Worlds

Chapter XXII

The two of them moved through the crowd with ease. Ezra could dodge any person who was walking to slow and get out of the way of anyone who wanted to walk faster than them. He led her away from the bustling crowed of the market area and to a stair well and then further down into the depths of Greenery Village.

They climbed countless amounts of stairs and after Kila was completely lost yet again, Ezra kept going down. She was pretty amazed at how far down the Village actually went.

Suddenly Ezra stopped, Kila bumping into to him. He reached out to steady her before he turned to look at a large door. It was twice as tall as Kila and made out of a dark faded wood. Between the two doors there was a large oak tree engraved, that was split down the middle by the separation of the doors. Around the edge of it there was the intricate knots twisting this way and that. The door handles looked to be molded out of iron or steal and were crafted into two large leaves. Ezra grabbed hold of one of the leave and pushed the door open. He looked over at Kila and smiled before he walked in. Kila paused for just a moment before she followed him inside.

"Oh Wow!" Kila was astonished at the sight. There were thousands and thousands of trees growing from everywhere that she could see. All of them had different colored wood and leaves, some blooming different flowers, and others had fruit. There were a couple of the trees that had fences around them, while others had stakes in a triangle with different color sting attached to them forming a barrier of sorts.

Kila paused mid step, as she saw a tree with a purple ribbon around it. The tree its self-looked stunted and was growing at odd angels. Kila walked over to it and reached out her hand, but Ezra grabbed her wrist. Her eyes darted from the tree to him, her mouth open slightly.

"You can't touch any of these trees," He looked at her for a moment, his eyes soft.

"Why not?" Kila retracted her hand and held it to her chest.

"These are birth trees," Ezra looked around at the vast landscape of trees. "As you can see there is no light down here, these trees grow from their owner's own spiritual growth. In the same way in life where you can't help a person grow, you cannot help someone else' tree grow."

"You can help people grow," Kila spoke softly the she thought for a moment, "It's like teaching them life lessons." Ezra put a hand over hers.

"You can't help them grow physically," he smiled at her for a moment, she saw a flash of sadness cross over his face.

"So why did you bring me here?" Kila asked her voice a small whisper.

"Don't you think it's pretty?" Ezra's hair fell down past his shoulders covering his face as he looked past her at all the trees. "This is called a Birth Tree Garden."

"Yeah it really is," She paused looking out at the vast grove of trees then back at the stunted one. "So why does that tree have a purple ribbon around it?"

"It's for a child that is sick," Ezra spoke softly glancing sideways at her, "You see how the tree is stunted and deformed?" Kila nodded, "The child that owns that tree is much the same." He paused, "The child was most likely born with a mental illness, a body defect or is just very ill." Kila looked at the tree for a moment.

"Can't you just heal the child?" Kila felt a pit in her stomach.

"Healing can fix many things," Ezra gave her a small smile before he sighed a little; "However there are some things that it can't fix."

"But-"

"No buts," He placed a finger on her lips, "I didn't bring you here so that you would be thinking of sad things. I wanted to show you the really pretty ones." Kila took one last look at the deformed tree before Ezra took her hand and she allowed herself to be lead away.