Once-ler just stood there, staring down at the stump of the last truffula tree.
Since it had fallen he felt nothing but guilt. He didn't feel the thick smog in the air, the dust that flew onto him that was kicked up from his family's fleeing RV, he couldn't feel anything but pain and guilt.
He couldn't quite remember when his world came crashing down around him. Days, hours, minutes, he couldn't tell. He simply had stood there since then, looking over the stump, letting the guilt and pain grow.
The grass was now a sickly yellow-gray, and it was impossible to see the sky due to the huge amounts of smog in the air. There was no greenery to be found, just stumps, each individual one surrounded by a strangely in place circle of stones.
Once-ler hated himself for not seeing this sooner. He had tried to take care of the environment at first, but as his fame and the demand for thneeds grew, he had found himself pulling drastic measures just to make enough. At first he would wince at the sound of axes hitting wood, but then the sound became commonplace and he ignored it. He soon focused all his time on biggering his factories, fame, and social status, and he found himself just not caring at all. The landscape a wasteland? He just closed the curtains on the whole thing.
But now, now that he had been dethroned and cast into his worst, he found himself caring a great deal. This was his fault and he constantly reminded himself of that fact. He was never just going to look away from something like this again.
Kneeling down, he removed one of his green gloves and ran a hand over the stump. Absolutely lifeless. Looking at it, he noticed that this stump lacked the ring of stones around it. In the Lorax and animal's rush to leave, this one must have been forgotten.
Standing up, Once-ler scanned the area for any stones, but since the only one's he found were around other stumps, he didn't see any. He searched the whole valley, and when he still couldn't locate any he searched the next, and then the next. After a few hours of restless searching, he had managed to find enough, and he turned back in the direction of the stump. It was easy to locate, since it was near the factory, where the smog was thickest.
Upon arriving, he silently placed the stones around the stump in a perfect circle. He paused for a moment, and as he turned to go a simple simple string of words that he had said not long ago echoed in his mind.
How bad can this possibly be?