The Fallen Pine

Astra and Hesht slogged through the tacky mud by the banks of the great canyon. After a time that seemed longer to Astra and Hesht than it really was, Hesht held out his hands. Astra looked for the tree. Although she was soaked, she was no longer cold, as the storm that brought the rain also brought warmer air. The rain was thick, and she barely see to the banks. And there she found the tree, sprawled over the mud, parallel to the bank. Closest to Astra and Hesht was a great half- ball of mud, with roots poking out of it. Out of the ball came a trunk that was about as thick as a man's waist. The base of the trunk was a branchless quarter-circle of about three yards radius, bent away from the bank. As the tree was growing, the hillside slumped, forcing the top of the tree away from the bank. The young tree had compensated by growing upward, back toward the bank, and thus the great arc was formed. Beyond its base, the arc of the trunk was gentler, and branches and twigs started to intrude upon the straight line of the trunk. Twenty yards up, the trunk broke into two think branches, where they were as thick as a young woman's leg. For about ten yards, these two big branches tapered off to a point. As wide as the canyon was, this tree could bridge it with room to spare. It had just fallen in the wrong spot.

"It looks like it was the biggest tree around. It is a pity that it did not fall across the canyon," said Astra.

"We will have to use it to bridge the canyon. Cut off a length of this rope. We are going to pull it across the canyon."

"How? It is still rooted to the ground."

"We will have to chop off some of the excess branches, but the roots should not should not resist us pulling it along the ground, just out of it. You will pull at the point near where the trunk splits in two, and I will pull at a point near the base. As the base approaches the canyon, you can work the rope down toward me, and keep pulling. If we tie the ropes into a loop, with one end behind the tree and other behind someone's back, we can use our legs, our arms, and our back to wrench the tree around, and over the canyon, and hopefully to the other side. You look right strong, and I have had plenty of work with porting barrels of tar. I think that we can move it."

Astra took out the knife, and tested it against the upper branches of the tree. The branches were still green, and it would take some time to strip the tree, but she did not see where she had any choice. Hesht knew this land, and if there were any easier choices, he would have taken them. After cutting the rope, Hesht took them and spliced them, making two loops around the tree. He then sat at the fork of the trunk and watched Astra chopping the branches, while picking the seeds out of a cone and placing them in a pocket of his coat.

"Aren't you going to help?" asked Astra.

"I don't know how. You have the only knife, Khanom Swordmaster."

"I did not think my next duel would have been with a tree," she said. "I would think that this is going to be too heavy to move, even with some of the branches cut off." She reached over to a large branch hanging from the upper part of the tree, and asked, "Could you hold this away from the main part of the trunk? I can get a lot of this if I do not have needles in my face while trying to chop it off."

Hesht immediately came forward and pulled at the offending branch while Astra tried to chop it off with the knife. After four minutes of spirited hacking, she heard a satisfying snap as Hesht broke it off and sniffed a satisfying whiff of fresh pine sap. Hesht then pulled back another large branch, and after much effort Astra managed to saw that one off as well. After three quarters of an hours of hard work, both felt that the tree was as ready as it ever was going to be.

"First, some food. I have some bread that I think that I kept dry," said Hesht. He brought out a squashed, but dry, roll of dark bread and split it with Astra. She noticed that Hesht's hands were raw from holding the scaly pine bark. "Hesht, why didn't you get a cloth or something, to protect your hands? How are you going to hold onto the rope?"

"I plan on letting my legs and back do most of the work, Astra. And I j- just did not think about the cl- cloth. You were doing so well, and I did not want to slow you down."

Astra tore her chunk in two and chewed on it. Nanva made wonderful bread. It could do with some butter, but hunger made the best sauce, and Astra was tired, sore, wet, and hungry. She swallowed her bread, and said, "This is not a huge tree, as far as trees go. It is not flat, like a proper bridge, but round. I would be tempted to crawl across it. There is less chance of falling that way. With your hands like that, it will be tougher for you. I am glad that you made the rope loops first."

"I will be fine," Hesht said. "Are you ready?"

"So soon? Let me finish the bread first, at least," replied Astra.

She popped the rest of the bread in her mouth, and thought, "I am impressed with Hesht's endurance. He gets discouraged, but he never complains. I hope that he is stronger than I originally thought. He will be if I am to have any hope of getting the tree across the ravine."

She gave Hesht a friendly pat on the arm ("for encouragement", she thought to herself), and Hesht's quivered a bit, but smiled. "Let's go."

"On a count of three, pull, and don't stop," Hesht said.

Both Astra and Hesht found the loops of rope. Hesht stepped inside the loop, with his face looking at the part of the trunk just above the great bend at the base. Astra grabbed her rope with both hands, and was facing outward, away from the base of the fork that was near her part of the loop.

Astra breathed deeply.

1. The tree starts to move.
2. Something holds the tree fast.

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