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The Tree

David Vial - 2016

This is the strange story of a man not quite sapiens, in search of a cool place to build his home.

In those remote times, the ideal place to settle was a hole in the mountain. One only had to arrange the entrance to feel at home. But these refuges also appealed to bears and big cats, and to dislodge them, one had to be many. Only a tribe could claim a mountain hole and then keep it.

A man alone would run to his doom.

Moreover, it was ill-advised to be found before these entrances at night because of the spirits passing by. For these holes sink into the earth and go beneath, where the sun disappears, where the spirits of the ancestors go. When a clan inhabits the entrance, there is no danger : the shamans, aided by the children, apply themselves to drawing and engraving on the walls numerous game animals that serve to feed the spirits. They go deep under the earth so that these spirits do not have to come back out. If there is enough game near them, all goes well. On the other hand, if nothing is left for them, they return to the outside and can torment those who sleep there.

Far from his tribe, alone, our man was already exposed to many very concrete dangers such as falling, the attack of wild beasts, the lack of water or food. He had no desire to cross the spirits. It was not, therefore, toward the mountain that he went. He preferred to follow the course of the river, sure to find there what was needed to survive for several suns. He walked at a good pace, determined to go far. Far enough that his own people could not find him.

Perhaps some had set off in pursuit of him, but he took care to blur his trail by walking well within the bed of the water. He advanced thus, greeting the dawn many times, and gradually the landscape changed. That morning he had woken up in a widened valley ; the river he was following finally emerged from the limestone gorges. Far ahead of him, the watercourse plunged into a thick forest that he would reach before evening.

Around him, the smells and noises were already no longer familiar. This novelty excited and worried him, but far from feeling in danger, he marveled at catching, on the whim of the wind, a new song or scent. He realized well that nothing was totally unknown to him : he saw new varieties of trees and flowers but, at heart, found everywhere the same vegetal and reassuring smell ; certain birds whistled melodies he thought he recognized, yet by watching them, he noticed that their plumage was strange and singular, as if they were brothers or cousins, relatives of the birds he had known before.

After a few more kilometers, the river rushed into the woods and then rounded out to form a fairly large lake entirely surrounded by trees. He went around it following the north shore and spotted on the ground the tracks animals take to go drink. According to the visible traces, there were deer, waterfowl, otters, and muskrats in the vicinity of the bank.

The man was happy with his discovery. This favorable place arrived at the right time ; water and food were abundant, the forest would protect him and provide the raw material to carry out his ambitions. Perched on a bank, he was already contemplating the site as a whole, like an animal observing its territory, when a little further on the west shore, he spotted a beach of gray pebbles, ringed by trees.

He approached.

The fairly wide beach opened onto a sunny clearing accessible only by the path he had followed. Thick, dense thickets forbade any access through the forest. It was there, then, between the water and the wood, that he decided to build his house.

Almost in the center of the clearing rose a solitary tree. A young and already robust tree, ample and flourishing, whose main branches left the trunk at the height of a man raising an arm. It would serve as the base, the mast, and the framework for his future dwelling.

As it was still early and a feverish excitement animated him, he set to work immediately.

Wielding the axe, he cut and prepared five trunks large enough to serve as pillars, then he carved them, planted them, and connected them. At the end of the day, he had erected a solid round structure under the young tree. He collapsed, exhausted, in the construction site and fell asleep dreaming of the next improvements. The next day he returned to it, and for two more suns he continued until his work was completed. To form the walls and the roof, he had interlaced dozens of flexible willow and hazel branches, which he then coated with mud and moss.

The construction now encased the trunk of the young tree, which supported its weight, and from afar the whole looked like a hollow tumulus, still empty of any remains. He rested for a few days. Then, when he considered himself sufficiently satisfied with his efforts, he decided to set out hunting again.

One early morning, he traded his hammer and strings for a club and a sling ; he greeted his house and walked away in a good mood, sure to take advantage of his expedition to bring back some treasures of the rockery.

His absence lasted less than half a moon. Upon his return, he was happy to find that no one, neither man nor beast, had come to devastate his home. Yet, he felt a strange sensation.

From afar already, he had recognized its crown : it had seemed to him that the tree, his tree, had grown. Of course, he knew that a tree grows, but slowly, as pebbles round themselves. No doubt it was only an impression, but it worried him.

He went back out to check the walls and the roof, then he came to examine the woven grasses that bound the pillars to the branches of the tree, and then what he saw there hurt him : the branch had thickened by about a third without the solid bonds having given way ; they were driven into the flesh of the tree and almost covered over.

It seemed obvious to him that the tree had grown more than usual during his absence. He wondered if his journey could have been longer, or if he had consumed some delicate roots that change the mind’s head for a while.

But that was no longer verifiable.

On the other hand, he noticed that the trees and plants in the surroundings had followed a normal growth, that is to say, slow. He really did not know what attitude to adopt. This strange tree, in this land so far from home, perhaps had a particular way of growing.

Perhaps it was enough for him simply to look a little further for another place ?

He hesitated, circled the tree, sniffed, and found the various landmarks that marked this tree as his own.

Finally, he sat down.

"In any case," he thought, "once I have found another suitable tree, I will forget this one. Here or elsewhere, there is no great difference. After all, I walked a long time to arrive at the edge of this lake, and if I continue to walk, I will forget the lake and the tree and I will walk until another place."

This preposterous idea left him perplexed for a while, for he had never thought of that.

A weak and cool wind came to pull him from his reverie. He sniffed the air, questioned the sky, and understood that a cold wind would blow all night. He hastened, therefore, to hole up accordingly and ate in silence. The wind, indeed, rushed in and blew, whistled, and made the weakened leaves shiver all night.

The next day at dawn, upon opening an eye, he saw on the ceiling several small branches that had pierced through the roof. He jumped up, straightened himself fully, raised his arm, stretched on his toes, and tried to break one of the shoots ; but it did not give way, and thwarted in his movement, he almost fell. These innocuous twigs constituted a serious threat to him because they made a passage for the rain, for the spiders, and if he let them grow, they could damage his habitat.

Then, adopting another strategy, he equipped himself with a knife, went out, and climbed the tree. From there, he undertook to shear these bold shoots at their base. Lying on the framework, he had trouble grasping, with his fingertips, the small branch. It was as if the tree were sweating its sap, and the knife failed to bite into the rubbery, greasy material he held clumsily. Giving up, he climbed back down from the tree and took fright : as he let go of the last branch, he felt the wood soften in his hand.

Now, his worry growled.

With his gaze, he swept the surroundings. Nervous, he made a round to discover a possible threat, but around the tree, all was calm. He ended up going back inside to lie down on the litter of heather, observing the hostile shoots on the ceiling. He then noticed others that had appeared, and it soon seemed to him that as he watched them, the branches and leaves flourished further. Already the roof was a rag and the pillars were bending under the pressure. His house was going to be devoured by the tree !

Driven by a sudden energy, he jumped on his axe and undertook to hack at the trunk like a madman. The bark shattered into pieces ; then he hit and pounded again and again without realizing that each blow struck made the tree grow by a season ; without, however, making a dent in it.

His refuge was now in shreds and the tree refused to yield ! Then nothing else mattered but to strike it, it which seemed to be the cause of his torment and of the rain from his eyes.

He ceased pounding, however, when his entire body was caught.

The tree ceased growing at the same time.

And the man found himself a prisoner.

Crying like a child, he did not understand why the tree had it in for him. He had just built a house. To protect himself from the rain and the wind, to lie down and sleep. Why did this one not accept him ? It was already difficult to share a territory with certain animals ; if now one also had to beware of trees, the struggle for life would become impossible. Besides, the beasts would not be long in sensing his distress. And even if he were high enough to escape the wolves, a big cat would be delighted to meet him.

This was what he was thinking about when another man arrived there.

Like him, he was far from his tribe, in search of adventure and curious to discover the world. He found it astonishing that a man was stuck in a tree.

To begin with, he tried to pull the body by the feet, by the arms and shoulders, but despite his efforts, he did not manage to free him. Many grunts and hoarse cries accompanied these gesticulations.

The tree waited.

Achieving nothing, the man looked around him : the remains of the house, crushed and scattered, evoked a struggle. In the scattered debris, searching for a way out, suddenly he spotted the axe. His face brightened as quickly as his companion’s darkened.

The tree, for its part, has no face.

Proud of himself, he now brandished the axe, laughing ; the other screamed as the wind had done.

At the first impact, his body was stiffened and pulled. Slowly the axe rose to strike again : his chest was compressed and a leg broken.

Without having made a dent in the tree, the axe struck a third time : his shoulder moved and the cervical vertebrae gave way.

The other had seen nothing.

He wanted to get him out of there.

The only thing that mattered to him was to deliver the man from the tree, so he hit and pounded again and again without realizing that each blow struck made the tree grow by a season ; without, however, making a dent in it.