A Song for Miha - A Short Children's Story
A SONG FOR MIHA
A Short Children’s Story
JEAN DANIEL
Copyright 2026
All Rights Reserved.
A SONG FOR MIHA
The
As a
child she had been told stories of fierce, frightening creatures roaming in the
thickets day and night. The stories were enough to keep her from trying to
escape the forest. She decided it was better to stay where she knew she was
safe than to venture out and find danger in the shadows.
Once,
years ago, a handsome logger came through the
Soon, the
couple brought Miha into the world to live with them. Life was bright with
laughter and love. Miha could barely recall his father’s face but whenever he
thought about him he smiled. Especially when he would remember his father’s
strong, powerful voice, singing a hearty tune as he chopped wood for the winter
fire.
And his
father regaled him with stories about the world outside the
“There
are blue mountains as high as the sky!” he would say, “And waterfalls, and
rivers, and towns with houses made of gold. So bright they blind you. And the
sea, The
“Will you
take me there someday?” Miha would ask.
“Of
course! I’ll take you everywhere!” his father would answer. “I’ll show you the
world, my boy! The whole big wonderful world!”
Miha
grinned a bit, remembering those words. But he felt bad, too, because his
father had left them to seek his fortune and never returned.
“I miss
my father’s voice,” he said one day while he helped his mother at the
fireplace. They were cooking a bowl of mushrooms Miha had picked in the forest
that morning. They didn’t have many choices of food, being so deep in the
woods. Just mushrooms and crayfish from the creek and a few potatoes his mother
managed to grow in a small area behind the cabin.
Miha
longed to taste something fresh and new. His father had told him of wonderful
things a person could eat in Parthus – cheeses and sausages and bread and sweet
purple grapes. Miha wished he could know what such things were like. If only he
could go to the city.
“I miss
your father, too,” his mother sighed. “He said he would return. And I believed
him. But so many moons have passed in the sky now. I’m afraid he will never
return.”
“Maybe he
forgot the way to our cabin.” Miha suggested, sad at seeing two tears drop from
the corners of his mother’s eyes.
“It’s
possible, I suppose.” She sighed again, slipped a fingertip into the bowl to
test the mushrooms’ flavor. “These are so bland. I wish we had salt or some
milk for a sauce. But I guess we should be thankful we have any food at all.”
“Did you
ever go to the city, Mother?”
She
seemed surprised at his question. “No, I never did. But I used to go to a
village somewhere near here. My father would take us to church then we’d have a
big supper with his relatives in an enormous house by a lake.”
Miha sat
up, he was very interested in this village.
“Why have
you never told me about the village before?”
“Oh, I
have tried to forget it, Miha. Things happened there; hurtful things. People
can be so cruel. I didn’t want to remember.”
“Please tell
me what happened, Mother. I am old enough to know.”
She set
the bowl on the table, warmed her hands by the fire.
“The
children there would make fun of my plain clothes and my pigtailed hair. They
would laugh at me or whisper stories about me behind my back. Even my cousins
treated me badly. I finally made up my mind that I would hide from them and the
village and remain in the woods for the rest of my life. My parents felt the
same way.”
“Was
there no one who was kind to you?”
“Oh, I
suppose there was. But I only noticed the hurtful words and the mean-spirited
laughter. Bad things stay in your memory much longer than good things. But now
that I’m older I see that I shouldn’t have hidden myself away. I shouldn’t have
blamed the whole village for the actions of a few.”
“Could we
go there now?” Miha asked, excited.
“Oh, I
don’t think I could find it. Not after so long.”
“Do you
think Father would be there?”
“No,
Miha. Your father was going to Parthus.”
“Then,
let’s go find Parthus!”
“It’s
very far from here. I wouldn’t know how to begin to look for it. And there are
creatures in the forest. My own father told me so. We are better off staying
here.”
She sat
at the table, spooned the mushrooms out onto two wood plates. Then she poured
some creek water from a pitcher into two metal cups.
“Eat your
supper, Miha. We’ll need our strength to chop more wood for the winter. I’m
afraid it’s going to be a long, cold season.”
He nodded
and began to eat. His thoughts were racing round in his head. He kept thinking
how not once in his seven years on Earth had he ever seen a creature in the
woods. There were no wolves howling in the night, no birds tweeting in the
daytime. He wouldn’t know such animals existed if his mother hadn’t told him
about them. Maybe there were no creatures in the
While he
was sitting there at the table, Miha made a plan. Starting that night, while
his mother slept, he would take a long walk through the woods, going as far as
he dared, until he reached some village or a town or even Parthus itself. Then
he would return to get his mother and take her there.
She had
been feeling poorly for a time. He had noticed the heaviness in her breathing
and the slowness of her steps. He didn’t think she was truly ill, just sad and
lost and weary of the woods and its damp, close air.
He
figured he would use a lantern to guide his way, and mark the path as he went
along with notches in tree trunks or broken branches. He’d done that before, to
help him find the creek. It would serve him well on his journeys.
His first
outing was unsuccessful. He made it far past the little creek and up a steep
slope into even thicker woods, where he could scarcely breathe. He felt as
though the woods were about to swallow him up, the trees reaching down at him
with long, clutching limbs.
Miha
hurried back home, cleaned the creek mud from his sandals and went to bed,
determined to try again the next night.
Daylight
brought a plain but filling breakfast of potato soup then he spent hours and
hours chopping wood, stacking the wood and banking the fire. After that Miha
had to help his mother gather more potatoes from the root cellar then he held
the ladder so she could replace some wood tiles on the roof of the cabin.
They
usually skipped eating again till dark, which came early in the thick forest.
The sun never quite broke through the clusters of tree branches to warm their
faces but merely peeked through here and there; giving them a hint of how good
it could feel on their skin.
Miha was
exhausted by bed time but he was set on his mission and would not give up.
On this
trip he headed south towards the clearing that was the inspiration for his
father’s wood carvings. But there were no wolves dancing under the moon. In
fact, there was no moon. Or if there was, it must have been hiding behind a
blanket of dense black trees.
Miha
traveled farther, making sure to mark a trail for his walk home. He found
another clearing, a bit wider, with dry grass that crackled under his sandals.
The wind managed to press through the woods there, sending icy shivers through
his shabby tunic. He drew his collar up around his throat and pushed on.
Soon he
came to what he thought was a gigantic black lake. The water slid back and
forth in a soothing rhythm, but it turned the wind to a demon, burning his eyes
and freezing his cheeks and hands. It shook his lantern, snuffed the light.
Miha was
caught in darkness so thick it blinded him. He sought shelter with his numbed
fingers, but the shore was too open. If he stepped the wrong way he might be
lost to the lake waters, and he didn’t know how to swim.
A storm
blew down from the sky, stinging rain beat the top of his uncapped head,
soaking his blond hair and covering his mouth till he cried.
“I must
get away!” he said. Then he turned to go back the way he had come. The thick
darkness confused him; he no longer knew which direction he should go.
Miha
feared he might drown from the lake or the rain or both.
Then he
heard a sound faintly sifting through the downpour. It was lyrical, like
someone singing. He tried to follow it. It led him to a house of some sort. He
could feel a door handle and pulled it open.
Inside he
found a dry floor. He sat on it, crossed his feet and tried to light his
lantern again with a flint from his satchel. It took a little while but finally
the lantern became bright enough to show him where he was.
The house
around him was small but comfortable, not much different than the cabin he
shared with his mother, with a bed and a side table and a small hearth with
some old wood stacked in a box.
Miha lit
the logs in the hearth, made a nice, cozy fire to dry his wet tunic. He hung it
on a stand by the mantel then curled up in the bed under some scratchy linen
covers and fell asleep.
A bright
light hit Miha’s face the next morning. It was like nothing he had ever seen
before – streaks of sparkles came through the cracks in the little house’s
door, made a wonderful glow all around him.
He hopped
up and threw on his tunic then burst out of the door.
The whole
world seemed to be caught in that light – beautiful and luminous and
breathtaking. Miha saw then that the black lake was endless, and it was no
longer black but as green as the leaves on the trees.
“Oh!” he
exclaimed. “This must be The
He
glanced all around him at the beauty of The
For the
first time in his life he felt free and alive!
But then
Miha’s heart sank. He had been away from his mother all night. She must be
worried.
He
decided he had to rush home as quickly as he could to get her and bring her
back to this beautiful place.
He looked
around. He had become so lost in the darkness and the storm; he didn’t know
which way he should go.
Miha
searched the edge of the forest all morning, trying to find his marks but they
weren’t there. He must have walked much farther in the dark than he had
thought.
He was
beginning to feel afraid. If he couldn’t discover the trail how would he get
back to his mother? She would be so alone without him.
That
faint sound came again - that song, dancing on the air. Miha waited, wanting to
make sure it was real and not some trick of his imagination.
But it
was real. It slowly became louder and louder until, his heart bursting with
joy, Miha realized it was his father’s voice, singing his name!
He ran
towards the sound, tears blurring his eyes.
“I’m
here, Father! I’m here, by the sea!”
He heard
a rustling of leaves then his father appeared at the edge of the forest,
looking just as he had when he left. Miha’s mother was with him. She stepped
out of the dark woods, shielding her face from the unfamiliar brightness.
“Miha!
There you are! We were so afraid we’d lost you!”
He ran to
them. She hugged him tightly, kissed his warm cheek. Then his father lifted him
up to the sky.
“Well,
haven’t you grown! You’ll be a man soon!”
Miha
laughed as his father set him back down.
“Why did
you run away, Miha?” his mother asked.
“Oh, but
I didn’t, Mother! I was searching for a better place to live. I was coming back
to get you but I couldn’t find my trail.”
“So you
did leave this trail?” His father smiled. “We hoped you had. You are a clever
young fellow.”
“Yes, and
look what a lovely place he found.” His mother’s face glowed with a happiness
Miha hadn’t seen in a long time. “Could we live here, darling? And never return
to the woods?”
“We have
money enough to live anywhere now, my girl. I think this spot is as good as
any. What do you say, Miha, shall we live by The
“I’d like
that. I feel alive here.”
“So do I,
son. So do I.”
“Father,
why were you gone so long?” Miha wondered that night as they sat around the
hearth in the little house, eating fish they’d caught that afternoon.
“I guess
I did the same thing you did, son. Only I went about it the wrong way. I was
determined to get your mother, and you, out of those dark woods. So, I went out
to make my fortune. But I should’ve just found a better spot to live and
brought you both back with me.”
“I should
have been more willing to go with you in the first place,” Miha’s mother
sighed. “It took me too long to realize that not everyone would be cruel to me,
that I have to give people the chance to be kind.”
“Will
there be other people around here, Father?” Miha was excited by that idea.
“Yes,
son, there are plenty of people living by the sea. Tomorrow we’ll go and meet
some, if you’d like?”
“I would.
And we’ll give them the chance to be kind, won’t we, Mother?”
“Yes, we
will, my love.”
She
hugged him again. Miha was happy. There would be no more dark, cold nights in
the
THE END
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