The Last Tree

The great tree that once held the sky together lay broken, its golden leaves scattered like shattered stars across the forest floor. She walked among them barefoot, trailing her fingers across roots that still hummed with fading life. Her people were gone — turned to wind and whispers — but their songs lived inside her. She knelt, pressed her forehead to the earth, and promised to plant the seeds again. Even if she had to bleed for every bloom. Even if the sky never remembered their name.