Runner up - Junior Section

St Michael’s Collegiate 

“I would do anything for you.”

That’s what I whisper to you as you tremble from the blaring howl of the wild wind and reckless rain. You are only small, but you keep great things within you that must be protected. For hours I have brutally battled the spectral silence of… nothing. How has this overcrowded, dense planet have room for, nothing? Not a heartbeat in reach, not a sweep of joy or hope left to aimlessly trail through the impenetrable air. These caves twist in a labyrinth of ups and downs and diverging paths, but you are safe with me, because I would do anything for you.

Light emerges around a corner and a wide plain of snow broadens in front of us. The vast existence of the dignified moon can scarcely be seen through the heavy snow floating through the sky. You weaken in my arms as the blinding cast of her glow pierces through our eyes. To pass the night we shelter in the reassurance of a cavern back in the depths of the cave. The fire uses the last of our wood, but it keeps you warm and offers a soft glow to last through the night. When you are rested and fed, we can resume our journey.

The contumacious plummet of hundreds of snowflakes persists until dawn, when it slows to a drift from the sky to the ground. The sunlight is like a sigh of relief as its rays warm the land, welcoming us to the barren plain. But open spaces are pernicious to anyone wanting to conceal themselves from sight, so I hold you in my arms as I scale the intransigent cliffs that refuse to show me an easier path to the safety of the dense foliage. I muffle your soft weep as a wolf cries in the distance. But rest assured, you are safe. Because I would do anything for you.

The night is bitter and frigid, even under the defence of the intertwined branches of the leafy railway above our heads. A fire can only burn so bright with damp frosty wood as fuel. I hold you to my chest and wrap you in my scarf, even if I couldn’t so much as feel the back of my neck after, it would be worth it. Food is scarce in downhearted winters such as these, which seem to get progressively worse as your appetite grows with the rest of you, I must prepare for anything. Especially the wolves that I can feel approaching us every minute.

“Aaarh-ooooooh”

I bolt upright and shove everything I can into my bag. You open your eyes, leaden with sleep. “Do not worry, my child. Fear can be felt by the sixth sense of any animal. We must stay noiseless and intrepid, I will protect you”. I grab you and zigzag through the trees as silently as I can, my heart pounding so hard I feel that it by itself is enough to be heard by any wolf. My bag weighs me down, I tuck you between my feet as I empty it onto the ground. I sweep you into my arms as I bolt through a clearing. I could have sworn I glimpsed a wash of grey run through the trees on either side of me.

I struggle as I stumble down to the opening of a cave on the side of the mountain. We stand in silence as we listen for sounds of hungry wolves. Silence. I smile at you gently and your eyes smile wearily back, still fearful but only so that I could see. I sometimes wonder if you would have told me about the dozens of amber eyes that emerged from the shadow, before it was too late to escape.

I watch your seraphic eyes widen as you turn to the side, I follow your gaze to see many more grey wolves than I thought were following us. I gasp louder than I ever have and my heart explodes into the gallop of 1000 horses. I place you behind my feet as I stand in front of you, rummaging through my bag for anything that could help me. This was the first in a long time that I had been scared. And those blood-thirsty hounds knew it. Wolves creeping closer every second, my life as I knew it flashes before me. You couldn’t end like this, I couldn’t let you. I would do anything for you I had said, since you could remember! But maybe what I could do wasn’t enough, because here I was, defenceless. Pathetic.

A gunshot fires. It shakes me to my bones. I had forgotten what they sounded like. My heart slows and the thunder of fleeing footsteps dims, I open my eyes to one dead wolf in front of me. I pick you up and fall to the ground in extreme anguish. How could I have let this happen to you? How could I nearly let you…die? I step into the sun and follow a trail of smoke coming out of a village I hadn’t noticed at the bottom of the valley. I could almost hear the laughter and sense of safety from there. It was a home.

That night I bathed you, fed you well, and cried. The sun rose and I dash through the village so fast, I doubt you could have seen me if you were looking. But you would have known I was there from the small little parcel of life I left on one special doorstep.

Sometimes I watch you from the very cave I spotted the valley from. You are grown now, but there are great things within you that must be protected. I pretend to not care that you don’t seem to remember me, but somewhere, I hope you remember every second of your life before the village, and the promise I made;

I would do anything for you.