Gifted To The Forest

20250616

Prompt from PrideOnThePage

“Sophie, dear, what’s wrong?” Forest Mother asked, her beady eyes squinting as dozens of mandibles shifted and clicked into a shape resembling a reassuring smile.
“Mm…” Sophie sucked on her lower lip, scuffing her bare feet into the dry leaves carpeting the den floor. “Mother?”
“Yes, my sweet precious daughter?” Forest Mother scuttled close, her many-jointed arms wrapping around Sophie’s shoulders.
But Sophie shuffled away from the hug. Her small face pinched and uncertain. “Are you sure you’re my mother?”
The spirit who’d raised her froze. “…Is Morton your brother?”
Sophie nodded without hesitation.
“Is Claire your sister?”
“Uh-huh?”
“Then I am your mother.”
Sophie squinted with eight-year-old scepticism. Forest Mother sighed. It was clearly time for The Talk.
“You see, Sophie, sometimes life gives a baby to someone who isn’t ready. Someone who can’t take care of that child properly. So they give the child to the forest, and I become the mother. Or… sometimes the child is the one who decides to come to the forest.”
“Like Vin?”
“Yes, like Vin.” Forest Mother patted Sophie’s head. “But Vin decided he didn’t like living in the forest. That’s why he went to live with those travellers. Sometimes I’m not the right mother for a child, so I have to find them another.”
“Oh.” Sophie’s little brow was mightily furrowed. “So Vin isn’t my brother anymore?”
“Er, well…” Forest Mother wrung several hands, her mandibles clicking through a few different smiles. “Vin is… now… yourrrr… cousin! Vin is now your cousin.”
“Mkay?”
If this silence was allowed to stretch out any longer, questions like “what’s a ‘cousin’?” would sprout.
So Forest Mother quickly continued “Our family is just a little different, Sophie.” She wrapped an arm around Sophie’s shoulders, and this time the girl leant into it. “But we love each other, and look after each other, and that’s what matters. You’ll understand properly when you’re older.”
“How old? As old as Morton?”
“Oh, well… about that. Once you’re grown and have ventured out into the world. You’ll see that there are all kinds of families, and ours isn’t… that strange.”
The unease was gone from Sophie’s face, replaced with blithe curiosity, and Forest Mother sighed with relief.

Prompt was “Kin”.