Sacred Tree
A story of a certain tree in my hometown.
There was a single strange tree in the grounds of a shrine I used to play at often when I was young. The inside of that tree had already withered, and though the inside had become hollow, the outer bark was somehow still alive and properly growing. I would often go through the gap in this tree while playing.
One autumn day, I was playing soccer with some friends in the schoolyard after being dismissed from class. I was in a bit of a trance while chasing the ball, and before long I noticed it had become completely dark. Thinking I'd better return home quickly, I parted from everyone at the school gate and walked with fast steps. On my way, I noticed that fires were lit in the stone lanterns at the aforementioned shrine.
'Strange, they're always pitch-black...' I thought, and for some reason didn't want to see that tree.
Even so, when I entered the shrine grounds, that tree wasn't there. No, I had a better look, and the hollow wasn't there so I wasn't looking at the tree I always knew. What the hell?
I thought it was strange, and then while I was gazing at that tree, footsteps were approaching me from somewhere with a sound like za-zza-zza as they trod upon the gravel. I became awfully frightened and hurried out of the shrine grounds, running home just like that.
The next day, I had that tree on my mind as you would expect. I brought my friends to the shrine grounds once again, but the hollow was in the tree as usual.
Ever since then, I stopped playing in the hole in that tree.
There was a single strange tree in the grounds of a shrine I used to play at often when I was young. The inside of that tree had already withered, and though the inside had become hollow, the outer bark was somehow still alive and properly growing. I would often go through the gap in this tree while playing.
One autumn day, I was playing soccer with some friends in the schoolyard after being dismissed from class. I was in a bit of a trance while chasing the ball, and before long I noticed it had become completely dark. Thinking I'd better return home quickly, I parted from everyone at the school gate and walked with fast steps. On my way, I noticed that fires were lit in the stone lanterns at the aforementioned shrine.
'Strange, they're always pitch-black...' I thought, and for some reason didn't want to see that tree.
Even so, when I entered the shrine grounds, that tree wasn't there. No, I had a better look, and the hollow wasn't there so I wasn't looking at the tree I always knew. What the hell?
I thought it was strange, and then while I was gazing at that tree, footsteps were approaching me from somewhere with a sound like za-zza-zza as they trod upon the gravel. I became awfully frightened and hurried out of the shrine grounds, running home just like that.
The next day, I had that tree on my mind as you would expect. I brought my friends to the shrine grounds once again, but the hollow was in the tree as usual.
Ever since then, I stopped playing in the hole in that tree.
<Coach's Sympathy>
Since the stone lanterns were finally lit, I'd like for you to use the word "miracle" here. Because the criteria for strangeness that authors... or rather, you, take is unclear to me. If this fire was an apparition, I think your companions would also be a little desolate wouldn't they? However... even your play is so full of miracles. First of all, I didn't get the feeling that it's a story specializing in a tree, as with the title... In the beginning it was an abruptly wondrous thing but I don't think trees with hollows are all that strange. Even more so if it's in Nagano, where you were raised.