“I would leave everything and join the World Tree tomorrow if she died, " Tamani said."I know, " Shar whispered through the darkness.”

“You ready for this?" Shar asked. "Yeah," Tamani said, a grin spreading across his face, "Oh, yeah.”

“When I die, she said, I am coming back as a tree with deep roots and I'll wave my leaves to the children every morning on their way to school & whisper tree songs at night in their dreams. Trees with deep roots know about the things that children need.”

“Why," Tanuki grumbled, "would they fell trees but leave men standing? Trees are a damn sight more useful than people, and everything in the world knows that but people.”

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”

“I'm fine," she said. But her smile was bleak, without light or warmth. And for the first time I thought of what it must be like to know that you were going to die, that the trees would bud, flower, leaf, dry, die, and you would not be there to see any of it.”