The Ways of the Fay

The Tree of the Greenman

Moonlight dappled through leaves onto Tree's sensitive, spongy bark. Taking in the silvery light with simple eyes nestled in Tree's porous bark, it noticed a movement in the forest. It searched the shadows, but it could not see very far. The forest calmed to chirping insects and a soft breeze that caressed its waxy leaves. Tree was not a tree but a sentient creature. It had traveled to this planet as a seed nestled in a pouch of an interstellar basilisk. Its species co-evolved with the basilisk to generate life on suitable planets. It was a Genesis Tree.

Tree rested. The basilisk was getting heavier and had leaned too much on one branch. The basilisk, Auror was out hunting, and Tree took this time to draw in carbon to repair a limb that had a fracture. Auror was usually sensitive to Trees distress, but she had been distracted lately. Auror's belly bulged with dragon spawn. She was ready to mate, and this planet was almost fully inoculated. It was time to send out the call into the galaxy for the dragons to come.

Tree sensed a movement through widespread shallow roots - bipedal footsteps of the human gardeners. They were supposed to be sleeping. Tree heard heavy thuds of rocks through its fern-like ears that curled out from under its limbs. The activity was in the shadows of the surrounding bush, just beyond Tree's ability to see. This was not right. Tree would have to tell Auror about this when she got back.

Tree sensed two humanoids approaching. It curled in its hearing frons, feeling vulnerable without basilisk. A man's hand touched its spongy bark. Tree tensed, hardening its bark, closing its pores to protect its eyes. Then the probing hand reached up to a low-hanging branch. The human wrapped its fingers around a twig and snapped it back, breaking them. Pain shot through Tree as the twig was twisted to dislocate Tree's fibrous nerves and veins. Tree let out a sonic pulse through the air and ground, calling the basilisk. Another hand of a woman touched its branch and again broke it. Excruciating twisting and twisting to sever Tree's fibrous tissue made Tree quiver and scream in high-frequency waves.

A roar broke the silent night and a heavy pulse of wings thudded closer as Auror came flying from above. She dove defensively into Tree's branches. Tree strained to hold up the hard landing of Auror's long coils. Back and forth the basilisk lunged and hissed defending Tree. Wings beat the air, knocking leaves from their stems. Precious gene-impregnated fruit fell to the ground. Tree's roots gripped hard into the earth, its bark clenched tight to hold up the basilisk. A rock came flying and hit Tree in the trunk, bashing some of its eyes. Then another stone sailed up and crashed through its top branches snapping twigs.

The gardeners were fighting Auror! This was a trespass of the sacred trust of geneses. The gardeners were supposed to tend, not fight. Auror thrust its long body from Tree's crown, lurching towards the human gardeners with open jaws. Tree's wounded cracked limb couldn't bear the weight and with a strong thrust from Auror's body, it broke. Auror fell from Tree, her weight breaking the main branch. As the branch fell to the ground, the fibrous nerves and veins of its inner bark made Tree's skin-bark peel away from one side of its trunk. A gaping wound trailed down its trunk oozing clear blood. Like an animal, Tree hissed and twisted with pain. Tree looked on with horror to see its symbiotic mate being bashed by rocks. The male human threw rocks at her head, killing her. Tree could only see simple light and dark forms, but it psychically sensed Auror suffer blow after blow to the head. Auror's breathing became shallow. Tree released leaves and flowers to rain down on Auror as she made one last sound, a long high-pitched wail used to call the dragons from deep space. Tree could feel through its roots Auror's heart beating fast, then erratically. Tree's roots clenched the earth in pure terror when Auror's heart stopped. The basilisk, Tree's companion and defender, was dead. Tree trembled and wept through its porous bark, for not only was Auror dead but so was the pathway to geneses.

Fear ran through its sap as Tree, an immortal being when undisturbed, was faced with death. A female human approached and took hold of Tree's broken branch. Her hands tugged hard on the damaged branch breaking another piece off. The audacity of the human gardeners was beyond belief! Tree had numerous memories stored from the shared memories of geneses trees. There had been calamity – fires, strange diseases, lack of enough diversity, exploding stars but never had a gardener killed their makers.