The Dragonwalk Highway: The Fellowship of Thirteen

26 - The Tree of Wisdom

There was no marker or sign signifying the entrance to the Sacred Grove. As the trio moved further west, the black glass boulders disappeared and were replaced by the occasional tree, then more, then lots. The dirt surrendered to patches of grass and then forest. The leaves reflected the light of the blood moon so it looked like the trees were leaking crimson from their trunks. Soon Zelda, Oron, and Mo the bear were surrounded by trees. Large Ash with white bark, weeping willows, and brier bushes formed a natural maze that would have left a squirrel asking for directions. The blood moon hung low in the sky, huge and horrible, counting down the minutes until the Tree of Wisdom shriveled and became useless to Zelda.

"I hope you two know where you're going," Zelda said. "We can't afford to get lost."

Mo snickered and playfully bumped shoulders with Oron, nearly knocking him off his feet.

"Ow. I'm pretty sure that won't be a problem," Oron said.

Oron and Mo walked confidently through the Grove with no hesitation whatsoever. There was no path to follow, no signs to read. But they knew. They turned left, they turned right. They plowed through bushes and ducked under broken limbs, always moving deeper and deeper into the Grove.

"There's no way anyone could remember all this," Zelda said.

"Eh. You do it enough times," Mo said. He bumped his head on another branch, forgetting how tall he was now that he was no longer a goat.

They reached a cliff face with a small cave entrance carved into it. Zelda figured they were going into the cave. Instead, Oron pulled a bush aside to reveal a smaller, hidden entrance. Mo squeezed through the opening and Oron followed. Zelda realized if they wanted to lose her, they could have done so easily and she never would have found her way out again. She crawled into the secret cave entrance. The cave cut hard to the right and then opened into a ring of rock that rose up nearly 40 dongs on all sides. And in the middle of the ring, growing out of a stream that ran through the center of the circle and disappeared under the rocks, was what they had traveled across the entire kingdom to find.

The Tree of Wisdom.

The trunk was snow white ash and as large as three men's grasp. The leaves glittered gold and reflected the moonlight onto the rock walls. It was exactly how it appeared in the royal tapestry...except for a few things. As Zelda circled the Tree, she found that its far side was covered in a brownish-red fungus. The golden leaves on that side had withered like burnt paper. And the smell—not good.

"What's wrong with it?" she asked.

But Oron and Mo weren't listening. In fact, they were gone. She was afraid they had ditched her, but she found them not too far away near the rock wall. An X had been carved into the rock. Oron and Mo were digging furiously directly beneath the X. She asked them what they were doing, but they ignored her. They were digging obsessively, pulling huge clumps of dirt from the ground with their hands and paws.

Zelda wandered back to the Tree. A strange power emanated from its bark. She placed her palm on the trunk and jumped back as the Tree uttered a deep groan that was disturbingly human. She stumbled back and tripped over a loose root. The root began to wrap itself around her leg. It squeezed, cutting off the blood running through her thigh. Oron appeared over her and helped free her from the root's grasp.

"What is wrong with that thing?" Zelda asked.

Oron slowly approached the tree and ran his hand along its trunk as if he was consoling a horse or a mule. The Tree uttered a sigh and the nervous energy in the area immediately dissipated.