Searching for the Tree of Life

by Adelise M Cullens

  Dreams come to me, like a scent on the breeze. There is singing aboard my Lady’s deck. Am I dreaming or is it real? I am standing below deck looking down upon Raven and myself. I must be dreaming, otherwise these are some crazy powers I didn’t know I had.

  I walk up the steps and come out into the light. My crew is singing. “Yo-ho, up she rises. Yo-ho, up she rises. Yo-ho, up she rises, Earl-aye in the mornin’.” The song makes me smile as they work in the bright morning sun. The sunlight is very bright for my world. The sun is hot on my skin. It sparkles sequins of white light off the calm water. I am not at home.

  My crew rise up to greet me, pausing momentarily in their shanty. “Mornin’ Cap’n,” They all say as I pass.

  There is a man standing at the wheel and I walk to him. ‘What are you doing on my ship?’ I say to the man as he turns to me. His black eyes blaze at me. He wears shadows about him as a candle wick wears a flame. I pause before I get to him.

  His face is beautiful and frightening. His large eyes set in a soft, child-like face. His limbs are obscured in his darkness and he moves toward me like mist across the water. He smiles at me, a hideous gash from ear to ear, showing the rows of shark like teeth that lay inside. He is the night’s dark embrace. He is the fabric of woven nightmares.

  ‘I believe you mean our ship, Ellie Pirate?’ he says in a deep, molasses voice.

  He approaches me and I am stuck fast to the deck. He reaches out a hand, fingers long and slender as candle sticks. He slides a hand around my waist. The seaweed and coral that lives on me, serving as my natural clothing, begins to wither. It blackens and dies. The death spreads across my body like a disease, turning into thick tar. I can feel it dripping over my skin. It is slick and wet, oozing over me. He pulls me into him and I feel his grip tighten around my waist.

  He leans in close with his wound mouth, revealing a blackened sea slug tongue behind the teeth. His grip around my waist tightens further, pushing all my breath out of me.

  I awake suddenly, but the crushing feeling is still there. I still feel the slimy tar all over my body.

  I look down to see a gigantic tentacle wrapped around my body. Its suckers cling to my flesh.

  ‘Raven!’ I manage to yell out just as I am whipped up and out of the sleeping quarters. I am dragged off my ship, the tentacle slithering over my body. The tip of the tentacle comes up to gag me just as I start to let out a scream and it drags me under the waves.

  Part 3

  The beast drags me down, deeper than even I have ever been. Farther than my reach can feel. Sometimes when you think you have dominion over something it wants to wake you up with a slap in the face. The place where I am being taken is obviously not my domain.

  We sink into darkness, all light gone. I cannot move and my brain is in a state of panic. I am helpless, defenceless, at the will of this creature. The pressure on my body increases as I am dragged below, but ahead I see a blue glow. Am I seeing things? Is this my light at the door of death? We hit the sea floor and I feel a sudden shock of pain surge through my skull as a rock strikes me. And I am out.

  ***

  My eyelids are heavy as I try to open them. Blue light seeps in through the cracks of my eyelids and it is soothing. I feel movement in the water around me, feel it swirl past and I remember where I am.

  I open my eyes and the blue glow is somewhat blinding for a moment and then I can see. I am in a huge cavern. Big glass mason jars are scattered around, emitting the blue light that sparkles off the surfaces of reflective objects and softens the edges of the world below. There are shelve-like ridges cut deep into the stone walls and I can see the blue glint of objects sitting atop them. The place is gigantic. I notice that the blue lights only go up so far and the ceiling is not visible, the shelved walls simply disappear into the gloom.

  A shadow passes over me, momentarily eclipsing the blue light, casting a humongous shadow upon the ground. It descends slowly, tentacles skirting around its huge mass. Each of its tree-sized limbs stretch out, touching the edges of the cavern. I see the blue light reflect off its menacing beak, big enough to swallow me down whole like a shucked oyster. I draw my feeble sword, I might have some sort of magic in me, but when your chips are down they’re down and I can see my fate drawn out before me in a mass of blood and ink.

  A tentacle reaches down and snatches my sword, a toothpick by comparison, in its nimble tip. The beast turns its head to watch the sword glow with its big golden eye. The blue slowly fades out and it looks nothing more than dead steel. The monster plunges the sword down toward me and I brace myself for my end. Murdered by my own sword, as defenceless as a child under the might of this creature. I close my eyes and thrust out my chest, there is no point in denying fate.

  Nothing happens. I open my eyes to sneak a glimpse at what is going on and the eye of the beast is staring at me, glowering. Gold spun thread and deep, trench-black centres, easily the size of a barrel lid, the single eye looks me up and down. Its eye fixes into a questioning glare and the tentacle with the sword reaches up.

  It points the sword at me. I hold up my hands in surrender. The look in the creature’s eye makes me uncertain that it wants my blood.

  It shoves the sword at me again, but it stops a foot away from my face. Does it want me to take it?

  Precariously, I reach towards the sword. I take my sword out of its slimy grip and the swords begins to glow again, steel disappearing.

  There is no doubt in my mind now what this creature is. Krakens are unseen masters of the ocean. Keeping to their own except when on the hunt. I had seen them once, a family of them, drifting gracefully just below the surface. But they are shape shifters, once they feel that they are being watched they change. Disappearing into nothingness.

  The Kraken’s eye becomes wide in the blue glow and suddenly it swims off to a far wall. It removes one of the mason jars from the wall and brings it towards me.

  I sit up and watch. The Kraken comes to rest next to me and hands the jar to me. It is a big jar, god knows where the creature got it from. It is filled with water and tiny jellyfish ­— the source of the blue light.

  The Kraken points at the jar and then at the sword. They are the same blue.

  I look up at this monstrosity, this beast. All my fears have dissipated in this moment of … connection?

  The Kraken uses its dexterous tentacle to open the lid of the jar and I watch as all the tiny jellyfish bob out of their glass home. The kraken’s eyes soften as it runs a tentacle over the jellies. They float around its limb, gracefully moving through the water. The twenty or so little creatures spread out around us, blue lights flickering over their transparent bodies. I put away my sword and watch as the Kraken seems to actually play with its pets.

  I reach a tentative hand out to touch one of the jellyfish, but quick as lightning, the Kraken bats my hand away with another tentacle. Its eyes squint at me and its skin has blotches of a harsh white running across it. The Kraken quickly scoops up the jellyfish and puts them back into the jar, replacing the lid. It returns the jar back to its shelf.

  ‘Why did it bring me here?’ I ask.

  There is a thunk as something hits the ground in front of me. The sand flies up into the water creating a cloud of shimmering dust. It slowly settles around a large hessian sack tied with thick rope. The bag is bigger than I am. I open the sack and look inside. It is full of black objects of varying size.

  I take one out and brush the sand off it. It is smooth and hard like bone. Sharp edges point into a beak, like from a giant parrot. The one I hold is much smaller than this Kraken’s would be.

  I look up at the beast before me. Is this why it brought me here? To show me what remains of its family.

  It has made itself seem small in a corner, far away from me. Lumpy ridges of flesh rise up all over its body. Its skin is dark maroon brown and it is puffing water in and out of its syphon, creating torrents of sand that cloud around it.

  ‘Is this your family?’
I say, but I don’t know if it even understands me.

  It reaches one lonely tentacle over to me and strokes the beak in my hand. I can’t help it. I touch the top of the creature’s tentacle. Its skin is slick and leathery, but soft. I feel the muscles tense under my touch.

  ‘I’m so sorry that I left,’ I say. But it is not just directed to the Kraken, it is directed towards all of my world.

  The tentacle slithers around, grasping my hand in its suckers, latching onto my skin. I feel the suckers move around my skin independently from each other. It moves up my arm and around to my back. It wraps around my waist and lifts me up to stare into the golden eye. I can feel the creature’s intelligence, sense it.

  I feel something surge through me. I see a vision before my eyes. Bright pink sky burns my eyes. Large animals fly through the sky as if in water. The oceans are rich in life. We sit on the sand and watch a pod of Krakens go by, their tentacles leave unmistakable ripples across the water and their syphons spray backwards out of the sea, like rainbows of crystal ocean.

  Everything turns to black, everything deadens, everything is lost. Fire and darkness and cracked earth are all that remain. Rivers run red with larva, the sky turns a merlot red and the air is putrid with death. One giant tree stands against the gloom. Its roots and branches reach out, its life pulses through them like blood through veins.

  The blue is back and I am once again staring into the gold eye of the Kraken. I suck water into my lungs as if I had been holding breath.

  I need to fix it.

  ‘Take me home?’ I say. And the creature obeys.

  ***

  The sea is grey as dead flesh in the early morning haze. Flecks of black tipped ripples caress the water’s surface. The Kraken lifts me up to the Silent Lady, but I can already feel the absence of life.

  ‘Raven!’ I call out to the empty ship. My heart beats hard in my chest. “Raven!” Still no one answers my cry. I want to remain strong like a good captain should, but I cannot help the weakness that over comes my knees as I drop to the deck.

  I look around. The sky is lifeless, no breeze kisses the air, no clouds skirt the horizon.

  A single black feather sits on the dead wood in front of me and I pick it up.

  I feel my ship sag to one side as the Kraken tries to climb on board. Its gold eye looks sullen and its flesh dark red. Does it know what has happened?

  I hold the feather up in the light, showing the beast what remains of my first mate. Dark tar-like ooze is slicked down one side of the feather. I know who has taken him.

  Part 4

  I sail today without sails. I sail with no wind on my face, no breeze to blow through my coral hair. Without Raven the sky is stagnate. I try to use my control of the water to push me over its surface, my anger drives me but it is still not quick enough. My new found friend, the Kraken, pulls the Silent Lady along by the ropes of her anchor. My gallant steed of the deep towing its giant wooden chariot, leaving massive swells in our wake as we pick up speed. We rush towards the Tree of Life.

  Imelda the wise, the frog lady, had told me that I needed to find the tree, and that He, the darkness, would find me. He too is looking for the Tree and I must get to it before him. At first I thought that it was the Kraken that gave me the vision, but now I believe different. I think it was the Tree calling to me.

  I can see it now, on my Sword of Waves. Like a beacon shrouded in darkness, but it is still visible enough to guide our way, my sword a picturesque compass of light and water with a soul of steel.

  My crew has vanished. I no longer feel them with me, no longer do the ropes swing with invisible forces, no longer do the decks creak with unseen feet. I assume that He, this dark thing, whoever he thinks he is, has taken them from me.

  I watch the edge of the horizon, waiting for something to break the line. And suddenly it is broken. I think it is the top of a mountain at first, the tip of some unknown frosty peak and then more of it comes into view. I see its branches, the corrugation of its leaves. The Tree of Life is a giant. It is its own island. It erupts from the water on a mass of twisted roots. I am in complete awe. This could not possible be just a single tree, could it?

  It is strange and beautiful and … alien. Each of its branches turns and coils, each with its own journey. Twisting and sprouting leaves that shimmer in the cool light of day. But then I see it.

  Behind the tree and coming up fast. A black fog as thick as a volcanic plume of ash and smoke. It rolls across the water’s surface, like a wave upon waves. I can see shapes in the smog, like an army marching within it, horse-like creatures striding though, huge flying beings like in my vision, people and demons and … merfolk. They all swim inside the cascading dark cloud, prisoners, soldiers or both.

  I am alone.

  I hesitate. But there is no point. We are both here now, the battlefield is set.

  A surge of anger and hate pushes through me and I pick up the water around me, pushing the ship forward, into my own fears.

  The stygian fog swallows us up like the clouds obscuring a full moon. I stop pushing us forward and just allow the Silent Lady to drift through. ‘Kraken?’ The anchor line has gone limp and the beast has apparently vanished.

  As I move further inwards, it gets darker, even the light has been scared away.

  I stand at the bow of my ship, holding my sword out in front like a mighty figurehead, but even my sword of the waves’ blue light is meagre in this sullen gloom.

  ‘My Lady,’ comes a voice from all around me.

  I spin, trying to find the source, but all I see is black.

  ‘I knew that you would come to me,’ He says. ‘Even if it did take a little … convincing.’

  ‘Show yourself, coward,’ I say.

  The skin of black smoke splits before him and he oozes out like blood from a wound. He laughs a laugh like an echo, a shadow passing through your mind leaving me not sure whether I heard it or not. His mouth is an angry gash in his face, stitches for teeth, thousands of them. But he is beautiful, somehow. Youthful and awful and lovely and demonic. I feel my flesh crawl under his black-eyed gaze.

  He slinks over to me and traces his candlestick fingers over my face. ‘Oh Ellie. I have been so waiting for your return.’ He moves around me, but I stand firm, trying not to shake. ‘I see my beast brought you to me … Where has he gone?’ He waves a hand in the mirk and the darkness parts. I am able to see the water’s surface, the Kraken bobbing there, skin a dark black. ‘Thank you, Beast.’ And the Kraken disappears under the waves.

  ‘What? But, he … The Kraken, he …’ I look on in the direction of the Kraken, feeling him there in the water, but he is sinking further and further away.

  ‘Naaww, little Ellie. Did you think he was your friend?’ he laughs again.

  I turn to face him with my sword drawn, but he is gone, his mock-laughter still ricocheting in my head.

  ‘What have you done with Raven?’ I yell.

  ‘Oh, Raven, Raven, Raven … Always with your precious Raven,’ he says. I kept turning, not being able to get a grasp on his direction.

  The smoke parts and I see Raven standing there. Dead eyes staring. I run to him. ‘Raven!’ He does not respond. His tattoos no longer swirl. His eyes no longer crackle with lightning, they are misted over with grey clouds.

  ‘What have you done to him?’ I say.

  ‘I am Imelda The Wise …’ comes a croaky voice next to me. The frog lady from the island is suddenly by my side. Her big, red horizon eyes blinking sideways at me. ‘My Child,’ she says coming close to me and gripping my arm. She leans in to my ear. ‘You … are so … gullible! But then again so is your bird friend. Stupid boy.’ Her voice changes into His and I feel a slick tongue slither up my neck. ‘Mmm … you taste good enough to eat.’

  I let out a squeal and try to get free, but his grip on my arm is too strong. I take out my sword and slice through his arm, but he fades into smoke and disappears back into the gloom.

  ‘
When the land witch came to me and asked me to help her bring you back, I was hesitant at first, but once I saw you I knew I wanted you,’ he says. His voice is deep and smooth like a night time breeze. ‘I have been collecting souls and dead things from our world … sometimes they haven’t been too dead, but … that’s an easy fix.’

  I look around for him in the darkness. I see shapes, but I cannot tell if my eyes are playing tricks on me or not.

  ‘It is amazing what a lost soul will do to feel alive again. My army of living dead will rule the over world. And this one of course, but this one is pretty much dead already.’

  ‘That’s why you want the tree of life?’ I whisper.

  ‘Very smart, little Ellie. Very smart,’ he says. ‘I’m cutting down that big sucker as we speak. I will bathe my army of souls in its blood and bring them back.’

  A vision penetrates my mind. The gargantuan tree lying in the ocean, its green blood coating the water’s surface like oil. Creatures splashing around in it madly, grotesque and deformed. They scream with pain and writhe in anger, gasping breath that they cannot breathe. It’s unnatural. Not the way that the tree gives life. I can hear the tree crying as it dies in the salty brine. My entire world is blackened, destroyed by the army of deathless corpses.

  ‘Help us,’ says a voice in my head. No. Not a voice. Hundreds of them. Reverberating in my ears, sweet and fearful.

  ‘I have been watching you since you got back. You are quite a spectacular creature.’ I feel a slick hand stroke my shoulder and I turn, but nothing is there.

  ‘But I must say, I think I preferred you when you were little.’

  ‘You sick …’ I have had enough. My sword glows brightly and I slash through the darkness. I am only met with the maddening laughter as I thrust into the smog. ‘Come out and fight me you yellow-bellied …’ Thwack. My sword hits flesh. Everything is quiet.

  I drive it in deeper and hear the satisfying sound of a painful inhale. I smile. Then the smoke clears … My heart stops beating. My eyes sting and my mouth gapes at the sight of what I have done.