《Tree Sisters》


 1. Birth Harvest

    The Hill had been a peaceful place for my sisters and me. The grass was a bright and joyful tint of green and waved at us every time a light breeze swung us around. The sun heated our skin through the leaves above us, but his warmth wasn¡¯t as strong as I remembered. Fall was coming. I didn¡¯t know if I was looking forward to the day of falling, or afraid of what it might bring. ¡°When I grow up¡±, Horsis said, sensing my thoughts, ¡°I want to be a horse, wild and free, running from one end of the world to the other. Galloping so fast that it feels like flying. I will be so strong and proud that only the bravest warrior can convince me to join him in his travels.¡± I felt a happy energy radiating from her branch as if her mind was smiling. ¡°Then why not become a pegasus if you want to fly? They aren¡¯t real either, but at least they are cool,¡± Sendly smirked. ¡°Horses are real. I saw one,¡± Horsis assured her. ¡°Trust me, there is a lot more out there than the Hill, the wind, and the sky. And I¡¯m going to see all of it before I will carry the weight of a mother.¡±


    I believed Horsis. As far as I knew, she was the oldest one of us. She had been watching everything around our tree before we could even sense her presence. If she claimed to have seen a horse, I believed her. Maybe she could take me on her back one day to show me the world. Maybe she could take me on her back not because I was her sister, but because I had become the bravest of warriors. I smiled.


    ¡°I¡¯m scared!¡± Elia screamed out. Her fear drove itself like a spear in the hearts of all of us. ¡°I¡¯m going to fall,¡± she cried. ¡°Calm down,¡± Horsis told her, ¡°that¡¯s normal. We all fall one day. It¡¯s great actually. You can finally be anything. You will be the first of us to see the world!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to go yet, I¡­¡± Elia¡¯s thoughts were interrupted as her stem sapped. Her connection to the tree of sisters was gone. She was nothing but a pale, bouncy ball rolling down the hill. As she came to a stop against a clump of grass, her skin started to rip open. We watched in horror as a pale insect clawed its way out with its thin legs. ¡°So¡­ that¡¯s what we are¡­ That¡¯s what we really are?¡± we thought in union. Elia had barely left her cocoon when an enormous crow appeared in the sky and started diving towards her. Our sister was helpless prey. Or was she? Elia transformed in the blink of an eye. One moment she was a hideous, crawling insect, the next she was an identical copy of the crow. The first bird stared at her for a moment, confused, before continuing on his path.


    The crow that was Elia flew up and landed on the tree. ¡°This isn¡¯t how I wanted things to go,¡± she spoke. She didn¡¯t sound like one of us anymore, her voice was the voice of a random crow who landed on our tree by coincidence during his travels. ¡°It will be fine,¡± Horsis reassured her. ¡°The horse told me life isn¡¯t always what you want or imagine. But that doesn¡¯t make it not worth living. You are a bird. A strong and big one also. Sure, you didn¡¯t get a chance to meet an eagle or a dragon, but that doesn¡¯t stop you from flying high in the air as if you were an eagle.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to fly away. I will stay here with you. This tree is my home and you are my family. Can we just pretend I¡¯m not a hideous crow, but a squishy ball of joy like the rest of you?¡± We didn¡¯t have the heart to tell her no.


    Thia was the next of us to go. She landed on a stone. The creature that dragged itself out of her cocoon was barely alive. She was able to root herself in the ground as a single blade of grass, but then slowly died over the next couple of days. It was probably for the best that she couldn¡¯t talk. Hearing her fight for her life in vain would have been too much for us to process. We just hung from our tree and watched in silence. There was nothing we could do. Elia said she could hear Thia talk if she went close enough. Some days she asked her to get help, to keep her upright, to do anything. Other days she just asked for death. But Elia couldn¡¯t bring herself to do any of those. She didn¡¯t know how to help nor had the heart to rip her apart. They talked a lot during these days and when her fight was over, Elia picked up the meager seed her remains dropped and flew out of our lives. She had promised Thia she would find her a beautiful spot like the Hill where she could carry the weight of a mother.


    ¡°Why can I still feel you dreaming of galloping through fields after what we¡¯ve seen?¡± I asked Horsis many times. And every time she shrugged me off with a smile. ¡°Because I know. I will be fine. You will be too. You have to trust the world.¡± ¡°And what about me?¡± Blips asked, ¡°Will I be a horse too?¡± She was our youngest sister and the only one who admired Horsis more than I did. ¡°Yeah, probably,¡± Horsis said. Why didn¡¯t she sound convinced?


    ¡°Tom told me there¡¯s another one just five kilometers north,¡± August said. ¡°If we hurry, we¡¯ll be there before sunset.¡± Sarah hesitated. ¡°But it does mean we have to return when it¡¯s dark,¡± she said. ¡°Do you want that money or not? We¡¯ll get at least ten fancy coins for that.¡± ¡°Last time they only paid us sixty shiny coins per mirrorbug instead of the full fancy coin,¡± she argued. ¡°Who cares about four shiny coins? It¡¯s still good money. If we go tomorrow, someone else might have harvested them.¡± Sarah rolled her eyes. She didn¡¯t really care about the risks, she just wanted to argue to pass the time during their walk. ¡°Fine,¡± she told him, ¡°but if we get there and someone got there before us, you owe me one.¡± August laughed. ¡°I don¡¯t owe my children anything. I never asked you to pay me back for raising you. Besides, you are the one who wants to go at a later time.¡±


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.¡°Hey there, humans,¡± Horsis greeted the strangers approaching in the distance. ¡°How do you know what humans are?¡± asked Sendly skeptically. ¡°Because there was this guy on top of the horse I met,¡± Horsis explained. ¡°He was weird but brave. I liked him.¡±


    ¡°I think we got lucky,¡± Sarah said when she heard the greetings of the tree. ¡°Hey there, mirrorbugs!¡± She shouted. ¡°Mirror what?¡± Sendly asked. ¡°We aren¡¯t bugs. We are sisters.¡± ¡°My apologies.¡± Sarah smiled. ¡°Hey, how come there is only nine of you? Aren¡¯t there at least ten sisters per tree?¡± ¡°There are more trees like us?¡± I asked curiously. I had always known there were probably more, but it blew my mind to have this knowledge confirmed. The man nodded. ¡°There is a lot more of you where we came from. You know what, I¡¯ll take you there.¡± He stretched out his arm, ripped Blips from our tree, and threw her in our basket.


    ¡°Hey!¡± Horsis shouted, ¡°Don¡¯t do that! We aren¡¯t ripe yet!¡± Sarah ignored her protests and grabbed another one of our sisters. And then the next one. They were so fast my sisters couldn¡¯t even scream before we lost our connection. Sendly was next. As soon as her stem detached from our tree, black wings erupted from her cocoon. She pecked at the hand of the girl until she had to let go. ¡°You need to transform!¡± she shouted. ¡°We can¡¯t fight the way we are.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to become a random crow,¡± Cassy complained. ¡°Maybe they¡¯re good people. We might get a chance to find something better if we let them take us.¡± ¡°Oh yeah,¡± Sarah laughed as August ripped her from the tree, ¡°we have unicorns and dragons and butterflies where we live. You need to see them!¡± Sendley was still trying to attack the humans in vain. She barely knew how to fly and the humans could block her attacks easily. Another sister disappeared into the bag and now it was my turn.


    If someone uses a weapon too strong to beat, it might be a good idea to try wielding that same weapon. The hand of the girl first squished my body and then made the stem on top snap off. And suddenly my skin didn¡¯t feel like my skin anymore. It was just a dead layer of protection. I pictured the image of the man, because he looked the strongest, and started pushing away the cocoon around me. When my head broke through, the world suddenly looked a lot brighter. More real. My insect paws had fallen off and looked extremely tiny now. I was growing, breathing, couching. It hurt like hell. The girl had dropped me. She was still towering over me. And then a flash of pain blinded the world. I couldn¡¯t grow anymore. I was a pale blob rolling around in pain. Too exhausted to move a mussel. Once the humans realized I no longer posed a threat, they continued picking my sisters off their branches one by one. They didn¡¯t resist, too shocked by what I had become. Why wasn¡¯t my transformation complete? When I opened my eyes, I realized I was huge, but not even half the size of the human I was trying to mimic. My hands were blobs with only a thumb. My other fingers were molten together. I couldn¡¯t get up. Even breathing was painful. What was I? Why did it fail? A painful shiver threw me back into the grass as I was trying to get on my knees.


    ¡°What are we doing with this¡­ thing?¡± Sarah asked. The man shrugged. ¡°Just leave it. It¡¯s dying. I¡¯ve seen mirrorbugs die from insta-changing into a rabbit. The fact that she didn¡¯t complete the transformation means all her energy is gone, she¡¯ll starve to death within an hour.¡± I didn¡¯t know if my vision was blurry because of the pain or the tears in my eyes as I watched the two humans grow smaller in the distance. I curled up into a ball, too weak to scream. I felt the coldness of the earth slowly creep into my bones as everything I had ever known and expected had been shattered in less than a minute.


    Horsis¡¯ story has always been destined to be one about travel. Exploring the wonders and the dangers of this world. No adventure is free of pain, but Horsis doesn¡¯t care about the past, she only sees the future. That¡¯s why people tell her tales to this day. You¡¯ve probably heard some of them. My story is one about revenge and the stubborn pursuit of reclaiming what can¡¯t be brought back. A story people tell their kids when they want to warn them of the consequences of greed and bloodthirst. Why some alliances should not be made and why happiness can never be born from hate. Parents teach their kids not to be like me. But if I could go back in time to that moment I was lying on the ground, desperate and broken, almost touching the hand of death, I know I wouldn¡¯t change a thing.

 2. Getting up

    I was hanging from our tree again, but this time, I was alone. There was no wind and no sun. I was freezing and starving because our mother had died. I couldn¡¯t move, couldn¡¯t scream, couldn¡¯t fall. There was no way of escaping a slow and cold death. Clouds gliding in front of the moon formed dark puddles of shadow on the grass. It seemed as if the darkness itself was approaching. Some shapes on the ground didn¡¯t follow the rhythm of the moon. They were free-roaming shadows, out to get me. Suddenly I felt something moving inside my mouth, wiggling around. I tried to push them out with my tongue, but I couldn¡¯t open my mouth since I hadn¡¯t developed lips jet. But how did they get in then? It was maggots, they had dug themselves a tunnel through my skin, now feasting on my flesh as if I was already dead.


    I opened my eyes and tried to spit the wiggling sensation onto the ground. ¡°Don¡¯t!¡± a familiar voice warned me. I froze, afraid to do something wrong. ¡°I¡¯m feeding you¡±, Sendly explained. ¡°The humans said you were starving to death, so I¡¯m catching worms for you. Now start eating them.¡± My eyes widened at the idea of the mouthful of worms inside me. ¡°Ah, I get it, humans are picky. Well, just pretend they are human food or whatever.¡± I shook my head in disgust. I didn¡¯t have the courage to spit them out, afraid of what a clump of entangled worms would look like. ¡°Oh come on, it took me a long time to catch all of those. Are you really going to die because you can¡¯t swallow the food I have literally put into your mouth?¡± My stomach was aching. My head hurt. Sendly¡¯s complaints made my headache worse every time she spoke with her scratchy, raw voice. Chewing and swallowing a mouthful of worms couldn¡¯t possibly make my situation any worse, right?¡±  I slowly started biting down on my wiggling meal until all movement ceased. ¡°They¡¯re pretty good, right?¡± Sendly said. I shook my head in disagreement but kept eating.


    Once every last worm had disappeared, the reality of my situation set in. My hunger seemed to have gotten worse by eating. I felt thirsty and exhausted. I looked down at my naked body. I looked like a clay sculpture that had been tossed aside long before it was completed. That¡¯s when I realized I never would be complete. Sisters from a tree can only transform once in their life and when the transformation is completed, that¡¯s it. No going back. No backing out. I would stay a formless blob forever. Not human enough to go unnoticed, but too human to be ignored as some kind of beast. I was a tiny man that looked like a cartoonish drawing made by a six-year-old. I was lacking the features that would have made the human form somewhat appealing. Their strength and fingers would have been useful to defend my sisters, but I had none of those.


    I slowly tried to push myself back onto my feet. All my muscles ached as if I wasn¡¯t meant to move. It was a slow and excruciating process, but I did get up. As I was standing there, on my feet, back straightened, shivering, and hungry, I knew I had survived. I had become a deformed mistake of nature. My body was a hideous mystery. But it was a body and I could control it and as long as there is the tiniest bit of control, there is hope. Even if I was meant to die from my underdeveloped body, I still had time to free my sisters and live on in their legacy. Maybe it was for the best that I had become a monster not worth living as because I wouldn¡¯t have to worry about my own life whilst protecting the ones of my sisters.


    ¡°Where did they take them?¡± I asked Sendly. ¡°That way,¡± she said, pointing her beak in the direction where the humans had first appeared on the horizon. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if you should go there just yet though. I don¡¯t believe they are in immediate danger.  You need to eat more worms first.¡± I took a few steps forward on my wobbly legs. ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± I told her. ¡°I might not be able to best them in combat, but I can take a look so I know how to prepare myself.¡± Sendly shook her head. ¡°The road is long and your body is weak. We can¡¯t afford you to waste your last strength in vain. I will be your eyes and look out for them while you focus on surviving. Find shelter, get warm, look for food. We¡¯ll meet again the morning after tomorrow to discuss what we are working with so we can hatch a plan. If you travel in the same direction as our sisters, you will stumble upon an abandoned house. Humans like to carry a lot of stuff, so maybe you can find something there that will help you reclaim your strength.¡± I nodded quietly. My brain wasn¡¯t functioning enough to produce any rational thoughts and Sendly¡¯s plan seemed reasonable. All I wanted to do was to hunt down the humans and Sendly¡¯s plan allowed me to start walking in the right direction, so I was happy with it.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    I had never experienced true loneliness in my life. My mind had always connected with the minds of my ten sisters. Suddenly I was all by myself. Sendly¡¯s silhouette became invisible in the blink of an eye against the night sky. I should have told her I cared about her, I thought. We never spoke about our feelings, because we just knew what our sisters thought. But now there was a rift that I wanted to bridge, but I didn¡¯t know how. Sendly was gone and all I could do was to force my tired, foreign body to keep dragging itself forward step after step.


    It didn¡¯t take long before I slipped on the wet grass and started rolling and gliding down the hill. Once I looked up, my home had been reduced to a tiny plant sticking out of the ground, somewhere high in the sky. I realized I was not going to come back there anytime soon. There was nothing our tree had to offer me since we had fallen.


    It was weird to finally feel coldness. I never had suspected the wind to be sharp and mean. The strangest of all was the realization that it didn¡¯t feel like something new. The hunger, the cold, the anger. I was as I had experienced them many times before. I longed to put on my coat, go home, and sit by the fire while telling Sarah stories about the dumb ideas that got me and Mikel into trouble when we were younger.


    I froze. Those thoughts weren¡¯t mine, they were the humans. By copying his form, I had also inherited the man¡¯s memories. They started invading my own, pushing them aside. I needed to get them out of my head. I didn¡¯t love the cheerful girl who could make wooden tools and furniture with the precision of an experienced woodworker. I screamed internally and shut my eyes, hoping the thoughts would go away. My sisters. My daughter had stolen my sisters. Maybe she had killed them already. And she wasn¡¯t my daughter, she was a nasty, awful human who didn¡¯t deserve to live. Hurting her wouldn¡¯t hurt me. It would hurt the man who had destroyed our lives and I knew just how much he cared about that girl.


    I had stopped walking. There was a dull stinging pain in my hand. I was digging my teeth deep into my skin. The pain slowly drove the confusing thoughts away. I shouldn¡¯t be thinking about Sarah right now, I should be looking for the old house. Maybe I could make a fire and get warm again. I stopped biting myself and looked at the marks my teeth had left on my skin. There was no blood, but the shape of my bite was clearly visible. Oh well, I thought, if I can do that to myself, maybe I can do it to those nasty humans too one day.


    Something heavy pushed me down in the dirt. I screamed. ¡°Got you, silly child,¡± a heavy, rasping voice whispered. ¡°What the hell? What¡¯s your problem, furball!¡± I shouted. The thing on top of me growled confused. ¡°Wait a minute,¡± he said, ¡°you¡¯re not supposed to speak. Are you a mage or something? I¡¯ve never had a mage before. The last time I tried, they set my fur on fire. And why are you naked in the middle of the woods anyway? Is this some sort of ritual, kid?¡± The big fur monster sniffed me loudly whilst speaking. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± I told him, ¡°I¡¯m not a human, I¡¯m a sister. I just fell from my tree and now I¡¯m looking for a house. Have you seen anything like that?¡± The wolf grinned. ¡°Oh, so I have a crazy one, huh? Listen, kid, most people are scared when a wolf attacks them. And you should be too. I¡¯m going to eat you.¡± ¡°Wait, wait, you can¡¯t do that,¡± I said, ¡°I need to free my sisters. It¡¯s really unfair if you eat me like that. I got snatched from my tree moments ago.¡± The wolf licked my arm and softly put it in his mouth, but let it go again.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t look very healthy, kid. You¡¯re pale and you look very weird from up close. Are you ill or something? A buddy of mine ate an old man who looked pale like you one day. He got sick and died within a week. And that man wasn¡¯t even disfigured like you.¡± The wolf sniffed a final time and then climbed off me. ¡°Yeah, no, not taking the risk. Good luck with whatever disease it is you have.¡± His tail disappeared into the darkness where it had come from. ¡°Wait!¡± I shouted, ¡°Can I borrow you for a moment? You¡¯re so warm and I¡¯m freezing.¡± ¡°No thank you, I¡¯d like to not get infected.¡± The wolf sounded distant already. I got up again and kept walking.


    I was in fact a na?ve child at that time. I survived the encounter because of the dumb luck that innocent people often seem to have. I wouldn¡¯t let a stupid animal humiliate me like that now, but at the time I was weak. But I can forgive myself for my carelessness because, despite everything, I got up again and kept walking. I didn¡¯t have the brains yet, but at least I had the determination.