Novel The Trees Novels & Stories

No one was going to take it from me again. I padded out across the center park of campus. When I got to the middle, amongst several bare, skinny trees, I looked up. The snow was coming more rapidly now, though not enough to make me want to leave it. Each flake felt like it was cooling the burning growing inside me. I let me eyes close once again as I smelled the deep mahogany of the trees surrounding me. “Smith,”

The weight of his confined life lifted, replaced by a surge of long-forgotten freedom. Inspiration flowing, he began to paint. His brush moved across the canvas as the landscape took shape before him. For three days, he lost himself in the solitude, accompanied only by birdsong and rustling leaves. --- When he finally descended to ship his painting to the university, Allen turned his phone back on. The screen lit up with dozens of missed calls and messages, all from Serene. This was unprecedented. Usually, Allen was the one calling and texting, only to be ignored. Serene had never actively reached out to him, let alone repeatedly.

“No. I know it’s not easy, Luna. But sometimes the truth hides in the quiet. The trees remember everything, but they don’t give their secrets to those who rush.” I sighed and looked at the three trees again. Their branches swayed slightly even though there was no wind. A strange sadness hung in the air, as if the forest itself was mourning. “I’ll try again another day,” I said finally. “For now, I’ve had enough. My head feels heavy.” Faith nodded. “That’s fine. The forest isn’t going anywhere. When you’re ready, we’ll come back. Maybe next time, you’ll see everything clearly.” I turned away from the trees. “Let’s go back to the palace,” I said quietly. “I need some air.”

I can’t even tell if there were people walking through that road or not because I can’t see really well due to the trees. I tried to squint my eyes. Oh, there’s a group of merchants with their horse cart walking through the main road. “I might be thinking too much about it, but the trees are a lot here, huh?” And not just your average trees like in mangas and animes where the main characters would climb and sit down on their branches to start a romance story up there, these are the trees that grow up more than a dozen of metres to protect the ecosystem, namely, the rainforest trees!

Others flew in lazy loops, trailing sparks behind them. “Those are the Ember Trees,” Nalia explained, “and yes, they’re technically sentient. They sing when they like someone.” Tyler raised a brow. “Do they like you?” One tree behind her let out a low harmonic hum. Another dropped a glowing blossom into her palm. She smirked. “Obviously.”

She was looking at the trees. November had taken most of the leaves but not all of them, and the ones that remained were the deep gold and rust of things that have decided to stay as long as possible before letting go. Jo watched them the way she watched everything she found worth watching, with the full inventory of her attention, tilting her head the way she had started doing when she was deciding what something meant. "Tree," she said. She had seventeen words now. Tree was number fourteen. "Yes," I said. "Tree."

Talk about shitty timing… “Zy!” Trees shouted, banging on the metal lid again. “Damn it,” he growled, then ascended the ladder enough to unlock the portal. Trees ripped it open and clambered onto the rungs, then jumped into the bunker. He turned, looking somewhere between stunned and annoyed as he glanced between Tessa, barely clad in the quilt, and him, still sweating and half-dressed. “I guess you didn’t spend your time with Tessa finding out what the fuck has been going on.” And Trees sounded more than a little pissed.

Every tree they touched burned into snowflakes and scattered in the wind. The jungle transformed into a land of ash and snow, Eloise and her team looked like a speck of dust amongst it all. The flame absorbing trees did something unbelievably unexpected when they uprooted themselves ran deeper inside the jungle. The bunnies raced after them, but the trees seemed to possess intelligence, dodging behind trees and hiding inside the flames.

The Spiral Grove Awakens In the weeks that followed, the Spiral Grove began to change. New trees bloomed in unnatural shapes: one with glass-like leaves that rang like chimes in the wind; another with roots that pulsed like veins beneath the soil; yet another that grew sideways, reaching toward the setting sun. The Keepers gathered to study them, but we all knew: These trees had been seeded by the Gate. Each tree represented an unwritten possibility a story not yet told, a truth not yet chosen. Children began calling them the Becoming Trees. Elira named the grove anew:

But as she moved closer, her stomach churned. One of the trees was sick. Its bark was blackened and cracked, seeping a tar-like substance that dripped onto the glittering ground. Its leaves were brittle, some falling in slow, sorrowful spirals. Dark veins twisted around its roots, choking it as they spread outward, threatening to poison the other two trees. The second tree pulsed with life but seemed strained, its light flickering as if struggling to keep the corruption at bay. The third tree stood strong, radiating a golden warmth that gave Zoe a fleeting sense of comfort.