Post by Sage on Apr 12, 2017 20:42:38 GMT -5
Once there was peace.
Mindless, quiet, peace. There was a basic sentience of course, but it was a dull thing, not harried by a strong self-awareness or time, or sensation. There was no sense of ‘others’. All it knew was its connection to the red web of life, the earth below, the sky above.
Then there was pain. Something was changing, growing, pulsing. An electric agony that ran from the roots all the way to the tip of each branch. A crunching, twisting sound and a flare of sensation, of senses. It was winter, it thought suddenly, her leaves were shed. Her thoughts were suddenly loud and booming. Winter. Suddenly it had meaning, language pulsed through her very being creating something from nothing. It hurt, it wanted to scream to withdrawn inwardly again as it had for many years, but a voice beckoned. It vibrated across every inch of the break, severing her connection to the web of life.
Awaken
The voice said.
Be my servant in this world. My soldier.
It resisted, pushing back against the voice, withdrawing, it was a tree and would remain a tree. Nothing more. Thought and memories were for things that walked and scurried, it was above all that.
Awaken!
The command had force, this time, it wasn’t a question. It was a word of power.
It could hear a strange piercing noise, using its new senses. It was a woman screaming. Woman. Suddenly the word had meaning. It was woman, someone It knew that she was born a woman.
‘Please! Stop this’ She cried with a voice now, the sound vibrated from her mouth, tickled her throat.
Awaken, my warrior. You are my hand, use what is around you to create and destroy. Sage Acacia. You are my poison.
The voice said silkily.
The Acacia tree had ripped apart down the trunk. The woman, the ‘Ent’, was nestled inside. Like a baby still safe in embryo. She was now a separate being from the tree, but her flesh was still part of it. She cried in agony and ripped herself from the tree. Her bark-like skin pulling and tearing away. She was covered in red and white tree sap, what used to be her ‘blood’. Her skin was much paler than the rest of the tree she pulled herself away from, pale but mottled brown. Still covered in tree blood, she blinked, large brilliant blue eyes, her eyeballs looked as tough and solid as her skin, almost crystalline. Not soft, weak things like human beings. Sage. That was her name, Sage Acacia. She looked down at her hands. Her fingers were long and knife-sharp. Built to tear and rend. She was beautiful, a tree woman. Her ears were long wooden pointed things. Where she should have hair, branch like tendrils weaved and protruding away from her scalp, leave-like hair hung delicately from the branches, brilliant green and blue coloured.
She knew she wasn’t alone. She looked around for her other, her sister, but the Acacia tree stood alone in a clearing. It was a special tree, should have died years ago, but somehow it lived. Sage wailed painfully, falling to her knees, the world was too much, too hard. A group of humans had gathered now. Pointing and screaming in alarm and disgust. Sage could feel a new sensation in her head, something inside her head, her brain. She knew the world was made of elements and chemicals. The chemicals pulled together made things, destroyed things if necessary.
Yes… that’s right. That is what you are, you create and you destroy.
She stood up slowly, she was tall and towered over the humans, the men and woman. At least 7 foot tall. She took several long strides away from the now twisted tree trunk. It used to be her body. Now it was her mother.
Sage looked down at her naked body, ran her fingers across her hard flesh. She knew she should feel something, was it shame? Modesty, new words and emotions, not born but learnt. Her knowledge of all things was placed in her head, but the mocking voice that gave her life. It was still there giggling, but fading gradually.
Find your sister, bring what is hidden into the light
The voice said finally, she could feel a strange ‘popping’ sensation in her skull and she was finally alone in her mind.
There was still humans screaming, a small group of them had formed, they were pointing and screaming and huddled together, they’d witnessed her birth. Sage’s long legs lifted clear out of the snow. She could move through it in a way the humans could not.
Sage could see plants trying to grow under the snow, around the Acacia tree. Her namesake sage. She reached into the snow and pulled away some of the dried and dying buds, it crumbled in her hands. Taking several steps further, she noticed an old and dying Mayweather tree, she plucked the leaves and inspected them, her head snapped to the side curiously. Stalking further, rounding on the humans, she plucked some more leaves from a red Juniper tree and crushed all the ingredients into her hands mixing it with a touch of snow. The humans were trying to flee now, falling over each into. In two steps Sage was atop them, she threw the concoction atop the humans, they screamed and ran, breathing in her poison, they immediately dropped to the snow, asleep.
‘Sleep of Saints’
She said to herself, she wondered if the humans would die in the snow as they slept. She felt a twinge of something she didn’t quite understand, deep in her chest, it was something her creator didn’t put there.
Sage pulled herself up to her full height and finally took in her surroundings, she was in a forest, no not a forest, man-made. A park. Fumes and chemicals were spilling into the park, held back the hundreds of trees.
‘Sister?’ She asked quietly and she stalked through the trees.
Mindless, quiet, peace. There was a basic sentience of course, but it was a dull thing, not harried by a strong self-awareness or time, or sensation. There was no sense of ‘others’. All it knew was its connection to the red web of life, the earth below, the sky above.
Then there was pain. Something was changing, growing, pulsing. An electric agony that ran from the roots all the way to the tip of each branch. A crunching, twisting sound and a flare of sensation, of senses. It was winter, it thought suddenly, her leaves were shed. Her thoughts were suddenly loud and booming. Winter. Suddenly it had meaning, language pulsed through her very being creating something from nothing. It hurt, it wanted to scream to withdrawn inwardly again as it had for many years, but a voice beckoned. It vibrated across every inch of the break, severing her connection to the web of life.
Awaken
The voice said.
Be my servant in this world. My soldier.
It resisted, pushing back against the voice, withdrawing, it was a tree and would remain a tree. Nothing more. Thought and memories were for things that walked and scurried, it was above all that.
Awaken!
The command had force, this time, it wasn’t a question. It was a word of power.
It could hear a strange piercing noise, using its new senses. It was a woman screaming. Woman. Suddenly the word had meaning. It was woman, someone It knew that she was born a woman.
‘Please! Stop this’ She cried with a voice now, the sound vibrated from her mouth, tickled her throat.
Awaken, my warrior. You are my hand, use what is around you to create and destroy. Sage Acacia. You are my poison.
The voice said silkily.
The Acacia tree had ripped apart down the trunk. The woman, the ‘Ent’, was nestled inside. Like a baby still safe in embryo. She was now a separate being from the tree, but her flesh was still part of it. She cried in agony and ripped herself from the tree. Her bark-like skin pulling and tearing away. She was covered in red and white tree sap, what used to be her ‘blood’. Her skin was much paler than the rest of the tree she pulled herself away from, pale but mottled brown. Still covered in tree blood, she blinked, large brilliant blue eyes, her eyeballs looked as tough and solid as her skin, almost crystalline. Not soft, weak things like human beings. Sage. That was her name, Sage Acacia. She looked down at her hands. Her fingers were long and knife-sharp. Built to tear and rend. She was beautiful, a tree woman. Her ears were long wooden pointed things. Where she should have hair, branch like tendrils weaved and protruding away from her scalp, leave-like hair hung delicately from the branches, brilliant green and blue coloured.
She knew she wasn’t alone. She looked around for her other, her sister, but the Acacia tree stood alone in a clearing. It was a special tree, should have died years ago, but somehow it lived. Sage wailed painfully, falling to her knees, the world was too much, too hard. A group of humans had gathered now. Pointing and screaming in alarm and disgust. Sage could feel a new sensation in her head, something inside her head, her brain. She knew the world was made of elements and chemicals. The chemicals pulled together made things, destroyed things if necessary.
Yes… that’s right. That is what you are, you create and you destroy.
She stood up slowly, she was tall and towered over the humans, the men and woman. At least 7 foot tall. She took several long strides away from the now twisted tree trunk. It used to be her body. Now it was her mother.
Sage looked down at her naked body, ran her fingers across her hard flesh. She knew she should feel something, was it shame? Modesty, new words and emotions, not born but learnt. Her knowledge of all things was placed in her head, but the mocking voice that gave her life. It was still there giggling, but fading gradually.
Find your sister, bring what is hidden into the light
The voice said finally, she could feel a strange ‘popping’ sensation in her skull and she was finally alone in her mind.
There was still humans screaming, a small group of them had formed, they were pointing and screaming and huddled together, they’d witnessed her birth. Sage’s long legs lifted clear out of the snow. She could move through it in a way the humans could not.
Sage could see plants trying to grow under the snow, around the Acacia tree. Her namesake sage. She reached into the snow and pulled away some of the dried and dying buds, it crumbled in her hands. Taking several steps further, she noticed an old and dying Mayweather tree, she plucked the leaves and inspected them, her head snapped to the side curiously. Stalking further, rounding on the humans, she plucked some more leaves from a red Juniper tree and crushed all the ingredients into her hands mixing it with a touch of snow. The humans were trying to flee now, falling over each into. In two steps Sage was atop them, she threw the concoction atop the humans, they screamed and ran, breathing in her poison, they immediately dropped to the snow, asleep.
‘Sleep of Saints’
She said to herself, she wondered if the humans would die in the snow as they slept. She felt a twinge of something she didn’t quite understand, deep in her chest, it was something her creator didn’t put there.
Sage pulled herself up to her full height and finally took in her surroundings, she was in a forest, no not a forest, man-made. A park. Fumes and chemicals were spilling into the park, held back the hundreds of trees.
‘Sister?’ She asked quietly and she stalked through the trees.
