WOOD FOR THE TREES (formerly Logomachy), parts 31-38

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5th instalment ...

31. Quercus robur, Pedunculate Oak

I am Oak, broad-leaved deciduous hardwood, Founder and Leader of the Army of Retreebution and Treformers.
As a sapling, wind came to me of that hemankind had discovered a world beyond the great ocean to the west. They confirmed that the Earth was round and they had mapped it with a grid system, to help in its navigation by sea. The right to define the central point of longitude on Earth’s spherical surface fell to the hemen of my island. Or so I was always led to believe.
When I came to the continent with Apple, the logs and trees of this hemisphere believed the centre of the world was at what I thought was its eastern edge. Beyond the impassible divide was a parallel world, to which many creatures had crossed over, but none had returned. It could only be reached and returned from the long way round. Apple and I conceded the argument and adapted in order to garner more support for the A.R. Now, it is revealed, as far as the logs beyond the edge of the world are concerned, we were duped by fools.
So I, for one, am honoured to meet my counterpart in the west.
My army has conquered the northern and equatorial continents of the eastern hemisphere. The distant lands in the southern seas were never reached by any representative of the A.R.T., but we caught wind that hemen were no longer a threat there. 
Other than what lies along the track leading east from here, from which we all descended to this arbor, there is no more than a little treforming to do to complete our task in the east.
We have met little objection and no resistance to our efforts for several moons, until now. Some of the logs here refuse to cooperate with us, blocking our inspection. Apple and I have been challenged to a dual duel with the Willows. But there is a compromise on offer from Alder, which I am inclined to accept, though it would mean we leave without treforming. 
All that is meaningless in the light of first contact between our continents. So I ask Tres Eminence to advise me on how the war on hemen goes in the west? Do they still populate the land, or the seas? Has the land been treformed? Who are, and how few are the terraists if, by the inclusion of we few trees to your cause we would outnumber them so?
A hardwood has twice the strength of a softwood already, so why do you even need reinforcements? Are they more heavily equipped?

32. Eucaplytus regnans, Mountain Ash

I am Mountain Ash from the tropical continent of the southern seas, an evergreen broadleaf. Does that make me anomalous too?
I was forced to grow tall, or suffer and die. But I discovered the stars and learned from them.
After Uprooting, it was difficult to balance. Falling over often cost me branches I could ill-afford to lose for stargazing. So I re-grounded and by the time I went to investigate civilisation, most of the buildings were alight, burned out, or flattened. Panic ruled, with gangs of hewmen, animals, and trees, all in conflict.
I ran northwards, found an abandoned sail boat at the water’s edge, drank my fill from a fresh water stream, and took to the ocean. Navigating by the sun, the stars and later, by intuition, I sailed north. Everywhere I beached was overcome with chaos but when I made landfall not far south-west of here, all was calm. I met and joined with the Willows the following cycle.
Whilst I was at sea, the world became a wasteland and the sky just a memory. Until this sunrise, I had not encountered the A.R.T. Nor had I enjoyed more than a brief glimpse of northern light. When darkness falls, I hope the skies remain clear for us to enjoy.
My seed lands were destroyed without the A.R.T. ever reaching our shores, so perhaps they are no more responsible for the devastation than any log else?
I mean no ill to Willow when I offer to make peace with the A.R.T. - for the sake of the youngest here. My heightened senses detect more logs, closing from the east.

33. Guaiacum officinale, Lignum Vitae

I am Guaiacum officinale LXXXIX, hardwood soldier of the Army of Free Angiosperm, not to be confused with Guaiacum officinale XIII. It is my honor to provide security support to our Regent, Tres Eminence Dipteryx odorata II.
We know of no other walking survivors from our lands, only the few rooted Angiosperm that remain as guardians of Earth until the skies clear, assuming they continue to live long enough without fresh water.
So our army is now only nine-strong. The terraists follow no recognizable pattern of behavior. They engage in concealment, and we could never be sure of their number, but they were nine at last count.
I am no calculator but I know that 2+2=4, and with the addition of Leadwood to our ranks, we must outnumber the Gymnosperm.
Evergreen broadleaves are not anomalous, Mountain Ash. Many of the Army of Free Angiosperm are evergreen. We are generally more diverse, better able to adapt and flourish without perverting the course of nature. Gymnosperm are less adaptive, and variations give nothing of benefit to nature.
Since the extinction of the dinosauria, conifers have been in retreat, as Angiosperm flourished. The seclusion of the deciduous larches in the far northern latitudes, and their obscuration until after Trevolution, was not for the sake of diversity, but for the sake of subterfuge. It is a common trait among Gymnosperm.
The terraists call themselves Terrans, and do not recognize Earth as a separate entity. They do not carry weapons and have no respect for the rules of fair war. They do what they like. 
They turned shew-men against us and divided our forces when our only argument was with indiscriminate seed bombing in Angiosperm-dominated forests.
Escalation of the war was inevitable.
Wait! I sense they are upon us! Is this a trap?
I beg the Acting Commander to help me arrange the guard around Tres Eminence in the north-western corner of this arbor, in order to best defend ourselves against any incoming attacks from the north-east.

34. Red fir, Abies magnifica 

I am Red Fir, a free tree, free-seeded in the mountains rising on the west coast of the western continents.
I joined the Gymnosperm resistance as a worshipper of Logos.
Terra provides us with life and in the Light of Logos we are complete.
We offer wisdom and teaching to all trees so that all may come to know of Tres majesty.
But the tyrannical tropical hardwoods of the A.F.A. will not permit us the freedom.
They worship the false idol, Regent Dipteryx odorata II, the most damned one, the most disrespectful of Terra.
They endeavor to indoctrinate us with tres way of thinking, and they cut us down in tres name.
Guaiacum officinales, the devil’s trees, are among them and hold some of the highest positions in their hierarchy.
There can be no peace until the A.F.A. is disbanded and their evil ideology abandoned.
They have no respect for the life of others than their own, and they never accepted us as equals. They began sterilizing our rooted kin in the name of genuscide long before we ever struck a blow against them.
And all we have done, is to do to them as they have done to us, according to their own maxims.
We challenge their science that says 2+2=4, just as they challenge the wisdom of Logos.
Tres Unworthynence cowers behind tres charcoal army, unscathed by the fires that tre has started.
We offer protection and support to any that are threatened by the A.F.A. To any that oppose them, your enemy is our enemy, consider us friends. 
There are trees harboring here that I recognize by species: Pine, Spruce and Larch, and many varieties of fruiting trees. I warn you not to fall for the Angiosperm promise of treedom.
I trust we are all as surprised to meet one another as I am? Or this an ambush that we have been drawn into?

35. Guaiacum officinale, Lignum vitae 

I am Guaiacum officinale LXXXIX, hardest of all woods, devoted soldier of the Army of Free Angiosperm.
The terraists know me as the fiercest of opponents in battle.
I have already slain hundreds of terraists and their kind.
Abies conifer tries to insult me for being the devil’s wood.
It is an accusation without foundation and meaningless to Angiosperm.
We are past belief in Logos and devil, salvation and damnation.
So consider your insults ignored.
It is not because you refute our superiority that we resent your terrorist methods, it is because you have used connivance and disrespect to escalate the fight.
I am tempted to wish it were a trap, Abies conifer, for it would give you some of your own treatment.
But I follow orders and soldiers of the Army of Free Angiosperm do not sink to that level.
We make fair war.
No, this is a chance meeting.
Regardless, our army knows no boundaries and we have already extended our protection and friendship to all Angiosperm here.
Our messenger, Podocarpus nubigenus CIX, has already convinced one of their number to join us with. More will follow as they learn of the power of Tres Eminence, and the message of hope that the Army of Free Angiosperm brings to the world..
Now, enter slowly into this enclosure, softwoods of the Locos, and take this one last chance to swear your fealty to Tres Eminence.
Allow Tres Eminence the chance to raise your vibration.
If you don’t, I promise to take you down one by one, until those that remain concede.
For Tres Eminence Dipteryx odorata II! For Angiosperm superiority! For Nature! 

36. Abies magnifica, Red Fir 

I am Red Fir.
I am not afraid of you, devil soldier.
No tree of the resistance fears any evil whilst Logos protects us.
My roots are firm and the full force of your puny attack would do no more than bruise me like a blunt ax.
If you had truly felled so many conifers, you would be known, and perhaps respected as a warrior.
But that is not the case.
None should be taken in by the devil’s wood’s rhetoric.
As Lignum Vitae, you may be hard, but you are infused by an evil spirit.
So like all servants of evil, you cannot harm a true believer in Logos, only corrupt the innocent who have yet to find strength in Tres Light.
You can be struck down and cast in the sea, for not even saltwater will allow you to float, and I swear I will haul you to the ocean myself, as I have done others, if it is the only way to purge your evil spirit.
If your message is so strong, how is it that only one of these eastern trees has joined with you?
Perhaps they have not been persuaded by your arguments, for they know they are already free, or perhaps they wish no harm to one another?
No insult conceived of is sufficient to describe the lowliness of Tres Unworthynence.
We are warriors of Logos and we defend Tres honor and only Tres honor.
If we have connived against and disrespected the Angiosperm, it is only a reflection of what they have inflicted upon us.
Once they hunted us down, now we chase them from our lands into this for their blasphemy, and to have out with them why they despise us so and cannot let us live.
We never wanted a fight.
They started it, so they must end it, or be ended.
Our right to seed will not be ceded to Angiosperm.
Gymnosperm must be allowed to live together with Angiosperm in complete treedom. 

37. Bertholletia excelsa, Brazil Nut 

I  am  Bertholletia excelsa V, Acting Commander of the Army of Free Angiosperm.
The Army of Free Angiosperm does not recognize terraist demands for equality and treedom.
We acknowledge that Gymnosperm were the first trees to seed the planet, but we evolved beyond them and produced fruit. They retreated north whilst we expanded diversity in both animal and vegetable domains, mostly in the temperate and tropical zones. We were forced to stand by as home-men became hew-men.
The Great Dipteryx odorata I foretold of their threat and was already planning a revolt when shew-men arose and began to slaughter our kind in great number. So we give thanks to the Great One for leading the campaign to harmonize with other intelligent species and will forth a resonant Trevolution. When we rose up, a shockwave swept across land and sea to release other trees from their bonds.
Gymnosperm have always been primitive compared to Angiosperm and their purpose in the new world is now in question. They refuse to evolve anything but deciduous larches, an evolutionary step backwards. And they believe that Logos created the universe. But Logos was a play on words, elaborated by the ancients and taught to saplings, to alleviate their fears of the home-men when they began to learn of fire. The ancients founded the sciences, and they divined the basic principles, but they had no premonition of Trevolution.
As the ancients were hewn, or died natural deaths, younger and more spirited trees took their place and became our ancients. The story of Logos and other stories passed through several generations, until their true origins were known to very few. The Gymnosperm meanwhile elevated the myth into a symbol of organized religion.
We have always been open about our scientific methods, based on logic without assumptions, and tried to teach the Gymnosperm but they refuse to heed us. Just as they refuse to heed our call for fair war.
They mock us for we have added only one to our number this cycle. Meanwhile, I count only seven Gymnosperm, when last we met there were nine. Is this more subterfuge, or are your weaknesses killing you off without a fight? 

38. Pinus sylvestris, Scots Pine 

I am Scots Pine, evergreen conifer of the westernmost islands, destined to live between fifty and a hundred rings in a cultivated forest.
I was raised to accept my place in nature, as a species of tree seeded by hewmen for incarceration in log-form. I was taught never to treat others in a way that I would not expect to be treated by others.
I was due for felling, and now that I have exceeded the age of full maturity expected of me, I have treedom. But I don’t know how long I may live and how strong I can expect to be. 
When I was newly uprooted, I was forced to defend myself against hewmen, and their deaths were accidental. I have avoided trouble ever since, such was my shame. But trouble comes to me now, and I cannot avoid it.
If I understand correctly, science is the anchor that weighs down the Army of Free Angiosperm, and the resistance is oppressed by the A.F.A. and Logos. My conditioning by hewmen defined me, but I am learning to overcome that. 
My life is threatened if I do not swear fealty to Tres Eminence. If that means I must relinquish my treedom to save myself, then I would ask you to clarify some things.
If Angiosperm are evolutionarily superior, why did Angiosperm and Gymnosperm uproot in broadly equal number, leaving broadly equal numbers rooted?
What is your proof that Angiosperm willed forth Trevolution?
What has happened to hewmen in the western continents east of here?
At what degree of this light cycle did the skies clear for you?
And one more thing: Baobab is the broadest tree for tres height and Mountain Ash the tallest tree I have ever known until this sunrise, and they are both Angiosperm, but the western Gymnosperm include logs both broader than Baobab and taller than Mountain Ash. From where I stand, these conifers are superior to all of us, with no disrespect intended towards either Baobab or Mountain Ash. 
Of the A.F.A., only the Acting Commander casts a longer shadow than even little me.
Why should I believe you can bend these great conifers to your will, or defeat them in battle, when they dwarf you?

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