1 Prologue - Sorry, Grandpa!

I awoke to darkness...Not the pre-dawn kind or base evils of humanity kind, but rather, the oblivion kind. No sight, No sound, and not a smidgeon of tactile sense.

Well, I thought to myself, what the hell happened? Where am I? What was the last thing I remember...

I remember, a face, a young girl, a teenage face, pretty but still not fully fleshed out. Tears were steaming down her pretty, dirt covered face; a single line of red on her right cheek; she cradled my head as she sobbed over me.

'I...I'm sooorryy grandpa..sniff...ehhh....I'm so sorry...'

Ah now I remember, I had taken my granddaughter for a walk to the see The Forest Guardian, the last remaining ancient Bristle cone pine ...nearly 5000 years old. When she was a child I used to make up stories about the old Guardian, just to get her to sleep, tales about things like magic and mystery, swords and sorcery, and supernatural ghost storied. I would retell old stories and make up new one on the spot as necessary to keep her interested. Honestly, that girl's ADHD was absolutely terrible; her attention span was like a dog chasing a bunch of chickens, any direction but forward...

She had run ahead to the old tree and decided to climb it. Bristle cones aren't very tall and are really scrubby, but that tree is considered a national treasure. Any damage to it would have been a disaster. "Natalie!" I yelled,"Get down from there before a ranger shows up, you don't want this old man to go to jail do ya?" By then I was wheezing from the effort it took me just to get there before she could get into trouble.

Conscious of the effort it took just to get up the hill, I realize I couldn't keep up anymore. I'm just too old... "What do ya expect old man," I mumble to myself, "you're almost 90, and have been stuck with a cane for the last 4 years. The nerve, to think you could take your granddaughter anywhere easily". She really wanted to go though.

After all the stories I had filled her head with as a child, I should have expected this, her 16th birthday wish was for old grandpa to show her "The Guardian."

So we drove nearly two hours up into the low mountains near home just to see it.

It was at that moment, just as I had reached the base of the tree, I felt the sting in my chest, that gripping hand squeezing my heart as if all the blood that used to pump through me was leaking out.

I stood there in shock for a moment. The sound of a rifle shot echoed in my ears as I looked down to the hole in my chest just above where my heart should be; a bright red spray pumping out over the stones and trunk of the old guardian.

As my knees buckle, I see Nat had already jumped from the tree and was trying to keep me from falling. "Grandpa!..."

So much blood for an old man to carry ... I wonder where that bullet came from? I hope Nat will be ok. I opened my mouth to tell Nat not to worry, but even to my own ears only a death gurgle escaped.

Using what little strength I had, as Nat propped up my head, I saw two young men in ranger uniforms running up the trail we had taken, horror written all over their faces. Then it ... all ...went ... black, as I faintly heard Nat's voice. Then nothing.

As I regained my awareness, the world faded back in.

There were too many colors, and too many sounds, I couldn't take it all in. I felt like my head was going to explode from overload. I lost my senses for a moment before snapping back to reality. My first coherent thought, 'HA! I'm not dead.'

As I decided to look around and find out what happened, my vision swiveled in a 360 degree range. "What the...? I don't have a body anymore?' I tried to say out loud, but I had no mouth to speak... "I'm a glowing ball!"

"You are, in fact a bodyless soul." A youngish and androgenous voice breathed into my "ears". "Quite unfortunate, in fact, since you are completely tied to Grandfather Pine, now..."

Thinking was difficult, like swimming in molasses; it was hard to form thoughts..

"You weren't supposed to die here. You had at least 3 more years to go. This is bad, very bad," the voice said with a bit of disdain creeping though.

As I start to gain some measure of control, I refocus my senses on the figure of a young girl around 8 or so years old, chubby cheeked, flushed face, and blond hair. She was standing next to the old Bristle cone, the fingers of her left hand on the rough, trunk bark. And the first finger of her right hand poking in a newly formed hole. "Your heartsblood was carried directly into heart of the tree, effectively grounding you here."

"What? Why?" I attempt to say. Instead of words, my colors flicker rapidly instead.

"Don't bother trying to speak; you can't anyway. Just think out loud if you need to be understood. Although, at this point, it won't matter." She takes a long breath, drawing up her thin, blonde brows almost to a point, then lets out a long sigh, "I can't leave you here though. This dimension doesn't allow free souls or soul fusions."

"Uhh..." My thoughts exploded with questions. Free souls? Soul fusion?!?

"I guess I'd better explain a few things," she said looking at me. She paused for a few seconds as if thinking what to say that would make sense, then sat down at the base of the pine, and let me have it...literally.

"Everything you think you know is false. The world you live in has more in common with a superhero fantasy than you would believe, but here it is... There are almost an infinite number of dimensions or universes or whatever you want to call it, not just yours. Honestly, this dimension was a test as to what would happen if an empty universe was left to itself without any real access to anything but a few blank souls as a starting material. That said, univeral laws, sciences, and mathematics are what you got, and it not only worked, but worked far better than most dimension that gods meddle with. This dimension is incredibly stable, souls exists and magic doesn't. It's a fantastic testament to the power of the soul. Athough there are occasionally leaks between dimensions, which is where your tales of supernatural and magic come from, for the most part this is squashed by univeral law almost immediately." She suddenly stood up, "which is where OUR problem lies. This tree had gathered a part of those original empty soul stuffs, which is why it lived so long, and was on the very cusp of developing its own conscious, until your...accident." She casually plucked a small branch from the tree.

Aagh! I felt that! Like a bee sting on my legs, which is weird since I don't have legs at the moment. Some ridiculus thoughts came to mind.

"Now you get it? The tree and its soul stuff completely fused with you. You ARE, basically, the tree's soul now." She turned around and began to walk towards me. The little branch in her hand started glowing a faint green to my new senses; small lines radiated from it like ripples in water. "And here is where our trouble begins. This is not allowed! According to universal law, it will either scatter you back to soul stuff or send you to another dimension. The only way you could remain here would be if you become more powerful than univeral law or are already above those laws, and only gods fall into that category. The branch was getting closer to me as she spoke, moving steadly forward. I felt a tug almost like a string tied to me that kept me fom escaping. "I'm sorry," she said, "I've got to get rid of you. "If it is any consolation your grandaughter is fine, your original body was cremated, and all the observances were held."

At this point I felt fear, fear in the core of my being. Somehow I knew she meant to erase me completely. Some part of me felt as though it were ripping, being wiped out by that glowing green branch, and yanking my soul to oblivion. I tried to escape, tried to move, anything to escape that pain.

"This is how it has to be. This world needs stability," she said as she swung the branch, smashing in the ball of light that housed me.

I felt the agony as part of my soul was stripped away. It felt like losing memories of your childhood or losing a beloved spouse. But my will was not extinguished when the branch hit. The energy flooded into my shell when The String that tied me down to the tree was cut and destroyed. That's it! my only chance! I must flee, run!!

As the ball of light vanished, the little blonde girl dropped the now useless branch. "Are you sure this was fine?" She said to rapidly withering tree behind her. As she watched, the tree began to shrink and petrify, turning a dull stone grey. But no answer was forthcoming, only wind and creaking remained.