Horizon (or Make Love Not War) - Chapter One

Unfortunately for Oak and Acorn, they were in love. Why unfortunately? Because Oak was a Giant and Acorn was a Gnome and the Giants and the Gnomes had been at war for almost seven years.

Why were the Giants and the Gnomes at war?
Well, few on either side could really remember except that they thoroughly hated each other, although,some said that the Giants had started the war because they needed more land for their enormous farms and houses and had invaded
Gnomeland to steal its acres; digging up Gnome towns and villages to plant their giant crops and graze giant cattle while others claimed the Gnomes had started the war merely because they were afraid of the Giants and envious of their enormous size.

However it had started; the war that had followed was brutal, bitter and terrible with many casualties on either side; the Giants dropping bombs upon the Gnomes while the Gnomes fired poisonous rockets up at the Giants and, because of the war, love or even friendship between Giants and Gnomes was absolutely forbidden.

Thus Oak and Acorn had been forced to conduct their love affair in secret. If either had been found out then they might have been executed as traitors to their people.

It was for this reason that,every Saturday morning while the sun was still sleeping, Oak and Acorn would meet in the Verdant forest on the edges of Giantland where only the wild animals and Tree-people live and sit opposite the Great waterfall and little Acorn, climbing out of Oaks pocket, would sit upon her knees and be held in her giant arms.

“I do not love my land any more”,said Acorn,his whispers echoing in the cavern of Oaks ear, “My new motherland is love and your body and that is what I would die for sooner than betray it”.

Many happy months they spent in their secret place,however,it was not long before Oak became pregnant with Acorns child and though both would have been happy to have a child, both were afraid of what might become of their half-breed baby in a world where Gnomes and Giants were sworn enemies.

For this reason, one day, Oak and Acorn went to see the Tree-people who lived deep within and ruled over the Verdant forest.

Tree people were immensely wise because, being half human and half tree, the tallest ones among them were incredibly ancient and their roots connected them with the great soul of Nature,or God, from which all wisdom flows.

The elders of the Tree-people community debated the subject of Oak and Acorn’s baby at great length and afterwards, Heartwood, the appointed leader of the Tree-people said:

“Once your baby is born it may live under our care in the Verdant forest until it is old enough to travel but then it must go and live in the land of humans that lies beyond the White beard river and it would have to remain there until
it was safe for it to return home”.

Oak and Acorn agreed to this, although both were worried about whether their child could survive without their protection, however, they trusted in the wisdom and knowledge of the ancient Tree people.

When he was born, they named their baby boy Horizon because he was neither as tall as a Giant nor as Small as a Gnome but about the size of an adult human being and therefore stood half way between the high and the low like the line that divides earth and sky, and for the first ten years of Horizons life he lived in the Verdant forest under the tutelage of the Tree people, visited by his parents only in the early hours of the dawn or in the late hours of dusk.

From the Tree people, Horizon learned all the secrets of nature, whom they said was their God and Goddess and Horizon was taught to respect and to understand all living things and to be one with the great soul of nature so that he would always be protected by it.

Oak and Acorn also taught Horizon things. From Oak, Horizon learned to be like a Giant and use the Giant strength which he had inherited from his mother while from Acorn he learned to be like a Gnome and use the gnome cunning which he had inherited from his father.

When ten years had passed, however, the Tree people said that it was time that Horizon must leave the land of Gnomes and Giants to go and live in the land of humans and stay there until it was safe to return, but, so that he would not
get lost upon his way, the Eldest of the Tree people shed one of their limbs and an arrow was made from it which, they said, would be a magic one that would always fly in front of Horizon and guide him in the right direction and along the safest route.

“It will be the arrow of his destiny”, said Heartwood.

Also, from his parents, Horizon received the clothes of a giant doll to wear and a giant sewing needle and giant brass button which Oak had fashioned into a sword and shield while Acorn gave him a special flower with nine petals; each of which could cure any illness or injuries of any shape or form. They also gave him a knapsack filled with provisions for a long journey and then Oak lifted him up in her arms and carried him across the White beard river to the land of the humans.

At first Horizon was afraid to leave his mother but Oak pleaded with him, “Oh my little everything. Only half of me;only half a giant but you are ten times any other man. Once,you know, my body had a dream. Once I took a journey to the summit of the point of a star and there I found a cave that breathed fire and,once I’d braved the flames, I found a shimmering horde; your soft gold and your glistening smile, and then my dream opened its eyes and in its gaze I was made into a mother. Yes, it was you, my little hero. You, my little mountaintop. Oh gentle child with the milk and the life I have given you,please, take my faith also, believe in the mother of all mothers, whose face is in every field and star, for as I am a part of her thus you are also her child. Please awaken to her. It is she that told my heart to love your father, it is she that told my head not to worry,that told us to embrace our child rather than fear the noose, it is her hand that siezed my body like a bow and fired out an arrow, why? Because you are born for some special purpose, futile things are never born out of sacrifice and courage, and heros must be born twice,you know, once out of the womb of comfort and safety and once out of the jaws of danger. You are such a hero and you must face the world but please do not shiver,my love, for as my arms are part of the great mothers arms I will reach out through her and so I will never really be apart from you”.

But even after all this Horizon was not convinced, “You will never be apart from me and yet I see the river running between us?”

“Close your eyes then and be silent and still”, said Oak, and Horizon did as she commanded, “Now can you not feel the fingers of my loving hand surround you?”.

Horizon nodded because he did feel something that was embracing him, though when he opened his eyes his mother was still standing upon the opposite side of the river.

“Now you understand. Distance,fear and loneliness are the illusions and the love that connects us is the only real thing”.

This last plea was the one that gave most comfort and strength to Horizon,words alone had not been enough but once she had given him something to feel he was happy and so, gripping himself he turned to face the world of men and following the arrow of his destiny,he walked forward.