i. i dreamed a frightful town breeding people for sport all chained up in hovels left ears clipped and lips pierced with a single heavy ring, in the center of the town was a tree with a cage built around it, there were platforms on the lowest boughs from which dangled nooses attached to poles, men would pay to fish for slaves, if one managed to get the slave onto the platform before s/he asphyxiated the slave was won but most of these men were in it for the kill, would bring them up close and spit in their eyes before dropping them to the cage again, some men paid to bring spears up there and arrows for bows and slings and stones and others paid for fights to the death for public rape incest whatever their pockets could afford, the dead were buried beneath the tree after every event the slaves dug deep until their spades hit flesh the first body was twenty feet below they'd been building up for a while but still had plenty of space to fill though occasionally they'd encounter a root and hack it apart if it came too close to the bodies, the tree screamed but had no means to convey it, suffered quietly as the graves were filled but because of its wounds grew close to the dead began sharing their blood and holding them at night, the dead soon found themselves living as leaves, a cluster of limbs repossessed, they whispered to each other, watched as their brethren were strangled and slaughtered, began to plot, we must wait they thought until the whole of this tree houses us, it did not take long, the leaves one night went into action, to see them move was terrifying, they tilted and twirled like any leaf but each contained an arm or leg or head and these features would emerge near the end of their descent project out from the top kicking and clawing and screaming then collapse back down, the swiftness of the motion caused the leaves to lift again, and in this way they traveled around town in great swarms battering whoever was caught in their flurry, the residents at first could not grasp what was happening panicked ran in all directions or hid but the leaves were merciless killed even the slaves in their frenzy, when someone finally realized the leaves were attacking and took a torch to them the tree howled and all the leaves returned last were those who were burning and when they touched the tree the entire thing burst into flames howling still but laughing and laughing and the leaves attacked once again immolating now whoever they could though they did not destroy everyone, in the morning the survivors were compelled to bury the dead beneath the tree, from the ashes of the burned rose new leaves who were stationed at the outskirts of town to ensure no one escaped, after a few days the tree began to drop peculiar seeds to the ground, after a week human crowns began sprouting, then faces and neck and shoulders and soon a whole person some young some old all ravenous for flesh they began attacking the survivors but the leaves descended still ablaze and turned their children to ash who then rose again and were stationed at the border, the tree once more dropped seeds but this time kept some as well which developed into fruit moist and warm and pulsing and when the new children sprouted they ate their fill, the leaves then demanded the human survivors breed with these remnants or face extinction and while many refused it was never a choice to begin with, and as the next generation of humans was slaughtered by the leaves, buried beneath the tree, i awoke,


ii. You awake, son? No sense tryin to move. Fall took yer legs. Tongue too. A mighty height to be certain. Never thought folks'd be flyin, but then stranger n that surrounds us. Figure you came to investigate the wall, eh? Must be a sight to outsiders' eyes, blazin the way it does all hours o day n night. Was a time when the wall weren't more than a pile o leaves. Probably too young to remember. I remember, though. The tree...well, can't be seen nowadays I imagine what with the wall so overgrown. Maybe you caught sight of it on your way down. Could see it for miles, that tree. Looked to me like a great piece of broccoli that God hisself put to flame. S'what I told mams anyway. Ain't touchin no vegetable God don't want, I said. Course, mams was awful persuasive with a switch...but the tree, Lord, what a marvel! Not rain nor cold nor wind would extinguish it. Now every child learned early that tree was the devil's work. The town, too, and the people in it. Like I said, weren't more than a pile o leaves around this place when I was young. Anyone with eyes could see the townsfolk, but no one ventured too near. Weren't a soul come close to them leaves that ever returned. Only thing stranger n the tree were the leaves, how the pile grew a lil every year. More and more. Couldn't tell straight away, o course. Was slow at first. But than faster, and farther like a shadow in the sun. N they screamed son. Them leaves know how to wail. Weren't til I got inside I knew why, though. To hear em across fields put iron in yer belly. Heavy n cold. Should'a been satisfied with that. Should'a left this place alone. I reckon we's similar, me n you. Victims o curiosity. Wanna know why the wall burns? Cuz o my folly. I's gonna free the town, I thought. Burn that cursed growth down. Couldn't figure how no one'd thought it up before. Still wonder now, how could I be the first fool with flint? Lord, how that fire took. Like the leaves were kerosene. Took so well they ain't let it go since. N keepin me here's the thanks I get.