I’ve fallen… darkness fills every crevice in my mind that I can’t even begin to lift my weight. Im questioning myself, the very person that I thought deep down I was. I feel the damp earth against my forehead as I shower it’s soils with my own water. The wind, moments ago so volatile, shifts suddenly, it’s energy aultered and begins to slow.

“Oh how you weep, standing there so strong…”His voice is cavernous, demanding my instant attention.

Overwhelmed by my state I barley process what was said, and confusion shifts my features as I lift my head to look around.

“What troubles you so, that your limbs have stiffened in such youth?” The wind is quite now, for his voice commands stillness from the surrounding air, only he shall be heard.

I look up, mute, amazement overcoming my ability to speak.

“I see the ground beneath you has shifted and exposed your roots, little sapling” There was a long pause in which I wait and shiver as my adrenaline flows abundantly through my veins. “Yet still, you have not fallen, only shifted.” He finishes.

With the little courage I have I stare out, hearing his voice, feeling it deep in my bones yet unable to place its owner. I see no one and so I say: “Who is it that speaks?” I demand in a meek voice that fools not even myself.

“Who has shattered you so? Who has made you see weakness where there is an abundance of strength?” Ignoring my question he continues to probe. The air around me remains submissively silent, only the sounds of my breaths and the mixing of my aching heart can be heard between his thoughts.

“I… I.. I don’t know what you mean?” I say through shuttering breaths. The shock pulling me from griefs grasp.

“I am more than 400 years old.” He says mater-of-factly and my eyes hone in on an ancient creature so distinctive yet blends so seemlessly into his surroundings that I did not take notice. “I have seen weakness little sapling, I’ve felt evil, I know these things when I see them… I do not see any of that on this day.”

I look at the scares he bares. The unnatural way his shape bends and my mind begins to picture the things he must have seen. I look at the ring that now hangs from the chain around my neck, and clutch it tight within my grasp as the energy within me begins to shift. “He has left me and I don’t know what I did to deserve such coldness. I don’t know what to do.” I did not whisper this, rather the pain brust forth from somewhere held deep inside and It escaped from my lungs in an agonizing rush of relief.

“There SHE is.” This he said calmly. The strength in his voice seemly having softened. The air around me stirred as if noting a change in presence. “What will SHE, do now I wonder? Little sapling standing there so strong.. For I have seen strength and whitenesses compassion. Here I am taken aback by it on this day.”

When the air whips up around me suddenly, and my sweater flaps against its vigorous nature. I know that he has gone. I look up at his greatness, and place my hand against the rough bark that boarders a deep gash.

Closing my eyes I feel the energy from him, from the forest, the sweeping way it lifts my soul and ignites the powerful person within me. When I open my eyes to him once again, I simply nod.

Then I tuck the ring inside my shirt, so that it is out of sight, yet still close against my aching heart.

I Stand. I turn. I walk away.