I started my way through the darkened forest stepping over broken trees and roots that were trying to get life back into them. When I was surrounded by burnt trees something caught my eye. Underneath a tree, that was laying on the ground, was a shiny object. I crouched down and after a better looked at it I realized that it was just a rock with a small piece of metal imbedded into the top of it.

As I stood up I dropped the rock and kept walking. There were trees blocking my path making my way through the forest feel like an obstacle course. Slowly but surely I made it through the bundle of trees that were intertwined with each other from the massive fire. When I reached the far side of the small area of trees I saw something shiny coming from the ground out of the corner of my eye. Being curious I walked over it and picked it up. “This is the same rock from before, but how could that be?” I thought.

Thinking that my mind was just playing a game with me I dropped the rock, where I found it, and started to walk through the next section of forest. The walk was more of the same, avoiding dead trees hoping that nothing would break and fall down crushing me in the process. As if someone came and purposely cleared the area after the fire went out, I came to a 1 mile radius area that was covered in a blanket of black. There was no a single tree, root or even branch to be seen.

Feeling sorry for the ground I dropped to my knees and brushed my hand along the ground. Something didn’t feel right about the ashes though. The texture of very different from what ashes should feel like, instead of lightly brushing off my hand like sand the black substance felt like sticky chalk. I stood up and slowly turned in a circle looking for anything that would explain this weird part of the forest, but nothing stood out. Once I faced the same direction that I started in something shiny broke through the blanket of blanket of black in front of me.

I cautiously walked over to it, not sure what to except. The source of the light wasn’t clear enough to make out so I fell on my knees and began to dig with my hands. Scrapping small pieces of the chalk substance into my hand with each handful my hands became layered in blackness, and soon I couldn’t even make up the scars that I had on the back of my hand since I was a child. When I reached the object my hands were throbbing in pain. “This rock again” I signed in disappointment.

I stood up tired from digging, only to have my hands and knees with the black substance clung to them. I hung my head ashamed that I spent a significant amount of time digging only to be face to face with an object that I didn’t even want in the first place. Slowly I walked back to the spot that I was before and held the rock in the palm studying and trying to understand its relevance to me.

The suns light gracefully danced off the top of the rock casting different shaped onto the ground. When I finally figured that the strange images on the ground were coming from the rock I turned it in different directions until they were all lined up with each other. After much effort a box appeared on the ground in front me, with 7 little dots inside of it. Not fully understanding what it meant I placed the rock on the ground, making sure the dots still appeared on the ground, and then I stepped inside of the box.