Stray

There was an amazingly thick giant fir in the backyard of the Ramon’s inn. It was so high that it pierced the sky, and its branches stood straight.

If one were to climb up the top of the tree, they could see the greenery of the Frontier Forest extending into the horizon and the Ash Mountains that was embedded in the dark blue sky. At sunrise, it seemed that the eyes could encapsulate the entire sky showing a magnificent and beautiful new world.

Oliver Ramon quickly discovered this little secret.

With his strong body, he had been more lively and rowdier than the other children since he was a child. Piper Ramon almost copied “a hundred things that children can’t do” and paste it on his face, but it was a pity that Oliver learned the skill of pretending to be obedient earlier on in his childhood.

That was probably when he was about five years old. Once, while Old Ramon was having a banquet in the backyard of the inn, he quietly climbed up the tree. At first, he was full of interest, but halfway through the climb, he began to feel frightened as the idea that he would die if he fell entered his thoughts. When Oliver climbed to the top of the tree, he was in cold sweat. His limbs were like soft noodles, and his entire body was glued to the thickest branch.

He looked up and saw the huge skull lying in the center of the treetop.

It was too big; bigger than any heads of all the creatures he had ever seen. The length of the skull was close to that of an adult’s, and the height was about the same as Oliver’s size at that time. Its shape was weird and distorted. Its sharp teeth showed no traces of decay, and small pieces of moss and thin vines were crawling in several hollow eyes.

Oliver was startled, but he didn’t have the strength to stand up and escape. Truthfully, he didn’t have any special fears at that time. The skull was scary, but it laid in a very gentle landscape. Sunlight leaked from among the leaves casting their light on the white bones. There was a bunch of artificially tied flowers in front of it. Although the edges of the petals turned dark and there were already signs of withering, it still had obvious traces that it had been put there not long ago.

A few chubby tits swept down from the air. They seemed afraid to stop near the skull. The tits tilted their heads and pecked at the beetles on the trunk near it, letting out a few chirps from time to time.