I woke up from the darkness surrounding me.

Light blared around my eyes, clouding my vision, and when the blare cleared a leafy expanse appeared in front of me.

I knew my name as John - or something of the sort.

No, my name - James Hawthorne, came clearly into my brain, that is if if I still had one.

I looked around me, and my body looked like a slender green shoot with a single petal. Darkness overcame me and I fell into another trance.

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I felt mist surround me again, this time my body was much sturdier, growing into a tiny sapling.

The area had transformed into a rocky outcrop, almost as if hundreds of years had passed. The mist felt like it contained energy, and I willed it into my body.

Almost immediately, my arms, my branches, extended towards the sky. My bark transformed into a cool silver colour. Golden fruit grew from the tips, like tiny little flower buds. Darkness immediately overwhelmed me again.

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This time, the area mutated into a rainforest, surrounding me on all sides by fifteen meters. Inside my domain nothing grew except for me, my branches and leaves completely surrounding it. Massive monkeys hung from my branches, eating my fruit. I absorbed the energy into my leaves again, this time the process much faster. The monkeys in the surrounding area grew with me, their fur transfiguring into a pure crimson and white. I now towered over all the other trees along with the monkeys, now ten meters in height. Sleep descended, and once again I felt my conscious shudder with my leaves.

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I awoke to a similar sight. Now more than three hundred meters in length and height, the jungle was overcome by my shadow. The monkeys were veritable giants, possessing an opaque violet fur. They lived inside wooden shelters carved from my fallen wood. At a second glance, their teeth were no longer like knives, but instead had a human look. Ornate tables made of finer pieces had tens of my fruit, now as pure as snow.

Human...

Snow...

I don’t know how these thoughts came into my mind, but they swirled in my recesses like a typhoon. Deciding that it was too much for me, I resumed my gathering. I quickly grew to 500 meters in height, and over 700 meters in length. Underneath me a quiet power intruded on my soul, threatening to overcome me. A cool stream burst out around my trunk, surprising my inhabitants. Water as clear and untainted as the sky on a clear day spouted around my monumental trunk. With it came moss and lichens, quickly growing from the energy provided.

The creatures around me burst into happiness, their footsteps sounding in a loud Dum Dum noise.

“Kalala, Kalala,” They chanted. They banged on their tables and huts, and grew as well. Now fifty meters in height, their short snouts grew into more human jaws and their long talons receded in length, creating a hand-like appearance. Their chant gave me much needed energy, and nourished my soul.

Fruit grew from my branches, and dropped down in droves as I fell asleep again.

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I felt heat touch my branches and screams fill the air. Around me, an inferno swirled, threatening to destroy my abode. The creatures, now sixty meters tall huddled in my branches, leaves, and around my stream. For the first time, I willed the energy into a golden barrier, stopping the red and blue flames right before they could burn me.

“Ye!Ye!Ye!” The creatures yowled, enchanted by my might.

A blue hue stemmed from them, bolstering my growth and barrier. I grew to 1000 meters tall and 1300 meters wide, destroying the flames and saving the surrounding plants. I willed my now massive fruit to levitate down from my limbs to the grateful creatures, who celebrated.

“Aie, Aie Aie!” was their grunt of approval.

“Kalala, Kalala!” they cheered, their faces now a red color with black hair. Their bodies grew to seventy feet in height, their fur quickly receding exposed their red torsos.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

I fell to a deep sleep shortly afterward, unable to wake.

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In the meantime...

Hundreds of thousands of years passed in the sanctuary of the tree for the creatures, now known to the outside world as the Arshan. A massive and peace loving race, they never moved outside the perimeter of the great tree known to outsiders as Kalala. Eating fruit from its branches and drinking from its streams made their lives long - as long as ten generations of humans, unknown, weaker variations that lived to the south. However, when calamity struck, they were the first to battle, their staffs from the great tree as tall as buildings. Their great mages struck fear to all, their mighty spells casting fear into the hearts of many. Practicing a magic known as life magic, they transformed into a variety of animals and lifeforms, capable of quickly overcoming their foes. Cultivators of life energy were also found, their longevity reaching far above their normal counterparts. However, inside the sanctuary, only a couple thousand lived. With their longer lives, it became harder and harder to bear children, with each couple only capable of having one or two at most.

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I woke to the rustling of my leaves. My body now grew in every direction for miles on end, towering over mountains, valleys, and gorges. Elaborate houses sprung up, seemingly grown from the ground. Inside were the massive creatures, now more than hundred meters tall. Possessing clear red skin and long manes of white hair, they wore clothes wove of plant fibre and walked with carved long-staffs twice their height. My stream had transformed into a river, with great depth and capacity, looking wider than the hudson river.

Hudson river...

The name came into my head from the dark reaches of my soul. A language called eng-lish was also embedded, along with memories of tall chrome buildings, smoggy factories, gentle brownstones, and a starless sky.

It did have a name after all...

New York?

Brook-lyn?

Man-hatt-enn

Queens?

Bronx?

Stat-en island?

Amer-ica?

The words tasted foreign.

I recalled memories of fire, waves, and a lightwave.

Nuc-lear bombs I think they were called. After the Washington D.C. bombing the cold war became a hot one. The world descended into chaos, but I don’t remember much after that shockwave. This new life astounded me, and I decided to focus on being in the present instead of looking towards the future. That, after all, was the mistake of many humans. If Laozi was reincarnated into a tree, it would have been his dream.

I willed my soul to resemble that of the creatures outside, melding a portion of it into a body like that of the creatures outside of me. A shockwave burst out of my trunk, and expeditiously a large branch formed, creating an enormous sack at the tip, like a flower about to bloom. I felt sleep overtake me again, descending slowly like drops of water.

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Years later, I felt my consciousness return. The sac had grown hundreds of meters in every direction, and pulsated in a heavy red light. In a flood, the sack broke, releasing the body. I felt a portion of my will connect to it, and felt something I had not for aeons: a body. I fell from the sac down to the river, making a splash.

Swimming to the shore, hundreds of creatures stood, looking at me with respect and awe.

Grinning and standing to my feet, I shouted with all my might

“Hello!”

“Kalala, Kalala,” they whispered and kneeled. A creature with nearly the same stature as me stood up, and spoke in a booming and deep voice,

“Welcome to our people! Join us and follow the way to eternity!”