"UpDation"

Here is the updated story that I have written for Tony for his birtday, let me know what you think!

There once was a boy…

There once was a boy who lived in a land of plenty. His childhood days were sunny and warm and free from all bothers and worries. He lived with a loving family in a little grey house that stood atop a small hill. They lived in a little village surrounded by green, rolling hills that resembled a vast green ocean. The little village was untouched by the evils of the world; the villagers all lived within the safety of one another. Children were raised and most left once old enough to places far beyond eyes view into lands unknown to them. There, they began their new lives.
Day after day the boy would play in the misty green grass with his brother as they gazed out abroad the distant paths that scoured the hilly landscape. Blue skies laid like a blanket over them. At night he dozed safe in the warm embrace of his down blanket and dreamt of his future life beyond the hills.
But as the boy grew older, his days became darker. Nights became an inky black which even the strongest light could not penetrate and a dense fog settled itself in every crack and crevice in the village. Paths that crossed distant hills and far off lands, once seen by day, were now obscured by thick clouds that dragged themselves across a forlorn sky, blocking out the warming rays of the sun. The darkness was unheard of in the village, for none that lived had ever experienced it before. Children were kept indoors and shielded from the darkness and the evil that usually accompanies it. But the boy did not fare so well. Day after day, he watched through the kitchen window as the distant lands were swallowed up by the fierce sky. In losing sight of these lands, of these distant dreams, he felt his hopes trickling away.
In the wake of the darkness came demons who searched for the weak to consume and grow strong off of. Sensing weakness like a hunger, Demons came to visit the boy and instead of shutting them out, he invited them in. He was a vulnerable boy at this time in his life; with obscured paths on the horizon, he felt lost. Days became darker and melded into one another. The boy put off everything. No longer did he still gaze out with hope on the fogging hills to try and catch glimpses of what he had once been able to see, for he had lost interest in many things and his dreams began to wane. He let time slip slowly by without a thought. Family and friends looked on with worry and fear. But with his hood pulled up, he seemed untouchable to everyone.

His friends left to seek greater things in distant lands and his family grew. But the boy remained the same.

Then one day, the boy chanced a glance out the window for the first time in many years. With the world dark and his hope vanquished, he had never had the desire before. His world had grown far darker since he last remembered. He saw his reflection in the window and pulled down his hood to reveal his face. How much he had grown, how much he had never realized. He wanted to question that it was him. He touched his face and his fears were confirmed: it really was himself that he saw staring back. But there was something else that scared him. He could see the hint of his demons’ destruction within his face. It showed radiant in every line that had been furrowed into his youthful skin and in his dull and dying eyes. He seemed hollow; there was no hope nor future to be found. It now became apparent that his demons were slowly consuming him; he was only feeding them and making things all the worse. The boy was suddenly brought back to reality. His past childhood and adolescence flashed before his eyes. Days of sunshine that had turned to days of darkness; days of joy that had turned to days of numbing. He saw his friends leaving and himself remaining.
Suddenly, an anger arose within the boy; anger with himself for letting his world get so dark, for allowing life to just pass him by. He knew that staying here would not cause the fog to lift, nor for the clouds to part. He cast out his demons with a promise to himself, and shut the door on them.

The next morning, he left.

He traveled day and night, for they seemed to be just a continuum of one another; it seemed day never ended and night never began. He traveled with his hood pulled tight, for he felt utterly alone and at times hopeless. But he trudged on through the broken terrain of brambles and thorns with the feeling that this was the right thing to do. Upon sleep; he dreamed of lands he had once glimpsed as a child and he awoke each morning with renewed vigor and set out to seek such places.
One day the boy came upon a very tall hill with sides that seemed to stretch for miles. In the far distance of the sky, he could see its tones becoming lighter, even if only minutely, foreshadowing a hope of lands he dreamed of. He set out without hesitation and began to climb. The boy was weary and pantingwhen he finally reached the top, but the sight before him caused his breath to catch in his throat. He fell down on his knees and gaped at the beauty he saw before him. Miles and miles on he could see. In the far-off distance, he could see lands of deep green and skies of pearlescent blue. He threw back his hood and down the hill he began to descend.
With each passing day the sky turned a shade lighter. No longer was it an inky black, but instead a grand blue, and on into an amber orange. Every day gave promise of much more. Paths were clearer and there were more and more that he came upon. The grass became fuller and the flowers ever so vibrantly colored.
But the boy knew that this was still yet the beginning. There were many paths to take, more hills to climb. He knew he’d happen upon gullies and brambles, but he did not fear this. For whatever gully or bramble he came across, he knew there’d be greater sunshine and even more paths to follow. He kept his eyes locked on the distant horizon and took each step with an unwavering heart.

And now there is a boy, who is turning into a man; he’s crossing paths he once could not see, and never chancing a look back at the things that used to be.