They stood still.

Silence brought on the abundant internal dialogue. What is going on? Why do we all look so different?

Questions weaved in and out with uncertainty. But as always, the air surrounding them remained silent, and they continued---standing still.

Fiery colors surrounded them, drowning them in an endless sea of red, orange, and yellow. It stretched on for miles, and seemed tall enough to mingle in the blue and white vastness above.

"What are we waiting for?" One spoke up.

In unison, a gasp that pierced through the air sent flocks of small white birds flapping around. They snarled before taking flight in an entirely different direction.

His mother spoke softly, "Don't worry, little one," she brought her eyes down. The crinkled brown skin that covered her face, hardened in an attempt to conceal the sadness. But he couldn't be swayed by her false strength. Not this time.

His brothers and sisters took note of the exchange, and he noticed. His eyes darted back and forth at all of them; they watched him with unease.

He turned to his mother, who had attempted to hide a slow moving tear that resided on her cheek, "Why am I not like them, Mother?"

"You're special, little one," she half smiled.

He took in the fire burning colors of his siblings and sighed to himself. Looking down, he inspected his dried feet where the red had once been: bright and unsurpassable. But now all that remained was the dirtied brown of a mud puddle.

The wind picked up, and he felt it.

The snapping of a stem.
The rush of free falling.

He listened as he crinkled against the force of the wind, until there was nothing left to do but wait.
Wait for the wind to scatter him and have all the pieces of himself fall where they may.

His siblings looked on with confusion, while Mother looked on with both a deep sadness and understanding for what nature had intended. Every tree had to let its little ones go. It would take all of his siblings. It was only a matter of time.

They held tightly to their Mother .

And as always, the air surrounding them remained silent, and they continued---

standing still.