Muddy Tree Arm Novels & Stories

Lily Montgomery The greenhouse glass was fogged up from the cold and our ragged breathing. Sasha was trembling beside me, her eyes wide, her skin pale. I could smell the strong scent of herbs and damp earth, but also the metallic taste of fear in my mouth. Crouched behind a bench full of pots, I clutched the revolver, so tightly my fingers had gone numb. “He’s going to find us… he’s going to find us…” Sasha whispered, barely audible.

That's the best way to describe what I'm seeing. The earth is covered in ash and blood. The trees are burned and gray with barren branches and the sky is gray and covered with some kind of sooty fog. The wind is still going strong, whipping against my body. I look down at my body to see cuts and burns on my clothing. Something falls at my feet with a loud thud. I look down at it and nearly wretch when I see that it's a decaying human arm covered in maggots. I heave again, kicking at the arm to push it out of my reach. Gazing at the ground, I cringe in horror when I see other limbs scattered in front of me. All I can do is hope that those limbs do not belong to any of my friends.

For one weightless, gut-wrenching second, there’s nothing beneath me but roaring water and jagged rock. My stomach slams into my throat. Spray from the waterfall hits my face. I grab blindly — fingers grazing leaves, missing — then catching something solid. A branch. Pain rips up my arm as my body slams to a stop. Bark tears into my palm. My hand slips on the wet moss before I tighten my grip. I latch on, grabbing with my other hand, fingers locking like a vise. Holy. Fucking. Shit. I take a deep breath. The tree groans. My chest heaves, boots scraping uselessly at the cliff face.

he finally said. Army stood up quickly and walked to the tree, he placed his hand on the bark, pressing harder, but nothing happened. He stepped back, confused. Then I walked closer. I placed my hand on the tree and closed my eyes, I focused, listening, breathing. The air shifted. Right before us, the bark began to change. Lines formed where there were none before, shaping into a door. Slowly, it opened. “Bryain we did it,” Army said, his voice filled with shock.

First of all, people died - numerous people - in the great rebellion, then the clan's leadership fell into the hands of strangers and the new education system found its way in, and now, more than anything, the new faith was fastening its grip. But the differences between the two religions were subtle and confounding. While the new faith upheld the ideology of an invisible tree and its branches, at the center of the clan's aboriginal religious system too was a tree called the long-lasting tree that had now however been cut down. These two trees were claimed to have powers. The Blue-eyed said their tree was the son of God and had its powers from God while the conservatives held that their tree

Finally giving up because of the water erosion against its roots. But it gave me something to cling to. Something to wrap my arm around as I held Clint against me. I drew in a shaking breath. “Just hang on, okay? Help is here.” I kept pulling on the tree, getting us higher and higher. There was a small perch. A small indent in the side of the earth that provided the dream of relief. My arm cried out for mercy. It shook with a need for rest. But I wouldn't let my body give up now. I slid my arm up the tree, hanging on to Clint as I slowly made my way for that indented earth.

On the previously completely empty space, now stood a tall humanoid looking tree. As the flaming Tiger reached near the tree, it instantly swung one of its paws. The tiger was pushed back as it landed on the ground, whereas a fire started burning in the hand of the tree that touched the tiger. The tree immediately tore off that hand with its other hand, before the fire reached its other portions. A burning piece of wood fell on the ground, which soon turned to ash. A new arm grew in its place, looking exactly like before. "You think that little puppet of yours can protect you?" Tiger king snorted.

Jay closed his eyes and Mj took the opportunity to jump forward onto the branch of the tree directly across from the now melancholy hunter. “Marnie you don't understand…” Jay began to speak but was cut off when Mj grabbed the trunk of the tree she was in and launched her leg out planting her foot in the center of Jay’s chest and shoving him from the branch he was on. The look of surprise on Jay’s face was not lost on Mj as she landed belly down on the branch beneath her and watched his expression as his arms and legs stretched out colliding with branches as he descended toward the ground.//

Its branches were moving and I could see that in its grasp were some bloodied soldiers that it carried along its wake. It was attacking the rogues. Screams were heard everywhere as the tree continued to grow higher and higher. The ground didn’t stop from shaking at all. Then there was a howl that caught my attention. I looked back and saw Custard in his darker form carrying a dark-haired elf and misty white eyes on his back. Before I could even ask what he was doing, he crashed into the roots separating us from Ace. But just as they were destroyed, it sued itself back that I lost my chance to follow.

This inexplicable trust made me feel complicated as if I were the host and I was abusing it. “Cara…”Alice urged. "I am doing now!" I shook my head, shook the thoughts out of my head, held his arm, and began to search for his veins. His arm was covered with dark green scales and covered with a transparent layer of mucus, which was why it felt so sticky when it hugged me. As time went on, the longer it stayed on land, the more mucus it produced, and soon I was covered in it. I wiped the slime off his arm bit by bit with a wet wad of cotton wool and sniffed it under my nose.