Death Tree they called it, black like the void and alone it stood, almost as tall as the sky, the ground around it all dark and corrupted, no living creature dared enter it's vicinity yet it was at the heart of a large forest, even while being surrounded by forest though it never felt so alone, the other trees dared not to come any close to it.

One day a lonely man entered the woods, he was a lumberjack by trade but he felt a special connection to trees, for him every tree was as alive as him and could experience paid and joy like any living being. He walked these woods quite often and would always come there whenever he felt sad, the sadder he felt the deeper he ventured, taking in the beauty of the forest healed his pain.

That particular day though the man felt an immense sadness and ventured deeper in the woods than ever before, and then he saw it, the Dead Tree, he gazed upon it with wonder "such beauty" he thought to himself, and then he realized how far all the other trees were from it and instantly he felt very bad for the Dead Tree "yet you stand there all lone". He walked closer and closer to it, with each step pressing going deeper and deeper in the desecrated ground around the tree. The man put his hand upon it's bark, as soon as he touched it he felt a wave of electricity course through his body, "it's okay now, I will help you" the man whispered and he heard the branches move slightly, almost as if the tree was thanking the man. This put a smile on his face and he immediately forgot about his sadness, he promised the tree to be back tomorrow so he can think of a way to help first.

Walking out of the woods the man didn't feel lonely anymore. He spent every minute of his day thinking about the Dead Tree and what he could do, this went on for hours without much progress until he slowly fell asleep on his armchair in front of the fireplace.

The man dreamed about the woods, in his dream the sky was dark and he was wandering around with a lamp headed towards the Dead Tree, but when he arrived at the location there was nothing where the Dead Tree once stood, he looked around confused wondering if he took a wrong path, suddenly the sound of animals approaching echoed through the woods, the man quickly turned his head left and right with concern in his eyes, and out of the dense trees a white wolf was visible walking towards him, when the man took notice he didn't feel scared as one might, he could tell the wolf wasn't there to harm him, it's soft slow steps of the white wolf towards him seemed so elegant to the man it was almost magical.

The wolf was now merely a few centimetres from the man before sitting down and looking intently in his eyes, it's mouth wasn't moving but the man heard the words as clear as day in his head, a female voice plead to him "You have to free my brother kind stranger, he is trapped, cursed by humans for warning them to not harm the forest, and now he suffers alone in this world unable to move or speak, there is nothing I can do myself to help, please hurry there is not much time left".

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Suddenly the man woke up before he could ask questions, the answer was now clear what needed to be done, he rushed around his cabin getting ready then ran out of the front door lamp in hand looking for his axe. He grabbed the axe and started running to the direction of the woods. 

When he arrived at the tree line he could hear screams echoing, his heart was beating out of his chest as he started running as fast as he could to get to the Dead Tree. He could almost see it but around it were four men with torches, two of them held rifles trying to aim at something as shots echoed loud. When he finally arrived he saw the white wolf from his dream running around the four men with fury in its eyes. The man screamed loudly emerging from the trees axe raised high, he hacked at one of the men holding a rifle as hard as he could then he heard a shot and a sharp pain on the lungs put him down to his knees, the white wolf lunged at the man who was preparing to fire again and started mauling him, the other two holding torches tried to save him by burning the wolfs flesh, but she wouldn't let go until he was dead, the lumberjack grabbed the rifle from the man who now laid dead in a pool of blood and an axe stuck to his back and shot at the other two killing one of them, the wolf turned her attention to the last one remaining and not too long after all that remained of him was a bloody mess.

Both the wolf and the man were heavily wounded, the wolf came near the man and tried to comfort him to which the man smiled while petting the wolf with what little strength he had left as the blood loss from the wound was starting to take it's toll, not long after the man lost consciousness bleeding out...

The man opens his eyes to find himself at his cabin, sitting in front of the fireplace, then he looked down at his body to see no wound, "I must be dead" he thought to himself, "I'm sorry I couldn't help" he said softly in a sad voice before putting down his head on his hands, tears streaming down his face, and then he heard a voice in his head "thank you kind stranger, we are eternally grateful to you", the man quickly turned his to look out of the window and in the distance he saw the white wolf standing there, and next to her there now was a black bigger wolf "thank you for protecting my sister" said a deep voice in his head again "those people at the woods were the men that cursed me to take the shape of that tree, my sister fought them off the first time but it was too late for me, and now they were back, if it wasn't for you my sister and my home would have turned to ashes, now that they are dead the curse is broken, we are eternally grateful", then the female voice said "I managed to heal your wounds and carried you home with the help of my brother kind stranger, we can never repay back what you have done for us but the forest will always welcome and protect you for as long as you live, goodbye for now kind stranger".

The mans heart was filled with joy, no words needed to be said from his side, as his expression was more than enough, the two wolves faded back in the darkness of the night as they left while the man was waving them goodbye, he is grateful for whatever twist of fate made him walk in the woods that previous day, he knows he will never be alone again, for now the forest is his friend.