Family Sage

Once the family had gotten done eating, they got into their car. It was a four-door car with a trunk that was a particularly good size. They each had a small bag of clothes with them. They did not go to the trunk but laid the bags on the car floor.

But first Keith walked to the trunk. He opened it to take a quick look inside. Then closed it fast. It was still very dark with not many clouds in the sky. There was a quarter moon out. Keith had gotten into the driver’s seat and Sandra was right in the middle of her brothers. T.K. was sitting behind Melissa.

The family was on their way to visit a woman they called Aunt Ruth. She was not any relations to them, but a woman that took care of Keith and Melissa as they were children.

Ruth did not have to take care of them. Many would not and might have been scared to. Before she found Melissa, she had no kids. They gave her the want to have kids. Ruth had found Melissa sitting on a large rock outside of Wild Forest. Then a year later she found Keith standing outside of the wall around Ruth’s land. Ruth had grown to love them both. She became a mother and teacher to them.

The trip was awfully long. About six hours with driving through many different areas. Some were safe, but others were extremely dangerous. It meant the family was always ready for a fight. Keith always hoped he could keep his family safe. This was what everyone had to worry about when traveling to different cities.

As the family got to the edge of their home city, they could see the wooden wall around the city. It was eight feet high. Groups of men were sitting on the wall with guns ready. There were many ways out of the city. No one was stopped from entering or leaving.

On the other side of the wall was a land known as the Grasslands. It was full of grass and some flowers. There were also men and some women spread out in the grass with guns in hand. Some also had spikes, different colored bottles, and other things.

It was about a two miles drive to get through the Grasslands. No one was standing a half mile from the outer edge of the Grasslands. It was due to the dangers that they did not want to enter their city.

The road came to a bridge that had a running river under it. It was incredibly old, but still in particularly good shape. The walls were wooden with some missing wood.

On the other side of the bridge was Wild Forest. It was one of the worst forests to enter. It was given its name due to the dangerous creatures that lived in it. Many came out during the day or the night. No matter what time it was, it was a fight to the death.

About ten years ago, a new creature was spotted in the forest. It was not a new thing. Wild Forest was twenty miles wide. It is believed to have a thousand different types of creatures in it.

The creature was thought to have been made up. The creature was given the name mumbro because it looked like a mummy. The main reason why they were different was due to them being different colors.

Those that have seen them said they saw three different colors. A group of hikers saw a black mumbro enter a dark cave and leave it hours later holding an arm.

A fisherman saw a blue mumbro as it walked into a deep lake. Then reappeared swimming some yards away from the fisherman.

While riding on a train, many people saw a yellow mumbro as it ran pass the train.

It was believed mumbros had not attacked anyone yet. But it was too hard to know the truth. As the car drove into Wild Forest, they saw large trees around both sides of their car. It made it had to see the sky above.

The road was a stone road. It had some bumps. It was wide for two cars to drive side by side. This did give people space to stop their car, but it was not safe to stop in Wild Forest. Because you could be killed within minutes. Some creatures would attack fast, and some might be watching cars as they drove. So, it was best to drive right through to the other side and to enter right before the sun would come up or go down. That way the creatures would be finding a place to sleep, and many others might not be up yet. It was still hard to do because it took some hours to drive through.

The dangers were the true reason why the family got up so early.

While making this long ride and every drive in the car, Keith and Melissa would make sure Sandra was in the middle of her brothers. That way she would never try to jump out of the car and start a fight with a person or maybe a creature.

Many years ago, when Sandra was only about five and the family was driving through a city to go to a party for a friend. There was an old classmate of Sandra’s with his mother walking on the sidewalk. The boy was about a bit bigger than Sandra and his Mother had a dress on.

The boy happened to see Sandra in the back seat with a bow in her hair. The boy knew she hated wearing anything girly. So, the boy pointed at Sandra and started to laugh at her.

The car window was rolled down, and Sandra could hear him easily.

The boy called out, “Sandra has a bow in her hair. She is a girl.”

This made Sandra upset. So, she opened the car door while it had stopped for a stop sign. Without closing the door, she ran right for the boy. His mother was holding his hand and Sandra just pushed the boy to the ground and out of his mother’s hand. Then Sandra jumped on top of the boy and started to punch him in the face fast.

The boy’s mother tried to pull Sandra off her son, but Sandra would not have it. She went right for one of the woman’s legs and bit her.

Melissa did hear the car door slam open. She looked fast at her side mirror and saw Sandra running out of the car. “Pull the car over, Keith! Sandra just jumped out.”

Keith drove the car to the side of the road and they both got out. It took them some time to get Sandra off the boy and back into the car.

After words, they ended up having to move to another city.

During the car ride, Sandra was not sleeping much, because she did not want to sleep while the family was going through Wild Forest. She absolutely loved seeing creatures in the wild. The best times for her was when some creatures would be fighting.

Sandra turned to look through the rear window and at times would look through the side windows. But she would also do something else to always stay awake.

“Mom,” said Sandra, “why do we really have to leave for Aunt Ruth’s house so early in the morning?”

“You know the reason why, Sandra,” answered Melissa as she turned to look at Sandra. “Wild Forest is known as a deadly forest. It is due to all the night creatures and the day creatures in it. We must get through this forest before the day creatures get up and while the night creatures are finding a place to hid from the day light.”

The truth was sometime Melissa would answer Sandra’s questions before she would even ask them. It would upset Sandra, but Melissa did not mind at all.

Alexander opened his eyes and looked at Melissa. He knew what was going on. So, he thought about the question he always asked her. He was sure the answer would be the same, but maybe it would change one of these days.

“Do we really have to sleep outside of Aunt Ruth’s house in tents?” asked Alexander.

As she smiled, Melissa answered, “Yes, we do.” She did know what he was truly asking, but she did like to give them different answers at times, since she could just reply to them in her sleep. “You know your Aunt Ruth has a full house of kids. So, there is no room in her house for any of us. Besides you both already know all of this. So, why are you asking me again? I keep telling you the same things every time we go to your Aunt’s house.”

Sandra did not care to answer her mother, because now she was looking out of the side window. She just replied with, “I think Alexander wasn’t asking about sleeping in Aunt Ruth’s house, but he wants to sleep in her garden or in the grass and not in a small tent.”

Alexander thought he would get Sandra upset some. So, he said what she wanted to ask later, but to let Melissa know now. “Yes, that is what I meant, mother.” He started to smile as he looked at Sandra. “You know mom. I am sure Sandra also does not want to sleep in a tent, too. I think she really wants to sleep up in one of Aunt Ruth’s trees.”

This did upset Sandra, so she looked at her brother with anger in her eyes, and replied, “Yes, I would like to, but I was going to ask mom later today. When she was not half asleep.”

“But your asking mom other things. Like you always do.”

During these times, Melissa always felt like saying something to Sandra, but she just bit her lower lip. Then replied with, “I am sorry Sandra, but there is no way you’re going to be sleeping in one of Ruth’s trees. I hate waking up and seeing you in our tree. But at least ours have spells on it.” She stopped to think for a moment about the ages they both were. “I might be willing to let you both sleep in the grass next to the tents.”

This truly made Alexander smile knowing he will not have to sleep in a tent though the night ever again at their Aunt’s house. But Sandra did not feel the same way. It was ok with her sleeping in the grass and not up in a tree. The only problem was Alexander was getting his way again. It was something he got much more often than she did. She did wish she had known the reason why that was.

The answer was something Sandra knew she would never get from her parents and so she wanted to think about something else to talk about. So, she asked the one thing that would make her mother stop to think about, “Mom, how many kids does Aunt Ruth have now?”

This truly was something that made Melissa stop and think. If Sandra had asked about anyone else, then Melissa would have answered easily. The reason for this was because Ruth always did seem to be having more and more kids every year. Melissa could not even use her figures to count the kids off. Many times, she would miss some of the kids when counting or count some more than once.

Ruth had found Melissa first and about a year later she found Keith. She then started having kids. Both Melissa and Keith were in their teens, at least Ruth thought they might have been. Melissa always thought Ruth decided to have kids because of her and Keith. The only problem was Ruth did not seem to know when to stop.

No matter how many kids Ruth did have, it was extremely easy to tell she loved each one of them. They all seemed to give her a good reason to wake up every morning, but they did seem to keep her busy throughout the day and night.

The only way Melissa knew she could find out how many kids Ruth had was by asking Keith. He always did seem to know the right number. There was one problem Keith was driving and normally did not listen to what was going on inside of the car. He always kept his eyes looking all over the outside of the car. That way nothing could hurt his family.

“Keith,” said Melissa now looking at him, “do you know how many kids Ruth has now?”

The only thing Keith did hear was his name bring said as he had looked at his side mirror. So, he asked, “What? Did someone say my name?”

This made Melissa smile, because she could tell her husband was truly watching out for his family. She then asked again, “I had asked do you know how many kids Ruth has now? I just can’t think of the number.”

“Well let’s see,” said Keith as he stopped keeping a close eye on the side mirrors and just looked where he was driving. “I believe she had forty-five kids last year. Then she had those five babies last month. So, if I am remembering right. She should have fifty kids now. I don’t see how she is able to have that many kids and be able to take care of them all.”

“That’s because most of her kids does help around her farm and in the house,” replied Melissa. “There is no way she could take care of them all on her own. And take care of her house, farm, and all of the animals she has.”

“Mom,” said Sandra. “How come we never see Aunt Ruth’s husband?” This was the very first time she had thought about asking this. Before she never even though about a man being with Ruth or who was the father of all her kids.

This had been something Melissa did wonder about, too. Even when Ruth started having kids, Melissa had never seen a man around. Since there was no way Ruth could have kids without a man in her life or even one that would come around every so often. Melissa never did want to think the worst about Ruth.

After taking some time to think about what Ruth had told her all those years ago, Melissa answered, “It’s because he is working on the wall that surrounds their land. He and Ruth want to make sure their kids are safe and won’t get hurt.”

“But he had been working on that wall for years now,” replied Alexander. “When will he getting it done?”

“I have no clue,” answered Melissa in wonder. “They do have a big amount of land. It is close to Wild Forest and the Land of the Cats and other areas. Each does worry them a lot. So, he must make sure his family will be safe and sound always.”

“How big is Ruth’s land again?” asked Alexander.

“She has around thirty acres of land and one of those acres is part of the swamp right next to them. If you remember we did walk over to the swamp once. There is an old house on it, but there are some creatures in the swamp. So, it is not safe to be around it at all. I do know some of her kids do hunt in the swamp, but I don’t want you kids to go near that swamp at all.”

The car went quite after that.