《A Tree And A Puddle》


 I am not a very old tree

    I am a tree. Not too old, ten years at most and not more than 12 feet tall, but a tree I am.


    I am a tree, I stand growing in a grove, the grove is a hundred feet wide, much larger than I am. It is full of animals and other smaller plants, none of them are trees.


    I am a tree in a grove, no more than 12 feet tall. And I grow over a puddle, I protect this puddle.


    I am the only tree in the grove, an animal drinks from the puddle and begins to scream and twitch.


    I am a tree, and there is a skeleton tangled among my roots, it was once a small animal.


    I am a tree, in a grove, watching plants and animals grow and live. I am 12 years at most and no more than 13 feet tall, I guard a puddle and a pile of bones rests in my roots.


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    I am a tree, and I notice, as much as a tree can notice, that the puddle is growing slowly. My roots tighten around it and it slows.


    I am a tree, and it is snowing. All the other plants are asleep and the animals hide in warm shelters. I guard the puddle and make sure that it does not grow. My roots slowly grow to cover up the puddle. A pile of bones rests among my roots.


    I am a tree. The snow is melting and the other plants are slowly waking up. My roots fully enclose the puddle, keeping it hidden. Small creatures play among the plants and plants prepare to bloom.


    I am a tree, growing in a grove, no more than 15 years and shorter than 14 feet. The grove is still a hundred feet across, the puddle is still hidden. The plants bloom, the animals play and the bugs crawl. It is warm and my branches stretch towards the sun, providing shade in the grove. The bones resting in my roots stay silent.


    I am a tree, and there is a bird nesting in my branches. There are more animals and plants now, berries begin to ripen on the other, smaller, plants. I sit growing over a puddle. Snakes slither through my roots and deep in the soil worms and bugs crawl. My roots reach very far, covering most of the grove and tangling with all the other roots. There are still no other trees.


    I am a tree, and the puddle soaks into my roots. This is fine as I am a tree.

 The Tree and The Birds

    I am a tree, in a grove, growing small fruits. The bird nest has grown larger and a second bird has joined the first, they gather small berries and insects from the grove to eat. They avoid my berries and roots. The caged puddle seeps further into my roots and the cage grows thicker. A colony of ants has taken up residence in the dirt next to my roots. I am still a tree.


    I am a tree, my berries are growing larger. The birds have laid eggs. The bones still rest among my roots.  The puddle is contained. The grove flourishes with the spring and it will soon rain, moss begins to cover the skeleton, my roots still woven throughout. There are no other trees in the grove, my roots reach deeper into the earth, there are no more roots this far down.


    I am a tree, and it is raining. The water falls over my trunk and pools around my roots, the other plants in the grove are drenched, the birds hide from the wind in my canopy, the leaves reach to shelter them. A few small creatures hide from the floods among my roots, I am good at shielding from the rain and water. Deep in the earth the water flows down, showing my roots a path even deeper, my roots follow the water''s flow.


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    I am a tree, There are small pools of water in the grove, the animals drink from them. The ants in the soil around my roots start to dig their nest deeper, and the bird''s eggs will be hatching soon. My berries are not yet ripe, it will be some time more. My roots dig deeper and my branches reach higher, I am a young tree no more than 15 years old and 16 feet tall, I am the only tree in the grove.


    I am a tree, and the bird''s eggs have hatched, the young birds call for food and the larger birds feed them. The other plants have stopped flowering and the puddles have all dried, my roots reach deeper and it is wet, they drink deeply. The puddle is still contained, I am the tallest thing in the grove, and still my branches reach higher. The sun caresses my leaves and the earth feeds my roots. The bones rest among my roots and there are more ants than ever, they hunt other insects among the undergrowth.


    I am a tree, and it is warm, the animals hide in the shade and the other plants wilt, their roots do not reach as deep as mine, my roots reach up and join with theirs, it is wet so far down and my roots drink deeply. The small birds are larger now, and they fly among my branches, my berries are not yet ripe. The puddle grows, the roots do not let it. My roots stretch deeper and my branches spread further, my bark is cool.

 I am a good tree

    I am a tree, and with the water from my roots the plants no longer wilt, the animals still sit thirsty hiding in the shade, my roots grow and form a basin, slowly filling with water. My bark is cooled by the deeper water, and the heat does not bother me.


    I am a tree, and my berries have ripened, some of the fruit falls where the insects and animals eat them, the birds eat the berries that have not fallen. The animals drink the water from my basin and a small steam forms flowing down the hill I am perched on. My roots dig even deeper into the water below and spread even further out. My branches stretch towards the sun, casting an even larger shadow to shelter the animals below.


    The puddle grows and so do I.


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    I am a tree, and my berries are all gone, I am still the only tree in the grove. The animals that ate my fruits have grown larger, this is fine as I am a tree. The stream flowing up from my roots has formed a puddle at the bottom of the hill, the birds bath in it while the animals drink. They do not fight. The puddle at the bottom of the hill is not the puddle, I know this.


    I am a tree, and the baby birds have left the nest, they fly among my branches with their parents. All the birds are larger than their nest now, so my branches grow into a larger one. The ants have dug larger tunnels, exposing more of my roots. They have also grown larger. The animals leave the grove to hunt for food, they do not eat the other animals in the grove. A few of the smaller animals eat the plants in the grove and play in the open, no longer scared of predators.


    I am a tree, and I grow.

 Warm Bones

    I am a tree, and I am in a grove.


    I have grown into a large tree, my branches cover the grove and many birds and animals live within them.


    My roots reach even deeper than my branches, down into the cold earth where the water lives, my roots drink this water deeply, the grove needs a spring to truly grow. I am that spring just as much as I am a tree.


    The animals in my grove grow larger, all of them work together to bring resources into the grove, mostly dead animals from outside. They make excellent fertilizer and my sap grows rich with nutrients and sugar. I start to grow just a bit faster, I am far larger than a tree should be at my age.


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    My leaves shed water in miniscule droplets, filling the grove with a faint fog and encouraging the smaller plants to grow ever larger. If the animals are bigger the plants they hide among and eat must too grow, as a tree I can help them grow.


    The puddle pulses within its cage, and I make sure my roots grow ever stronger. It can smell the flourishing life, it will not reach. The bones within my roots seem to grow warmer with each pulse from the puddle, my roots strangle the bones ever tighter.