//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9 
// Story: The Only Tree in the Forest 
// by Hap 
//------------------------------//

Where a town once stood, now grows a forest. Over its canopy, I can only see the tips of the highest towers of that ruined castle.

Even though it is only on the horizon, I can tell it feels wrong. That's not how trees grow. It seems like they spring up overnight. Sometimes they rearrange themselves from one day to the next. Paths and rivers and even ravines are impermanent.

That strange pony who comes to sit in my shade watches with me as the forest grows. She seems as uncomfortable as I am.

She still whispers to the moon. Sometimes it sounds like she is telling stories. Sometimes it sounds like half of a conversation, but I have never heard the moon whisper back. 

I don't know what she says, but I know what she feels because she is like me. She is hollow. She was struck by lightning. Her heart is burned away, and soon she will begin to rot.

She is tall for a pony. I wonder if she must have been like The Ash, back when she was whole.