twigs in the muck

[ogrins]

TWiGPAW > can you see what i see?

Twigpaw smiled. The sunlight kept her in a fairly pleasant mood today, and so she had wandered her way to the fabled 'Sky Oak'. She remembered the tall tales of the elders as she picked their ticks, and how they described the massive tree. It's trunk was wider than a monster they would claim, and then exchange looks among themselves and laugh at all their fond memories. Twigpaw had scowled playfully, wishing that she could find the extra time to visit it. And now here she was.
The truth was that the Sky Oak was indeed very big and very tall. The roots were massive, big enough for her to lay down fully and comfortably and still have plenty of room. And they wound up, spiraling to create a trunk as wide as three normal trees put together. But the trunk wasn't straight, it curved around as it led up, like an elder trying to reach behind himself when his tongue isn't quite long enough. But then came the branches.
Several main branches branched out from the top of the tree, where the twining roots converged. These several were the widest, and smaller branches emerged from these first ones. They twisted and entwined themselves within each other, creating like an umbrella made up of branches and leaves. Yes, then came the leaves. They were wide and flat and grand. In comparison, their size was not bigger than the other leaves of the forest. They seemed to fly upon the air as they slowly descended and then came to a rest upon the roots. Twigpaw smiled in the grand majesty of the great tree, as if it were the king of all trees. For indeed, seated here among the others, it looked different than the ones she had come to know, but it was a grand old different. A homely kind of different.
The immediate urge to climb up this massive tree surged through Twigpaw. She bounded around the massive roots, and as she looked at them she thought they looked like snakes of brown, slithering through the woods on guard for the tree. She glanced about, dreadfully hoping that no one else was nearby. Because if the elders had said anything else more annoying and more old, it was Never climb up the Sky Oak. Sighting no one, Twigpaw readied herself for the leap, eying up the trunk. Three, Two, One! Immediately her claws emerged from her toes, gripping the twisting bark and holding on for dear life. Quickly she glanced down to see how far she had come. Below her the roots seemed to look even more like snakes, lying in the grass, waiting for the perfect moment to lunge. But they also looked smaller than they had before, which was a good thing.
Twigpaw looked up, her forest green eyes shining in triumph. With another breath she jumped and caught the side of a branch. Grunting, she pulled herself up and relaxed. Stretching out lazily in the sun, she yawned. A glance upward told her that it was a little before sun-high. She couldn't linger here too long, or else the clan would start to worry. But she had a little time to spare, and so she law upon her forepaws and watched the water glimmer naturally. The tortoiseshell she-cat smiled, basking in the patch of sunlight that shined on the branch. Slowly her eyes closed and she drifted off into a dream.