Chlorin, like the rest, had gone through the fiery season of Summer and the rain of Spring. He was the last Leaf but he hadn’t been taken yet. The rest of the Leaves had fallen except for him. Why? Why won’t Autumn take him? This is like hell.
He didn’t want to stay. He had no other purpose but to fall like the rest of his kind. The Leaves were gone. Autumn had taken over. And yet here he remained as the last Leaf. He wondered about this every day and every night. Every waking moment.
After all the oaths he made…and the oath: to go down with everyone else when Autumn took over. And yet when they fell, he remained on the Tree, which has been stripped of all its Leaves. Is this to punish? To torment the Leaves? But they had fallen and he was the only one alive to feel this cruelty of Autumn.
Night fell. The Cold guards patrolled the Tree—mocking him. It used to be the Leaves who guarded the Tree from invaders. Now it was the Cold. Chlorin just hoped Autumn would let him go before the Snow arrive. The Snow was the true horrors that hid beneath Autumn’s sleeves. No Leaf had stayed to witness the rise of Winter. He might be the first and the last of this battle to see.
Or perhaps not. It was no use dwelling on it…someone approached.
No, not the Cold nor the Snow. It was Autumn herself. She stopped in front of m his cell and stared down at him until he was forced to shiver. A false shiver. He hate it. How dare she stare down at a Leaf…even if that Leaf was the last of the Leaves.
“The battle is lost,” she said.
Chlorin, the last Leaf, defied her. “We may not lose yet, for I am still here.”
Autumn laughed. She asked if he wished to know why she had left him here, helpless and useless; he cannot do her bidding because he was claimed by a different Season than her. And yet he could’t escape on his own. So why was he still alive ?
He didn’t answer her question . He saw no reason why he should.
She told him anyway.
Chlorin hated the answer already and she had only paused for a breath.
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