Story: The Twelve Long Years

Storytelling: The Twelve Long Years

It was a long, hard battle that the small town of Bend was unable to win. As much as the Bendites held their own, they were simply out numbered. Because of this loss they were forced to go and live off the land in the middle of Willamette forest. The Bendites were lead by a young leader that goes by the name of Christian. He was a great leader and took the blame for the loss of his town and decided he was going to do everything in his power to keep his people alive for them to reestablish a home. He wandered and wandered and finally gave up and decided to pray to God and ask for some sort of help. Once he asked and gave it up to him food was brought to him left and right. Him and his people were fed more than enough food at all times and in with that food they gave ten percent of it back to God as gratitude for keeping them safe and alive. There were a few close calls where bears and mountain lions were involved but no matter what happened he always kept them safe.

            They made it six years and had lived successfully through anything and everything. During the seventh year many people became sick and it became hard to continue living and trusting in God.  People started blaming Him for the deaths of their people and they stopped trusting and believing in Him. It was Christians job to keep that faith going and to make sure the others did to. He declared a law that the people who refused to believe would be left and kicked out of their community. Many people got left behind, which was hard for Christian because he had worked so hard to keep the community together. After exiling several individuals Christian and the remaining people had to keep the community running smoothly. Shortly after Christian took this stand the lord blessed him with even more protection and food and the promise that one day they will have their town back.

            Christian and his towns people kept up the faith and continued living in the land for another five years. Once five years hit Christian had a dream where the Lord told him to gather his things and go back to the town of Bend. He was so nervous and afraid that he ignored the dream for a few nights until it happened again. Finally he decided, because God had delivered thus far, they were going to start the trek out of the forest and see if they could take their land over again. People thought he was crazy but they followed and trusted that he knew what was best.

            When they got back they walked in very hesitant but they trusted the Lord was watching over them. When they had searched the whole are they were shocked to find out that there were no signs of another community and they were free to move back in. They instantly started to rejoice and thank the Lord that he had delivered them through those long, hard twelve years.

Authors Note: 

I decided that something had to have happened during those long twelve years talked about in the novel so I wanted to expand on it and make it my own. I had the idea and I just kind of ran with it. I had no idea that I was going to through in the religious aspect until it kind of just happened. There was not much about the twelve years in the original it just stated that they were in the forest and it lasted twelve years.   

Here is the link for the reading for Mahabharata Online: Public Domain Edition 

Willamette National Forest