Hi! Do you have a Life Tree? Where I come from, everyone has a life tree.

...Do you even know what a Life Tree is?

A Life Tree is... basically a physical form of your life, its events and all your relationships. It comes in the form of a tree- but I'm sure you already figured that out. The trunk of a Life Tree represents your life as a whole: thickness, bends and texture can show how well your life was at that point; the roots represent your beginnings; the branches, your relationships and big life choices you make and where they lead; the leaves represent your happiness; the fruit your prosperity; the size shows your age and the health, your... health.

Saying that out loud, I guess it can be a lot for someone new to know all this, but I'm sure you'll... understand it instinctively.

What? Hesitate? No no! I-I was just... trying to find the right words is all!

-Well! Back onto the subject of Life Trees. Life Trees can differ greatly from regular trees: first off, they can have many different textures and breeds all in one. It depends on the person. The trunks and branches could be straight forward, or curvy or bendy or all of these things - and more! Some Life Trees intertwine or grow together or... split apart...

But! Wherever you are, you can always find you life tree whenever you want! I don't really know how it works... but you just think in your mind, 'I want to see my life tree!' and you walk a few steps and presto! You're in the Lively Forest, where aaall of everyone's Life Trees grow! It's not like teleportation or that it suddenly grows out of the ground, it's just suddenly there - and only for you! No-one else will even know it's there, or that you are going there, but everyone else visiting Lively Forest will be there with you - no matter where they are neither! And you don't need to worry about getting lost, you will just know where to find you Life Tree. Trust me, I know...

Seeing everyone else's Life Trees is cool - or sad sometimes. You can see a lot about a stranger's life without having met them, and you get to see all the cool shapes that they make. I see curvy apple Life Trees, branching palm Life Trees, real mystical looking Life Trees and even Life Trees that dive into the ground.

But this... this is my Life Tree.

...Would you mind if I told you about it? Don't worry! It has a happy ending, but it'd be a weight off my back.

You comfy? Well, I guess it be best to start at the beginning...

My family was always moving, we never stayed in one place for too long, so I had a lot of communities to experience at a young age - hence all the roots coming out of the ground. I met some mean people as well as some nice people... they were the very few leaves of my life. I was an only child - well, to my knowledge anyway. My mother did tell me once that I had an older brother, but she... she never told me what happened to him, or my father. He'd just hit me whenever I brought it up. So, I just pretended I never had a brother, that I was all alone... all, all alone.

As I grew up, my family still moved from one place to another. My parents got into lots of fights and I had to constantly get used to new schools all the time... But saying that, I guess they were never new. Every one had the same bullies, same kids and teachers who hated me, same classes and same battered, old look. I did make a few friends, but as the branches can tell you, they didn't last long. One friend I had did last a while. He was a boy, and we'd managed to keep in contact through technological wonders. But one day, my dad... didn't want me talking to him. And so I couldn't.

Having no-one and nothing, I'd often run away to a place where no-one could find me, to the Lively Forest... to my Life Tree. I'd talk with my Life Tree as if it were another person, but I guess I was just talking to myself twice over.

I remember once, two women came across my life tree and saw its withered state. I was hiding, I never let anyone see me with my life