Chapter 1: Emptiness

In the beginning there was darkness.

He didn't know who he was. Where he was. Or even what he was.

He had no concept of time space or self and like this a long time passed but to him it could be seconds or centuries.

But suddenly there was a feeling he didn't know what it was, but it was there.

With every passing day this feeling got stronger. And one day there was another feeling and another the next day.

He understood more and more until he realised what he was.

He was a tree of about three meters that looked quite similar to an oak tree.

He could feel his surroundings and could create a mental image that was even better than any humans vision even tough it was quite limited in range.

He could feel his surroundings in a range of twenty meters. He saw a small river that covered almost a quarter of his vision. He could also feel some trees which looked similar to his but where only two meters tall. But one thing stood out between everything he sensed an old tree so tall that he couldn't even sense its peak even though it stood barely a few meters away from him. The shadow of that tree was so big that it covered the entire range of his senses.

While he was observing his surroundings a bird suddenly entered his senses and landed on one of his branches. The bird had brown feathers was about ten centimetres tall and looked similar to a woodpecker. The bird slowly approached his trunk and started pecking on it.

As the bird started pecking on his trunk, he felt a new sensation and contrary to all other feelings so far this feeling was not at all pleasant. The feeling that he now felt was pain. It wasn't an intense pain but having never felt it before it was really shocking. But the bird didn't stop and continued pecking on him.

Several hours later that felt more like years the bird finally stopped. He felt a huge relief when he saw the bird finally leaving and the pain stopping. But his happiness didn't last long when the bird returned and this time, he wasn't alone. The two birds pecked on his trunk for several weeks until there was a huge hole, which they used as a nest, appeared in it. His weeks of constant torment finally ended when the two birds finished their nest and one of them laid several eggs.

The next few days were pretty uneventful until the eggs started cracking and five little birds came out of their eggs. After this event the parents left their nest more often to search for food.

One such day one of the birds was away searching some food when another bird that he had never seen before appeared within his senses. The bird was tall and almost double the size of the bird parents. The new bird had silver feathers and a had a falcon like appearance. He feared that this bird would start pecking on his trunk as well and he'd have to go through the same torment again. But contrary to what he expected the silver bird started diving towards the nest of the brown birds. The silver bird caught the remaining bird parent by surprise and hit it with his beak right into its stomach killing it instantly. The silver bird blocked the entrance for the bird children. Even if it wasn't blocking the entrance, they had no chance of surviving because they didn't yet have the ability to fly. So, they could only watch as their siblings were being slaughtered one after the other. Just as the last of them died the other bird parent came back. Seeing his whole family killed by the silver bird he became enraged and disappointed in him self because he couldn't protect his family. And so, the brown bird started charging into a battle he knew that he couldn't win. The bird did everything it could to kill silver bird but ultimately it failed. His body lying headless next to his family.

The tree was astonished. This was the first time it had seen death and it had mixed feelings for this event. He felt sad that the life of these creatures had ended so quickly and realized that the same fate could await him. But at the same time, it felt happy in a strange way because the bird family that had tormented him for so long finally died.

But suddenly something strange happened, the blood flowing out of the bird's corpses started to get absorbed by him. It was not something he did consciously, but it was something that felt natural he did out of reflex. When the blood entered his body, he felt something he didn't expect, he felt indescribable happiness. Simultaneously he felt like his mind got clearer and more conscious with every drop of blood he absorbed.

But at some point, the flow of blood stopped because the silver bird had eaten his fill and the brown birds had no more blood left. The tree craved for more, but he knew he had no way to get more, and he could only patiently wait until another opportunity arrives.

Like this several uneventful years passed with his only chance to get some more blood being the occasional insect that died while searching for food on his branches. In this time, he had grown by another meter unlike the other trees around him that had barely grown by a few centimetres. His senses had become stronger as well and now they covered a range of thirty meters. He continued to observe his surroundings through his senses and began to understand the ecosystem of the forest. Understanding the ecosystem helped him forgive the bird, because he understood that the bird just did it to protect his children.

*****

"Hey guys, come here!", suddenly a scream disrupted the tree's quiet and peaceful life.

"What's it? Did you find them?", another voice answered while coming closer to the first voice.

"Yeah, and there are even more then we expected.", the person that the first voice belonged to answered while stepping closer and subsequently entering the trees senses.

The tree didn't know what those strange creatures said but he sensed them pointing at him.

"Jackpot! If we fell and sell all of them to an alchemist or blacksmith, we can make a fortune.", the owner of the second voice stepped into his senses failing to hide his greed.

The tree felt that something was wrong, and something felt different about these creatures than about the other beasts of the forest, but he would soon come to a realization what it was but by then it would be too late.