Sherman's Tale: Part One- Into The Woods

Chapter III

Arctic North Village
Sherman & Ellina’s House

Sherman woke up that next morning to the smell of hot spiced oatmeal and warm tea. His mother had placed his breakfast on a tray next to his bedside. This is what she did every morning before she went out to run her daily errands. Sherman sat up in bed and pulled the tray onto his lap; he had stopped crying now, but was still slightly depressed with his situation. He slowly spooned his oatmeal into his mouth; it was one of his favorite tastes, Ellina’s homegrown oats with cinnamon, nutmeg, and honey. The tea was also prepared perfectly, and just to his liking; black tea with two lumps of sugar, a teaspoon of milk, sweetened with honey, and an apple slice on the rim of the mug. As the tea slid down his throat, it filled him with life as he fully woke up.

When Sherman finished his breakfast, he brought the tray to the kitchen and placed it next to the sink, proceeding to the family room to have a seat on the sofa. He would be allowed to stay out of work for the remainder of the week, and this gave him the time he needed to arrange the plans for his new job. He would be sent down south to work in the forests with the wood-elves. Both Sherman and Ellina feared this might happen, and in no way could have tried to prevent it. This is what needed to be done.

Sherman’s father Berk had been a wood-elf. In fact Berk’s family tree consisted mostly of wood-elves until he had married Ellina. He had given up on his job to live with Ellina in the North. Together they raised one child, Sherman. A few years after Sherman was born, Berk was asked to come back to the South, to assist in a major project, a project that required the expertise of the best wood-elves. And so Berk knew it was his duty, his life, his home away from home, he bid goodbye to his wife and child, telling them he would return back once the assignment was completed. He assured them it wouldn’t take too long, no more than a couple of months. Ellina and a young Sherman waited impatiently as the days turned to weeks, and the weeks turned to months, and in time, the months turned to years. Berk had periodically sent letters to them but after several months the letters stopped. Ellina assumed that the assignment had grown larger and Berk had grown busier. After a year and a half they finally received word from the South, in a letter from “Forrest Build” management department:

Dear Ma’am,

On the behalf of Forrest Build and the Wood-elf work force, we are sorry to inform you of the loss of your husband, Berk. The workforce here is a family of its own and though we cannot possibly feel as upset as you, we are in a state of dismay over the loss of one of our hardest workers and friends. At the time you receive this letter, it will be approximately sixty days since his death. While he as erecting a tree, with his team, one of the supports collapsed and he was unable to get out of the way, three of the other seven men were also killed or wounded in the collapse. It was quick and unexpected, however we have reason to believe the specific death of your husband could have been prevented had he not helped to move a rookie woodmen out of the way of danger. He has been buried beneath the tree which now stands erected as a memorial of Berk. Though we are sorry you did not get the chance to see him once more, we bestowed him with the best honor and burial. Enclosed in the package are his belongings and his payments that were withheld for the past years work. He chose not to accept them, on the grounds that he worked because it was his life. Once more ma’am, we are sincerely sorry for your loss.

-Morty Oakwood



The day that Ellina received the envelope was the day her world crashed before her, with only a husband and a son to live for, the loss hit her harder than anything else. However, harder than accepting the death of her husband, would be explaining it to Sherman. Sherman was twelve now, and hadn’t seen his father in a couple of years. The last memory he had before his father left, was of walking home from work, his first day, the two of them laughing heartily. He had since then missed his father and was waiting for that one day where he would get home from work and see his father sitting at the dining table, telling Ellina of all the adventures he had in the forests.

When Sherman got home, he was not surprised to see that another day had passed that his father had not returned. What did surprise him however was that his mouth wasn’t watering, as it usually did when he walked in the door to the smell of Ellina’s cooking. She wasn’t in the kitchen, and she wasn’t in the family room. Sherman found her in her room lying in bed weeping, her arms across her chest as she held tight onto a small package and letter. Sherman was confused, he had no idea what was occurring, except that he knew it wasn’t good. When she saw him she fought back her sadness, in an attempt to calmly relay him the news. “Shermy…your father….he’s not coming back.”

She broke out into tears once more and couldn’t stop crying. Sherman sat on the bed next to her and gently pried the letter from her arms. She watched as he read it to himself, before placing it on her bedside table and hugging her tightly. He sat on the bed with her for hours before deciding himself that it was time to leave. He kissed Ellina on the forehead before withdrawing to his room and going to sleep. When Sherman had left, Ellina stood up and pulled a small wooden chest from underneath the bed. She opened it, placing the letter and Berk’s belonging inside, before closing the lid and locking it. She pushed the chest back under the bed and placed the key in the drawer of her bedside table.