Forever and What Follows: A Junior Narrative Illustration by Kyle DeWitt (2012)

For my illustration I chose to do a story about immortality. Long before the Europeans came to America and the mysticism of the Native Tribes still ran through the woods of the eastern coast, a group of Iroquois hunters stumble upon an unconscious wounded man. Someone in the company makes a point to say that he's never seen the man in the village before and that he's an outsider. Meanwhile the chief's daughter follows a rare bird to its nest. She is a curious girl, and stops to admire it. Suddenly she sees the hunting company taking a man back to their camp and bringing him before the chief and his friends. She follows them inside her father's tent. They realize his wounds are not only peculiar and seemingly fatal, but also that they are healing at an incredible rate. Shocked, they bring forth their shaman who reveals that he is one of the river spirits, immortal. The shaman goes on to say that he does not know why he is in human form. When the outsider finally awakes, the first thing his eyes see is the chief's daughter standing over him. The chief declares that he is allowed to stay with the tribe and it's not long before the daughter falls in love with the outsider. Months later in the woods, the outsider is visited by the rock spirit who greets the outsider like an old friend. The rock spirit says he's come to warn him. Long ago he too was in love with a mortal woman and the pain of watching her die was strong enough to trap him in the earth forever. With a heavy heart the outsider sails into the sea. In my illustration the kitten represents the girl, curious and youthful. While the ocean represents the outsider, eternal and lonely. In the waves you can make out the words ''forever and what follows.'' This not only is the title of my story but suggests that living forever, which is a largely desired concept, is not all that it's cracked up to be and with it comes burdens some would consider worse than death.