Chapter 15

A Whole Tree?

Since the five gallon barrels wouldn’t fit in my inventory, I strung them together and carried them over and around my backpack. I only brought a little bit of water and food. The load was heavy and within my first hour of walking, I was sweating. I kept my axe in front of me to help keep my balance.

When I arrived at slopes and hills, I had to pause and prepare myself for the arduous climb. Since it kept snowing, I lost speed from trudging through compiling layers of snow. I lost my footing a few times but I was determined to make the trip in a single day.

It was a long day and I was defeated by the time I finally reached the forest of winter birch. I collapsed at the edge where the hemlocks stopped and the winter birch began. My limbs were trembling. My shoulders burned from the straps of my backpack. My heels felt as though they were bruised from the weight of the barrels.

At least the sun’s coming up.

Traveling at night had been difficult and I nearly strayed from my direction. I was good at remembering natural landmarks which helped me correct my trajectory. I finally arrived.

After a small breakfast of smoked mushrooms and smoked fish, I set to work. The winter birch possessed a fragrance of sweet root and brown sugar. I spent an hour whittling taps. Then I pressed the bit of my axe into the birch until licorice colored sap began to drip out. I hammered each tap into the tree. I then used long hollow marsh reeds to direct the sap into the bunghole of each barrel. After that, all I needed to do was wait. For a long time. An entire week.

I was freezing. I was hungry. It took me another four days to travel back and forth to finally deliver all the five gallon barrels home. The first thing I did was start a huge fire in the firepit outside, then put some squash, potatoes, and a few onions to roast in the stove.

I prepared some cardoons by stripping the outer flesh off and rinsing the stalks. Then I chopped and blanched them. When the onions were soft, I combined both ingredients into a pot and mashed them together until it came together as a silky soup.

Just as I put the pot on the stove again and seasoned the soup with a bit of salt, I heard a scratch at the door. It opened and Thrush’s furry head poked in. His ears were a bit more round this time and his fur had a whole lot more red to it. His spongey eyes were a bit more green.

“Hawkin,” Thrush said. “I’ve brought some more fish.” He sniffed. His eyes moved eerily. He looked at the barrels set aside beneath the table and the large one beside the table. “You’ve been busy.”

“Thrush! I’m glad to see you. I’ve been collecting winter birch sap.

“Sap?”

“Sap. I’ll let you taste some after I finish my quest objective.”

“Will you smoke fish?”

“Yea, same fish as last time?”

“Bigger fish. I have ten deep sea coral fish.”

Thrush open the door fully. There were 9 colorful fish in the snow. One dangled from his grasp. The scales were turquoise and red. The fish had a multitude of bright fins. Fins that almost seemed decorative. I was wary of such a colorful fish.

“Is it poisonous?” I said.

Thrush paused and stared at me for a moment. Then his eyes began to throb and pulse out of sync. A shiver ran down my spine. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end.

“I just checked my system,” Thrush said. “These are not poisonous. Do you not like poisonous food?”

“Poisonous food will make me quite ill and possibly kill me.”

“Hmm. Poisonous isn’t simply a matter of taste for you?”

“No. It’s a matter of life and death.”

“Is that a weakness all humans have?”

I grabbed the deep sea coral fish and laid it diagonally on the table to fit the whole thing. I cut the gut, pulled the innards out, chopped the head, and fileted the fish. Thrush approached the innards. He sniffed them.

“Are you going to eat this?” Thrush said, putting a claw through the gore.

“No,” I said.

“You ate the whole fish when they were small.”

“This one’s too big to eat all that.”

Thrush opened his maw and slid the guts off the table and into his mouth. He slurped down everything like oiled noodles.

“I suppose you could call it a weakness,” I resumed.

“Not eating the whole fish if it's too big?”

“No, I’m talking about poison,” I said. “I guess you could call it a weakness.”

“All humans?”

“I think it’s safe to assume all humans have a weakness to poisons. Some people may be more or less sensitive to different poisons.”

“This means that humans can’t eat anything they want.”

“There’s a lot of things humans can’t eat.”

“At least you can eat a tree if you get hungry.”

“Not big trees. Maybe the roots of young trees. Very young trees. Otherwise we can only eat small parts of trees. Leaves, roots, and sometimes bark.”

“I can eat a whole tree.”

I looked at Thrush in surprise. “Ok, but would you?”

“Of course. I’ve eaten many.”

“You’ve eaten trees?”

“Yes.”

I removed the squash and potatoes from the stove and replaced them with cuts of fish. Then I broke the fire until it only smoldered. I added a few chunks of oak to smoke.

“Come here,” I said, leading Thrush outside.

Evening was burning red in the distance. The snow had lightened but still fell. Thrush arrived at my side and I pointed to the largest tree at the edge of my clearing. It was half as thick as the old oak I felled, but just as tall.

“You’ve eaten a tree like that? The whole thing?” I said, a bit flummoxed.

Thrush regarded me with patience. When he smiled, his fanged teeth were revealed. The red of the distant setting sun colored his teeth.

“Yes. Trees just like that one. Sometimes I start from the top. Sometimes I start from the bottom.”

“No kidding. You’re serious. How long does it take you to eat a whole tree?”

“Not long.”

“Why would you eat a tree?”

Thrush’s eyes searched the canopy of the forest absentmindedly. Then he found himself a seat in front of the bonfire I’d built. I retrieved a bowl of cardoon and onion soup for each of us, then the potatoes and squash. Lastly, I poured Thrush a bowl of ale, and poured myself a mug of ale.

We ate as the evening burned on and clouds eventually snuffed all daylight. Whenever I sipped on my ale, I had visions of summer fields. I saw Dellia for brief moments.

Thrush was delighted when the fish were ready. They were perfectly smoked and neither of us spoke for a couple of hours. Not until Thrush was full and satiated.

“Did you finish your quest?” He said.

“Not quite. I’m going to dump everything into the larger barrel. Then it should be done.”

“When will you do that?”

“How about right now? Would you like to help?”

Thrush performed a monstrous smile and nodded.