The boy with the wooden heart pt.1

     There once was a boy with a wooden heart cut straight from the body of a great grand oak tree; when he had been born he had nearly left the world too soon but his father, a carpenter, had gone out to the place he loved the most and preyed at the base of an old oak tree. Suddenly the great being awoke and spoke to the man

“What is it that had made you so sad?” it spoke, its voice was grand and all-encompassing yet it was so soft that it drifted down around him stopping his tears,
“my son I have just gotten him and now I am going to lose him” he sobbed
“That is a conundrum, why is he leaving so soon?” the oak asked his leaves rustling and drifting to the floor like tears down the man’s face
“his heart is breaking” he replied
“oh, you know many, many of my friends and children leave me and I have stood here for over a century, I am old and tired and I would like for you to take a part of me and to craft your son a new heart” he said his branches bending around, back and forth as though enunciating what he was saying
“but how can a wooden heart save my sons life?” the man asked
“love is a great and powerful magic” he replied “just trust your heart and you will give your son his life” he added
“but it might kill you” the man said
“every being must die and I am afraid I have been quite greedy with my years, your son may have them now” the great oak boomed shaking his branches, blanketing the ground below in colours of orange, amber and burnished red

“thank you” the man said wiping the remaining tears from his reddened cheeks. He stood and left quickly running and collecting his tools before returning as quick as a breath. He wrapped his arms around the tree in an embrace so strong that even the great being chuckled with delight causing the birds to flee from its branches and then he began to work.

     When he had finished cutting the square of wood he began to carve it, sanding and chipping as he went, he wept for the old tree and all he had done, all he had given for his son and as the tears fell soaking into the golden wood the heart began to stir and though its imperfections were many it beat with the strength of the oak tree, with the love of the man’s soul and with the life of the forest.