I Tree

The small ship went away. A number of years latter a huge ship arrived. One so huge it had to stay above the world and let smaller ships bring the Feline beings down to our valley. They fished in the wide river, dammed it so it filled the upper reaches of the valley and used its water to produce power. They raised their food beasts on the pastures of the hills while growing other foods in the valley. For many generations they lived peaceful in the valley.

The world shook itself once more. The trees were thrown about. Some of the ancient ones were thrown down upon the ground. The dam at the head of the valley split open and spilled the water down the valley, carrying away the houses and the Feline people. None survived. No ships came for many turns of the world around it’s sun.

The Humans came. They ran about the world like mad beings, exploring every corner. Mining minerals, growing crops. They cleared away large tracts of native forests and planted new trees. Our grove escaped because it was on the crest of the hill. Humans enriched the soil with the bodies of our dead brothers. They were ground up and turned into the soil of the valley to make it grow the grains the humans so desired. Young humans visited the grove and mated beneath our boughs.

Their children and grand children came to live beneath the trees. They built homes to the very edge of our grove to escape the summer heat of the valley. They used water from the river to irrigate the crops they grew. This provided abundant water for our roots which spread far and wide. Some even reached the river.

A being the humans called the Borom came. They destroyed the humans and for a time occupied the valley. They built huge forts in the foothills but never came near the grove of trees.

Another being called the Creuon came and destroyed the Borom. They didn’t build buildings. They camped in the valley for a time, repairing their ships then moved on to other worlds.

The Trees became things of legend among the beings who populated our world from time to time. Those who slept beneath the trees dreamed of all that has come to pass. It was said the trees whispered to them as they slept.

The legend came from the first beings that occupied our world.

No intelligent being’s handiwork is ever completely erased. There are always signs left. Pictures carved in cliff’s and love poems carved in rocks. And so it was with all the beings that came to live on our world. The humans found these remains and through many years of study, learned slowly and painfully to translate them.

The legend of the Tree grew. Many came to sleep and propagate under our boughs. Our grove was sacred to the humans. The same was not so of those who felled some of our brothers for timber to build cabins on the slopes of our hill.

An organ was discovered in the tree that resembled a brain. It lay where the tall smooth trunk forked and the limbs spread out. A hollow twice the size of a human’s head contained a spongy substance that could be said to absorb water in the wet seasons. But did it absorb more. There were those that said yes.