I Tree

Years passed. The sprout became a sapling, growing tall enough to put its leaves above the weeds the overran the hilltop. The young sapling became a small tree in time. It began to spread its branches to the sun.

"How did I get here?" The tree asked. "This can’t be! I’m a man! I can’t stand here on this hill with my feet buried in the dirt! I must go to the valley and find my ship and my companions."

"Your companions have long since turned to dust." The tree whispered.

"I must go to them." The man part of the tree shouted.

"You are me. I am you. We shall stand here on the crest of this hill for eternity and watch over our valley. We shall watch beings come and go. We shall stand while they mate under our boughs. So it has always been and so it shall always be." The tree whispered.

Try as he may, the man part of the tree could not move. After many centuries he settled down to be a tree. In time they merged and became one.

Humans came. They hastily built buildings and erected strange weapons.

Weapons that pointed to the sky.

Ships came and went for many years. The bases grew into cities. Cities that grew food and supplied the ships that came. Some ships brought more humans and other strange beings. Beings that were so huge they shook the earth when they walked and beings that flew through the air. The flying ones stopped and talked with the tree. The tree told them how long it had stood on the hill and all that had come and gone before. The flying ones listened and gave sympathy. They too were very old and their nest on the world they called Home had endured for eons. They had explored the galaxy far and wide long before the humans came to their world.

"Why do you make war with them then?" The tree asked.

"We call them friend. One among them is ancient. It is he who we call brother. If a brother of the hive goes to war then the hive goes to war. These we seek to destroy, destroy all in their path. They would consume you and all of your world."

"Then we to shall call this one brother." The tree stated.

The war never came to the world of the tree. Many thousands of the beings from the huge ships that sent smaller ships down to the surface came and went for many years but no war came. The world became a haven for the humans and their two species of friends. The tree came to know them well. It didn’t speak to them for only the one species could hear and converse with it. The ancient one the tree had spoke with warned it against speaking with strangers. They would carry it away to find how it could communicate.

Only one time in all the many centuries the world was occupied but the humans of the last coming did the tree ever break its silence.

A human, after swearing his undying love to a female mated with her then took out a sharp knife and started to carve their names in the trunk of the tree.

"Ouch! That hurts!" The tree shouted.

"Who said that?" The human shouted.

"I!" Answered the tree.

"But you’re a tree!"

The humans ran away in fear, not daring tell anyone of the experience. They feared they would be thought mad or just young and foolish.

Time passed and the humans and their friends moved on. The buildings fell down and became a part of the valley.

I stand here still. Waiting. For what I don’t know. My roots drink from the river. They take minerals from the soil. My leaves take energy from the sun.

The sun. It grows huge and red. Has it been that long? Are we moving closer to the sun again? I must store large quantities of water in my trunk and in my roots before the long dry spells come.

This time it was different. The world spiraled down and down. Ever closer. Its surface was parched. The tree was the last to die before the world spiraled into its sun.

END