The Death of Heart

Crunchy golden leaves dropped gently on the dry soil floor of the Acorn Heaven forest, where acorns fall like hail in august. As I walked above the shriveled sun-baked leaves, I could smell the perishing leaves scents coming slowly into my nose. It wasn’t an unpleasant scent but more of a calm and warm scent that blended well with the reddish-golden colors of the leaves below me. Half-naked trees kept dropping the crispy lifeless leaves covering every acorn that fell early this year.

Scrambling through the leaves, I found fresh acorns with a potholed hat. I couldn’t resist biting into one of the acorns. As the acorn shattered between my teeth, I tasted a bitterness that soon got replaced by the buttery scent of the nut. More acorns from big to small came out as I scavenged through the leaves. The soil was visible when I scraped the leaves out, and long slimy worms were plowing on the earth. I snatched one right out of the planet and chewed on it until the juice inside spattered. The squishy taste of the worm lingered in my mouth as I swallowed it.

By the time the sun was setting, My cheek was full of acorns, and my stomach was full of live spaghetti. The sunset made a superb view of the forest by painting a black silhouette of the trees on the floor. I climbed down the tree that I call the “control center tree” since it was the highest tree in the forest and swiftly ran back to my home tree. When I came back to my tree hole, I opened the secret storage at the back of my straw bed and spat out all the acorns that I was storing in my mouth.

The time passed as acorns stuffed my tree hole. Soon after, I was lying on a bed full of acorns having no worries on my mind. The cold was invading fast, and I was ready for it. The night was long, and the day was shorter. I brought some twigs from the ground to cover up the tree hole so no other intruder could steal my acorns. I almost poked myself in the eye while covering the entrance of my house. The next thing I did was crawl up on the straw couch and close my eyes until my head was empty and the darkness dragged me into a deep slumber.

The sound of owls chirping woke me up in the morning of February. The sunlight was hugging every part of the forest, and baby green leaves were colonizing the tip of the branches on trees. More animals came out from the earth, trees, and even water as warmer weather engulfed the whole forest. There were still some acorns that I picked up last year below my itchy bed, and as I prepared my breakfast with acorns and worm intestine soup,

Suddenly, an unbearable smell stung my nose with its dreadful scent. I did not know where the odor was coming from, and it was the smell of something rotting. It had an awful smell of rotting meat, and It gave me a horrible headache. I checked my acorns and all of them were in good shape. As I kept on thinking that the smell was coming inside of my tree hole, I opened the branches that were blocking the entrance to let in some fresh air. The lifeless branches fell apart as I pushed and scraped on them. When I looked down to make sure no one got hit by the branches falling, I found the reason for the disgusting smell.

I had two kind neighbors who lived alongside me in the forest. One of the neighbors was Mrs. Emma. Mrs. Emma was an old lady who was so kind and generous that I felt like she was my grandmother. I always gave her some acorns at the end of the day to help her since she did not have enough energy and strength to go out for food. She was always thankful and was a grateful lady. When I looked down the bulky tree trunk, there was Emma's dead body rotting with bugs and worms swarming around it.

I tiptoed around the dead body and dashed toward my other neighbor, a young squirrel, Bella, who had just moved out of her cozy parent’s nest. As soon as I arrived at her well-decorated tree, panting, I asked if she knew anything about the dead body under my tree. The young woman was also shocked and turned pale when she saw the body lying lifelessly under my tree. When I got close enough to see the perishing body, I realized that the body was full of claw marks and ripped skin oozing blood out. The soil under the body was all smudged with drying out blood. Worms were crawling in and out of the eye socket with flies swarming around the spattered intestine that came out of a ripped skin. I couldn’t withstand the smell and the horrific scene and vomited everything I devoured this morning.

The following day, when I climbed down to get some acorns, I still saw bits of body parts left with buzzing flies, but the body was gone. Confused, I checked around the stump, thinking the body might have moved because of the ferocious wind; I still could not find the carcass. The sickening smell still lingered around the tree trunk, and there were tons of flies buzzing around my ears, disturbing my sleep.

The afternoon came as the sun glazed over the trees. I was resting on the Control Center tree, my favorite place to have a cup of worm brain tea, which I am fond of when I saw an owl twisting its neck. The owl seems to have a neck disc or something since it frantically rotated its neck. I was on guard since most big birds would sloop me down their throat with their disgusting saliva.

A few minutes passed after I noticed the weird owl. My worm brain tea was almost hitting the bottom of the acorn cup, and the sun was turning red as it went down the infinitely long horizon. I ran down the tree and swiftly went back to my tree. The night set into the forest fast. When I was halfway to my destination, something flopped above me, almost blowing me away. I felt a tingly sensation on my back as the creature flew over me. It was late at night, and I couldn’t see anything except some grass below my feet. I depended on my ant-size nose to go back home, and it was easy since the faintly remaining smell of Mrs. Emma’s rotting body was still strong enough for me to catch at a distance.

It was utterly dark when I came back to my cozy nest. The tingly sensation on my back burst into a burning sensation. I was in so much agony that I couldn’t sleep, play or even eat that night. As soon as the morning came, I slowly and carefully trudged down the dirty floor to Bella’s house, reducing stress to my already breaking apart back. When I squeaked under Bella’s tree, Bella came out and greeted me until she saw the trouble on my back. She ran down the tree, and her face was full of panic. I obviously couldn’t see my own back, though I felt the distress. ?Bella explained the trouble on my back as soon as she got out of the shock. She explained to me the cut-opened back with blood clotting half of my back.

I slowly crawled to the nearest river so I could get rid of the clotted blood which tangled my furs. As soon as I got into a shallow water pond, the red gooey liquid spread out like ink. The wounded back burns into flame as the cold water of the morning river splashes onto the blood-coated bare skin.

I, with my back stinging, got out of the water when a small fish came rushing into the small pond. It had these sharp teeth with big bloodshot eyes that looked straight into my soul. The diluted blood water hit the sand with the wave as the fish breathed my blood in and out. I ran to the closest tree and climbed with all my strength. I was hungry, tired, and was in anguish, as I did not get any food or sleep since yesterday evening. I went searching for some acorns when I bumped into Bella again. Bella was also searching for acorns when she noticed me, and she scolded me for running around with the wounded back. She ordered me to go back to my treehouse and wait.

Later that day, when the sun was half over the horizon, I heard some scraping noise on my tree trunk. And a tiny little paw greeted me in the tree hole. Bella came with a handful of acorns, which I still did not have the appetite for, and forced me to eat them, saying the more I eat, the faster I get better. I ate all the acorns she brought, and I felt much better than before. I drank some water to get those acorns stuck on my throat to go down and thanked Bella. I promised myself to pay her back for her kindness.

Two months passed after Mrs. Emma’s death, and there was a fascinating claw-shaped scar left on my back. I was going back to my tree hole after my daily routine of picking acorns up and drinking juices out of worms when I saw this giant owl with a heart-shaped face. It was the same owl I saw two months ago when my back got ripped off.

Suddenly the owl started to fly and dove at us like a fighter jet targeting an enemy. In my eyes, the owl was in slow motion as if time was passing slowly. The owl opened its dark claws, and its eyes were steady on us. The feathers flowed to the rhythm of the wind, and when the owl's feet were a few inches away from us, I noticed it was too late. The owl caught me in the rib hard, and Bella got caught on the other claw. She seemed unconscious since her head was dropping off, and her legs were dangling as the neck twister owl flew high over the sky. The highest place I ever went to was the Control Center tree, and now I could see everything, even things outside the forest. It was the most spectacular view and the last one I would have noticed.

We landed at a gigantic tree hole, maybe ten times bigger than mine, and four baby owls were waiting to digest us. It was so dark outside I couldn't see the end of the tree hole. I scrabble around until I find the opening of the hell. I could have jumped and might have survived, but Bella, who was still unconscious, was lying on the cold floor of the death bed. I felt guilty and couldn’t leave the nest. I waited for the longest time of my life, listening to the baby monster mocking in front of me hungrily.

When every hope evaporated, and my despair rained down, my brain thought of one of the best ideas I ever had. I decided to pick up Bella on my back and climb down the tree before we got eaten alive. I was about halfway down the enormous tree with my claws holding tightly on the wooden bark when I saw the mother owl striking down on us. That was when I remembered what happened to Mrs. Emma. I bolted down the tree with all my strength and hid in one of the thick bushes a few meters away from the tree. I still saw the large monstrous black eyes looking straight at us, ready to attack when we came out of the bush. I knew if I went out of the brush with Bella on my back, both of us were going to die. I gently put down Bella and covered her up with leaves so that no other birds or snakes could find her before she woke up. I took a deep breath and dashed out of the bush with my arms all scratched and my ribs hurting from the tight grip of the owl.

As soon as I came out of the bush, The monstrous eye locked on me, and the bird jumped off the branch and started flapping its wings. The white owl with black eyes kept on chasing me, and I sometimes hid in bushes, trees, and the ground when I was out of breath. I ran four or 5 miles away, and the sky monster was still on my back chasing me. One wrong step, and I would be gone from this world, and as if my thoughts came to real life, I stumbled on a piece of rock and fell over.

The Owl saw her chance and immediately dove in furious speed. I tried to stand up, but there was something wrong with my ankle. I felt massive pain as I tried to run into a bush a few meters in front of me. The moment I gave up, the Owl snatched me with its claw, opened her beak, and put me headfirst into her stinking mouth. I thought that was the end. Suddenly, a bright light came from my back and illuminated when I closed my eyes and accepted my fate. The light blinded me for a second, and an owl, not the one who tried to swallow me, but an old owl with a familiar voice, appeared.

Mrs. Emma had a half-chopped ear. She told me about this golden snake without eyes under her tree. The magnificent snake only depended on its scent, and one day, the snake bit on Mrs. Emma’s right ear. Mrs. Emma did not know where the snake went, but the snake house disappeared with the snake magically. The owl that I saw after the illumination also had its right ear torn apart, and I just knew that was Mrs. Emma.

Mrs. Emma told me about the supernatural power that cycles when a creature gets injured. Mrs. Emma could turn into any animal, and when she passed away, she transformed into an owl. Mrs. Emma got her superpower from the snake, and now I got the superpower when Mrs. Emma scratched, I would say, my back two months ago.

I began to wonder what my power was when I noticed I was no longer in the bird's mouth but was in my tree hole. I went to Bella’s tree, and there she was happily munching on an acorn. I asked Bella about the scar on my back, but she seemed confused. The spot on my back was gone, and the smell of rotting body was still there. I was shocked for a few minutes and stood there touching and checking everything to see if they were real. I got everything when I saw the leaves and acorns were still fresh. I did not have my scar since it was before I got attacked.

A few days passed, and I just did what I did each day based on my memory. The only thing that altered was that my back did not get ripped by Mrs. Emma’s claws. One the day I was supposed to get attacked on my back, Mrs. Emma’s voice was the only thing I heard, and she told me how my superpower could be used only once, and the disappearance of the scar showed me how this was my first and last chance to change things.

I lay down on my straw bed with my tiny cutie paw on my face. I closed my years tight and concentrated on how to get rid of the merciless heart-shaped face owl. I thought about many ways, from attacking the owl first to moving to a new tree. However, those I lay in my bed kept thinking until I got a fabulous idea. I knew where the bird would attack us and what branch it would sit on. So I decided to make a trap.

On the morning of the attack, I went up to the tree that the bird had set last time, and started to create a trap, which I doubted. I started to dig a deep hole under the branch, deep enough for the bird to really fall into, and then sharpened the thick oak tree branches with my teeth to make a few spears and stuck them on the bottom of the hole with the sharp side up. I climbed up the tree and went to the branch where the bird set, and put a lot of acorns carefully so as not to fall in the trap that I made, and placed some leaves on top of it to hide the acorns. I put some worms on top of the leaves to make sure the bird will land there.

When I finished setting up my trap, it was afternoon and Bella came out to get some acorns. I went to her and lied to her that I saw a bird trying to attack us. I asked Bella to be at her tree hole before the sunset and prepared myself for the biggest and last battle.

The sun started to set as I asked Bella to go back to her tree hole. I went back to my tree hole waiting for the stupid bird to land on the trap. When the sun was halfway down on the horizon, the flopping sound came above me and the owl was there searching for us. The bird first did not land on the trap, but as soon as the bird saw the worms, it hopped to it. When the bird stepped on one of the acorns under the leaves, it tripped over and fell off the tree. I launched every spears leftover aiming at the wings of the bird. The owl seemed to rebalance until it got hit by the razor-sharp spears which made the owl plummet to the death hole onto the spears and the next thing I saw was so cruel, I couldn’t even look at it directly.

The spears were sticking out of the owl’s torso with blood on every sharp end of the spear dripping down the stick. The somewhat poor bird was now gasping, trying to catch some last air before passing away with its creepy eyes still open. Its feet twitched as proof of still life inside the poor bird. When all the movements were gone, no more heartbeat, no more twitching, and no more breathing, I knew the bird was no more. I saw the sparkling drop of tears running down her face, tears of sadness more than despair or regret. When all the things went silent, my body started to shine, becoming transparent as if I was not meant to be still alive, and faded as a legend of Acorn Heaven forest, never to be seen again.