Grand Father Oak - Short Story

This story is based off one of the many pictures we took around camp in which we were asked to tell the story from the point of view of the object, as if it could speak itself. The picture i decided to use was of a split tree that was broken in half. The picture you will see below this text. We could angle our story in many ways and this was my story that I decided to create.

I am what they used to call, Grand Father Oak.  "They", meaning the traitorous worships of the Indian tribe that live off these lands. What you see before you now is a shred of the power I once contained. Now I am burnt to the core with nothing left. The Indians made me their god, their savior. They did whatever they could to please me. Decorations, offerings, ... sacrifices. I played along and accepted these "gifts". and in the mean time I kept the forest calm. In a sense I do hail over these lands, but alas I only control the forest. They call me a god, but in reality I am just one of many supernatural beings. If I were to be such a god would you not think I could do anything in this world that I may possibly ever desire? As I said, I only hail over the forest itself. Not the humans, or even the disasters caused by the humans, or the accidents made by the humans stupidity. Even though all of this has been stated time and time again, human nature is the same, I tried to prevent this devastation, this destruction, but in the end, human nature prevails to destroy the forest as it always does.

One day, one of the young ones from the tribe visited me and played along my roots. The chiefs son arrived with disgust at the dishonor the young one was bringing to his tribe. He yelled at the boy, dishonoring him and breaking the boy. In the end the boy was slaughtered at the hands of the chiefs son. He called this a "redemption" to his tribe, and how it was all in my name. My name! He has the nerve to sacrifice a boy at my roots and say it was for the good of me. If he could only sense my rage at the time in order to see reason. The tribe however shared the same rage as I did. Only at the time they could not see that one of their own tribe would enact such a heinous crime. They blamed me for the murder by saying I could have done something, maybe even protected the boy. They will never understand how power works, and now they will never get the chance.

The next day, the whole tribe was shooting doubt at my position as a god and how I let their own child die. So I did the only thing within my power I could possibly use to root out the evil within the tribe. I sent the sacred pack of the forest after the chiefs son. The pack, is the guardian wolves that protect this forest. I would see this as justice for the murder. A life for a life right? However the tribe only saw this as another murder. One more life lost at the hands of me. This one they could blame on me as it was my doing, but humans never look at the reason behind a problem, only the problem itself. The chief being in extreme distress called out for faith as I was no longer any such god to them. I killed his son, and to them he was a hero. The pain I have caused by one murder, no matter how justified, caused these events to take place. To this day I regret using murder as a justification for any sort of crime.

The tribe soon stopped decorating me. They never visited or even brought a gift to me. My leaves soon turned pale in the sunlight, and all that was left of me was the dying flowers hanging from my sullen branches. I became just another tree to them among the forest. I could display all the power in the world to show me being more than that, but to them I was nothing more. At the time my fury took over my reason, The tribe needed to be disciplined. Those who are faithless need to be punished. I loathed for the day from where my power could enact the vengeance required to force their faith on me. For the time being, the volcano would suit as a perfect candidate to display my power.

I called on my strength to the point of no return. My limits were exalted to bring down hell upon their evil. I saw this as a justification as the only way to show them how I am the powerful being which should hail over them. Minutes have gone by, and the tribe suspects nothing of it. Then, as if an earthquake is shattering the earths core, the ground trembles violently. The tribe screams, and falls to the ground, some hang desperately to the edges of their houses for support. Before they even sense what is truly happening, The volcano awakens. To this day, I regret the power I have released upon them.

They burned to death within minutes of the release. I laughed at their misery as I finally displayed my power. They should all recognize this now, and now I am not another tree, for I am a god! The few that remained including the chief called me out. I grinned as I knew they would beg for the mercy of their god. Instead they called me the devil. The chief vowed to return to remove the evil of me from the world once and for all. They all left me for a month, until one day he returned.

The volunteers of the chiefs own inquisition surrounded me, as if testing what was left of my power. They thought they could just remove me and be done with all this terror. The chief stood high on a pillar to call out my sins. He listed them off one by one, and then he recalled the boy. The one who was murdered at my roots. The one the tribe cast blame at me for. The one whos blood spilled tainted my roots to the core, corrupting me by the hands of a murder. The chief, after listing these sins, vowed to root out these evils by force... literally. My roots burst upwards casting the soldiers in the air. I was never going to let them blame me for this. The tribe caused this, I was the victim and they come to kill me? One last display of power was all I could emit. To finally show the tribe a lesson. One that I have learned harshly myself.

Lighting surged in all directions in the sky casting a perfect circle across my branches. The soldiers stood reluctantly as if waiting for an order. One surge one lighting was all it took. It arched down upon the earth with all the force in the worlds possession. The lighting was to much for my hallow body to take. It surged through my core and cast on the earth erupting and charring anything left living. I laughed at my victory until I finally took in the damage tole and understood how I am now nothing more that a split tree with nothing left but a voice.

Not a single soul was left alive but me. Every life I had protected so many years ago, now cast away by my very branches. I am a broken embodiment of the devil. The evil displayed at my roots caused this corruption on all that was left pure. I regret this pain that I have caused but now that the tole was taken accounted for, I long for some peace. As I said I am no god, although my corruption made me to believe otherwise, but I am now simply just another tree among the forest. I did strive for a purpose, and now I am less then the forest surrounding me. The tribe won their conquest to destroy me, but I removed their existence in the process. I wish for death, but in the end I deserve all the misery in the world, and to this day I remain but another tree with a story to tell.