The Cabin

The Bird And The Tree

I had started wandering in the forest. For a long time, all I was doing was walking. Then came the tree. At one point I had gotten stuck in a loop, over and over, seeing the same tree continuously. I had not understood why, no matter where I went, I always found myself at the same tree. The weird thing was, every time, there was something completely new about the tree. In the second loop, the tree had somehow gotten shorter. The only unique thing about this tree was that it had a symbol, the same symbol in the same spot, under a tree branch. No matter how the tree changed, the symbol was always there. I felt an aura, dread coming from this symbol. Now, this tree branch had also been shortened, and grew during the hundreds of loops I went through. The branch was one with the tree, but no matter what  it always had the same symbol under it. The symbol was of a goat skull, with two horns that were long and sharp. I had only noticed this symbol in the second loop. The next significant loop was the first one where the tree had not gotten shorter but longer, the longest it had gotten. This continued a pattern for hours on end. Each time I passed by it; it had gotten longer. By the 15th time that it got longer, about 50 feet high; it had a bird's nest on it.

There was one mom bird and three of her offspring. Their feathers were of pure holy essence, as white as heaven's clouds. I had lost count of how many times I had circled that tree. No matter what I did I couldn't get out of its way. I was enamored by what it kept doing, not ever noticing the dire situation at hand. I was stuck. The tree by that point changed in many ways, it had changed colors, a rather unnatural color. It was the shade of the universe, the never-ending black of our universe. All around it, it had dots, which I presumed were stars. It was like I was looking at a mirror of the universe. I was indeed enamored by the tree but every time I ended up at the same tree over and over again, I slowly felt like I was losing myself every time I passed it. I started questioning why I had even started this journey. If all that has happened to me is not happiness but despair, who says that won't happen again. Fleeting hope. Despite all this, a part of me has always fought, has always stood up, the situation did not matter. To have faith in yourself is to keep going, and I kept going. Reality seemed less real with every passing of the tree. The tree had even reached so high that I had no longer been able to see the top. No matter how the tree changed, those birds were still there. Generations of birds lived on by. I saw how they changed through all those generations. Seeing the indomitable will to live, it made me wanna keep going. If these birds that had such short lives never wavered, to continue living and experiencing all it has to give. New chicks, their moms care for them, as if they were precious gifts for her. What right had I, my gift of long life, one the birds could never have. A gift I had taken for granted, even after death I continued to live, what am I. My greed to continue living had consumed me, my mind had gone as high as the tree.

Then came the last loop. For this last one I had decided to look up at the birds one last time. The symbol that had been under the branch was on one of the birds. On its chest it laid there, glowing purple. In the few seconds that preceded, the bird had started transforming, the symbol brighter and brighter. Its head and body growing significantly in size, the beak growing with sharp big teeth. Its veins bulged from its body. It started to eat all of the bird's heads, leaving no bone, only leaving the feathers. Then it turned to look at me. For the first time in what felt like years I had to look out for my survival. Not only was I stuck but about to die. I panicked and ran as fast as I could. The bird slowly was catching up to me, making noises from what felt to be from under the Earth. I had no way of killing it, if it grabbed onto me it would surely take me with it. Then there it was, while I was running I saw a dark haired creature, with horns, its mouth seeming like a deer's, looking similar to the head that was in the cabin. It was tall in stature, its hands with long protruding fingers. It's presence made me feel as if I was but a rabbit in front of a horse. I had not noticed that I was already in front of it, I had run up to it. My head, my vision dropping to the floor. I had died.