Inestisc Creation Scene

Moister; roots, pulling pushing.

Heat; direction, moving searching.

Light; air, cold breath.

Feeling; pain, get away.

Space; freedom, green leaf.

Another; three, four five.

The ground was black and lush, the soil of a volcano, though unseen even after a two day hike from this spot where five trees began to grow; taking advantage of the now asleep giant.

Faces of the soul,

Faces on the soil.

The sky was dark, though it was midday, and this was the second day the sun’s rays would begin to penetrate the ash filled clouds. Only the ground could be seen and five small leaves poking through the surface of the forgotten giver of life.

…

One day the oldest of the trees thought, ‘Awake my family.’

         ‘Yes Eldest?’ The roots connected the thoughts.

         ‘I feel a calling, a pulling, a need to move.’

With this, Eldest slid through the dirt. Roots pulling, pushing, the ground’s kiss enveloped the tree as it slid across the surface slower than a snail. In the place from where the Eldest had moved, a green stalk emerged unfolding two green leaves.  After viewing this, the other four trees moved. From the soil, five new green pairs of leaves grew stretching towards the ever moving sun.

The trees always swayed against the sun

Five directions, pushing; ahead.

Straight circle, behind; destination

Generations grew, third; fourth

At the time the fourth set of trees began to move. In the center, where no leaves touched, roots began to emerge

twisting

tangling

a cocoon formed in which inside a child materialized, sheltered from the world. The 25 elders bowed, these will be the only twenty five elders. Chanting, they named this new life Inestisc, the child was welcomed.

At the time of 75 moving trees, Inestisc began to roam. At dusk on the first day outside of the cocoon, he became lost; surrounded by tall figures he could not identify. By dark Inestisc learned to run; faster, faster, bark swooshed passed his ears. Thud, Inestisc broke his nose against an elder. His screams desiccated the leaves of the nearest trees and the dust fell to the ground.

The elder, through its roots, asked the others, ‘What do we do now?’ It was not words nor pictures, more a whirlpool of emotions that included confusion and the need to help. The conscientiousness of the forest was comfort. The elder, then bent over and wrapped its branches around Inestisc. His wails elevated. Further away, more leaf dust polluted the ground. The elder’s branches hummed vibrations of a forest lullaby. It was instant, Inestisc fell asleep.

         At the time of 235 moving trees Inestisc had learned the elders. He stands at the edge of the forest with his head tilted back in examination of burnt leaves. The cause of the halted expansion of the forest was a glowing river. It wound its way down from the mountains, which had been the first stop in expansion, and ended steaming in the ocean on the opposite side of the forest from the mountains. The forest still spread to the North West with no sight of an obstacle to hinder the growth.

         “What is that?” Inestisc asked, and did not dare get any closer. ‘we do not know and it pains us to be this close.’ 

Inestisc learned to feel the roots

555 moving trees

…

The soft dirt filled the space between Inestisc’s toes with each step that was taken. The branches above swayed, stretching with the ever moving sun. At the edge of a clearing in the forest Inestisc put a hand against the bark of a tree and searched the trees spirit, with his eyes closed. The mind of Inestisc and the spirit of the tree, which was not an elder, danced in a rhythmic swirl of understanding and acceptance.

Borders fell

                           both mind and spirit

                                                         melted into one

                                                                                       morphing entity.

Thoughts and images had no definition of which owner they belonged too. Dreams of swinging from branches blended with views of stars and passing comets. Inestisc felt leaves touched by the winds breath, and the tree knew the feeling of dirt between its toes. Inestisc removed the hand and witnessed newfound joy in the tree’s smile from the connection made.

         Inestisc found a comfortable spot in the clearing and lay to watch the clouds. Daydreams ran wild with feelings of melting with the tree. Inestisc had spoken with the elders, but had never spoken with one of the trees before. Something tugged at his mind. Without the knowledge of what it was he stood and was startled when a thought stronger than words entered his mind. ‘Child.’ Inestisc knew that the thought belonged to one of the elders. With fear he was now speaking to himself he sat back down. Again the thought appeared, ‘child.’ His voice shook as he responded, “How are you doing this, Elder?” Again thoughts appeared in his head, as if placed there to be his own. ‘Child many things we trees can learn. Many things, child we can teach each other, us trees and you. Many things we will learn faster when we work together. Please child, come to me.’ “Elder, how am I to know which one you are?” ‘Child, you are one with us trees. We trees are one with each other, yet we each are our own. You know our voices, you will find me. Feel me.’ Inestisc stood again and began to walk in the direction he felt that the thoughts came from. ‘Child we have a minor annoyance in our forest. We trees have grown tired of seeing just brown and green. There are colors in the mountains, in the river, in the desert and in the ocean; here in our forest there is only green and brown.’ “Elder, I as well am tired of eating the same green fruit from your branches. Yet, I don’t know how to fix it.” Inestisc received an image of himself running to the elder and with this began sprinting in the way of the thought.

‘Child I would like to feel the breath of new life.’

“I do not understand Elder. Why are you telling me this? I cannot help you.”

‘Yes Inestisc, you can.’

“How? Elder, tell me and I will gladly solve our problem.”

‘Close your eyes Inestisc, breathe in, breathe out. Deep breaths. Get rid of everything in your mind. Black and white is all that should be left.’

“Yes, Elder.”

‘You are going to create new life, start with something small. Roots first, your life must be able to survive. Picture how tall your life is going to be. Envision what it looks like, every detail.’

In his mind Inestisc created. First a plant with many leaves yellow and green, with a fruit of orange. Then he added a vine that comes from the base, with a new kind of food something hard and tan.

‘When you have it Inestisc, sing what you feel into the ground.’

Without opening his eyes he bent and placed his hands to the dirt. Singing his feelings, noise flowed forth. From his hands skinny white roots entered the soil. A light green stem began to grow. Moving his hands around the new life, singing, guiding, growing. Green and yellow leaves unrolled. Vines began crawling across the ground. Orange fruit grew from the leaves; tan nuts emerged from the vines. Slowly Inestisc opened his eyes. Shock vibrated throughout his bones. I have created life!

‘Well done child. This is your purpose, your calling. You have created a beautiful specimen, very lovely against all the brown. Try your new food child.’

         Speechless and winded Inestisc picked his new meal and sat in the branches of the Elder that had guided him through his creation. “Elder?” He asked and continued slowly trying to pick his words, “I have another problem. I am lonely, I mean I enjoy talking with the Elders and I had a wonderful experience this morning with a tree that was not an Elder. But, I don’t have anyone to run and climb and jump with.”

         ‘Yes child, we have all heard about your mind-melt this morning. You cannot create a being like yourself; for it was all us trees combined which created you.’ The pit in his stomach grew even larger. Disappointed he jumped to the dirt. ‘Inestisc, you have the gift to create life,’ he received an image of himself turning toward the elder, so he did. ‘Begin with a seed.’ Inestisc walked off towards the setting sun. I will create a friend.

         Back in the clearing Inestisc practiced creating life: flowers, bushes, things to eat, some with thorns, some with an aroma, and some simply for looks. The stars waltzed across the sky. Inestisc tangoed with the field. Sometimes he cried, when his tears fell on a creation it became more elaborate. When he pricked his finger or scraped his knee on a thorn that creation became filled with a life he could not imagine. He continued his sex on the dance floor

which was the field.

Four times the sun set      along its journey across the sky. 

Five nights the stars waltzed.

The trees at the edge of the clearing bowed.

Inestisc sang until his knees crumpled.

“I will create a friend.”

                            In his mind he drew the picture,

until perfection was his mind,

he knew all      he had to do was      give it time

and he would find a way.

On the fifth day, white bones formed between his hands.

Tendons and muscles and veins

covered in skin.

He had created a kin.



No life breathed through its lungs.

Tears did not alter this, nor did blood give the creature breath.

                                                                                                                He devoured it,

tissue and blood, bones and all

                                                                                    he devoured it.

He slept. For two days              he slept.

The trees shuddered.

…

Standing in the field I ran my hand up the stem of a thorny bush and no blood came to the surface of my hand. Much of the new life I created had grown higher than my head. It was not so thick as to blind my vision from seeing the edge of the forest. From the corner of my eye, a blur darted between trees. In one step I was at the edge of the forest, there was no sign of what had made the blur. Over time I learned I could manipulate this world, as long as I knew I was here and not in the world of the awake. I received an image of the figure from one of the trees and in a blink I was there. All I saw was purple hair swinging behind the figure as it ran. Then it was out of sight. I followed in the direction it disappeared. Next I saw her green dress. It swayed unaffected by her movement, yet left a contrail s-ed between the trees. I could have sworn the dress hadn’t been there the other times I saw her. It was almost as if she wanted to be followed. But, I couldn’t catch her. I received another image of her from a tree and blinked in front of her. Her face was long and flawless, eyes were angled and brows were thin. Her ears stuck out from her hair which nearly reached her waist. She was there one second and gone another. I turned around and reached for the ends of her floating dress and we flew through the forest. Ghosts in this dream world we wisped through the trees. Soon we stood side by side at the edge of a desert. No longer could I make out her face. Something happened, a flash, she turned and faced the forest and so did I. It was burnt; nothing remained, only ash. She touched my face, I was unable to make out hers but I saw a tear drop and heard the thoughts ‘start with a seed, Child.’ She vanished. From the sky floated down a seed. It landed in my hand; white, in the shape of a tear. I vanished from the world around me.