The Life | Teen Ink

The Life

May 21, 2015
By Esme1339 BRONZE, Springville, Utah
Esme1339 BRONZE, Springville, Utah
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
Any Tahereh Mafi quote



Date:
The first memory I had was when I peeked my little leafs out of the dirt as a sproutling, was the warmth I could feel on my sensitive membrane. The sensation of having warmth soak into my every fiber and all  the way down to my roots, it was amazing. Going deeper and deeper until reaching my core. There, I felt like a shift was happening. Like the warmth was going and inside and changing everything.
Suddenly, a vibration interrupted my luxury. I felt the ground shake and tremble, making my small roots start ripping slightly from the ground. As the stampeding came closer and my roots were gradually ripping from the soil, I wondered what would happen if I was ripped out completely from the ground. I quite enjoyed it here; with the warm soil, the cool fresh breeze, and the amazing warmth from the sky. Right when my energy and awareness had declined to its highest point, the stampeding stopped. Leaving the ground trembling in the aftermath. My roots tingled as I got a feel of what was infront of me. I felt the energy through the ground, spreading across the field I was planted in. I could sense every single thing around me. Each blade of grass, every insect on the floor, every single building. I could see for miles and miles, there were hardly any buildings at all. There were two large creatures in front of me, each with four legs. They were strong and powerful, there breaths taken in heavily from their stomachs.
                                                                                     
“Darling! I told ya to be careful. You can’t ride so fast you, you might hurt the baby.”
A deep voice said. It was another being riding on top of the large creature.
“Oh stop being so uptight, I’m just havin’ a little bit of fun. What do you want me to do? Lay in bed as an invalid until the baby come? I don’t think so, Rowan”
This voice was higher, and as I sought out the energy for it, I realized it carried a creature inside. That meant that the child-bearer is a female. Then the other is male.
“You know that’s not what I mean, Love. Why do you always have to twist everything to your way-”
“You’re the one that asked me to marry you! It’s your fault for getting yourself in this mess. Why don’t you just leave if you can’t take it? My mam always said ‘What man’s going to marry you? Being all big-headed like that?’”
“Now don’t start with this again. It’s always the same thing over and over again. I married you for a reason!”
There voices then laced together as they spoke over each other, making it hard for me distinguish what they were saying. The male jumped off from the large creature, landing on the damp ground with a ‘thump’. He grabbed onto the creatures reigns, and started leading it towards a tree that was in close proximity. He grabbed onto the other females creature reigns as he passed along. The female was still talking, but the male did not interrupt. He stopped to tie the reigns of the horses to the tree and helped the child- bearer down from the large beast. The women slowly starting to quiet down, her spirit growing softer. They sat down on the long grass underneath the tree, a moment of silence falling between them.

“I’m going to go find us some food.” The male said suddenly, standing up, “Hopefully I can catch a hare or two.” His voice was stiff as he spoke.
“When are you coming back?” The child- bearer asked hastily, her anger long forgotten,  her voice now laced with worry.
“In a couple of hours probably.” He said, walking away. He paused as if
reconsidering something, and then walked back to crouch down next to her.
“I’ll be back before dark, Darling,” He said, reaching out and stroking her long golden hair, wrapping his fingers around the strands that had fallen out of the braid during the long trek “I’m never going to leave you, as much as you nag me about it and push me away. I’ll never leave. You don’t have to worry about that.” The females face was turned away, so the male put his face in her line of vision. Her eyes moved from the spot she was looking at onto him, her eyes watering.
“Well,” she said lightly, her voice wavering slightly. “You better get going if you want to be back before dark.”  Though she spoke brightly, her energy was very dark and low. The male just nodded and walked away. Riding away on his the large strong creature. The female looked after him, a strange expression on her face that I could never decipher.
                                          
Years passed and the humans, as I eventually learnt they were called, had built some type of refuge made out of logs and rope and many other types of odd objects. They had their first child, a boy, a few months after they arrived. As time passed I also grew in many ways.
I learnt to sense color, sound, and emotions from the things surrounding me. I grew taller and
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longer, my leaves spreading out more. And as my abilities grew stronger, I finally could see these humans besides searching for their aura.
The woman’s was called Aileen. She was considerably smaller than her mate in almost every way. She barely reached his shoulder and her limbs were also very small. She had bright golden hair that shines out at you as she passes. It went all the way down to her waist and was always braided back with wild spring flowers that she collects from the fields surrounding her shelter. Spring was once more upon us, the air now always tangy and full of beautiful scents from as far as I could sense.
Her skin was a creamy white, her eyes a light amber. They were always bright and full of power and heat but also with love and warmth. Her mate’s names was Rowan, he was a considerably larger man, he was quite tall and muscular with curly dark red hair and light brown eyes. Unlike his mate, his eyes were always full of joy and laughter. Never once have I seen him looked angered. Flustered, exasperated, and annoyed yes. But never angry. There little boy, who was now six months old, was bestowed the name Hamish.  Humans age much faster than I expected. I am proud to say that I am now exactly one month old. But as I will soon begin to learn, humans lives go much faster than mine. They are just a flicker of a candle. So small, so miniscule. And yet it was beautiful, to see how much humans do to live their lives to the fullest in their short lives.
                                   
As time passed, before I knew it the humans had three more children. A little girl named Bethen, another boy named Ivor and another named Wallace. It was all so tiring to watch.
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How much trouble it was to feed and dress and wash and teach and put attention to them was just
utterly exhausting. I couldn’t help but wonder how Aileen did it. And yet she kept having more and more kids. Twins, a boy named Rorie and a little girl named Kirstie. And she was now again a child- bearer. 
The house was now overcrowded with people, their hormonal mother more snappish than usual. But even though it was tiring to watch, I admit, it was rather fascinating. To have parents, it just seemed like such an odd ordeal. That even though their offspring were old enough to provide for themselves, yet their parents still allow them to live together. I mean their oldest boy was twelve years old!

                                                
I remember specifically on one occasion, where all the little ones and their parents were gathered together around a small campfire outside their dwelling. A few feet below the hill where I rested. Little four year old Rorie was sitting on his father's knee. Bouncing up and down in excitement, gnawing on something I couldn’t quite decipher with much enthusiasm. His round blushed cheeks were raised up in a smile as he gazed up adoringly at his father. His fair porcelain skin was a stark contrast to his golden eyes and rosy cheeks. He was like a fragile doll, his family associated him with. His family members would always absentmindedly stroke his hair as they passed, a habit most people have when meeting him. His hair was golden and soft
like his mother, but he got the curls from his father. It shone like a halo on his head, giving him
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an angelic glow. To the standards of the human race, he was very beautiful. His mother always made jokes about how he would grow up to be a heart-breaker.
“Quiet now.” Rowan said, hushing his children. After a few moments of loud complaining, the children finally quieted down. Now having all their attention, Rowan cleared his throat and began to tell his story.

In the early days of earth, not long after the trees were created and humans were forced to leave Paradise to work, a man went out to the forest to cut wood. The first tree he came to was a pine tree. But as soon as the man lifted the axe he heard a voice cry out.
“Don’t strike me! Can’t you see the sticky tears that are already coming out of my body? If you hit me it will bring you bad luck.”
The man did not indeed see the sticky sap coming from the several cuts in the tree trunk, so he moved on farther into the forest. He came to a spruce tree and again raised his axe. But the spruce tree protested.
“Don’t cut me down. You will find me of little use for my wood is twisted and knotty.”
Unhappily, the man went on until he came to an alder tree. Once more he raised his ax to strike but the alder shrieked at him.
“Be careful that you don’t wound me. Whenever I am cut, blood runs from my heart. It will stain my wood and your axe blood red.”
The man went no farther but called out to the heavens.

“How am I to get wood to make fire and to build shelter? Every tree I meet cries out and pleads that I not cut it down!”
The heavens took pity on the man and said: “Return to the forest. I will see that henceforth no tree will talk back or contradict you.”
The man did as he was told and this time no tree spoke to him. None protested as he cut down to make shelter and to make a fire.
The trees were not happy about this. They dared not complain aloud to God. Instead, they began to whisper softly, each time a person entered their domain in the forests. If you approach a group of trees anywhere, you can still hear them softly whispering to each other. Gently complaining about their poor treatment at the hands of humans.
Silence fell after Rowan finished his story. The kids quietly letting their father's words soak into their brain and their hearts. I also thought about this. Could I make noise? Could my bark emit noise even though I have no mouth?
I began to dream and imagine myself doing everything humans could do. Of feeling my feet sink into the long mossy grass, of feeling my stomach expand with each intake of a breath. However reality would eventually hit me. That I’m just a tree. That I can’t move, I can’t see, I can’t do anything other than sense things and sit on my tiny hill all day.
Emotions overpowered me. I wasn't used to feeling things so strongly. My small minuscule branches began to quake, tremble and shudder with my every thought. Until I felt my roots rip from the earth, pulling loose. And then it all went insane.


 



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