Jungle

There was always something pulling on my leg and everytime I looked back it was there, hanging like a mistake. I kept it though, that if perhaps if it did something besides drag, that it could come in handy. I looked at it and I was happy that perhaps it would serve me well.
I bloomed and my branches grew wide. I spread towards the tallest of my brothers and I fought to reap the fresh morning. I could smell the fresh air that the world had and I could feel the warmth of the sun against me like a calm I had never experienced before.

I looked down and it was still on me, as if twining around me, as if it wanted me for something I wasn't. I couldn't deny that I was successful enough to reach the height of my brothers, but I still felt pity on him. I knew that I could help him, and perhaps I could bring him to see the beauty of the things I saw at my height. The birds and the clouds flew over me like I was in heaven.
Maybe he would one day be strong like me.

I grew stronger and my body was growing thicker. I spread out over the canopy of the forest and I was now above several of my brothers and I was the first to grab the sun's light. I was embracing my accomplishments and I knew this was meant for me.

By this time, I had a family of chimpanzees claming my branches. I had animals roaming about,
tickling me as if to tease me. I couldn't help but smile at their antics and I was happy to be strong enough to support them. I was happy once. I was happy then.

I looked down many years later and I saw him still creeping up around me. I felt him tighten around me and I knew that he wasn't ready, or maybe he was unwilling to see the sun as I did. I tried my best to ignore it but something inside of me hoped he would die, to wither away and stop hugging me so tightly.

I could hear the roaring of noises I was unable to understand. I had never heard these terrible screams and I watched as my brothers drop down to the ground in the distance. I was saddened, but atleast it wasn't me. I looked down at him, he who wrapped around me, I warned him things were terrible. I told him that it was best to leave now.

I couldn't leave. I was rooted and part of the earth. I couldn't turn away from the very things that gave me what I had and I had the sun and the warmth, the bird and the chimps around me. I had the sounds of tranquility, the parrots that sung their songs and the cougars that purred after satisfying their hunger. I was one with them and I could not leave. I told him to strip away and to stretch elsewhere, to twine around something else.

I was sufficating and I didn't know why. I knew he tightened around me and I knew there wasn't anything I could do but give him the chance to spread towards the sky. I stood strong. I stood firm and I stood above my peers.

My peers left me, one by one and in the eastern distance I could watch them plummet. The world over there was desolate and cold, chilling and full of death, but I stood strong. My roots were powerful and I was not one to reckon with.

I felt a sudden sharp pain in my body and I bled. I looked down and I saw creatures I had never seen before. I saw large orange monsters puking black and grey smoke. I knew they were evil then but I tried to stay strong. It hurt so much.

He was wrapped around me and he wretched everytime the loud roaring blades cut at his body. I was saddened but I also knew I was next. I stood strong.

The knives sliced into me and I felt every last blade cut into me like it would be my last. It wasn't my last and each cut felt like the end. Time stood still as I was being sliced alive, as if I had anything else to offer. They were killing me quickly, but to me, it was an eternity.

I felt my flesh snap and I could not hold my weight. I fell and hit the ground with pain I had never felt before. I could no longer feel my roots and I knew this was the end. I watched as the orange creatures, these metal beasts, these devils running towards me to finish the job.

It may not have been a good thought at the time, but I did think that my friend had found somewhere to reroot. Maybe he'd be alright elsewhere but perhaps it was too late for him as well. I saw him and I felt the strangle on my body weaken, dead or tired, I could not say. I began to sufficate and I began to die, but I knew that my roots were strong and that they may grow again. I knew that this wasn't the end for me. I hope others would protect my kind and help me.

I need help and I see so many people turning the other way.

I wasn't strong enough, but atleast I saw the sun. Atleast I felt the embrace of the morning dew and the tap of monkey feet on my limbs. Maybe I wasn't as strong as my fathers before me, but I was stronger than my brothers beside me. I had my vines twining me, but we all serve a purpose and perhaps mine had been to help him when he needed it most.