Forgiveness, Agent Aries [reading women txt] 📗

In the distant past, a lone cherry tree swayed in the silent breeze, a lonely figure in the fenceless,grassy meadow.The noontime air of fall didn’t bite quite as hard as the sun’s light pierced the shadows like arrows.The sun light shined brilliantly, even though it was doomed to die in a few short hours, illuminated the snow white petals of the hundred year old cherry tree.

This tree was one among the first of cherry trees. With shimmering, pearl like cherry blossoms that never fled the chill or ripened, this tree was like it’s siblings. Eternal snow white flowers, that rained down like water dressed the cherry tree yet the tree was never bare. Back then cherry trees only had white blossoms,ones that bloomed year round, for they only knew their innocence.

A lone woman came out of her tiny hovel with a smile brightening her face as she approached the cherry tree.No one remembers what she looked like, or how she came to be.Some say that she loved and lost her husband to war,others say that she was a witch or a fallen divine spirit.However she was a soft voiced woman that could speak  barely above a whisper and therefore noone in the nearby village spoke to her. And although she was poor and isolated she was happier than she possibly could be with the cherry tree.Everyday, the woman would go to the tree and care for it.She would trim the branches,or water the soil or simply speak to the tree, resting in it’s branches.

One day the woman was accosted by the village elders.They accused her of stealing the children of the village and sacrificing their blood to make the tree bloom year round.Unless she managed to procure the children within three days, then she would be tortured and executed as a witch.The woman unable to speak in her own defence, fled to the cherry tree.

She spoke of her fears to the tree, feeding it sweet spring water in hopes of a answer to her crisis. The cherry tree swayed in the breeze like it was hearing her whispered words.For two days she did this peacefully, putting her faith and trust in the tree.Yet on the morning of the third day she heard the mob of demonized humans, consumed by their rage and sorrow, after her life.

Terrorfied, the woman asked the tree once more to help her. The tree dropped a jagged ended branch into the woman’s hands.The blossoms on the branch floated without wind, creating a path of white blossoms for the woman to follow.The woman, thankful for the tree's blessing, ran to find the children.The villager's tried to follow but a raging storm of cherry blossoms blinded them as surely as a blizzard, halting their chase temporarily.

The woman ran through the forest, following the snow white petals, and came upon a cave.The blossoms led her inside, revealing the bones of past meals and the stench of rotting flesh.The echos of frantic children made the woman run towards the sounds, only to come upon a evil spirit devouring the children one by one.The woman challenged the monster and fought the creature, her cherry tree branch as her weapon. The woman fought, until the monster managed to impale her on it’s lethal claws. The woman,fatally wounded, took her cherry tree branch and pierced the demon’s black heart. As the spirit dissolved into ash the villagers found her, and the surviving children.

However, it was too late for the woman, she was dying and no one could save her. The villagers asked how she could forgive them for their cruelties to her. The woman simply smiled and said they were already forgiven.Then finally she drew her last breath and clutched the tree branch before closing her eyes.

When she died the village gave her the grandest of ceremonies and buried beneath her beloved cherry tree, the branch in her hand.The cherry tree mourned her,allowing her blood to dye it's snowy blossoms pink, as a symbol of it’s love and grief.

However over time, a small yet undeniable sabling grew from the woman’s heart, it’s roots entwining with the hundred year old cherry tree, reuniting with her tree at last.And soon after there were two pink cherry trees, standing side by side, watching over the world of man.

Now it is said if you listen to the wind flow through a pink cherry tree you will hear her singing a lullaby for all of the lost children or for those lost in their hearts.But you must remember to keep really quiet as she speaks or else you can’t hear her.After all she’s always had a voice like a tree.

Publication Date: 08-24-2013

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