A Tree Without Roots Novels & Stories

Then he turned and walked away, leaving me standing alone in the bathroom. The towel in my hand still carried a faint scent of pine. His scent. And beneath it… something faintly resembling death.

In the classroom, She decided to sit far, far away from the teacher and if possible from Ruby. But what kept repeating in her mind was how lonely, lost, and anxious she felt. She tried to stay positive by thinking of people who were born, without knowing who their mother was. Or for whatsoever reason they didn't the child they carried for nine months, with sleepless nights and nauseous mornings. This whole time, Kehna was looking out of the window without even noticing that everyone else was already in the classroom except for the teacher and so everyone who had a clique went to their cliques and she continued staring out of the window.

The sound of the water was so calming, even in the chilling dark of night. Sitting just next to the eroded point where the rushing streams intertwined was a very peculiar looking tree. Alex examined it with interest; the tree began with a single trunk at its base, but it seemed to split only about six inches above the ground into four separate trees that winded around each other as they rose up toward the sky. It only added to the strange but remarkable beauty of the plant life all around the area. Whatever Rowan’s secret place was, it had an impressive effect on Alex’s mind.

I said to the others as I made my way to the tree. “Of course, the big spoony tree is the answer.” I heard Vanessa mutter. We all rushed to the trees and began to examine it. Its roots were thick and tangled with each other, weaving into the earth. Something about it felt… alive. Vanessa knelt next to me and ran her hand along one of the roots. “Wait… it's hollow underneath.” Rowan wasted no time in bringing out his sword and driving it in between the roots. I heard a…shriek.

She amazingly uttered and started running towards the tree while pulling my right arm. There were ten circular paths surrounding the huge tree. We stepped on two of those paths, and the sixth tree began to spill the sixth riddle: "I have towns without people, forests without trees, and rivers without water." I knew this one, but it seems like something is blocking my mind from thinking about the right answer. Maybe because I was overwhelmed by searching for the right route to this place. I shook my head and tried to clear my mind, but there were a lot of thoughts that kept on coming and destroying my focus.

It was a circle where nothing existed. No grass. No roots. No stones. Just bare earth the color of old ash, stretching wide like a scar burned into the world. And at the center stood something that made Arin’s breath catch in his throat. A tree. Or what used to be one. It was massive, larger than any tree Arin had ever seen. Its trunk twisted upward in jagged spirals, bark split and blackened as though it had been struck by lightning a thousand times. But it was still alive.

It was a physical reminder I hadn’t wanted. We’d been pretending, all three of us. Pretending that if we just tried hard enough, we could call “pure” moonlight, “pure” ocean, “pure” earth again. That this was a matter of will, not permanence. The little tree said otherwise. “This isn’t… corruption,” I said slowly, more to myself than them. “If it were, the plant would be twisted, brittle. This is healthy. Balanced. It’s just not… separate.”

I never knew trees could isolate themselves too. I walked to it. The closer I was to the tree, the more of it's view I could get. I noticed that the atmosphere around the isolated tree was foggy and the sky above it was darker than the night itself. The tree was without leaves nor fruits. Just branches that stuck out in a frightening manner. " Why do you look so familiar?" I asked the tree like it would give me a response.. I felt like I had seen it somewhere before. " Oh my goodness!!" I screamed upon realizing that this was the same tree from my illusion during my presentation.

*** Something quieter. A tension in the roots. *** A slight delay in the way magic settled into place. *** Like a breath held just beneath the surface. *** ### The Worldroot They approached it slowly. *** The massive structure towered at the center of the clearing, its bark etched with patterns that shifted when not directly observed. Its roots spread outward in every direction, disappearing into the land—connecting everything. *** Raven stopped a few steps away. *** For the first time— she didn’t reach.

The Tree began to move back toward him. Rising Void felt cold sweat trickling along his back and channeled a huge amount of the True Energy in his body before eventually managing to pull the Divine Tree back toward him for a bit. In this manner, the Tree shook here and there under the influence of their energies, almost half of its roots having left the earth by now. Obviously, it was not going to be able to withstand their pulling for much longer, and it was going to be completely uprooted soon. There also seemed to be strange noises coming deep from beneath the ground.