Here's a short story for "A Monument Without A Tomb" hope you like it.
The sun was high, and a breeze shook the ancient trees. The forest was alive with the calls from foxes, bird songs, and squirrel arguments. Three people walked slowly along an old over grown path. They were all silent as they walked. Not a sad silence, a silence of wonder. None of these people had been in this forest before. They weren't sure of where this path went, or why it was so under kept. All the other trails that they had been on in this forest were so well kept. All, except this one.
The father along they got, they realized, the quieter it got, and the more over grown it got. Before long the only sounds were made from the people pushing their way through what seemed like a jungle. Driven by curiosity, the three continued forward. Then they stopped. They had opened onto a trail again.
This one was different though. There were wild flowers that normally wouldn't be here, growing and thriving. There were willow trees that created a roof over the trail. In the middle of summer, there were trees blooming, with beautiful little light pink flowers. The trail wasn't dirt, it was a completely grassy path, and the wild flowers grew on either side of it, but not on it.
It was still silent. Deathly silent.
None of the three people moved for a long time. They didn't want to disturb anything. A sad aura had settled around everything. Finally a woman stepped forward, and began walking again, as if drawn by something. The other two, both men, looked at each other, and followed. They walked for a long while down the twisting path. Wind picked up, blowing petals past them.
Coming around one corner froze them all again. A huge stone was in front of them, now standing in a clearing. This wasn't an ordinary stone, it was glowing dimly light blue, and the top was jagged with spikes. More like a crystal than a stone.
The woman stepped towards it, reaching out and touching the smooth side of the stone. With one hand still on it she walked around it. One of the men had pulled out some sort of tablet, and was running numbers and rambling on about how unusual this was, while the other took pictures with his camera.
"Guys come look at this," the woman exclaimed from the other side of the stone. Both ran over to see what the woman was talking about.
A metal plate had been drilled into the stone. On it were the words, "In Memory of The Wild Warrior," written in gold. "This is incredible!" the man with the tablet exclaimed. "This is like a monument for some great war hero or something like that. Where's the tomb?" he began searching around the clearing.
"What tomb?" the woman asked.
"Well, in these parts a monument like this has the tomb right next to it," the guy with the camera explained. They all searched for a tomb, or a grave, or something, and came up empty handed.
From the top and a hill, a man wearing a purple hoodie with the hood up, tan cargo pants, and combat boots, watched the three people run around the crystal like children in a park. A smile was on his face, as he turned to walk away. Glancing back only once, before disappearing into the dark depths of the ancient trees. A bird flew out singing the saddest tune the forest had ever heard.
The bird song caught the three's attention, and they all stood in silence, watching the bird as it flew into the distance.
