The tree of Life

‘Slow down a bit, would you? My legs aren't anywhere near as long as yours!’ Said Missy while half-running towards her sister. 

‘Then you just got to take twice as many steps silly’ replied Anna teasingly.

The two girls had been strolling through the forest for about an hour on a sunny summer afternoon when they reach a meadow with an extraordinary large oak in the middle of it.

‘Hey, look at that tree’ said Missy ‘You’d need at least twelve people to reach around it’. 

‘Or fourteen Missys’ replied Anna and laughed.

‘Oh, stop it, being short has Its uses’ replied Missy while pointing to the tree ‘The trunk has an opening in it, I bet I can crawl in it and you can’t’

Said and done. Missy runs up to the tree and disappears through the small opening in the tree. Anna follows and sticks her head in through the opening. 

‘You okay in there?’ She asks ‘See anything?’

‘No, it’s too dark to see anything, wish I had a flashlight.’ replied Missy

They hear a dark voice seemingly coming from the tree itself saying: ‘And just what do you two young ladies think you’re doing?’ The voice pauses and clears its throat and continues: ‘Ever heard of knocking?’

Startled Anna does a backwards somersault away from the opening. While dusting of her clothes and getting back on her feet she stutters: ‘W-We’re terrible sorry. We didn’t know anyone lived here!’

‘Yeah! We didn’t know!’ agrees Missy while crawling out of the tree ‘Who are you anyway?’

‘Pfft, the children today have no manners. I’m the one who should be asking the questions here’ replied the voice ‘I’m the wizard of this tree of course, and who are you?’ 

‘Mom says we shouldn’t talk to strangers’ said Missy.

‘Especially not wizards’ added Anna.

‘Well then…’ the wizard said as a powerful green light started shooting out of the opening. ‘I’m Jeremiah Leafborne, nice to meet you.’

Out of the opening steps a short old man, barely reaching up to Missys belly-button. He has acorn brown eyes, hair as green as the leaves of the oak, and a purple pointy hat along with a grey robe. It’s one of those hats you would imagine any proper wizard would have. He stumbles as he steps on his own, green beard, nearly falling forward. Anna can’t help but to giggle.

The wizard looks with kind, but annoyed eyes at Anna and says: ‘I shave it almost every day, but it grows back in just a minute.’ 

‘Why do you shave it then, if it just grows back’ asks Anna curiously.

‘To see if my chin is still there, of course’ answers the wizard.

He turns his eyes to Missy and says: ‘Well now you know my name. We aren't strangers anymore’

Missy looks puzzled, as if she was solving a math problem in school. She opens her mouth but shuts it again. Finally she says: ‘Well, I suppose an introduction wouldn’t hurt. I’m Missy Adams’ she nods at her sister and says: ‘And this here’s my sis’ Anna Adams.’

‘Adams you say?’ the wizard asks as he takes off his hat. He pulls out a large book with a cover made out of bark. On it there is a large leaf carved. He flips through it faster than anyone they have ever seen flipping through a book, running his finger down the pages as if he’s searching for something.