The River of Talking Trees

It took a decent amount of time to move through the woods, so as I shuffled along the path, I took a look at my surroundings. Apart from the trees and the protrusion of roots in the ground, I couldn’t see any life on the forest floor. There were no grasses, no ferns, no mushrooms—nothing, save for the trees, all of which were fully grown. It was as if anything shorter than an average adult simply didn’t grow here.

To my left, I could still see the slope of the main road. Though it still towered above me, I noticed it beginning to get lower as I continued down the path. However, it was hard to tell for sure, namely due to all the muck in my view, which was forcing me to travel more slowly. Funnily enough, in this condition, I found it easier to move around in the pitch black of night than through the forest during the day.

After a while, I reached the end of the path. But from what I could see, there wasn’t anything up ahead, apart from more trees. But that raised the question of where everyone else had gone.

“Hey, could you get a move on it?” I heard a gruff voice speak. I looked in front of me and saw a tree towering over me. So this must be one of the trees that left the clearing. But why was it sticking around here?

“What are you doing here?”

“Trying to survive!” The tree responded. “What’s it to you?”

“Look, there were a bunch of things who looked a lot like me that came this way. Have you seen any of them?”

“Oh, those guys,” the tree replied. “You’re with them?”

“Yeah, could you tell me where they went?”

“Fine!” The tree responded. “What do I have to do to get some peace and quiet?”

Suddenly, a tendril wrapped around me, lifting me in the air towards the trunk of the tree. And then, in rapid motion, it threw me. Different shades of green rushed around me as I zipped through the air. And then, in an instant, it stopped, and I saw the sky above me.

Trying to get my bearings, I looked around. In front of me, I saw a large body of water, though not as large as the lake. It looked like a river, but it didn’t seem to have any current. Behind it were some trees as well as mountains further out, which curved somewhat at the edges of my periphery. And to my left, I saw a bridge going across the water, looming above me, both my size and the river’s valley likely playing a part.

But interestingly, to my right, alongside the coast, I saw a group of trees that looked very abnormal. Many were missing branches or leaves; several even had cracked—or even outright broken—trunks, though they were still standing upright despite this. The roots of the trees were exposed, at least partially, and some of them were dipped underneath the water, like a straw or a fishing rod. I could even see some trees walking in the water, which to most would seem absolutely bizarre. They looked to be heading toward a small island in the middle of the body of water, which was also crowded with trees. So, this must be where all those trees went. But how did they all know to go here? And for that matter, why were they all sticking around?

“There you are, Ishikawa-san!” a voice said, jolting me out of my reverie. I looked back to see Aikawa. “Glad to see you made it!”

“Thanks…” I replied after a moment. “Do you know where the others are?”

“Oh, they’re out and about, here and there.” Aikawa responded. “Most of your guys went in the water to bathe.”

I looked down towards the water’s edge, and I couldn’t see anything, aside from trails of unidentifiable muck flowing away from it.

“You want to join them?” Aikawa continued. “It sure looks like you could use a bath yourself!”

I went down toward the water, prepared to go in and dry off. But then I froze. I recalled the peasant skipping stones in the lake. I remembered how each rock sank into the waters below, never to be seen again. Each and every one of them was etched into my mind. However, unlike then, I had the ability to move. So why did I still feel scared?

I looked into the murky waters in front of me. How deep did it go? Would I be even able to get out? After all, pebbles sink. These thoughts crowded my mind. I knew I told that girl not to let fear stop her, but it turned out fear could be very powerful.

“Are you going to go in?” Aikawa asked, shaking me out of my thoughts.

“Maybe later,” I replied.

“Ok, then would you like to hang out with the rest of us?”

Since I had come all this way, there wasn't much point in heading back to the clearing just yet, and if I wasn’t going to get in the water, then I might as well join them.

“Oh, um, sure, I guess." I replied.

“That’s the spirit!” Aikawa spoke as he began to move. “Come’on, the others were wondering where you were.”

“Where exactly are they?”

“Up at that ledge.” Aikawa replied. “Just follow me.”

I looked over to my right and could barely make out several members of the group lounging together on top of a nearby perch, in front of the trees.

As with many things, moving toward the others took more time than it would have when I was human. Even with my movement restored, I was still a rock, and it looked like that wasn’t going to change.

“Welcome, Ishikawa-kun,” Oyakawa said when we arrived.

“Hello, Oyakawa-sama.” I looked at the others, noticing that there were not any rocks present among them. “Where’s Kouji?”

“He’s down with the others.” Oyakawa replied.

“Are you sure he’s okay, being in the water?”

“Don’t worry,” Oyakawa responded. “I’m watching him.”

“Ok…”

I paused for a moment.

“So, then what are you guys doing?”

“Oh! We’re just enjoying the view,” she replied.

“I see.”

“Why don’t you get in the water too?” Oyakawa asked.

“I—I don’t really need to.”

“Are you scared?” she asked.

“No, why would I be?”

There was a brief pause.

“Well…” Oyakawa began. “Ignoring your fears isn’t going to make them go away. You have to confront them head-on. And in your case, you need to take a leap of faith.”

“Yeah, I already know all about that.” I said, recalling the jumps I made yesterday, going up the slope.

“Then go for it.”

“What?”

“Jump into the water. Take that leap of faith.”

I paused.

“I can do it later.” I replied.

“Later may never come,” Oyakawa said.

“Hey, could you guys get a move on it?” A voice shouted, interrupting the group. It was Yabuki. “This is supposed to be my space!”

“Who went and decided that?” a necklace with an incomplete chain—and whose name I didn’t remember—spoke.

“I did!” Yabuki shouted. “Now beat it!”

However, he was severely outnumbered, and it seemed that he knew it.

“I said beat it!” He shouted again.

We simply stood still.

“Grrr.” He began to back away after a moment. “Lousy little good for nothing.”

However, as he was backing away, he touched the root of a tree, which quickly grabbed onto him.

“Eep!” he yelped.

The tree turned towards us, with Yabuki wrapped around its root. It only had two large branches attached to it, jutting outward from its left and right sides. The tree towered over us, and we remained motionless in anticipation of what it would do. However, the tree simply chuckled in a deep feminine voice.

“Good morning, little ones.”

There was a pause.

Eventually, one of the necklaces spoke up: “Y-you’re—”

“A tree? Yes.” The tree spoke while continuing to hold a speechless Yabuki in her root. “Has this one been disturbing all of you?”

What would the tree do to him if I said yes? Would she crush him with her roots? Or throw him into the deepest depths of the river? However, despite how much of an asshole Yabuki was, he did not deserve either of those fates.

“No, just let him down.” I said. “He isn’t worth the trouble.”

“Sure,” the tree replied as it gently placed Yabuki back on the ground.

“Thank you,” Yabuki whimpered to me.

“Duly noted…” I responded coldly.

“I—I’m going to excuse myself now.” He stammered as he slithered away, presumably to find another place to sit.

While the others resumed their conversations, I went over to the tree to ask her some things.

“Greetings, little one.” She spoke to me as I arrived at her trunk.

“Hello there, tree… Could I talk to you for a bit?”

“Sure, little one.” The tree replied. “What did you want to talk about?”

“Who are you exactly?” I asked.

The tree paused before chuckling. “Well, clearly, I’m a tree.”

“Ok… And what are you all doing here?”

“Well, doing tree stuff, obviously.” The tree answered.

“And what exactly do you mean by that?”

Suddenly, glowing rings began to appear within her roots.

“This is our root network.” The tree began to explain. “It's how we transfer nutrients to each other. You see those rings heading into the forest?”

I watched as the rings moved away from the tree and towards another. After presumably absorbing the rings, that tree in turn began to transmit its own rings from its roots, though those rings quickly dimmed as they reached the next tree.

“Those rings spread out through the entire forest.” The tree continued. “And help each of us trees live just a little longer than we otherwise would.”

“I see that.” I said. “But you can talk and move again. Aren’t you guys willing to do more than just live as trees?”

But the tree simply sighed. “We’re still trees, and we still have the needs of trees. Water, light, soil, and such. None of that just goes away.”

“Then you’re still trapped, still stuck. What a waste of a second chance.”

“Don’t worry, little one.” The tree said, “We like it here.”

“Speak for yourself!” Another tree—with a giant crack around its trunk—blurted out.

The tree continued. “As I was saying, we like it here. The view is pleasant, and the soil here is better than that in the woods.”

“Yeah, I don’t buy that.”

“I’m sure you would if you were in my shoes,” the tree replied. “But for now, I think I’m going to go back to being a tree. It was nice talking to you, by the way.”

Before I could respond, the tree went silent again, its roots continuing to glow as rings pulsated throughout them. I rolled up to the tree, trying to hit its roots, but I got no response. I shuddered internally. Was this what it was like to give up? I guess the one advantage of being inanimate was not having to worry about such things.

I looked down towards the riverbank, and I saw two rocks getting out of the water, beginning to make their way toward us. At first, I wasn’t sure which ones they were specifically, so I waited for the sound of their voices. As they got closer, I recognized the voice of Mashita, along with that of a rock whose name I hadn’t learned.

“How was the water?” I asked when they arrived.

“It was fine.” Mashita replied.

“Any trouble getting out?”

“What?” The unnamed rock shouted with the voice of a very old man.

“He asked if you had trouble getting out of the water.” Mashita said to the other rock.

“Oh! None at all, Sonny.” The rock answered.

“Yeah…” Mashita turned toward me. “Getting out was easy.”

I paused. Was it fine to get in the water myself? I looked toward the river. Should I jump in? Would I be able to make it out?

“You have to take a leap of faith.” Those words echoed in my mind.

I looked down from the ledge and at the waters below. I froze again. Perhaps the nearby shore would be better. After all, it was shallower, and the outcome would be the same regardless. But on the other hand, I recalled how I froze up before I even reached the water. Taking the plunge would at least make things quick. I looked back toward the group. Ok, here goes nothing.

Tilting backwards, I slid off the ledge, and before I knew it, I heard a splash as I hit the water. A rush of green surrounded me, flowing upward and behind me. I looked back and saw a trail of green moving away from me, forming a trail in the water that stretched into the distance. After all this time, I finally went into the water. And yet, it didn't feel like the end.

With every moment, more and more paint came off. And even within the murky water, I was able to see more and more clearly. I could see the roots of the trees, with glowing blue rings adorning them. I could see the walls of the river itself, and I began to see the riverbed below, which was barren, with one odd exception. On the riverbed, I could make out the presence of another rock, red paint slowly drifting off it. And as I got closer, I could hear the sound of counting. It was this guy again, from last night. But how did he get down here? And why was he counting? I tried to speak to him as I was descending.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

But he didn’t respond, instead continuing to count. Perhaps he was just busy. Given how high he was counting, he must have been doing so for at least a few days. Maybe I could give him some company while the paint was coming off of us. I landed beside him, and for a little while, I rested next to him while he continued to count.

After a little while, pretty much all of the paint had drifted off of me, save for the paint on my bottom. Though this area probably wouldn’t be much of an issue, I still may as well address it as long as I was down here. I flipped over, readjusting my vision to remain level. And while the paint on this last area was coming off, I tried to speak with the other rock again.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

But he gave no response, simply continuing to count. This was weird. Was this guy all there in the head?

“Shut up.” I heard him say.

“What?”

“I said shut up!”

I paused.

“Now I have to start over,” he continued. “Second time this week.”

He began to count again: “One, two, three, four.”

“You don’t have to do any of this—all this counting, all this staying still. You’re not stuck anymore.”

“So what!” he snapped at me as red paint drifted off of him and in my direction. “You think that makes everything better? Give me a fucking break!” The rock rolled away, quickly disappearing into the murky waters, leaving me at a loss for words.

As the paint continued to drift off of me, I wondered how much of a difference I had actually made, whether that hand had actually helped any of them, or if it was just a bandage to a larger wound, one that couldn’t so easily be healed.

I looked back up toward the surface. By this point, the others were probably wondering where I had gone. So, as the last of the paint flowed off of me, I prepared to head back to them. However, doing so was a different matter. Maybe I could try to jump out of the water. That shouldn’t be too difficult, right? After all, if I was able to jump on land, I could probably do so in the water as well. I leapt from the riverbed, rising up through the water. However, I only got halfway up before I sank back to the bottom. It seemed that I needed more momentum to reach the surface.

When I reached the riverbed, I prepared to jump again, this time attempting to put pressure on the ground to provide me with an extra push. Since I still couldn’t perceive any forces, I just hoped that I was putting enough pressure on the ground to be able to launch myself up. Fortunately, when I jumped again, I rapidly shot through the water and penetrated the water’s surface. However, breaking through the water stopped my momentum, and I quickly sank back down. But as I resurfaced, I was able to see the shoreline of the riverbank, an area with a gentler slope. So, if I just got near there, I would be able to get out of the water.

Getting back to the riverbed, I tried to launch myself again, this time at an angle so that I would at least land outside of the pit I had found myself in. After a few tries, I was able to launch myself out of the pit and onto the gentler slopes underneath the riverbank. When I looked up above me, I saw the water’s surface only a few centimeters above me, and the riverbank itself was only a gentle slope away. Since I was now higher up, I looked back into the river’s depths. But unfortunately, the other rock was nowhere to be found. Maybe I would cross paths with him again in the future, but there wasn’t much I could do now. So, I turned towards the water’s surface and made my way out of the river.

When I resurfaced, I saw the others nearby, lounging on the shores of the riverbank. And seeing them, I began to wonder how much I had actually helped them. Did they still feel trapped, like that tree? Were any of them feeling the same way as that rock? Were they all just being polite?

However, my thoughts were interrupted when I saw a rock—presumably Kouji—tumbling and bouncing across the riverbank, giggling and laughing in what could only be described as a state of pure bliss. I watched as the other rocks and necklaces around him all joined in as well. Watching them play together on the shores of the riverbank brought me a sense of comfort. Even if that hand wasn’t a perfect solution, to see little ones like Kouji have a chance to live and laugh again, maybe that was enough.

With this in mind, I made my way over to the group. Because I was back on solid ground, it didn’t take long for me to reach them.

“Hey, Ishikawa-san!” Sobue said, heading over to me as I arrived. “You’re all cleaned up.”

“Yeah, you too, Sobue-san.”

Seeing him reminded me of the reason why I had come all the way here in the first place.

“Sobue, about the girl—”

“No need,” he interrupted. Behind him, I saw the others heading off in the direction of the bridge, much to my surprise. I couldn’t help but wonder if I had missed something.

“Where’s everyone going?” I asked.

“Where else?” Sobue responded. “We’re going home.”