Little Inklings 2023

FOREST FLAMES By: Isabel Adler ’27 Run. Run. RUN. Everyone is running, I am running, running away, as fast as I can. Some don’t make it, some stay behind. I hear their screams in the distance, mothers shielding their children, families trying to stay together, with no avail. I don’t care, I don’t have time to care. All I am focused on are the speed of my legs, my very short legs, and the flames around me. They are surrounding the whole forest, surrounding trees, and surrounding my friends. Soon I know they will surround me too. I can’t run much longer, or much faster, I am only a koala. Though you wouldn’t recognize me from the ashes covering my whole body. Why am I still running? I don’t know where my friends are, I don’t know where my family is. Even if I survive, will I ever see them again? I stop. I give up, there is no hope for me. I look around, complete chaos. I see animals running away, screaming, but I also notice creatures in bright neon yellow jumpsuits, they are running towards the fire. They are humans. I stare at them with confusion. Aren’t they the ones who caused the first in the first place? Now they were running towards it, shouting at each other, sparing water all over my home, and desperately trying to put the fire out. “It’s too late, the damage has been done,” I think to myself. I sit down, helpless, I look around some more. The red and orange flames spread around the forest. The flames sway, almost like they’re dancing. They’re actually quite pretty, if only they weren’t destroying everything I love. I sit and wait as the flames slowly dance towards me. Then, all of a sudden, as quick as a blink, I see a flash of neon come towards me, it picks me up. I am dizzy and it takes me a couple of seconds to realize what is happening. A human has picked me up, it is running with me in its hands. Where is it taking me? Is it going to kill me? But no, it seems we are going away from the flames and away from the chaos. It sets me down, reaches towards something and takes out a bottle of water! I drink it as fast as I can, I am so thirsty. The human laughs, he laughs, in the middle of all this chaos he found joy in a small moment like this. I laugh too, in koala obviously. Now I have time to think clearly. A human saved me, a human laughed with me, a human is trying to save my home. But a human also started this mess, a human also destroyed everything I know and love. I look up at the human who saved me, I can see its eyes clearly now, his eyes. I see the goodness in his eyes coming out in the face of evil. 18