9 9: My Past

Sage's story.

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I was 4 years old at the time...The time when my family was complete. The time where both my mother and father were happy.

My father was the CEO of a car company, he was a very clever man. He often brought me to his company and I could see that he was friendly with his staff and serious when it was time to work. Everyone loved him. The business was going well and the profits were great...He once said to me with a smile

"Son, I'm going to leave you with this company one day when you grow up. It's quite fun here, and I know you'll love it!"

That period was one of the most inspiring moments of my life... But some people were jealous of his achievements, So they tried to scheme against him. They tried to use me to get at him.

One evening on my way back from kindergarten, I was suddenly confronted by two strange men, they were tall and had black masks that covered their faces. They kidnapped me, they covered my mouth with a dirty cloth and I passed out, the last thing I remembered was them dragging me into a van.

When I woke up I was in the middle of a forest, obviously not like this one but it was dense and dark, it was covered in fog and there was no one in sight. I was very scared, I didn't know what to do, so I kept moving deeper and deeper into the forest.

I had no concept of the time before I knew it I found an old shack, it was in the middle of a thick swamp. There was a footpath but it was very dangerous to walk on. There was no barricade and the gap between each step was too wide apart for a kid my age to walk on, so I had to jump on them.

(*stump*)

With each step, I was putting my life on the line but it was all worth it in the end because I got to the entrance. It took a bigger leap than when I was jumping on the footpath but like I said I was all worth it in the end.

Anyway, I opened the doors to see if anyone was inside.

(*creak*)

"Hello!?! is anyone home!?!"

No one was inside, but it had signs that someone resided there. There was a mug half-filled with tea and a half eating bread. Clothes were scattered on their couch. I continued exploring around the shack discovering other evidence of a person residing here, but there was something that caught my interest the most at the time. It was the gun I saw, a real gun.

I wanted to get a closer look but, before I could a shadow lingered behind me. I was too scared to turn around but I had no choice, a hand rested on my shoulder and I was forcibly turned around. That person was the owner of the shack.

"What's a kid doing here!? do they let kids into the forest these days... Sigh, I've only been away from society for a few years but it's already corrupt."

It was a middle-aged man, he looked between 30 and 40 years of age. His appearance wasn't really kept properly, he looked exhausted and his clothes from his green jacket to his boots were tattered. He kept on complaining about how society was so corrupt, at the time I had no idea what he was going on about but now I get it.

Anyway, he started asking me questions.

"Hey kid, where are you from? how did you get here? where are your parents?"

I explained my situation to him, about the two strange men and how I ended up in his shack. His expression became that of an angry beast.

"Those sons of a... Sigh, don't worry kid I'll look after you, for now, you can call me Kithe ."

And that was how he took me in. That was when I started getting experience in terms of survival... I slept there on the couch for the night.

••••••••

The next day I was woken by the sound of a knife being sharpened

(*scrape*)

It was Kithe sharpening a butcher knife, and laying beside him was a dead deer, I watched him skin it and I was captivated, I wanted to learn how to do it because his technique was flawless, as well as his cooking. The deer was for us to eat of course it wasn't for free.

"Yo!, you up already? good, get working, go do the laundry and sweep the floor, what're you standing around for? get moving"

Of course, I'd never done any sort of chore at the time, so it took a while before I got a hang of it. It took a few days before Kithe had paid any attention to me. The day he did was the day I learned how to survive in the wilderness.

He took me to his hunting ground in the forest. "Hey? have you ever seen anyone hunt before?"Of course, I never did a the time so said no.

"Well, you're in luck kiddo because you'll be doing the hunting yourself."

He threw me on the ground and left a small knife beside me. He then said. "If you can't even capture one rabbit then don't even think of coming back to the shack." He was so harsh on me at the time but now I know why he was.

Anyway, as a four-year-old, I was sacred by the fact that I was left alone and had to fend for myself, I hid in the bushes and began to hatch a plan to on have to capture a rabbit, I knew Kithe said to kill it but I didn't have what it took to kill a living being, after all, I was only 4.

After I completed my plan I began to put it into action, I laid several tarps around the vicinity, and added a little bell to a tope connecting to them the traps and waited for a rabbit to fall into one of them. After a while, I finally caught one, the trap it was caught in was near a snake's nest but I didn't know at the time.

Anyhow, I went to the rabbit's location and was in the process of opening the trap. But before I could I felt a sharp sting on my right leg and heard something hissing.

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