Prodigal

The last of Winter's chill gave way as the grass bled green through melted snow.

Forest Kingdom had lived in relative peace in the years since the caretakers had taken leave.  They have been wonderful stewards of the land, their steps simple, leaving little trace. They took little and always returned more than was required.

The property, if one could call the earth such, was more a home than their house.  Living at one with such wilderness attuned them to the lay of the land and the inhabitants therein.  Plant and animal alike, they understood the delicate balance as they played among the strands of nature's web.

And so, as one of the forest creatures' reveries or much like old folks' tales, the faunic forest friends were amazed that these two cold no longer commune they way they used to--the way they ought.