Once upon a time, a man lived in a land surrounded by wish granting trees. Legend has it that all your dreams could come true if one only knew which one to approach. The problem came when those filled with greed approached trees that fulfilled by using the fuel inside the heart. Sometimes those hungry for wealth were transported to a new world where they became rich but surrounded by strangers starving for those new founded riches. Dreams easily turned into nightmares if one didn’t have the purest of intentions.
The man who lived in this land saw many friends and family disappear from the wish granting trees. He never discovered their fates. Were they happier living in the new world? No way to know unless he dared to ask the trees and that terrified him.
So he lived his life doing his best to guide others to the right wish grantor. Some people smiled when the magic entered their lives. Others screamed in horror. A select few managed to say a few words before being swept away.
“Rostam, it is unlike anything…”
Purple clouds floated where she once stood. Lips formed from the bark and grinned. The man scribbled in his notepad, forest 2, 4 shadows, 2 rain, and 1 purple clouds. He didn’t understand what it meant and how one person could be taken by menacing silhouettes and others in soothing water falling from above the canopies. Was it the tree, the forest, or the person? If he could learn the secret behind the wish, he wouldn’t be afraid. But since he didn’t know, he studied and guided till he traveled all throughout the land observing the moments a tree made a dream come true. He never saw that grin formed in the bark again.
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“How dare you! It was a lie!”
Another rare occurrence. Blue flames took this friend. It looked painful. Forest 6, 20 shadows, 3 pink snow, 1 blue flames. Now he leaned on his cane writing the words that replaced his memories. He didn’t even remember when started using a fallen tree branch as a walking stick. Sigh. Frustrating to map the entire world only for your loved ones to go against what you learned. This forest granted wishes in a way that brought out the worse in people. Night tucked these trees in an ill-omen. A howling wind screeched where the blue flames burned before. The man thought he should never take anyone else here again. He scribbled, forest 6 renamed to Forbidden Forest.
Twigs snapped under his footsteps. The walk home hypnotized him. He shivered and buttoned up his jacket. A shadow on a tree trunk grabbed his attention. He lit a torch and stepped closer. The sizzling of the fire comforted him. He brought his face closer till he could almost touch the trunk with his nose when something spat in the old man’s face.
Lips formed in the bark and grinned at Rostam like that one time 20 years ago. Except unlike then, the lips didn’t fade back into the tree. They remained and they moved in a way that allow the old man to hear words.
“We have a bet among us whether you’re going to die with you dreams still living inside you.” The lips opened and a tongue made from roots licked the sides of its trunk. “We’re not supposed to talk to your kind, but I just have to know, why do you think you can help your friends when you can’t even help yourself?”