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Zacharias woke up to the feeling of sunshine on his face. The warmth of the light energized him as he hastily stood up to stretch his old limbs for a bit. He felt very stiff and his arms let out crackles like a pair of old twigs. Nothing new there. The trees around him whispered, greeting him as an old friend.

The gift of Zacharias was a strange one and he had never met another one who shared it, for he could in fact hear the spirits of the trees speak. This had led him to know many secrets of the forest and he had often felt more connected to this world than to the world of humans.

Some years ago when Zacharias was already an old man, weakened by illness and nearly blind, he had decided to end his life there, in the midst of his oldest and truest friends, the trees. He had laid down on the forest floor, listening to it's whispers. Then he had closed his eyes and decided to let his spirit leave his body. But what had happened was something very different. The next morning Zacharias had woken up all tangled up in the roots of the nearby trees and to his surprise, feeling revitalized and full of life.

Now he was back in that strange part of the forest. He still could not understand what had happened or why the forest had given him this new life, but it was now obvious to him that it did not come without a cost. His voice had been changing to a deeper woody tone and sometimes when he laughed, he sounded just like an old creaking tree. He had gotten very strong, albeit rather stiff and most strangely of all moss and leaves had started growing out of his beard.

He sat down and listened. The trees were silent now. Like old friends who already knew each others thoughts, Zacharias and the trees sat there in silence and watched the sunrise.

Zacharias was feeling frustrated as he walked through the streets of Britain. He had yet to uncover a single clue about the nature of his condition and lately he had started feeling like the trees were not even trying to help. Even the blabbermouthed oak facing Britain's first bank went silent as Zacharias approached him, something that had never happened before.

"Don't you dare play dead with me you old twig, I need some answers!", Zacharias screamed at the tree.

The tree stared back in silence, angering Zacharias to no end.

"You know I have all the time in the world... and what is this I have here? A hatchet huh? Those are some nice new branches you are growing, it would certainly be a shame if something happened to them."

The tree stood unwavered.



By this time Zacharias had caught the attention of a pair of overzealous guards who were now having a serious discussion about the legality of posing threats on trees. As he overheard this, Zacharias decided he would not wait for them to come to a consensus on the issue and quietly sneaked off.

Even though the old oak not speaking to him did come as a surprise, this behaviour had become more of a rule than an exception. Anywhere Zacharias went, the trees would suddenly stop talking and refuse to answer any of Zacharias' questions. To Zacharias it had become obvious that the trees knew something, but just wouldn't share it with him.

Determined to find answers, he decided it was time to visit an old friend he had not seen in almost a hundred years. An old and a very dangerous friend.

"I wonder if she still wants to eat me...", thought Zacharias to himself, but couldn't help smiling just a bit.