The Town called WillowsBurrow

He pointed me toward the opening in the tree, “I’m sure you’ll be pleased. It’s surprisingly large once you’re inside.” I looked at his devious smile with a missing tooth and shifted my gaze cautiously at his wrinkly pointed finger. As I slowly walked toward this dark and mysterious opening in the tree I felt like I had been there before. My palms started to sweat, and the soles of my shoes sunk deep into the mud with every step. As the distance between me and the destination shrunk I tried contemplating what brought me here. I remembered my family. I had lost my job and we barely had enough money to pay the mortgage. We had gone months living on scraps as we turned away charity. I watched as my three daughters grew out of their clothes and my wife starved as she gave our children all her food. I was just looking for a new job. I went to interview after interview and wasted my Sunday suits and nothing. Then a little spark of hope arose when one morning I saw an ad in the paper that said, APPRENTICE OPENING! NO INTERVIEW IS NEEDED.

At that point, I was feeling desperate and I couldn’t just let my children go hungry. So I checked the fine print for a phone number and there wasn’t one, just five little words, “Meet me at the tree”. I looked at these five words perplexed and read them over and over as if these words would change. Then my youngest daughter, Winefred walked in. Her blonde hair was tousled to one side into a tangled mess and she was still in her nightgown. “Winnie, what are you doing up so early,” I whispered and waved her over trying not to wake the others. She shuffled her tiny feet over to me, sat on my lap, and rubbed her tired eyes.

“Mommy used to make lots of food for dinner, Daddy. Why did we only have bean soup for dinner last night.” she complained, with a pouty face, “I woke up with my tummy growling like a bear.” It was at that moment that I was reminded of what I had to do for my family. So I told my dear Winefred that I would get her a bigger meal and I went out in search of this tree and my new job.

On my journey there I knew others would think I was naive and that it would be dangerous, but I had no choice. I had to try. I walked through the forest nearest to the main streets and looked at every monotonous tree. They all looked the same and I stopped in my tracks feeling completely hopeless, ready to take the shameful trip back home. “Charles Wright.” I heard someone call my name as if they knew me and knew I was coming. I turned around and saw an old man smiling back at me standing casually against an old tree. Snapped back into the reality of my destination growing tauntingly closer. I reached the opening of the tree, looked into this dark abyss, and glanced back to where the old man should’ve been. He was gone. He must’ve run off into the woods long before I reached the tree. I leaned over into the unknown just to have a look at what might be inside, but it just looked like a regular old tree. So I leaned in a little further with my foot leaning on a small twig against the tree.

Suddenly I heard the twig snap and fell in. I fell so deep into the dark abyss I thought I’d never hit the ground. I fell so deep and fast that I had no time to scream. The wind blowing past me pushed out involuntary tears from my eyes. Then there was a blinding flash of light and my vision got blurry. I saw green spots around me and everything looked as if it was swirling about like a painting by Van Gogh. After what seemed like an eternity something caught my fall. I landed on a flat surface but as I looked down I could see no dirt or twigs of grass. All I saw was the dark swirls all around me. I shut my eyes and wished that I was back home. I felt my heart beating, racing, trying to escape from my chest. When I opened my eyes there was no more darkness, I found myself laying on wooden floorboards in what looked like an indoor marketplace. It was full of light and markets of food and jewelry and clothing. I looked around as I lay on the ground and saw people roaming from market to market. My body felt heavy against the ground, but I tried to pick myself up. Eventually, I got to my feet and looked at all the people walking. As I stood there in the middle of the marketplace I wondered if I was still in the tree.

Then in the midst of the crowd, I saw a familiar face walking toward me. I squinted as my vision was still blurry and as he drew nearer I saw that it was the old man that had pointed me in the direction of the tree. The old man stood in front of me and gave me the same devious smile. “Have a fun ride down?” he asked sarcastically.

“Where am I?” I was afraid to know the answer.

“Well you’re in Willowsburrow and this is where you’ll be working,” He said gesturing to a small hut hidden in the very corner of the market. I looked at this run-down hut and waited in my tracks as the old man sauntered over to the door. The old man looked back at me, waved for me to come over and he went inside. So I scurried over to the hut, walked inside, and closed the door behind me. Inside the hut, I saw jars full of live bugs on display. In the middle of the room, there was a table that had butterflies spread out wing to wing on a slab of wood. The old man walked in from another room with a beaker in hand. Inside the beaker was a glow of light flying about the beaker and changing color from a golden glow to a dark black substance. He held it up to the light and studied it closely. “Excuse me Mr…” I said inquiring for his name.

“No Name”

“I’m sorry? You don’t have a name?” I asked.

“No, that is my name” he replied, “Dr. Francis NoName”

“Okay, Dr. NoName, what does this job entail exactly.”

“Before you know that, don’t you want to know why there is an entire civilization living inside a willow tree?” He asked as he set the beaker down on the table and sat in the chair studying it longer. I just nodded with my eyes wide open waiting for the answer. “It all started in these woods. They weren’t always just a crowd of aloof trees, you know. Our town used to sit right where those trees stand now. Our houses, our market, our families were all set above ground until I ruined it all. I’m a scientist and I was trying to come up with a new medicine that could heal any disease or cause of death. I was strategic in creating this concoction and I tested it on a nearby willow tree that was dying. One little drop of my golden concoction and the brittle tree started to grow its leaves back and grow taller by the second. ‘My concoction is successful,’ I thought, ‘this will be revolutionary.’ but the tree wouldn’t stop growing. The roots sprouted out from the soil and towered over me. I tried to run away and warn the others but it was too late. The tree had absorbed too much power and had grown a mind of its own. It surrounded its roots like a prison as a black substance emerged from its soils, killed our plants, and tried to kill every other living thing in sight. I found an opening in my prison and called out for those who were in sight, pulled them inside, and told them to go down the rabbit hole. Then finally I saw my wife, she had been searching for our valuables and ran towards me but it was too late. The black substance had gotten to her, she disappeared into the crowd of trees like the rest of our beloved town.” He said picking up a live beetle from a jar with tweezers, “The tree kept its power to heal for itself and turned its power for death” He dropped the beetle in the beaker and the golden light turned into darkness and attacked the beetle and it vanished before my eyes. “Since, that day I’ve lived in isolation. I’m an outcast here, they blame me for our imprisonment. We have been trapped down here for five years as we are safe from the destruction of the black substance and that is why we need you. If we leave the tree we risk being taken by the black substance like the others. The tree lives off of other lives. It gets stronger with every being it takes. I took that risk to get you, Charles.” He took his eyes off the beaker and planted them on mine. “Though we are safe from destruction, the black substance’s power is only weakened down here. We get sicker with every passing day we’ve lost families and now we’re down to the people you see here today. I have devoted my work entirely to the defeat of our prison warden and the freedom of my town. Charles Wright, you answered our call, so you will be the one who’ll set us free.”

There was a gap of silence consuming the hut as I looked down confused. “Why wasn’t I taken by the darkness?”

“Don’t you recall these woods? You were the one who planted this tree.” Then I remembered it was my first job as a young man. I worked as a forest ranger here. I hadn’t realized I lived so close to the same forest I had kept grounds of. I was overcome with devastation as I now know that that beautiful forest next to that lovely town had turned into a monster.

“How will setting this town free provide for my family?” I looked back at the scientist as he darted out of the room, came back with a sack of money, and dropped it on the table. He offered out his hand for me to shake it as if agreeing to a deal. My eyes widened and I took his hand hesitantly and shook it, “I’ll take the job” I said nervously. The scientist gave me another toothless smile and said, “Good, you start right now.” He left the room and I studied the substances in the beaker twisting and contracting against one another. He rushed back to the table wearing a white lab coat, goggles, and gloves. “So my theory is that we can take the black substance, that I like to call the assassin and use it against the tree. From my tests in this beaker, it shows me that the assassin this tree made for itself is stronger than the healing components.” He said this as the assassin in the beaker consumed the golden light every time it tried to sink through. NoName poured the substances out of the beaker and into a glass cube. He went over to the counter and grabbed some metal tongs. He opened the top of the cube and reached in with the tongs and grabbed onto the black assassin. Inside the tongs, it looked as if it was a solid creature rapidly changing from solid to liquid then gas.

He put this sample of the assassin into a smaller beaker. “I have designed an ax that will contain the assassin inside it and that is where you will come in Charles. You must cut into the roots of the tree and defeat it from the inside. I can’t do it myself because I fear my days are numbered here. I have become too weak down here.” He went over to the ax he had designed and brought it to the table. He took the beaker and poured the assassin into a container attached it to the weapon and the black assassin spread into the crevices of the ax as if it had charged it.

“You’re going to need some armor to protect you from the attacks of the tree. I made this for you knowing you would be the one to save us.” He opened a closet door and pulled out a full armor that looked like it belonged to a knight. I was eager to get the job done and restore what I had created, so I put on the suit of armor and grabbed the ax. “See, a perfect fit,” said NoName as I marched out of the hut. “Wait, you’re going now, but you have no training.” I ignored him as I entered back into the marketplace.

“I don’t need training, I created this tree remember” The people of Willowsburrow followed me with their eyes as the knight before them, silently demanded their attention. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw NoName come out of the hut with an ax in hand scampering behind my feet.

I marched to the corner of the marketplace where I saw the roots standing out from the ground. “Charles!” I heard the scientist yell, but I kept going determined. I spotted the root, lifted my ax, and tried to cut into it. I drew back the ax again and again until the root was cut in half. I looked back at NoName, he had looked like his feet were glued down to the ground and he was barely breathing. When I looked again at the root and I saw the black assassin oozing from it and spreading across the ground. Then the bark of the tree turned into splinters like daggers trying to defend itself from the attack. My heart started to race and I started to act on impulse. I drew back my ax once more and cut each splinter in half but they kept being healed and coming back stronger than before. I kept trying to cut through each one while hearing the screams of the people being taken by the black assassin roaming on the ground. I saw Dr. NoName run into action to try and help me. He dropped his ax and before he could blink a splinter came after him shooting as fast as an arrow out of a bow. I ran after him and cut the splinter before it could get to him. I took his shaking hand and put it on the handle of the ax. We both drew back the ax and cut into the inside wall of the tree. Inside that cut came out the single drop of golden light that was keeping the tree alive. Without this little drop, the splinters started to shrivel up and the bark on the tree turned black and started to peel. NoName took an empty beaker and collected the little drop and watched the tree as it started to die.

The walls of the tree started to shrink and suddenly had disappeared in thin air revealing a cloud of golden dust. The town was free. We now stood above ground and watched the golden dust linger in the air. The golden dust revealed the people who had once disappeared from the world. Houses, markets, and families had replaced those monotonous trees and the people of WillowsBurrow rejoiced and reunited with their long-lost families. The crowd looked astonished as they thanked Dr. NoName and called him their hero. I saw Dr. NoName hug and reunite with his long-lost wife, but there was something different about him: he looked younger and healthy. Then he came up to me holding the sack of money and smiled at me with a mouth now full of teeth. He dropped the sack in front of me and said, “We shook on it. Thank you for saving my life and my town” He laughed. “The people want me to be their mayor, but I don’t deserve that honor. I’ve nominated you and the rest of the town has seconded it” I looked at him wide-eyed and he offered his hand for me to shake it. I straightened myself up and took his hand, and hugged him. “I’ll take the job, only if you’ll be my right-hand man,” I said in his ear and pulled away. He eagerly shook my hand and chuckled, “I would be honored.” Then I took off all the heavy armor, went to buy my family the biggest meal, and started my walk back home.