Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha or any other anime.

The Dying Tree

During a time of demons and lords, there stood a tree. The brown of its bark is still rich and strong, its leaves a deep emerald and not one leaf touched the ground. Its branches were many, some long and thick and others short and thin. The soul of the tree made it stand out from the rest. It was loving and remorseful. It gave shade to the hot, food to the hungry, and a place to sit for the tired.

This tree was expected to survive the strongest winds, heaviest rains, driest summer, and the coldest winter. For a long time it did. For over fifty years it stood strong. Then one storm came and the life of the tree would be no more. It stood as a wall of the forest. And like most walls it had a story to tell...

Far away, in another time, there sat two people. Beneath a tree that had a soul, they sat together on the greenest grass throughout the land.

"Things will never go back to how they were, Inuyasha."

"I know." For a moment the two sat in silence, each listening to the breeze as it brushed the leaves of the tree above them. Again she spoke.

"Do understand why?"

"Because of her." Everything had changed when she came along. He wanted to blame her for what happened. He couldn't though. She wasn't the one at fault. His love for the woman before him would always be the reason for the hurt and sadness in the other young girl's eyes.

"Every time you look into her eyes, you will always think of the betrayal that fell upon you. The past cannot be changed." It would always hurt. Every time he thought about it, the pain would be unbearable.

"Then it should be forgotten." No more words fell from the lips of either person. The wide eyes of the woman and the shedding tears of the man were enough.

As Inuyasha stood and began walking back to his friends, a single leaf fell from the tree. As the woman stood and went in the opposite direction the rest began to follow the first. Soon the tree was bare.

The summers grew drier and the winters colder. The storms grew stronger and as the season continued to pass, the branches began to rot. As the years went by, the tree fell down, never to stand again.

Just as the hanyou fallen and lying broken at the bottom of a cliff. Just like the woman whose heart was pierced by an arrow and broken by love. Just like a young girl who, even in death, couldn't put back the pieces of a broken heart.

End