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"He's gone! Look what you've done now! He's gone and he'll never come back!" his wife replied to him, pointing towards the edge of the field. When the father looked in the direction she was pointing there was Fredrick running into the forest. The father knew he and his wife must flee the area before the barbarians came for them so the two of them headed for the hills in the distance. They would hide in a valley and look for Fredrick later. Fredrick watched from within the trees of the forest as his parents fled from their farm. The village was on fire by now and he could see the flames rising above the collapsing rooftops. Tears came to his eyes. He was alone now . . . and terrified. Seeing his village destroyed by barbarians and his parents running for their lives was too overwhelming for Fredrick so he disappeared into the forest to escape it all. People from Fredrick's village had warned everyone from going into the forest because of the packs of wolves that ran wild through the night. A local legend said that anyone who went into the forest encounters the wolves, the savages of the night, and is absorbed by them . . . becomes one of them. Fredrick recalled the tale of his mean old great grandfather who had braved the legend of the wolves by venturing into the forest during a fierce winter to get more firewood. Fredrick's great grandmother waited for her husband to come home, watching through the window all night for any sign of him . . . but the mean old man never returned. That night the cry of the wolves was strangely wilder than usual, as if they were celebrating. Fredrick had forgotten about that legend. He thought to himself that he never would have run to the forest if he had remembered about the wolves, but it was too late now. He was in the forest and he had to stay there because death by barbarian sword awaited him outside the trees. So he kept walking, but he grew more and more terrified with each step he took deeper into the woods. |