Hawk's Odyssey of Freedom

I remember it all like it was yesterday. As some would say, "a lifetime ago".

The sun rising over the trees, the smell of fresh fish from the day before still lingering in the air, and my mother telling me to go get some berries for breakfast.

I remember every detail vividly. I remember being chased by a panther as I ran through the underbrush with my basket of berries. I remember being saved by my father as he shot an arrow through the cat's neck, but not killing it because we needed to eat meat that night.

I remember the Great War where our enemies, who we used to share a town with, burned down our crops and killed many of our villagers. I remember watching my father die as he fought them off so I could escape.

I remember the years when there were no birds or deer to hunt and how hungry we all were. The guilt I felt when we ate our horses and the bison didn't return until the next year. I remember wanting to leave, but not wanting to be alone, so I stayed and took care of my tribe members like my dad had told me to do.

I remember watching my tribe die one by one as they got older and sicker. Watching their suffering as they lay in bed at night with fever dreams about sweet waterfalls and good hunting grounds waiting for them after death. When they finally passed on, I buried them all in their own graves, underneath a cairn where they could rest while their spirits roamed free on the wind. And then... I waited for death to find me too.

It never did, though. For surprising reasons: I was immortal! Apparently being 10 years old at the time of your father's death grants you this ability! At least, that's what everyone else says when they ask me why I'm still alive even though everyone else died. But that's not true either! They just don't know what happened after that day when everyone died but me!

That day... Life changed again for those few of us who were left behind by those who went before us. The sky grew dark with smoke from fires raging hundreds of miles away. The air became thick with ash from eruptions further up north that shook our homes and caused avalanches higher up in the mountains than any man or woman had ever seen before! We panicked, fleeing for higher ground in fear of our lives if we stayed put! When we arrived up on top of a cliff facing out towards where our village once stood, we saw this giant wave approaching quickly from afar! We thought it was going to kill us too! But then... The wave touched down right where our village was standing! And just like that... Everything was gone. Except for us five. We were shocked and scared... And we cried tears that could fill oceans as we watched everything burn into nothingness under our feet in an instant's time!

We tried to gather ourselves together after the wave receded back into the ocean beyond where our village used to be; however, something happened after that wave had hit. It was like something inside each one of us had changed without knowing it before it happened! We couldn't feel sadness anymore! Or loneliness or anything else that could impair our lives anymore! There was only happiness now! Joyful joyfulness everywhere around us wherever we looked at all times of day or night! No matter what happened, no matter how bad things got in life; we always had this feeling inside us like nothing could hurt us anymore because everything is okay now since we're alive right? Well... That's what happens when you're immortal now isn't it? You don't age and die anymore so you live forever happy until... Maybe... Something bad happens to you? Maybe then you start getting sad again? Maybe dying means you can't live forever anymore? Gosh, maybe these aren't even questions anyone will ever have answers for unless maybe if someone is still living yet is also immortal somehow which is impossible because nobody has lived forever yet except for me even though everybody else died except for me because I lived with them all for a long time before they started dying which made me immortal so now nobody else can become immortal ever again which means nobody will ever be able to know how somebody who is immortal is supposed to act because nobody can ever be immortal until somebody does end up living forever even though nobody has lived forever yet except for me which isn't possible because only immortals can become immortals so maybe someday somebody who is already an immortal might think up a plan on how somebody else might end up living forever somehow but then again maybe they won't because maybe they are already an immortal too which means they probably already thought about this weird stuff already anyway because they're already an immortal which means they've been thinking about these things already anyway just like whoever might read this eventually way down the road when people start figuring out magic anyway so maybe these questions will never have answers after all and therefore will never even need asking in the first place because whatever is going to happen will happen eventually anyway whether anybody asks any questions or not so let's forget about trying to figure out how immortality works anyways because impossible things can sometimes happen just like magic which means that immortality doesn't need figuring out anyways so let's just sit here instead and enjoy life as much as possible which should be easy enough since life itself is mostly easy most of the time anyways!)