Eternal Tree Novels & Stories

Driven by pure instinct as a doctor, I rushed over and immediately began performing CPR on him, but he suddenly grabbed my hand. I shouted in panic, “Let go! Are you trying to get yourself killed?” His eyes were unfocused, as if covered by a thin layer of fog, a sign that his consciousness was slipping away. “Summer.” He murmured my name softly, then pulled open his coat. Inside, carefully protected against his chest, was a perfectly preserved Skyspire snow lotus. “The lotus repairs damaged heart channels. You’ll get better. You won’t have to suffer anymore.” John’s obsession stunned all the people that were present on that moment.

Still growing. “This is the Elder Tree. It has stood here for three hundred years. It survived fires. Floods. Droughts. Storms. Disease. Damage from animals. Damage from people. Damage from time itself.” I placed my hand on the rough bark. “It should be dead. Should have fallen years ago. But it chose to keep growing. Choose to keep existing. Chose to endure despite everything.” Hope studied the tree. “Why? Why endure? Why not fall? Why not give up and return to earth? Why suffer for three hundred years?”