Silencing the Watchers of Shadowwood
- Ross Boulton
- Jun 15
- 4 min read
A forest fable of the dismantling of CISA .
By Forest Moss © 2025
Where ancient oaks and copper pines stood proud and high,
Sentinel the Owl would trace each thread beneath the sky.
He wove his silver warnings through networked root and limb—
Recalling dawns when every pulse sang safety’s steady hymn.
At his side, Swift Squirrel stored each spark of whispered threat,
And Badger Blight recorded truths the Dissembler’s office met—
They’d rang their clarion bell each moon to quell the sly deceit,
So every hollowed den could trust the tales they’d share and beat.
Then Fox in splendid coat arrived with ledger clasped in paw:
“Your ranks are bloated, tasks too many—budget demands the law.
We’ll prune your lines, we’ll clip your wings; efficiency shall bloom!”
With a single stroke, he barred their doors and dimmed the council room.
Sentinel’s great staff was halved; the Dissembler’s bell fell still;
Swift Squirrel’s acorn ledger lay unturned beside the hill.
“No need for watchful eyes,” Fox crowed, “peace rules these ancient lands!”
Yet in the hush, a tremor passed through every branch and strand.
Unseen, the Redwood Collective crept to tamper with each dam,
They slipped backdoors in beaver valves—no owl-sentinel to slam.
At election’s eve, the sluices broke; the forest woke in thirst:
Young fawns knelt on muddy banks as hope and water both dispersed.
A hush fell where their banners flew—no bell to ring the lies;
Rumors spread like wildfire smoke beneath the fractured skies:
“They starved our streams to sway our votes!” rang cries through every glen—
No Dissembler’s voice remained to calm the torrents raging then.
Before the forest could repair, a darker plague took hold:
Ransomware Ravagers struck—“Pay acorn coins, or face the cold.”
They locked the hive’s honey vaults, froze windmills in the breeze,
And left the mushroom hospitals without their lifeblood keys.
Power died—electric bugs fell mute; root-rail carts came to rest;
Night swallowed every candle’s glow, each creature’s anxious breath.
A young rabbit—small and pale—wandered lost in darkest wood;
No friendly scout to guide her steps, no arm to lift her mood.
Crops wilted under poisoned mist; berry vines refused to bloom;
Pollinators lost their hum, and silence filled the gloom.
Shadowwood’s heart lay broken now, its circuits all but torn—
Only brittle trunks remained where once bright life was born.
At last, Sentinel returned—his feathers ragged, spirit worn—
He found no staff to heed his call, no council to be reborn.
He flapped atop a shattered dam and beat his wings in pain:
“Truth is security—heed this tale! Cowardice invites the bane.”
But Fox had vanished into mist, his ledger torn in two,
And only echoes answered him where once the watchmen flew.
**Moral.**
When watchers fall and threads unwind, and truth’s own bell is stilled,
Water, light, and hope give way to fear—and forests lie unfilled.
Vigilance is not a luxury; it is the very heart
That binds our world together, or tears it all apart.
Forest Moss's Notes:
The tale of “Silencing the Watchers of Shadowwood” works on two levels: as a gripping forest drama, and as a pointed allegory about what happens when a society defunds its cyber-defenses. Here’s one way to read it:
1. Characters as Living Symbols
Sentinel the Owl
Forest role: The master watchman who weaves “silver threads” of warning through every branch and root.
Allegory: Embodies centralized cyber-threat hunters and early-warning systems (think CISA’s vulnerability-scanning and incident-response teams).
Swift Squirrel & Badger Blight
Forest role: The agile scouts and steadfast analysts who gather at the moonlit council to share every threat.
Allegory: Stand in for information-sharing hubs (MS-ISAC, JCDC) and election-security or disinformation-response offices.
Fox in Splendid Coat
Forest role: The smooth-talking bureaucrat who slashes budgets under the guise of “efficiency.”
Allegory: Represents political leaders or policymakers whose cost-cutting “pruning” undermines critical defenses.
Redwood Collective
Forest role: A hidden cabal that sneaks backdoors into the dam-control plates.
Allegory: Mirrors state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat groups exploiting software-supply-chain vulnerabilities.
Ransomware Ravagers
Forest role: Digital marauders who lock up hives and demand “acorn coins.”
Allegory: Reflects criminal ransomware gangs that paralyze infrastructure when defensive capacity is weakened.
2. The Cascading Failures
Each crisis in the story maps to a real-world sector:
Water Systems (Beaver Dams Unravel)
A single backdoor triggers widespread utility failures—just as SCADA-system compromises can shut down water treatment.
Elections & Truth (Dissembler’s Office Deleted)
No fact-checkers remain to counter false rumors, sowing civil unrest—paralleling the removal of disinformation-response teams.
Ransomware Siege (Hives & Hospitals Locked Down)
Digital extortion freezes power, healthcare, and transportation—mirroring how ransomware gangs exploit under-resourced defenders.
3. Core Themes
Vigilance Is Foundational: Cutting early-warning “threads” removes the ability to detect and defuse emerging threats.
Coordination vs. Fragmentation: When councils and information-sharing bodies vanish, each sector becomes an isolated target.
Truth as a Defensive Tool: Eliminating the Dissembler’s office shows how unchecked misinformation can be as damaging as any cyber-attack.
Short-Term Savings, Long-Term Costs: What looks like budgetary “efficiency” quickly becomes systemic collapse.
4. The Moral
“When watchers fall and threads unwind, water, power, hope, and trustGive way to famine, fear, and rot—the forest falls to dust.Vigilance is not a luxury; it is the very heartThat keeps our world from turning, from shattering apart.”
This closing couplet distills the fable’s warning: defunding the guardians of security—and the institutions that bind us—invites cascading disasters. True resilience requires maintaining those watchers and the networks they protect.
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