There was agitation among the forest folk as the rumours spread, and the truth realised.

There was something happening in the shade grove, and it was not a good nor welcomed thing.

The shade grove was a place of safety, or it once was, but when folk began reporting otherwise, it caused a wave of concern to ripple through the forest.

There were agitators infiltrating the forest, wanting to upset the tranquillity and peace of the folk who had for so long lived there.

The vast majority of the forest folk enjoyed their lifestyle; they tolerated each other, discovered the various gifts and talents some possessed that they didn’t and learned to turn a blind eye in the pursuit of peaceful co-existence.

But the new ones, the ones who pushed their agenda, one of greed and division, were intent on dividing and causing one family to envy the other, for one group to feel their neighbour was taking advantage of them and so create a grievance. The agitators were not of the forest. At first, they were treated as a curiosity, a distraction from their every day lives.

When the first act of violence occurred, there was widespread condemnation. It was not forest behaviour and certainly not what was acceptable in the shade grove.

The newcomers supported one side and angered other groups who retaliated in kind and before long conflict was occurring where peace had reigned.

The outcome was the agitators moved into areas they had not before been welcomed in. They provided the ones they wanted to succeed with support and advice, they promoted agendas that met their twisted belief that conflict and division afforded them the power to eventually take over. Which they did.

It took some years before the forest folk realised they did have a voice and set out to overthrow the agitators.

They dreamed of the shade grove being the safe haven it had once been.

“Where there’s a will there’s a way,” they whispered to each other.

Written for: https://scvincent.com/2019/04/25/thursday-photo-prompt-shade-writephoto/