The wood — treekind

The wood

Ten trees

treekind's own cast. One per kind, so every leaf colour in the wood is here, and two per crown, so the whole catalog stands in one place. Each is a def in its own right — ask for “treekind.rowan” and you get Rowan, roots and all.

round · spark

Rowan

First to turn, and makes a performance of it. Berries by August, opinions by September.

conifer · orbit

Cedar

Has been here longer than the wall and expects the wall to go first.

slim · breeze

Aspen

Moves in weather nobody else can feel. Not nervous — listening.

spreading · root

Beech

Holds the widest shade in the wood and lets everyone stand in it.

weeping · sprout

Osier

Grows toward water and gets there. Bends at everything, breaks at nothing.

round · pebble

Holly

Green in February, which is the whole argument.

conifer · gleam

Larch

A conifer that drops its needles, and is fine about being the exception.

slim · slate

Birch

Comes up first on ground nothing else will have. Pale, quick, early.

spreading · fawn

Hazel

Cut it back and it comes up sevenfold. Has been managed for a thousand years and does not mind.

weeping · wisp

Elder

Grows where people used to live. Flowers, then forgets, then flowers.

Together

Several at once

Five of the cast on one ground line. They share it by construction — same size, same y, different x — rather than by five numbers that happen to agree. Above the line they are a row of trees; below it they are the reason this form exists.

The ground line is drawn once, by the scene. Each tree drawing its own produced a dashed line with a gap under every trunk — which is why it is a part of its own rather than part of a tree.