The tree didn’t shudder, didn’t show any sign of the pain I knew it felt. Of the pain that struck me in the chest with every slice. It seemed to wrap me in an embrace, comforting me even as I hurt it. It couldn’t speak, couldn’t give me the soft assurances as my mother once had as I did whatever I needed to do to protect Ash. But it could hug me, wrapping its branches around my body.
