Picnic At The Bonfire Glade

[Eol]

The anicent tree listened to Bethberry's words and smiled, if a tree could smile.

"Ho hum, friends! Let spin my tale why my kin and I are what you see." The dark branches lowereed down and silence fell over the party.

"You see, many ages passed since I came to be. I am not old nor young, many cannot see. Since the fall of the two lights across the western sea, evil has slithered over these leaves."


"Númenóreans, you see, a Great race of Man they use to be. With their axes and saws, they hewn my cousins, three. They hewned down my brother, my sister, my wife, that make more then three. It was savage and strange how they contiued dispite the change."

"This change, you would think, was queer when seen. It happened, not long after, to my friend willow, still among us trees. Willow, you see, took revenge of those who cut too freely."

"The first was a man, hungery and eager for a quick harvest for his own treat. The blade was brought up, the branches came in close. There was a scream, a terrible scream. But no one heard it, you see. Because, that old willow, ate that man times three. More came, seeking that odd fellow, found the blade and the unfelled tree. They could never figure out the mystery."

"So I warn you this night, that even trees can suffer from plight. Loss and death can seethe into the very wood that can change. That change can happen to anyone, even me."

"Beware this forest,my friends, travel quickly. Many are hungery and seek a quick feast, little chlidren and hairy are the sweetest"

"I am a sentry, an Ent. These tree as sneeaky, quick at best. They smell fear and evil in the hearts and seek to be rid of it. Sauron is sneaky and caddy. He wants to dwell here, he wants to stay. Nay I will not let him claim what he did with my brethern: the yews, the berches and pines. Nay he will not take as he did Thranduil's kingdon, and destroy it, no spirit could remain."

The oak dropped silent, briging his branches up proudly, as many of the trees do.