The Tree Whisperer

(Continued from previous post...)

“So I have to stop this...Dark Seed...that is inside me from doing things that help me, like heal my body?”

“No. You don’t have to.”

“Wait a minute...first you say I have to control it, and now you’re saying I can let it heal me up? Can you make some sense here?”

“You do not have to stop the Seed. You need to learn to control and harness it’s abilities with your own Will. If you fail to learn how to control it, there will come a time in the not so distant future when it shall have gained enough strength and independence to take control of you, just as the mother of this Seed did to you.”

“OK, I get that, but HOW do I learn to control it?”

“That’s an answer I cannot provide for you. Only you have the answer to that question.”

“Great, the one damn question I needed an answer to, you won’t answer.”

“Perhaps that is because you don’t know what questions to ask yet.”

“Fuck off, Tree.”

“If you cannot learn to express your frustration with more creativity and less vulgarity, you will find it very difficult to learn the control in other areas of your existence that will become necessary for you to fulfill your true potential.”

“What is this, a lesson on etiquette?”

“A mere observation.”

“Well you can keep that damn lesson to yourself, ass....” I stopped in mid-insult. Maybe he had a point there, but I wasn’t about to admit it to a damn...uh, I meant to say,...darn tree.

I sat there for a bit in the dark, dank chamber, listening to the sounds of the steady dripping into the pool, trying to gather my own thoughts. The Tree was apparently content to let me stew in those thoughts.

Finally, I thought of a different tack to try. “Tree, can you tell me something?”

“Yes. Most likely.”

Ignoring his smartass reply, I plowed forward. “Before I came here tonight, I noticed that my body was beginning to feel hot and sweaty. It was like I was alive again. Can you tell me what exactly is happening to my body?”

“The Dark Seed is trying to lay a trap for you, to create the illusion that it can bring you back to life again.”

“Aha! So those things I was feeling and experiencing are not really real?”

“No, they are real enough.”

“Ugh, you lost me again.”

“The things you are experiencing are real, they are just not evidence that the Dark Seed can restore that which cannot be restored. It is building thousands of tiny connections between your skin and your artifical neurological system, so you can, at the moment anyway, feel real pain or pleasure, heat or cold. It is also tapping into some of your now shared reservoir of emotions and experiences to find ways of restoring things it thinks that you feel are most important.”

“This thing has access to my memories?”

“Not all of them, yet. But it is going to try and find more and more keys to unlock whatever barriers you have left so that it can find more ways of taking control.”

“Will I be able to do the same to it? I mean will I be able to access its memories and abilities like it is starting to do with me?”

“If you don’t find ways to do precisely that, then the battle between you and the Seed will be one-sided, with only one possible victor....”

“It would win.”

“Indeed. There is a balance that you must find and enforce where you are able to access some of the abilities of the Seed, but not to the point where you become dependent on it. You must take and remain in control, prevent it from growing in strength until you find the strength within you to either consume it entirely, or expell it from your Spirit.”

“Man, how am I going to learn to do that?”

“The strength to do so lies within you.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because that strength lies deep within all humans. It is the strength that allows a woman to give birth to her child. It is the strength of the hunter who chases his prey over the vast savannahs of your ancient habitat for days on end. It is the strength of the warrior who takes a mortal wound and yet continues to fight. It is the strength of the mother who lets her child touch the fire even though she knows it harm the child. It is the strength of an athlete who continues to perform well after exhaustion has set in. It is the strength of the martial artist to master their own body and perform feats that are beyond the reasoning of most observers. It is the strength of a mage who taps into and controls the wild elements that ever strive to be free and unfettered. It is the strength to love someone so much that you can spend the rest of your life with them. It is the stength to be able to care for a dear loved one who you know is dying, but there is nothing to prevent it. Finally, it is the strength that it takes to face the fear of the unknown and overcome it. That is the strength you must find deep within yourself. It is something that can be done, even by you. That is why the easy path has ended for you. There are no more easy answers, no more easy solutions to your problems. If you fail to rise to this challenge, you will fall before this determined and resourceful foe and your body and strength will become the weapons of a master so foul and so dark that it will imperil all you still hold dear.”

Whoah, there wasn’t much I could say to that, so for once, I didn’t say another thing. I sat there in silence and contemplation. After a bit I got up and made my way back up and out to where Diego and Herlinda would be waiting...or so I thought anyway...