There was pain, she had never known pain like this. She had experienced dead limbs fall off, and even a animal make a hole in her before. But this, this was immense and growing. It felt like it had come from nothing, but was now everywhere. She needed to do something, something outside of herself, she needed to make it stop. She pushed against the pain, against her bark, pushed on her leaves, then she felt something take it, her fruit. She was hit with a sadness she did not even know she could feel.

  Her fruit was gone, she had been growing it for as long as she could remember, putting so much into it, all of her love and care, so much time and energy, just gone. She would get it back. She pushed harder, when that didn’t work, she pulled. When that failed, she tried lifting her branches. Barely anything, but the pain, it was getting worse, she needed out. She needed something more she had Qi, she had been using it forever, thats what made her fruit so special. So she pushed with that.

  She pushed and pushed, she knew that this was the right way, because what else was there? She had her tree, her senses, had a fruit, and had Qi. She kept pushing, because it was all she had now, she could feel it outside of herself now, a formless ball of Qi it was a part of her because she had claimed it long ago. More pushing but it needed more, she was nearly empty, she had put almost everything into it. What else was there, what could she do with it? The pain was driving her mad, it hurt so much, she just wanted to get away from it.

  There was no more pushing, she was spent, she was going to die here, she knew it, but she didn’t was to die with all this pain. Maybe she could do something with the energy is she brought it back, so she pulled, but he didn’t have anything left to pull with but kept pulling, and pulling, and fading…

  With a last yank with all of her strength… nothing. Nothing, not even pain… but she could feel, she could sense, and she could see? This was something new, trees do not have sight, what was this. With this new sense, she saw bright light, yellows and reds, flickering and nothing else but darkness. It was coming from her, from her tree, but she wasn’t in her tree. She knew it she was dead.

  She wanted to move back to her tree to kill the light that her her so. So she stepped, and another, then quickly she moved to herself. Her mind was ringing and popping, this must be death. She didn’t know what she could to to the light, but she had to do something. So she smashed her being into it. And it burned, but not nearly as bad. With the pain she felt limbs, and they moved instinctively when they were hurt. So she used those to attack the light. Slapping the light it hurt, but maybe there was a chance she could save her tree, even if she died.

  The attacks helped, but it wasn’t quick enough, so she grabbed a rock, and beat it against herself. Not knowing what else to do. Little patches of light would die, but if she left an area alone too long it would come back. So she grabbed soil, rich and filled with everything she needed for life and beat the light with it. This worked too well, this meant that the light was the opposite of life. Only bad things could be hurt by life.

  She scraped at the ground, taking bigger and bigger chunks to beat against herself killing the evil light leaving dirt and darkness behind. It felt like years had past, but she killed the light, all of it. She cried for her tree, wanting to wrap herself around it to protect it from ever being hurt by that light again. She cried, knowing this was the end, there was only black, and this new form, but she was glad she protected her tree. She tried pulling back into her tree, even if it would hurt, she wanted to feel it one last time before she died. Hurting everywhere she pulled, then her tree was gone.

  She cried, knowing that it was truly over, the world would take her soon, return her to the soil. Why, what had caused this. Where did the light come from. It didn’t really matter and soon she felt nothing more.

  She woke, feeling odd, she didn’t often dream but this one was bad, such a nightmare. Then, she couldn’t feel her fruit, her limbs only two, and two trunks, it wasn’t a dream, and the light was everywhere. This light was different though, it was the essence that filled her with energy, of source she would point her leaves towards. It was good, it filled her with energy in this new body. She could feel the Qi in it, it was part of what she needed but not all of it. So she stood, feeling her limbs more nimble than ever, about to most with a thought, rather than time, planning and effort. Even with these new limbs, she could tell they were stiff because of her dreaded fight.

  In the new good light, she looked around, seeing a small grove, she recognized these trees, their roots had touched, they had shared meals, and told each other where different minerals were, or shared them if we had enough. Many were just gone. Broken to nothing just a splintered trunk. Others had blackness on them that looked like the light had tried to eat them as well. She could tell none of them had been hurt like her though, almost all of her trunk… it was gone, all of it. The blackness won, the light ate her, but she was still here.

  She was numb, sitting there, looking at where her tree used to be. Nothing was left, what was she now? She had never had such coherent thoughts, there used to be urges and motivations to find different minerals with her roots. Her mind was flooded with sensations and she almost couldn’t even process them all. Everything she was used to was gone, the feel of her deep roots, pulling in energy and nutrients. The feel of her branches swaying in the wind, the tingling rustle of her leaves.

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  She still had bark, but it was different now, she could feel how it touched different thing, sensations she had never know. She could move freely, guided by new instincts, that were harder to listen to, or maybe they just moved by faster than what she was used to. She had sight, and it give her insights into things she had always known from other senses. She could now hear things, she had always felts the vibrations in the air, but had no context for how they sounded. The chirping of small critters, the wind flowing through leaves, she heard them now, rather that just feeling them happen.

  She looked around her grove, her home, and saw the beauty of it of it. She soft loam beneath her, her fellow trees as the swayed. Then she saw it, some were damaged by the light… the fire that had burned her. None had been so extensively damaged as her trunk, but some had that blackness left where bark should be. She looked for what may have caused it, but the marks just appeared on the trunks, even where hers was, nothing to show where the fires came from. As she looked she found furrowed dirt, and a red sap. Maybe she wasn’t the only tree that died, but she didn’t remember any trees around this part of the grove.

  It looked to her that there was almost a trail of the sap, leading away from the grove. She fallowed it, looking for any other charred spots. There was not much, but a few small patches looked to have been burned. She followed the trail for more steps than she could easily recall, till she found… something. It was a lump, and it had the red sap coming from it’s side. Beast her instincts told her, and that it could be dangerous. Then she saw it, its…tail was burning, but it was the beast’s own essence, and she knew it was the one that had cause her so much pain. As she studied it, she froze, there, near it’s muzzle, a gnawed on peach pit. Not only was it the one that burned her, but also stole her… her child, or at least the potential for one. She needed to get that pit, and make that beast pay.

  She had noticed she was rather quiet walking through the forest so she thought she would be able to sneak up on the resting beast, but then what? Her instincts told her that smashing it with dirt wouldn’t put it out like it did the flame. She could feel the beast was strong, but she was close in power. That didn’t really help when she had no form of attack, no Qi techniques, or empowered attacks. Maybe she should just grab the pit and get away, she would have to avenge her tree later.

  Sneaking up being as quiet as possible, she nearly reached the beast when it sniffed at the air. It must not have smelled anything out of the ordinary because it stopped after a second. Happy for her luck the best still slept, she moved the rest of the distance towards the beast. Gently moving she quietly picked up the lost pit and started to back away. After moving a reasonable distance away, she turned and began to sneak away with her lost prize. She was almost out of sight of the beast when she heard if sniffling again, but it didn’t stop. Then she heard a rumbling growl come from it, and looked back to see it get up.

  She dashed away trying to get back to her grove, the only place of safety she had ever known. She looked back as she ran and saw the beast launch a ball of sizzling fire from its maw, coming straight for her. She dodged to the side, keeping up her pace to get away from the beast. Taking another glance back, she saw the beast was closing on her far to quickly, it obviously was far faster than her. She didn’t know what to do now, she didn’t expect the beast to be faster than her, she was the fastest thing she knew of until now. So she kept running, surely her other trees would find a way to help her in some way, and she was almost there.

  With a last burst she made it to her grove, but the beast was nearly on her. She ran past her brother the tall oak that gave her some shade on the hot summer days. She dodged back towards some of the other trees she knew, slightly juking the beast for a moment, but it was quickly back on her. This time as it approached her back she grabbed the side of one of the younger trees and twirled around it, root first into the beast. With a whimper the beast was flung to the side, she could see that it was leaking… no, bleeding not only from some new punctures from where she had hit it, but also it’s old wound.

  The beast got back to its feet, and let out a low, vicious growl, then out of nowhere, it opened its mouth, and launched more fire, a ball followed by a cone of fire. She, no I, I nearly froze, but quickly launched myself to the side. It helped but it wasn’t enough, my roots where burned, but not terribly, and they didn’t catch. I tried to roll away, but the beast was quickly on me. It bit down deeply into my branch, and I beat at it with my other… arm. I made my hand into a fist, and kept beating at it. The beast started to shape me by my arm, I heard creaking and light cracking. I gouged out the eye of the beast and it let me go for a least a brief moment.

  I got to my feet as the beast regained its stance, then it paused. Then another fireball. I couldn’t dodge, I was too close and unstable at that. It took me square in the chest. I heard… screaming… I was screaming out in pain, again this fire would consume me till I was nothing left. I was barely coherent, my arm ravaged, my chest burning. I watched, almost disconnected from my newest body. Watched as the beast came closer to finish me off. Readying to pounce and end me for good. It launched itself at me, but I wouldn’t go out without a fight. I put my good arm out, and felt as my hand when deep down the beast’s gullet and it chomped, and chomped. I could feel what was felt of my senses fading.

  Everything going dark, but the pain, and my Qi. There wasn’t even enough left in me to do anything, but it wasn’t the only source of my Qi. I could feel it, in the beast, years and years of it, much was gone, but there was still so much that was mine. From my peach, my beautiful passion would save me. I took hold of the power that was once mine, and now was again. I condensed it, tighter and tighter, and gave it a single frantic command.

  Explode!