[ WP ] A woman finds the tree of life , but not in time to save the one she loves .

The tree was alive, this she knew. Stories passed down throughout generations and across the kingdom had told her that the tree indeed had life on many occasions. Looking at it, though, and seeing its ethereal beauty was a new thing altogether. Isla gazed wonderingly, afraid to touch it. 
 
 It's trunk was the blackest of ebony, riddled with ancient grooves that were scars if one was to be truthful, the carvings of people before her doing exactly as she was about to. 
 
 Branches of the same colouring branched out high overhead, struggling out to twigs which followed a gradient until the tips reminded her of newly fallen snow. It was the leaves that she truly thought could not be real though. 
 
 They were crystals suspended over her head. Each one was brilliantly clear, and yet seemed to catch the light and refract it into a rainbow contained by the leaf, rippling throughout as a breeze swept by. Such a sight took Isla's breath away. 
 
 She shook the amazement off of herself. She had come too far, been through too much, to be distracted now. `` Three leaves and a satchel of bark,'' she muttered, remembering the shaman's instructions. `` That is what I need.'' 
 
 Isla shouldered off her pack. She took out her dagger, cleaning red off of it. That colour did not belong here. Carefully, she took only what she needed of the bark. Underneath was the same luminous crystal as the leaves. 
 
 `` Now, to get up there.'' Thoughtfully she gazed up at them, as though they held the answer. 
 
 They did not. So she climbed, burying the dagger hilt-deep into the beautiful tree, praying the blade did not snap off and send her tumbling to the ground. 
 
 It did not. So Isla reached out and took her three leaves. They felt as real in her hand as any other tree's leaf had. She stored them gently in a pocket on her tunic, and climbed back down the tree with reserve. 
 
 At its base she leaned with her forehead pressed closely. `` Thank you,'' she murmured. `` I'm coming, my love.'' 
 
 She went with all the speed she could. Faced all the perils of her journey again, this time with precious cargo and made it through unscathed. Isla's joy grew as she drew nearer and nearer to her home. She would save him with the elixir, and they could grow old together. But that was not meant to be. 
 
 All that greeted her at the door was a sorrowful magister, and a flat grey tombstone. 
 
 `` No!'' She cried, tears pouring from her face, `` My darling! He was supposed to get better! I travelled to the tree of life like the shaman said, I've brought it all back! Please, there must be a mistake. Wake me from this nightmare!'' 
 
 Her beloved's tombstone did not respond as she gently laid the tree's givings atop the freshly turned soil.
