The Vanishing One

[Gingko]

Amelia Revenolt

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[WIP]

[Gingko]

Parable One: The Lemon Tree

Upon the village of the Great Whisper grew endless forests of fruit green, orange, and red. The villagers would harvest these fruits and celebrate their harvest. Every year the yield of nourishing fruits would provide for more than the year before. They rejoiced, ate, and planted more orange, green, and red trees; each of them ripe with prospect.

As time went on the winter storms and relentless droughts gave waste to many of the trees of the forests. The hues of the many fruits gave way to speckled yellow trees that had grown twisted beneath the lush green canopy.

The village ate the sour fruit, and cursed it for the plague that had always been. Their axes brought thunder, their lanterns rained fire; all the while the yellow speckles faded on the horizon until one tree remained. A single standing crooked branch of the sour tree grew two fruit: one yellow; one orange.

One night after the villagers had finished their work in the forest, a rolling storm came in forcing the animals to flee and seek shelter. The crooked yellow tree swayed in the rain. It shivered brittle until the crack of lightning split the tree deep down through the middle.

Those who came to the forest aid picked through the salvage of the merciless storm. They placed broken trees in pots and brought them into their homes. Red, orange, and green; each tree grew abundant except for the yellow fruit hanging on the splitted branch. It was discarded amongst the others, while the orange branch grew rich over the years. The villagers never did taste the sour fruit again, for all of the yellow fruit was gone, and the fated orange branch grew hollow.

[Gingko]

Parable Two: The Fox and the Crow

Deep in the forests where few of the other animals choose to go, lived a lonely angry fox. Its teeth were black from its endless eating and its hair had all but fallen out from the bitter cold. The fox would run through the forest desperately looking for its next meal to add yet another roll around its swollen belly. One day it stopped when it saw a shadow in the tree line.

“You there crow” The fox shouted as it dragged its nearly hairless body to the tree.

“Is that you fox, who roams these vacant woods? I cannot hear you over the sparrows.” Answered the dark feathered crow obscured in the treetop.

“It is I, the hairless fox who has hallowed these woods with a single breath of my rotten maw. Hear me now or suffer my fury.”

There was no answer, as the crow had left in between the foxes’ words. This upset the fox, for how could the crow not hear it? It sprinted through the forest, answering the sounds of the wilderness with merciless cruelty. With every feast, it shed more of its coat. With each meal its engorged belly grew larger than before. The fox searched the woods to fill its endless hunger until it again saw a shadow in the trees.

“You cannot escape me, Crow. I am he who controls these empty woods.” The fox snarled looking to the tree only to hear an answer through the thick brush.

“Is that you fox?” asked the crow, as it called down through the branches. “I can hear you clearly now that the forest is quiet, but I cannot see you through these leaves of green.”

The fox howled in anger. It whined and moaned furiously as it paced back and forth under the tree.

“Heed me crow, for next you see me you will understand true despair by my presence.” The fox barked and whined again panting with hunger as it circled the tree, but there was again no reply.”

A lather foamed at its mouth as it leaped through the woods. It ate the lowest branches of the trees and leaves until its teeth all but fallen out. Its eyes grew yellow and sick before its fur had entirely shed away. All the while the fox was empty, still hungry from the days upon days of eating. Then the next morning the fox dragged its massive belly across the grass and branches while it watched along the bare treetops until it again saw a dark black crow just out of reach.

“Despair crow, for I am he who controls these lands. I have silenced these woods and crushed all that enters. Now you see me, and you will never forget the cruelty of my wrath.” The fat hairless fox patted the scabs across its belly and bared its broken teeth towards the crow.

“I am humbled by your dedication dear fox, but you must forgive me for I cannot stay.” The crow answered down to the fox as it watched the village in the distance.

“For in every land that is not your own, the birds sing songs and the forests are plentiful. For every sparrow you ate, I have discovered three more elsewhere. For every tree you ravaged I have shared a branch among many others”

The fox let out a frustrated cry, barking and snarling at the crow.

“There is no reason to perch here. I would pity you fox, but you are as empty as these woods.”
The fox sick yellow eyes were filled with hate as it watched the crow. Speaking through its bitter tears as it shouted to the crow. “Then why have you come.”


The crow answered the fox before taking flight into the sky.

“As you said dear fox, to see what true despair looks like”.