Katherine Tao

The World Tree

By Katherine Tao

April 17, 2023

In a far distant land, there was once a tree of great bearings. It was a massive tree that housed many creatures that were all made from and by the tree itself. The creatures that lived in the tree lived harmoniously with each other. Wood-like wolves protect the bottom of the tree, wood-like birds work with other creatures as messengers and carriers, etc. These creatures always were friendly towards each other and had never seen anything but peace and the little world that they see all day.

And thus enters our protagonist of story. A wood-like tree sprite that flies all day at the top of the tree. The top of the tree is where many sprites of similar kinds all live together to give offerings to the guardian of the tree. They all have their own roles within their little village and are aware of each other’s presence. “Hello! What a beautiful morning we have today!”, “Good morning!”, “It's such nice weather!”, the small tree sprite and their villagers say to each other on a typical day.

Just like a typical day, the sprite was carrying a basket full of fruits from the tree back down to the lakeside, flying with their leaf-like wings with a bright glowing flower right in between of the wings themselves within the shades of the tree. But suddenly, a massive gust of wind was blown onto the sprite’s little body and lost its balance midair. As the sprite tumbled within the wind, it quickly fell and the basket and the content itself scattered in the wind. The sprite tried to flap its wing as fast and hard as possible, trying to potentially glide down, but to no prevail, plummeted straight into the lake water.

The sprite started desperately trying to swim back up to get back up above water, but the sprite forgot something, it couldn’t swim. “Was this the end?”, the sprite thought as it sank deeper and deeper. “There is a way to get back, you have to reach the bottom of the lake and fly back up from the side of the tree.” a voice said inside of the sprite.

As it continued going downwards the water suddenly stopped and the sprite fell out of the water. It shook off the water from its body and dried off the water from their leafy parts. It checked the entire body, and it was ready to fly again. Thus, it started flying back to the top of the tree. Except for the fact that it couldn’t help itself from looking at the strange scenery around them. The scenery around the little sprite was clearly not made from wood or anything that it recognized. It was in fact cold and smooth looking. There were little flowers that bloomed all over the floor and walls.

The voice inside of their head was constantly reminding the sprite that it should only be focused on trying to reach the top again and telling him how to get up there. He couldn’t figure out the reasons why, “why do I know how to go back up”, “is this voice mine?” as the voice sounds more and more like his own.

At some point, through the aimless wandering the sprite reached a dimly lit area with only light coming from some flowers and the tree itself. Under the tree, the sprite sees a resting, captive dragon surrounded in a flower bed looking straight to the sprite. The flowerbed was filled with different types of flowers, flowers that glow light blue, transparent flowers, and many other types of flowers. The giant tree behind the dragon was glowing between the barks with magic, the parts where magic was leaking out felt nice and awfully familiar. It felt like it was almost the magic that flows within the sprite itself.

“Why were you disobeying me? You could’ve gone back up to where your peers resided.” The dragon looked at the sprite vaguely annoyed into the sprite’s lifeless eyes.

The sprite was confused, “Wait so the voice in my head, was it you? Our guardian?” the dragon nodded to the statements. There was no denial that this was the case as the sprite felt strangely connected to the dragon.

“Since artificial creatures are made by the tree, they do not naturally carry a will of their own, instead a ‘will’ is always supplied by the tree and the guardian. The closer to the original existence you are, the more you are naturally influenced by them, thus the strange feelings you have been feeling ever since falling into the lake.” The dragon sits up with her leafy wings drooping down like a cloak over her arms and legs.

“You should head back to where you belong. This place is not where you should belong, it is where I belong. I don’t need anyone here nor have I ever needed anyone ever.”

“Why? Why do you reject me?” the little sprite asked in confusion as what they were seeing was completely contradicting what the dragon was saying. The sprite was seeing vivid images of a civilization within its head. There were creatures that looked like sprites, but they were wingless, and their body didn’t look like it was made of wood, leaves and flowers. They seemed oddly… fluffy and varied… whatever their coat of fur is. They were happy and filled with delight, completely opposite to what it is in this dark silent room where only currently the sprite and the tree guardian reside.

Though the sprite doesn’t understand relationships, it can feel the dragon’s conflicted feelings, feelings of wanting friends and going back to the world that she belonged to.

“The people who you see were citizens of my kingdom. People such as me are sent as guardians of this tree, the World Tree, and lose their sense of humanity and become creatures such as dragons and other magical creatures. The unlucky few that don’t lose their sense of self, such as me, get periodically checked in to be sure that we were performing our tasks. To be the magical fuel of the tree and become one of the many flowers that blooms here.”

The sprite couldn’t help but to be confused by the statement. “Wait but then all these flowers-”

“The world outside of the one you know of is quite cruel. They are all my brethren; they are my ancestors and citizens. Some ran rampant from isolation and thus were put down quietly for new people to be placed as the guardian tree.”

The sprite didn’t know what to say anymore. There were too many things to process within their minds and so they uttered, “If… if you feel lonely, do you want me to come down more often?”.

The dragon was bewildered, “A sprite that doesn’t understand human emotions asking her to be their companion? That’s absurd.”, the dragon thought. But she also knew the reason why the sprite was asking this was because it felt loneliness within her heart. She wants to go back to talk to her friends back in the kingdom who are long dead at this point. She wants to be free and not stare at the same cemetery-like scenery for another hundred years. She wants a companion who she can talk to without any hesitation, not appointed by the kingdom anymore to make sure that she’s still confined to the tree. She wants someone beside her again. That’s it.

The dragon became teary eyed and started sniffling. All the feelings that have been bottling within her are coming back up.

“You don’t need to be alone; I can be your companion if I’m just a fragment of you.”, the sprite went up and close to the dragon’s face. “If you want, I can be your eyes and legs. I can bring you back into the outside world through me. It wouldn’t be the same as before but, as one of the spirits, I want to be of use to you. I’ll show you the sky once again and the ‘people’ that you know and love until the end of us.”

Though it doesn’t understand feelings, it was able to understand what the dragon wanted. The sprite sat on the dragon’s snout and faced itself towards the teary dragon with its innocent little smile.

“That would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, little sprite, no, Plum.”

“Plum?”, the sprite tilted their head since it doesn’t see any plum trees anywhere in the room.

“No, that's your new name. It is one of the earliest blooming flowers and it symbolizes hope in my kingdom since it blooms so early.” The dragon giggled with the sprite, Plum, being confused with what a “name” was. But Plum was happy to have one nevertheless.

Thus, the start of the friendship between Plum and the dragon started.