The Girl and the Yew tree

Chapter 1

Part 1

The whole world stopped to admire the innocence of youth

Year 1

A girl sat in the forest crying, her shoulder hurt every time she moved. Though it was the middle of the day and the sun soared high in the sky, its rays looked down very gently on the poor girl. Her small frame and childish features indicated her young age; she couldnt have been any older than ten.

The girls hair fell over her frame in shocks of gold, and the only blemish of her milky skin was the forming bruise over her shoulder, a true wounded angle. At first the girl slid her sleeve lower to examine the dark emerging welt but when she heard something nearing her she covered up in fright; running would have been foolish if it were her Uncle and so she remained still, aside from the relentless trembles that took her over. The girl looked to the ground, refusing to lift her gaze, though the footsteps only drew nearer. After reaching her they stopped, the person having halted beside her, a gentle voice then said
"Girl, why are you crying?" the young one, realizing the voice was too kind to be her Uncle, dared to look up. What stood before her was a boy, who looked to be only a few years older than her. But the moment the girl saw him she knew he was no ordinary boy, his body was formed out of branches that twisted and clung together to make a humanoid figure, with limbs, feet and even fingers. This boy looked down at her, his eyes like green orbs, without pupil or reflection, and his hair was made of leaves that seemed to shine as they bobbed by his wooden ears. Even his bark grew over him like clothes, covering his legs and torso, everything about him was human shaped though this creature was anything but. He held the physique of an adolescent, but was without its flaws.
The girl said nothing, stunned by what she saw; looking into her eyes the wooden boy saw that behind the hazel and brown flexes was not fear, but wonder.
He asked again, kneeling down slowly, to the little ones level "why are you crying?" The girl sniffled, rubbing the driblets from her nose before answering meekly
"I fell" smiling kindly, the boy sat beside her
"I saw you fall but why were you running, what were you running from?" as if his smooth low voice were chipping away at her resolve the girls bottom lip began to quiver, she averted her eyes from the boy "I was running from my Uncle"
"Why?"
"Because he hit me" the wooden boy nodded, he knew what had happened, after all he did witness it from the edge of the forest. He probed her in hopes that she would confide and so he could help.
"Is your Uncle a wicked man?" he asked. Hearing this the girls eyes flared before she hid her face
"I am not meant to speak ill of my elders" the wooden boy nodded
"I seedo you ever want to go back?"
"never" the girl responded without pause "though I know I have to" she pulled her knees into herself "I dont like talking about this with people" the boy got up from beside her and sat himself across from her instead
"oh? But I am not a person" the girl lifted her gaze to meet his
"I can see that, so then what are you?"
"I am a young yew tree" this answer seemed to disarm the girl
"but I have never seen a tree walking and talking before" the wooden boy smiled
"ah but you have never seen a young yew tree before, I am the only one of my kind in this forest and so all of my deduction come from my own thought, but I assume we are imbued with a kind of magic, a gift that allows us to walk when we are young" the boy seemed to be enjoying himself, when was the last time he had talked with someone? "I have heard that my elders cannot walk and so I believe that when we are fully grown then we will merge into the earth, but I am merely fourteen winters old, I have yet to find my resting place" after his rambling, the young tree leaned in closer and whispered as if beckoning the girl to lean in "you see trees are the best listeners, I promise that I will not utter a word until you have finished speaking out your heart" for the first time the boy saw a small smile creep its way onto the girl's young face, a hollow smile, but a smile nonetheless.

After that the girl did confess, she told the wooden boy everything, how her parents died before she could remember, how she had no friends in the village and how her Uncle was so cruel to her, and just as the boy said, he did not utter a word. He only listened, and when she began to cry, reliving her memories he listened with more earnestness.
When she had finished, all her tears had dried up and she again wiped her nose clean, hours had gone by while she confessed to the tree boy and then he said "this must seem like a foolish question because we have been in each others company for so long but...what is your name?"
"Sasha" the girl replied without hesitation, seeming more comfortable now, Sasha then asked "do you have a name?" the boy pondered this and said
"I did once, and I suppose that since that name was never taken away then I still have it, the name is Yew" stifling a chuckle the girl said
"whoever gave you that name wasnt the most creative" Yew was happy to see Sasha enjoying herself but that joy was cut short. She shifted her arm, and the pain coursing through reminded her of her injury, embarrassed and trying not to show the hurt Sasha turned away. The wooden boy frowned, looking at the girl who concealed her pain. He got up and told her to wait a moment and when he returned there was some kind of plan in his hand
"May I?" he asked softly, after sitting down. Sasha looked to the hands he held out to her, with the strange plant of long green leaves and yellow flowers resting in them and after giving him a quizzical look she consented. Slipping the sleeve off her shoulder and looking away in shame, the girl allowed Yew to grace his touch over her wound, lightly caressing her skin with kindness, though it wasnt only kindness, but arnica, a medicinal plant that would bring down the swelling. While Yew rubbed it gently over the girl's bruise she didnt say a word, she wouldnt look at him.
Why would this girl feel ashamed for what someone did to her, it wasnt her fault, she did nothing wrong. Yew couldnt take the sick feeling in his stomach, he leaned into Sasha, nearing her face with his own, trying to get her to look at him and cooed
"hey, hey, dont be like that, you have nothing to be ashamed of" finally she looked into his mesmerizing gaze and nodded.
She realized something while looking into Yews eyes that day, something she had never been able to figure out. Sasha had never liked looking into the eyes of others and now she knew why, because staring back at her was always her broken self, but Yew's eyes, they held no image within them, and so when she looked into his eyes she saw only him.
After the wooden boy had finished his treatment he lifted Sashas sleeve to rest once more upon her thin shoulder. The two looked to each other, their mouths searching for words to describe what had passed between them but before either could speak another voice rouse over the trees
"Sasha!" it yelled from out the mouth of the forest, the girl jolted up in a panic pulled from her silence
"oh no its my Uncle, hes looking for me, I have to go" she then looked to Yew "I want to come back to see you, will you wait for me"
Yew softly chuckled "this is my home, whether I wait for you or not, you will always find me here"
A final smile crept onto the girl's lips before she ran out through the gap in the trees, she hurried to the sound of her angry Uncle's voice. Though she feared him, the dread no longer filled her, because now she knew she wasnt alone, there was a friend in the forest.