Tales, a Story I wish I lived

"You're not talented…"

That was his assessment of me…

I am an orphan. At least that is what he told me. I am now 13 years old. Me and the old man live in a cabin in the woods. I don't think we are near any town or city because I have explored most of the area surrounding our little cabin and found no records of other people. The old man has a big collection of books. He likes to spend his time reading them and I also grew very fond of books. They tell me stories about some crazy stuff that I can only imagine. They tell tales about adventures, tales of love and friendship. I long for a life like those in the books. The old man also has some more scientific books.

"There is no such thing as too much information." The old man would say that a lot to me. So i read a lot. But I also love the woods. I like to go on my little adventures, if you could even call them that. I would spend hours in the woods imagining I was out in a fairy tale. Near our house is a very big lake. The old man taught me how to swim and fish there. The cold water has lots of different fish and algae. That is how I have spent most of my life so far. Reading, exploring and at the lake. The old man doesn't tell me much about his life. I don't even know his name, I called him dad when I was younger but he didn't like it. He always told me I was not his son. He only says that he came to the woods in search of a quiet place to rest. Other than that there is not much I know. He's not the talking type either. You are probably curious about what the old man meant by saying I'm not talented.

Two years ago I was out in the woods doing my daily exploring and I saw a very big boar. I sometimes see some animals but they usually run away because of my loud noise. But I managed to come very close to this boar. I was just observing, seeing what it was doing.

"Wow, it's so big. I wish I could hunt it for dinner."

I said while observing the boar from between the bushes. The boar was starting to move away from me so I tried to get closer.

"Snap"

I stepped on a twig. The loud noise alerted the boar of my presence and we got into a stand off. I didn't move. I was too scared. I tried to slowly walk away from there. One, two, three, but on the fourth step.

"Snap"

Like a shot signaling the start of a race the boar started to run at me like crazy. It was so fast I couldn't react. I turned around and closed my eyes, afraid of getting hurt by it.

"Swoosh"

I hear a sound. Something was moving so fast that the wind made a noise. And then… nothing, no sound of the boar. I turned around to see what was happening when I saw the old man. His hand went through the belly of the boar. He is holding it in the air as if it weighted nothing. He pulls his hand out and with it comes the heart of the boar. The animal falls on the ground motionless.

"Are you good there kiddo?"

"... Yes… I am fine."

"That 's good. We will have boar for dinner today."

The old man turned around and started to walk towards our cabin.

I spent the whole night thinking about that. How did it happen? How could it? The old man was at the cabin and the next second he was with me, holding the boar.

"Hey old man."

"Yes?"

"How did you do that?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, how did you kill that boar? I mean, you were here the whole time that day. How could you appear there so fast and kill the boar with your bare hands?"

"..."

No answer. He didn't say anything and just kept on reading his book. That was that. Life went on. The routine never changed though.