that guest house, she thought of turning back but she could not remember anyway and she started crying in fear.
Little did she not realize that two terrifying eyes were looking at her from behind the bushes, it was a man heavyweight and six and a half feet in height, his face was painted in white and black, and a wooden arrowhead beside him. There was a dead animal hanging over his shoulder, instead of clothes on his body was a dress made of tree leaves, and he was wearing stone garlands and bracelets. He reached near Carol in a single jump, seeing him, Carol screamed. The man quickly took Carol in his lap and started running into the deep forest with great speed.
Here, after not finding Carol in the guest house for a long time, her parents got upset and her mother cried fiercely, the people of the forest department searched for her a lot but she was not found anywhere, in the end, her search was stopped after getting tired and they also reported her loss to the police department.
Carol's parents returned home with a sad heart, their entertainment journey had turned into a sad journey.
On the other hand, that terrible man walked about 5-6 miles and brought Carol to a cave, there were more women and men similar to him, the men had the same clothes as him but the women were also wearing clothes of some leaves on the chest, but everyone's face was very dreadful, one of them was sitting on a big rock, he had a garland of bones around his neck and on the head was also like a hat or crown made of bones. Perhaps he was the king of all these people, all of them were very happy to see the animal and the girl and started talking loudly among themselves.
picture https://pixabay.com/photos/south-africa-woman-tribe-african-949490/
From their words, it seemed as if they were people of a species living in the forest, who make people different from their tribe as their enemy. But the king, seeing her innocent face of Carol, said, take it inside and keep it comfortably, now she will be with us as a daughter, my wife's lack of a child is complete.
There was complete peace after hearing this because this had not happened to date, but there was no point in speaking in front of the king.
Time started passing, Carol is now 10 years old, now she had learned the customs and methods there, she had learned to fight with wild animals and also about the medicines of trees and plants, she was very easy on the trees in the forest. She climbed up, started to shoot arrows, jumped with monkeys, and became just like them.
Every month a man from this clan used to go to the nearby villages to get some essential items and from there bring some necessary things, in return giving them as payment of these things medicines prepared from wild trees. For the rest, they depended on wild animals and the fruits of trees and fish reared in the pond. All of them had complete satisfaction with this life.
This time when that person started going to the market, Carol also insisted that he should also want to go with him, accepting his insistence, the man took her along with the permission of the king.
By a great coincidence, on the same day, the same cook of the guest house of the Forest Department who was on duty on the day when Carol had come with her parents on the weekend, also went to that market to buy something.
When that cook saw carol with that clan man, he remembered the lost carol and made a noise and rescued Carol with the help of the market people. This information was immediately given to the police and Carol's father, Carol's father reached there with the police and was very happy to see his daughter alive, when she reached home with her, Carol's mother also cried with happiness.
But having lived with those tribesmen for more than 4 years, Carol did not recognize all of them and was showing her wildness, sometimes biting someone with a tooth, sometimes climbing a tree. There was great agility in her gait, it was not easy for anyone to catch her running, she was throwing away the clothes worn by her mother, and she did not like their food. She was in a mood to die fighting over the matter with everyone.
After many months of effort, Carol was able to come back to the memories of her real and urban life but her more than 5 years of life were spoiled. But still, Carol knows how to treat some impossible diseases with the leaves of the trees and she jumps any time when she sees a tree. perhaps some more time she will take to forget these wild habits.
