In The Trees

"The Plague of Masters," XIII.

Higher branches are equivalent to Terran oaks;

lower, forking branches resemble forests;

a branch core is almost as strong as steel whereas the rest of the branch is light like balsa and Unan Besaran gravity is lower than Terran;

bright leaves reflect light downward, preventing shadows;

roots are like walls;

wind through the Trees sounds like a loud waterfall;

there are over a thousand Trees too far apart to be seen all at once;

"'...each Tree is the home of a single blood-line...'" (p. 123);

there are plastic rungs and platforms to rest on;

branches are like roads but with no railings;

buildings are woven from parasitic grasses;

the shrine stands against the trunk with a deep tunnel cut into the wood;

branch dwellers cultivate lesser trees, grow vegetables, keep domesticated fowl, eat bark worms and insects, create a lumber and plastics industry by pruning and cutting branches and hunt and fish on the ground;

the Trees are moribund but human beings symbiotically preserve the remaining few;

near the top at night, it is like standing above and hearing a lake with lights visible on the next Tree but darkness beyond.