Zephyros the Forester

[Zephyros (DELETED 10647)]

In life, I was a woodsman, so why should undeath be any different? Hunting for blood isn't so different from hunting for meat, it's conveniently less regulated too. I can even continue my work as a forester, albeit at night. Each night, making my way out to a forest to create, maintain, or improve the trails. The recent weeks being spent reestablishing an old boy scout trail. The work is peaceful, the strike of a tool into the ground cathartic in its simple physical repetition. The forest providing a beautiful backdrop, dark and mysterious. Not silent however, as one might think. Each night the forest coming alive with the sounds of insects searching for mates, and the sounds of predators and prey playing their eternal game of cat and mouse. With pick-mattock in hand, a new predator enters the woods each night, though my prey is not found amongst the trees. There is much to see in a forest when one is silent like the dead. The wildlife doesn't duck for cover as they might upon hearing the cumbersome steps of human feet. As I make my way along the old path, a young black bear is no exception. The startled bear quickly making its way down a partially climbed tree and fleeing into the dark upon seeing me approach. When I reach the spot I left off on the night before, I set to work chopping into the earth and pulling away sheets of soil to make my trail. There's an art to building a trail, dig too deeply and you're wasting effort, dig too shallowly and nature will reclaim your trail in a matter of years instead of decades. My digging is precise, experience making the task effortless, I pull back the layers of organic soil exposing the mineral soil beneath. The mineral soil provides the right tread and drainage when done properly. The mattock peels back a space four feet wide, the perfect width for a person walking these woods, though the most likely use of the trail will be in the sunlight of the day when I am well away from this place. I continue along, rarely stopping for breaks determined to finish the last quarter mile of trail tonight. When finished it will reconnect two existing trails and ease the uphill climb associated with the lower trail, optimal for the young, old, and infirm. The strong and those seeking a challenge would likely still use the original trail and the steep climb associated with it for the challenge the climb would provide. A few more hours digging at a rapid pace and the trail is complete. The next step being to cut the branches in the way of the trail that would force a hiker to duck and weave along the path. I cut at the base of the branch, a quarter inch or so from where the branch meets the tree, this protects the tree by minimizing the space in which the tree could find itself under attack by microbe or insect. Before long, the project is done and I make my way out of the forest and away to finish out the night.