He scans the surrounding area, stopping on a tree covered in grey leaves outlined with a dark blue hue. Moving closer, he sees that it fits the exact image of the extinct Storm Tree he found in that tattered antique book years ago. Once at the tree, he reaches up, touching one of the leaves on it’s lowest branch. Within that touch, the tree demonstrate’s it’s true power as a storm flows through his body like he’s a desolate land awaiting rainfall.

He jumps back with a fear that incapacitates him, his mind becoming dull as a numbness spreads through his body.

“It’s real,” he mumbles, coming back to himself as he thinks of how with just one storm leaf he could bring a future to his desolate home but to take a leaf from a storm tree would doom it to wither and die.

His mind goes to the starving people in his town and lingers on the image of the families destroyed by their loved ones dying. His own mother, sacrificing the little food they had to ensure he survived. He thinks of how her body turned to bones with skin that seemed to barely cover it.

Without another thought, he reaches out for the leaf and pulls, solidifying the fate of the tree and his town.