It was several weeks before Christmas, when the days had already grown short but winter had not yet fully arrived. In a vast, ancient forest stood a tree that had once been the heart of the landscape. Its trunk was strong, its roots deep, its crown once so full that it received sunlight and rain with equal calm. Yet now, anyone who passed by could sense that something was wrong.
The tree was tired.
The world around it had become restless. Invisible radiation crossed the air like unseen lines of tension. Waste lay hidden beneath leaves and moss, remnants of human neglect. People passed without awareness, with hurried steps and loud voices, sometimes leaving scars in its bark. What had once been a place of stillness felt fragmented.
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the tree’s life force began to ebb away.
The decline from within
Deep inside, its systems fell out of balance. The natural circulation of water and nutrients lost its rhythm. The sap flow, once steady and strong, became slow and irregular.