The boy decided to move slowly towards the bushes to see who he was talking with. Finally, he passed through the thorn bushes to the other side of the road. All his dogs could do was stay still.

When he arrived on the other side, he saw a big lake, covered with the smooth blue water that was gently moving from one side to another. The pattern of moving water was the same, the only thing that the boy could sense was that he was breathing the air of his ancestors. He also saw a tall tree in the middle of the lake that attracted birds that had flown from the blue sky. It was beautiful! The tree looked old to the boy’s eyes, yet greener than any of those the boy had ever come across in search of his destiny. Its leaves were flying freely in the pulse of the air, as if they were controlling the amount of oxygen that humankind was bound to breathe. The boy was surprised to see all this beauty of nature.

“What are you holding in your hands?” the tree asked the boy, who just moved his eyes from one side of the lake to another, following the movement pattern of the water. Since the tree was able to communicate directly with him, he just looked down at his hands and saw a wooden axe, which he carried most of his time on his unknown journey, and fear held his mouth tightly from opening.

“The wood in those hands was once part of me. The sun gave its energy to it, and in return, it gave the beautiful fruits that were pleasant to the eyes of men. It was the hope of every bird that ever tasted it. But one day, your father chopped it down. I watched as part of me fell down and dried out. Days later, he returned, and I watched him transform part of me into that axe,” the tree continued. The tree stood, but the water had increased momentum, and the boy was standing still, hopelessly, on the other side of the lake. “I spoke with the water to surround me, bushes to hide me, wind to send messages for me, and sun to protect me,” the tree added.

This time, the wind started to pass slowly through the tree branches, causing the leaves to bend lower to the lake’s surface. “Men once found this place, their ships were drawn by this lake. Some of them were killed by the thorns of those bushes you used to get here.” Once again, the tree boasted how nature had powers to protect every part of itself.

The boy said nothing. All he could offer was to move his big shiny eyes to the tree, and back to one corner of the lake.

“Your father was trapped inside a hole that took all his breath away. The hole was first created to trap animals for mankind so that they could use them as sacrifices, but nature decided to use him as sacrifice for his own people, and his body was discovered three days after his painful death,” the tree said. The tree continued to teach the boy how nature behaves, how it is ruthless to those who are ruthless to it. “Nature does not favour hunters, or anyone who does not respect it,” the tree added, but it also knew the boy’s thoughts.

“But he was a man of honour,” the boy finally opened his mouth and argued with the wise old tree.

“Only to his clan, but natured disputed him, his veins had to be cut open so that it could release every drop of hunter’s blood out of his body,” the tree replied, and paused. “And when he fell inside the trap that took his life away, he watched his body break loose and release all his blood from his injured leg. He couldn’t do anything about that. All he could do was watch as his flesh was left dry,” the heartbroken tree said.

The boy didn’t want to disturb nature any longer, because he realised the more he spoke, the more nature devalued him.

“Spears that your clan had once thrown at birds that were freely flying high bounced on the back of my body,” the tree said, its branches now shaking. “Birds from the sky used me as their homes and, in return, I hid and protected them from spears of humankind, violence of the the sun, thundering storms, and strong winds,” the tree said, and took a long deep breath before saying another word. “Mankind destroyed nature and, in return, they produced machines that released only carbon dioxide. Our planet is polluted because of men, rivers are drawn and fishes are extinguishing.”

The tree caused the axe to grow a few green leaves.

“How did you do that?” the boy asked, throwing the axe down and taking a step backward.

“It’s easy, because it is part of me,” the wise old tree said, as the wooden axe hit the rock and was drawn into the lake.

The boy tried to save his father’s axe from drowning in the lake.

“Every man who once touched the waves of this water lost their lives. Their bodies were composed into fertilisers that I feed upon,” the old tree warned the boy.

“But that’s the last thing I have from my father,” the saddened boy protested.

“I watched your father possess that piece of wood, which was once part of me, with the blood of hunters and use it to fight nature,” the centred old tree replied, with great, deep wisdom.

***

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