I was very hesitant to make this entry at first, and honestly I still am. I feel pretty uneasy about posting this but, eh, the worst that could happen is that @Dragon will correct me on a grammatical mistake I made
I was inspired to do this in my own approach, without this actually being too accurate to the elemental and the mythical creature that it’s written after.
this was written in first person which i’m not exactly comfortable with
Hope and despair battle each other out inside of me.
I have a fragile heart, for one good deed I do hope takes a step forward, but for every foul deed, despair always takes the lead…
I am not a good man, a murderer, I see horrors one would consider torture and for I cannot rest peacefully, as every delusion invades me in my sleep.
Though sleep is not always dreadful, there’s this one particular delusion I see. A delusion like no other else…
A dim forest in the sunset, surrounded by blinding haze with sunrays piercing right through the betweens of large, hearty trees.
The grass underneath me fresh and organized, as if each grass stem was carefully treated, and in-front of me was no other than the beautiful elk itself, it’s antlers resembling the branches of a tree, with what I could’ve sworn were cherry blossoms sprouting from them.
The elk with it’s head lowered onto the ground, carefully regulating the grass just like I had imagined, each stem of it caressed by the astonishing creature…
It raised it’s head at me, and I already began fearing for my life. In my head, I was already imagining it treating me like every other nightmare I’ve had so far has… But it did not, just like every stem of grass it’s been taking care of, it tried to do the same to me.
It approached me, and once close, lowered it’s head to me… and I was astonished, I couldn’t resist but gently touch a cherry colored leaf arising from it’s elegant antlers.
And in an instant, all my horrors, nightmares, terrors, frights, dreads, bursting and emerging out of me, materializing and causing chaos on the forest the elk had been so carefully taking care of.
And there I witnessed it again, at my very own fault, wrecking the efforts of others, despair began to fill me again.
But I couldn’t help it, as I reached my hand closer to grab the elk’s antlers, I felt the same despair of mine emptying from me at a rate faster than it was filling, I felt unshaken amidst a crashing world, as calamity unfolded before my eyes on the elk’s hard work…
All my fears of which terrorized me for years, were revolving the area around me, but I wasn’t scared, as long as I felt this elk’s warmth embracing me.
Though that dream had reached it’s limit, I felt light against my eyes as I awakened from my deep slumber, and my body feeling free of despair, but with no despair to fill my body, I felt nothing but emptiness.
“How do I fill my body with such hope instead…” I pondered to myself, as I was recalling the events of that last dream…
I pondered the same thing for months, though as time passed my soul had already been filled with despair again, as I was still not a good man, and had not seen the beautiful elk again ever since.
I needed it.
It’s warmth.
It’s caressing.
It’s hope.
It’s repellency to my fears.
I wanted to become one with it.
The Cherry Elk.
Though I had no way to reach it.
One dreadful day, I had finally decided. I wanted to encounter that elk. Again. I packed up my things, and headed out to the forest and weared out a whole day searching for it, but it was all in vain.
My hopeless soul full of despair began to corrupt even further as my pitiful efforts in search kept failing. I felt the wrath arise in me, I stared down at my foul hands splattered in blood, feeling lost, as always.
But as I kept wandering in the forest, there I saw it, that carefully caressed grass, looking like no other than the way the elk used to take care of it, it lead me like a path, following up to the edge of a cliff, where the grass eventually stops growing, I stared down at the edge of the cliff, a deadly fall.
I glance to my rear, and see a regular elk staring at me from the forest behind. A faint smile grew on my face, a genuine smile that had not formed in years full of despair, and with that, I turn my focus back in-front of me, and gaze at the bright orange sunrise coloring the bright sky…
I stared down at the cliff, discarding all my memories of my loved ones, and I took my last step forward, and as I fell, I felt it, I was brought to that forest, and there I reunited with it…
I became one with it…
The one thing I truly desired…
That brought me hope…
And rid of despair…
The Cherry Elk.