Forest Family

In a vast and strange land there was an ever-present layer of fog lingering around the canopy of towering green trees.

The fog was thick but hazy at the same time, only allowing slight glimpses at its own leisure.

It swirled in hypnotic motions through the huge branches and leaves of the forest.

In this massive forest was a young boy in a ragged brown beast skin skirt sleeping on a thick branch that was three times the width of his shoulders.

A magnificent blue sun slowly stalked its way up into the sky and shed its warm white light onto the top layer of the thick wilderness.

Time slowly passed as the sunlight crawled its way on the boy's face illuminating his features.

With a button nose and light brown eyes adorning his face, he shined with a youthful glow. His skin was smooth and slightly tanned, reminiscent of caramel.

Seemingly not willing to wake yet, he rolled over onto his stomach and waited for the sunlight to engulf his back, then his whole body.

By the time the sunlight had engulfed the whole branch he lazily turned back over.

The boy who couldn't have been more than fifteen years old yawned and rolled on his side until he approached the edge of the thick branch he spent the night on.

He groggily fell off and started plummeting from a height of at least 10 meters.

Whoosh Woosh!

"Hahahaha!" The young boy giggled as the wind blew his rustled mane of black hair up into the air behind him.

His bright brown eyes, almost amber, hazily focused the scenery of the forest into view around three seconds into free fall.

"Aah Oohahahh!" Calls and screeches rebounded through the branches as monkeys woke and the ecosystem of the forest shrugged off its sleep.

Beautiful birds of all colors took to the skies as the boy could see magestic creatures stride far into the distance.

He balled his body as he smashed through countless brittle branches and feeble leaves.

More rustling followed as baby monkeys launched themselves after the boy.

"Ahh! Ahh!" And enraged cries of the mother followed after that.

"Hehe!" The boy let out another giggle.

He burst through the layer of thin branches while the ground rapidly grew in his sight.

Suprisingly, with a stunning agility, he flipped and oriented his body perpendicular to the thick trunk and kicked off its surface.

Psh!

The boy jetted outwards and fell to the ground with a thud as soil splashed outwards in a cloud of dust.

"Hey Marna, I think forgot my sword! Throw it to me!" The boy shouted towards the tops of the trees as he patted himself down.

"Eeek!" A shadow of an object blurred threw the trees and leaves fell everywhere in its path.

The boy caught a lusterless black sword with a heavy recoil. He slid backward in the dirt, leaving a long trail.

'Damn, that stung.' He thought.

After the pain went away, he observed the object in his hands.

It was a sword. It's hilt curved forward slightly and its blade was single-edged and three feet long. It's scabbard was a dull black steel and thick.

Along the gray leather wrapped around its scabbard was a scratched name.

It read 'Rava'.

"Hey! No need to be so rough, thery're fine once again aren't they?" The boy sputtered as little orange furballs fell from the leaves onto his head one by one.

They stacked five high before standing up and looking around with curious, glistening eyes.

This mischievous retort was met by a long scream followed by the sound of something falling.

It was fast and heavy. With a loud boom, an orange monkey with gray hands and feet landed on all fours with its tail batting at the air above it.

It lorded over the boy in height, standing at six feet hunched over. It had a slender body like a spider monkey but had lean powerful muscles rolling underneath its shiny coat.

The boy was launched a few inches off the ground at the impact.

"Geeze Marna! You're too heavy!"

"Kieee!"

"Hahaha!"

…

After a bout of playing with the family of monkeys, Rava fastened the sword to his waist with the gray leather.

He was ready to set off.

He could never set off without his sword. He couldnt afford to lose it. It was one of the only things in this vast world that he could say belonged to him.

That and his family he could suppose…

This boy's name is Rava. As far as he could remember, he had his sword on him his whole life. He liked to assume it was his parents' keepsake to him. He also came to the assumption that it was named after him.

Rava didn't have much recollection of life outside the jungle, but he preferred to keep it that way. For all he was concerned, he could live the rest of his life in the jungle.

"…"

Thinking that made a mysterious regret well up inside Rava…

However it was almost instantly overpowered by his recent grievances outside the jungle.

"Hmph!" Rava forced the memories down and marched forward through the winding forest with six orange monkeys in tow and a sword hanging from his hip.

They searched the forest high and low for suitable prey and avoided dangerous predators. With nimble movement and keen awareness, it looked as if a pack of veteran scavengers were wringing the forest clean of all the easy nutrients.

Day slowly shed its pale blue countenance and a dreamy purple hue took hold over the starry skies.

The blazing blue sun relented against the horizon's momentum as its magnificent sapphire light was slowly snuffed out, leaving an ever-dimming purple scenery.

"Marna, we haven't seen Gaona for 2 days now right?" Rava worriedly commented as he used the slack of his pelt skirt to hold an assortment of small game, fruits, nuts, and herbs.

He agiley jumped from branch to branch all while keeping his haul steady, only spilling one or two large fruits every few jumps.

"Eee!" The mother leaped a few layers above Rava with her babies on her shoulders, also carrying their share in her hands.

Within the group of animals who raised him, Rava was still looking for Gaona and Tala. The former being a large blue wolf, and the latter being a hawk.

Gaona would usually wander around, but Tala wasn't known to depart for so long without exception. With both of them missing for two days straight without a single sign, Rava started to worry.

An ominous foreboding had settled into the pit of his stomach and refused to recede.

"Let's search in the morning."