You’ve just arrived in a swampy, dim town. As you look around, your gaze is met with shacks and cabins. It smells of rotted wood and wet moss. You duck and step into a tattered tent, illuminated by a series of candles suspended in the air. At the back of the tent, an old hag raises her head, “What brings you to this dingy town? she begins, then pauses to study your face—”Ah, it’s you. I’ve been expecting you. Sit,” she gestures at a cushion, “Tell me your story.”
((How do you respond?))
Musgo sits down and looks up and the woman, with his bright green eyes full of child-like curiosity. He rocks back and forth as he speaks.
"A story? What's that? I don't know any stories, ma'am. I don't have any to tell you... Oh? You mean my life? Oh, sorry, ma'am. I... I don't know what to say. I... I... I haven't done much. This is my first time out of the cave, you see. I... I fell into the cave a long time ago. I don't know how long. I was just a child. There was this big rift out on the forest ground, and I fell... there was moss inside; that's how I survived; i fell on top of it. There was a little stream of water, ma'am, right by my side... I survived drinking from it as well... and eating the moss."
The boy closes his eyes and shivers; he's remembering the first time he felt the wet moss-covered walls of the cave and heard the sound of the water running down the rocks. Then, as if he's suddenly remembered he was in the middle of a conversation, he opens his eyes wide. Musgo's now longer looking at the old hag's face; instead, he's very focused on a particular spot in the ground, right next to his hand.
"I was just a child, ma'am, you see, but I knew how to survive. I thought I would forget how to speak, ma'am, so every day I spoke out loud, hoping somebody would hear me, perhaps my parents... Oh, my parents, ma'am... I don't know where they are. I don't remember their faces, or their names... I also don't remember my name. I don't want to remember. Oh, ma'am, as I was saying..."
He runs his hand through his hair and shakes his head in excitement.
"I spoke. A lot. I spoke to the forest. Every single word that I knew, that I know, everyday, ma'am, so that I didn't forget how to speak. I forgot many things, ma'am, but not my words. And after a while... the forest replied back to me! She told me all shorts of things, ma'am. Even gave me a new name: Musgo. Apparently it comes from a long forgotten old language, ma'am. That's my name now. And, slowly, as I grew older, I climbed out. I don't know how I did it, ma'am. Every day I just climbed a little higher. At first I didn't want to get out of the cave, but the forest convinced me to. She said there were wonderful things out here for me to see. So now you know, ma'am. Ma'am. You're the first person I talk to in years, ma'am, other than the forest."
After he stops talking, he inhales deeply to catch his break. Again, for a second, Musgo seems to forget that he's not completely alone in his surroundings; after, once more, remembering the old woman's presence, he looks up to her and smiles nervously. His fingers are twitching.
"But, ma'am, now I'm scared. I'm scared maybe the forest wasn't talking to me at all. Why would she talk to me? I'm just a boy, ma'am, and I was so lonely. But I want to think that it was the forest. ma'am. I don't want to believe that I've actually never had a friend who wasn't in my head. The forest... is my friend, and she spoke to me."
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