Tree of Life

Book II Chapter 12

His floating companion came to a stop too.

The hooded one rotated around. To face them. Their general direction, at least.

“What the…?” Julian went to grab the binoculars again.

“Uh, Julian…” She touched him on the arm.

Julian turned around. Nicole was pointing at her own chest. She spread the collar of her shirt apart to show him.

Julian’s eyes widened.

It was her locket. The one that Julian had given her. It had been sitting on top of her chest. But now it was rising into the air and glowing.

She stared into his face. “What’s going on?”

Julian turned back to the strangers. They were still stopped and facing their direction.

Julian reached out and grabbed Nicole by the hand. “Come on!”

He took off for the next branch, back in the direction they had come. With her hand still locked up inside his, Nicole followed along by his side.

After five minutes of all out running away, flying through the treetops, they stopped for a second and took a breath. They turned around and checked. Nicole finally let Julian have the binoculars.

He stared into the distance behind. No one. No one coming their way. The hooded one and his friend had not followed them. Both gave a sigh of relief.

“What do we do now?”

“Let’s get back to the Tree first.”

Nicole agreed.

~~~

It was a full hour after that before they broke through the trees to enter the clearing once more. It had taken them this long because they had to take the long way around to get in from the other side. But now, finally, Julian and Nicole had broken past the tree line and were dashing up the slope toward the base of the Tree of Life. Even at a distance, Nicole noticed that the Tree was different, somehow. It seemed smaller, older and its bark was more red, making it appear like it was wounded.

At its base, Julian and Nicole slowed to a walk. At the same spot where they had had their meeting before, the two of them now found that a group of men and women had already gathered and were shrouded in a cloak of whispers. Willibald was there too. At first the group had not noticed, but now they stopped talking, parted and made a way for the couple to approach the bench, the same one that Joseph and Nicole had sat on in the meeting just yesterday. On it, at the top of the grassy slope, now laid an old man all dressed in white. A group of villagers were tending to him, handing him a cup of water, wiping his brow for sweat. The old man saw them coming but even so, he remained reclined on the bench, propped up on cushions, and did not move much save for the slow drawing in and out of breaths.

“Oh, no.” Julian rushed over to the old man. He crouched down beside him by the edge of the bench.

Puzzled, Nicole followed him.

Julian touched the old man on the shoulder. “How is this happening? The process has accelerated so much…”

The old man shook his head and smiled. He pat Julian on the hand a few times.

He turned his gaze onto Nicole.

Nicole pored into the old man’s eyes and she finally understood. “Oh…Joseph…” She turned to Julian. “What is happening? How is this possible?”

Julian shook his head. “I don’t know. But when I first left him to go rescue you from Brian, he was still a three-year-old child, like when we had first saved my father at the group home.”

Willibald shook his head and went to say something. “Julian…”

“No, no…” Joseph interrupted him but began to cough.

Nicole went to rub him on the back.

Being this close, Nicole could see every line on Joseph’s face and they were many. The white tufts he had for eyebrows were sparse. Brown spots dotted his forehead. And though he still glowed golden and warm as he always had, Joseph’s light was now but a whisper of a flicker as compared with before, like a candle that was going to go out at any minute, at any time.

Julian sighed. “I’m sorry we came back early.”

Joseph shook his head. “No…no, it is good that you have. I was about to send for you.” He tried to get up.

Others rushed in to help but he waved them off. He struggled up to sit on his own. “Come. We must get started. There is no time.” He made to get up.

Julian rushed in to support him by the shoulders. “Time? Why? What is it?”

Joseph just couldn’t make it to his feet. He remained sitting on the bench, but worn out from the effort of trying to get up.

“Joseph…” began Julian.

Joseph waved him to silence. He coughed before he could go on. “I have come to a decision. It is one that I had put off for fear, but now it is forced upon me. The danger is before our very eyes and I can see but one solution, one way to avert the disaster yet to come for the sake of us all.”

Julian bit his lip. “Does it have to do with the stranger? The hooded one?”

Joseph’s eyes were as saucers. He seized Julian by the shoulders. “The hooded one? Have you seen him? Has he seen you…?” Joseph relaxed and let out a sigh. He laughed to himself. “No, no…if he has, you would not be here…”

“Who is he? Why had he come? What does he want?”

“Oh, Julian…” Joseph shook his head. “…Julian of the Thousand Questions. When will your tongue be still? Worry not. In a very short period of time, everything that I know will be yours to know as well. All you need to understand for now is that the moment is upon us. I cannot be sure if my solution will suffice, but nonetheless, it is my destiny to try. Come.”

As Joseph tried to get up again, one of the villagers rushed in to kneel at the foot of the bench. “My lord.”

Joseph eased back down onto the bench. “What is it? It cannot be him! Has he returned so soon?”

“No, my lord. It is the human. The tree slayer. He is at the edge of the forest.”

Nicole turned to Julian. “Brian?”

Joseph turned to Willibald. “My old friend. Your time has come. It is as we discussed.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“You will do your best?”

Willibald bent to one knee. He crossed his arm across his chest. “My lord…I will give my life.”

Joseph smiled. He took Willibald’s hand in both of his and shook it. Willibald bowed his head and kissed Joseph’s fingers in return.

Joseph nodded and Willibald got up. He turned and took off across the clearing. A group of men followed.

Wincing, Joseph braced himself. “Julian. Nicole. Help me up.”