There once was a tree who envied the humans. The humans could communicate with each other, they could move, they could do many more things than a tree could wish to do. Even worse, humans were higher on the food chain than trees. The tree was lucky he was an apple tree; he wouldn’t be cut down anytime soon. But in the fall, it still hurt to see all the beautiful fruit he bore be plucked off his many arms. Every night the tree would dream of becoming a human, doing things no tree had ever done. Then one night, an owl landed on his branch. This was strange as the tree had never seen an owl before, as owls did not go near apple trees. The pesticides made it dangerous for the owl to be there.
“I have never seen a bird as regal as you! What brings you to our humble orchard?” the tree exclaimed, causing many trees to focus their attention on the regal bird, one they had never seen before in their lives. The great bird regarded the trees curiously, before turning to the tree he had landed on and spoken.
“I have come to grant you a gift,” the owl sighed, “You want to be human, correct?” The trees all gasped in horror and a riot broke out, bombarding the lone tree with insults and great humiliation overcame him. But the tree didn’t want to pass out on the chance.
“Can you, great one, transform me into a human forever?” he asked timidly. The orchard abruptly became silent, waiting with anticipation to see if the owl could perhaps change their lives forever.
“Not me. However, these golden leaves will each grant you one wish,” the owl hooted, holding up three leaves that glinted gold in the moonlight.
“Will these leaves really grant my wishes?” the tree confirmed.
“Indeed. But be careful what you wish for,” the owl warned, before flapping away into the darkness.
The tree wasted no time in making his wishes come true, despite the outrageous remarks from the other apple trees in the orchard.
“You are seriously going to wish to be human!?”
“Are you going to cut us down or pluck our fruit mercilessly just like the other humans!?”
“This betrayal is outrageous!”
The tree took in a deep breath of carbon dioxide and converted it into oxygen as he breathed out. Then to the three golden leaves that rested on his branch, he spoke in loud clear words.
“I wish to become a human!” One of the three leaves spun around the tree and the tree felt a most peculiar sensation. He felt like he was suddenly opened to the world in many different ways. He saw differently, heard differently, felt, smelled and tasted everything in a whole new way. He was a lot shorter than what he was before, and based on his hair he could tell that the human he had become was a man. The man was overjoyed and left the orchard, itching to explore places he had never seen in his life. After learning how to walk, the tree soon exited the orchard. He never knew that the world was so vast. The man realized he still had two golden leaves left. The tree knew that humans knew a lot of things that he didn’t know as a tree, so the tree decided to wish for common knowledge among humans. He learned how to speak, he learned how to do math, he learned what was what and what did what. But when he finally reached a city he choked on the immense amount of pollution in the air. The pollution was nowhere near severe in other parts of the world the tree had seen. However, it met all his other needs for living, and he didn’t know how far he would have to walk before he reached another city. After a few days, he somehow managed to get used to the city. He got a somewhat decent job, and raised a family. His life was quiet and peaceful for a long time.
One day, the man and his family found out that they had breathing problems. The years of breathing in heavily polluted air had finally taken a toll on them, even the man who had been a tree for half of his life. The man’s wife had already died of lung cancer. It was just the man and his children now, and they were each facing the very likely threat of lung cancer. The man debated the idea of using the last golden feather to get them into a less polluted city, as his job didn’t pay enough to travel to another city, but it would cause too much suspicion and attract lots of unwanted attention that the man did not like. However, he was soon diagnosed with lung cancer, much like his wife, and it was in one of the final stages. The man did not relish the idea of dying from polluted air, so he decided to use his one last wish. He took his two children outside one night, and halted their trek when they reached the edge of the forest. Then he told his children,
“Children, I have a way to reverse the damage the polluted air caused to our bodies.” The children wondered how. Then, the man swiftly held out his last golden feather, and before his children could gasp in awe, he uttered his wish.
“I wish that my two children and I would become trees!” And just as quickly as he had turned human, he turned into a tree. They were no longer risking death by staying beside polluted air. And for another few weeks the man was proud of his decision to be a tree. But one day, three men marched up to the forest and started hacking down the trees one by one. In terror, the tree watched his children be chopped down and one of the woodsmen ominously made his way for the tree himself. He pleaded and begged, but his cries were unheard, and his wooden body toppled, his many arms crumpled and the man inside was killed.
I hoped you liked the story! The moral is to not cut down trees so that the air won't be so polluted and the tree/man in the story wouldn't have been killed when he turned back into a tree. I hope you enjoyed the story!
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