The Little Hermit

Once upon a time there was a little hermit. He knew he was a hermit but he desperately wanted to change and make friends.
"You're a mean hermit!" Father Hermit said, "You'll grow up and scare people and animals!" The little hermit would sit up all night thinking about what it would be like to hang out with friends. He was was lonely and didn't know what to do.
The hermits lived in a wooded area out in the forest, people rarely ever came by because they knew of the hermits in the woods. It was an unwritten agreement among the two species.

As the little hermit finished his chores one day, he was frightened by an innocent little voice.
"Hello there!" A chipper young girl called out to the hermit. He looked at her in astonishing awe. Was a human, or anyone for that matter, actually talking to him?
The hermit let out a warm smile that traced along the grass, the flowers, and the trees; But before he could say anything, the girl had skipped away.
The hermit had never gotten a compliment. He was happy, yet confused, but he knew he should find the girl and compliment her too, after all, it was his first friend. The hermit decided to leave that night when Father Hermit was asleep. He packed food and toys, and hid it under his bed for safe keeping. Later, after being tucked in for the night, the little hermit eagerly waited for Father Hermit to fall quietly asleep. As soon as the heavy snoring assured him, the little hermit jumped out of bed and ever so quietly took his belongings. As sneaky as the night, the little hermit opened his window and sneaked out.
The night made the gentle forest he remembered turn into a horrific nightmare. The trees were shadowed, and the dim moonlight only awarded him with minimum vision.
"How will I ever find my new friend?" The little hermit asked himself. He was now getting lost as his tracks seemed to vanish into the cloaking darkness. The little hermit panicked, not knowing what to do. He ran to and fro until his little hermit legs just couldn't run anymore. Curling up under a tree, the little hermit fell asleep waiting for the dark and the cold to go away.

Awakening the next morning, the little hermit was surprised to see two humans staring at him. They jumped upwards and sprinted off after seeing his eyes open. The little hermit was frightened and didn't know what to make of it. Suddenly a villager ran up to the little hermit.
"What are you doing here!?" Said the man, protecting himself with a knife.
"I'm looking for my friend.." Said the little hermit, in a hypnogogic tone.
"You're a hermit! Hermit's don't have friends! You EAT people!" The man exclaimed.
"I don't eat people... I eat what my father cooks me."
"Father? Of course, a parent. Show us where your father lives right now!" The main established.
The humans took the little hermit into the town that day. Keeping him in a little hut in the safety just inside the walls. Feeding him, and watering him until nightfall came. When they came to his hut, the little hermit was restfully dreaming. Upon awakening, he stood up and instantly began following the path and his sense of direction, back home. Upon arriving at his destination, the little hermit saw father hermit sitting outside of the house in his old rocking chair. He had the image of pain on his face from worry for his only child.
"CHARGE!" Screamed one of the trailing villagers. Father Hermit looked ahead, stunned momentarily by the torches and screams of hostile, rushing villagers.
"Father!" Yelled the little hermit. After realizing his son was in the midst of angry villagers, Father Hermit stood up and eclipsed by the moons glow let out a horrific cry. His claws grew 10 inches on each finger and sharpened immensely as they gleamed in the strains of moonlight. He smiled and showed off his razor-esque dentures as his eyes illuminated a fierce red, and he leaped up top of the house in a defensive style. Letting out a hideous laugh, Father Hermit spoke,
"I will kill each and every one of you!" Leaping off of the broken down roof, the old hermit swiftly dug his claws deep into one of the unaware villagers while simultaneously ripping the flesh off of his face with the razor like teeth he had.
The little hermit had no idea what to do. He had never witnessed his father act in such a vicious way. Some of the people were running away in fear, some were attacking, yet the little hermit was too traumatized to move. What had turned his father so horribly against the humans? Vice Versa? Why would they murder one another? He had been brought up too isolated to realize anything that was going on. Blood soaked the woods that used to be his home, the battle zone emerged. Soon his father knew that the soldiers would be sent from the castle to kill them both.
Left and right he thrashed and slashed people. Small trinkets of blood ran down gashes in the hermits body, though adrenaline still pumped heavily throughout his raging heart. The little hermit finally regained movement and hurried to a fallen tree, to which he took cover. A war had broken out.

The little hermit felt responsible for it all. After the brutal slaying halted, Father Hermit arose what seemed to be victorious. The little hermit ran towards him as fast as he could. A few inches shy of reaching his Father and an arrow plunged through the old hermit's flesh and send a new splash of blood onto the landscape. He took a deep breath before dropping down on all fours. The little hermit stopped in his tracks, he was in shock. The old hermit grasped the arrow and ripped it straight out with a painful scream. Then with a relieving sigh, collapsed on the ground. The little hermit's eyes swelled up with tears and he ran to the spot his father fell.
"Dad!" The little hermit yelled. His father was grunting and twitching on the ground as blood slowly flowed from the wounds. The little hermit then saw out of the corner of his hermit eye, his little human friend. She had a terrified look of grief on her face.
"This isn't how life is supposed to be..." She mumbled. The little hermit sat there and stared at her blankly. They shared a momentary glimpse of one another that told the story of sorrow and pain each child was enduring.
Innocence had been lost in a struggle thats origins steamed long before the tiny hermit's life. Back when the defined old hermit was a child himself, and even before so.
"How can hate protrude for so long?" The little hermit couldn't help but ask himself. Reclused anger? Mere survival? Primordial instincts? None of it added up. Why couldn't they live in peace, protecting and helping each other? As the little hermit pondered, he relucted to notice his father sprout up in the heat of adrenaline. Father Hermit ran and snatched up the little girl. The roar of marching soldiers was growing louder and louder as they approached. He arched upward with the child and forced his sharp claw next to her throat. The marching stopped, yells and screams in the crowd ceased, and in the silence tension rose as the importance of life had been realized. Moments turned into hours as the suspense quickly grew. Anyone could lose their sanity at the snap of a finger. The little hermit started to feel that growing sensation. The trinkle that turns into a waterfall of nerves as the complete and utter silence engulfs you, and the spirit of chronokinesis stops time as all ceases to exist aside from the increasing urge to explode outward.
"Stop!" Yelled the little hermit as his father held his claws closer to the girl's neck. The onset of emotions were pouring on as the little hermit stepped a few feet closer and again yelled, "Stop it! The humans fed me, they watched me, they gave me a place to rest! They brought me back alive and unharmed!"
"You don't understand.." Father Hermit proclaimed, "This isn't your battle son."
"I do understand." The little hermit stated, "if we fight and kill now, it solves nothing and then this WILL be my battle, father." The old hermit thought about it and lowered his claw a bit. How was he going to create a great life for his child, especially when he wasn't there to protect him? The humans had tried to kill him, yet they still brought his son safely back, they fed him. He was about to stoop lower than the humans had. The beast inside told him to ravage everyone, yet a sparkle of conscience washed over him and he saw the preferable future for his son and himself.
As he lowered his arm a sharp blade swung throughout the air and chopped into the flesh of his elbow. The old hermit let out a desperate cry as blood soaked the battlefield from the fresh wound and in an instant he dropped the girl. She ran in terror away from the violence as another slice severed the hermit's lower right arm and a few quick slashes left him beaten, battered, and bloody.
The little hermit watched all of the chaos take place, and something spiteful and hateful grew inside of him with each wound his father bared. When the old hermit tumbled and fell onto his knees, the little hermit watched as the humans lifted a sword in the air to end the hermit's tyranny. Just then something quickly switched on inside the little hermit; Survival instinct kicked in. The little hermit swiftly knocked the sword away as he jumped and moved at high speeds all around, ripping the pale pink skin off of the soldiers. Slashing and thrashing through the armor and cloth with no time to look back.

The blur of spinning, cutting, and blood took a faint form of that adorable and caring child hermit and he caught eyes with the beautiful girl. The reflection off of the teary girl's eyes showed the hermits' and the humans' for what they really were, cold-blooded, primitive, killers. The old hermit slashed with his arm to keep the soldiers at bay as much as he could. The little hermit began spinning like a tornado again, engorging in what he slashed. Something then happened; through the battle cries, the muffled beatings, and other sounds the little girl shed a tear, and then another. One after the next they fell and her woes grew louder. The spinning slowed and the little hermit began searching for the audible and cursed sorrow. His conscience stung him like a hive full of angry bees. He knew what he was becoming and it was getting unbearable.
"So that's why..." The little hermit said, "You were protecting me from the horrible reality life has to show, when in truth you should have been showing me the hate and letting me find my own way throughout it. To find the love in even the most horrible of situations."
"What the hell are you babbling on and on about? You've been killing good men on this field, you hood rat!" A soldier yelled out across the field from his pasty white steed. In what was moments, the little hermit had a claw to the neck of the soldier, threatening his life.
"Listen, I'm trying really hard to forget the trauma that you assholes have given me. My father's injuries, my injuries, and most importantly, that." The little hermit pointed over to where the little girl was standing and sobbing. The scene caused all of the suspense to drop, everyone looked around at what they had done. Finally most of them realized that they could have taken something beautiful and helped it grow, yet instead they had destroyed everything around. Tears from a little girl had revolutionized the thought pattern of man and beast; at last, there was an unwritten agreement between the two.The soldiers looked at the little hermit with knowing eyes, and they nodded as they walked over to help up Father Hermit. The little girl's tears ceased to shed as she watched a shimmer of love arise from the hate.

The next day there came a giant feast for the newly celebrated peace. The old hermit had undergone rigorous magical and herbal healing and medicinal aid throughout the night and felt better than he had in years. The little hermit sad by his new friend, Rhiley, and enjoyed h is meal.
"You created something beautiful out of something destructive." Rhiley mentioned. The little hermit smiled and his eyes lit up. The sun sat as they finished there feast, as campfires began to fill the night. Father Hermit took his son to a quiet place at the feast.
"I'm proud of you," Father Hermit said, "Son, you've done more than anyone ever thought possible. You've broken the tension of war from the hearts and souls of all. You're going to grow up just fine." The little hermit embraced his father, and they rejoined the humans...

... Living happily Ever After.

.End.