WILDERNESS

The heat felt like happiness, lighting up his beating heart. He cried and sang with joy as the stars shot across the blackened night sky. It was a beautiful sight. The man no longer wanted to go back home, he was quite happy to stay stretched under the bright stars, listening to the orchestra of insects buzz and chirp.

Then suddenly out of no where, something, or someone, made a grunting noise. A rush of panic broke into the mans thoughts. He slowly and carefully stood up, looking through the trees on either side of him. Listening intently for another sigh on life, but none came. Then the man realised he was being silly, it was probably just some strange animal, he had heard weird noises like that before, but still he couldn't help but shudder at the disturbance.

The next day the man woke up to a bright blue sky. It was if all the stars had been swept away and the sun had woken up with a cheerful smile.

He breathed in a mouth full of fresh air and peered around at his small clearing that he called home, for now. There was something different about his surroundings. The place where he had heard the grunt had clearly been trampled on and footprints littered the ground.

Then he saw something glinting in the sun light. The man cautiously stepped forward and bent down to pick up the strange shape. As he lifted it up into the warm air it suddenly seemed very familiar. He had seen them many times in his old home, the village he had lived before the accident. It was a lighter. Silver and gold, reflecting on the trees. He remembered that his mother used this lighter thing to make fires and that apparently it was very useful. Then it came to him; animals couldn't use or carry lighters, let alone have them. The sound he had heard had to come from a someone. It all added up! Footprints, lighters and weird noises. Someone had been here, someone was here with him!

The man wasted no time and as quickly as he could packed all his possessions: a handmade spear, a water bottle, a slightly battered fishing net, and of course, the lighter- and set off. The walk was long and tiring, he would drink every 5 minutes with the water he had left, and twice came upon a river where he would refill his bottle.

Finally, just as it was getting dark he stepped out of the forest and into a never ending desert. The man shouted with happiness as he spotted, far away but definitely there, a small village. He ran for his life, the sand whipping his face, but he didn't care, this was the moment he had been waiting for. A new home. Somewhere to start over, have a new life.

20 years later...

The man, now named Micheal was sitting on his favourite red chair, remembering how he had made a new life, a new future. He sighed with happiness and spoke, now with purpose.

''This is the life.''

-THE END-