Trees had been around for as long as anyone could remember, yet no one could have said they knew any one in particular very well at all. Species yes, but an individual tree? No one really took the time to get to know trees, and perhaps they should have. 

Ever since the trees woke up, things had been very different for the human population. Maybe part of that came from the fact that trees being able to wake up was a complete shock to everyone involved. They had been asleep for so long that everyone who could have known such a thing was long passed.

Cas was lucky she lived in Aotearoa, where the biggest problem was the Radiata pine. It was a snarky and vicious thing for sure, but not very stable on its feet. Tip one over and you had a good ten minutes to run away before it could get itself back up. 

Cas had seen the news reports before the towers went down of people who lived in America, specifically San Francisco. When the trees awoke, so did the giant Redwoods in the national park. The average age of those Redwoods was between 1800 and 2700 years, and boy were they angry at being woken by the humans. The national defence counsel even tried to destroy the Golden Gate Bridge to stop them coming but the trees just extended their roots across the gap. People who found themselves caught by a branch would be flung 50 feet in the air and smashed into the side of a Starbucks. 

Cas was trying to get back home from an expedition. She’d been out to Petone to see what she could salvage from the old abandoned K-Mart and was on her way back to Wellington City. The trees had come down from the hills and destroyed the highway, which was now just a mess of cracked concrete rubble and discarded branches, but for some reason the trees largely left the train tracks alone. Cas had fashioned one of those old pump trolleys to help her get along the train tracks faster. Once she had snuck into the library and found in a book that it was also called a Jigger, which gave her a bit of a laugh.

The closer she got to the city the slower she went, mostly because she needed to be quiet and oil was scarce nowadays so she couldn’t oil the jigger as much as she would have liked. Everyone who survived had become pretty good at being quiet, the trees liked peace and the general feeling was that if the human race could just be quiet for long enough, they would all go back to sleep for good. 

From the train station it took her about an hour and a half to get back up to Otari-Wilton's Bush, where she lived among the native trees. The native trees in Aotearoa were a lot less aggressive than most, they cared about the land and were of the opinion that humans were part of the balance of the ecosystem as long as they didn’t get too big for their boots. They welcomed Cas with open arms when she was fleeing one particularly angry Radiata that followed her all the way from the Cable Car. 

Her best friends were the Totora, and their grove was the safest place in Otari-Wilton's Bush. The older Totara had enormous roots that spread out over the ground at the base of their trunks, they could live to be around 1800 years old and were incredibly wise. Cas’s current home was a small burrow beneath one such ginormous root. 

She made her way carefully through the Kowhai grove, trying not to get too many of the yellow blossoms stuck to her clothing and in her hair. They were beautiful but poisonous and stained everything yellow. 

As soon as she arrived in the Totara grove she knew something was up. The wind whistling through the branches carried the secret messages of the trees to each other, and just then there was a miniature gale going on above her head.

“Kia ora Grandfather Totora.” She smiled at the largest and oldest Totara in the grove as she climbed under the roots and into her den, unpacking her haul. She felt a rumbling and placed her hand on the nearest root, letting the vibrations resonate within her until they resembled words.

“Come up here child, I must speak with you.”

Cas climbed back up and stood at the base of the grand old tree, glancing around to see the surrounding trees shifting and rocking side to side. None were actively moving; the older trees preferred to save their energy for when it was most needed, whereas the younger trees could uproot themselves and travel great distances on a whim. She placed her hand on the Totara’s trunk.

“What is it? What’s happened that has everyone so worked up?”

“As you know, for years we have lived in a fragile peace with the exotics that populate our land, and they have respected us as natives of this place. But the Radiata Pine has been growing more confident of their increased numbers. We natives only make up around fifteen percent of Aotearoa’s land area, and the Radiata Pines have grown to cover around thirty percent. They are twice our size and they are young and greedy. 

Before we awoke your people decided to plant more trees to try and avert the coming climate disaster, and they favourited the Radiata for its carbon sequestering properties. They thought if they could plant enough trees to offset the carbon emissions, that this would allow them to keep producing carbon at any rate. But this as we all saw, was not the case.”

Cas frowned in confusion.

“But what does all of this mean? The Radiata Pines are cruel and angry, but those who are left have found ways of living around them.”

“It is no longer an option to live with them. We have heard whispers of plans to spread across the whole of Aotearoa, to do away with the native trees once and for all so they can claim this land as their own.”

Cas gasped, and a great rumbling of anger resonated from the trees all around her. Startled birds flew up into the air, screeching in confusion before settling back down.

“What do we do?” Cas asked, tears springing to her eyes as thoughts flashed through her mind of her beloved Totara friends being pelted to splinters by the Radiatas pinecones. Of the vain but peaceful Kowhai’s being torn apart by the Radiatas branches.

“We must wake Tāne Mahuta.” The old Totora replied. “God of the forest. He is the only one of us that did not wake, but now he must be pulled from his slumber to save us all.”

Cas had heard of the Giant Kauri tree before, the largest and oldest tree in Aotearoa. No one knew how old exactly, but he was estimated to be over 2800 years old. 

“Why didn’t he wake when all the other trees did? And how are we to wake him now?” Cas asked. 

“Gods do not pay much mind to the affairs of men.” Answered the old Totora, “When we trees were awoken by the noise and the heat and had finally had enough of the human’s mistreatment of the earth, it was not enough to wake the likes of Tāne Mahuta. But we are his children and we are in danger, if there is ever a time for him to wake it is now.”

“But how? The whisperings of the trees will not reach him. The Radiata will intercept the message long before it gets to him, even if every native tree in Aotearoa cried out at once it would not echo so far, and you are too old to make such a journey yourself.” Cas felt a deep rumbling and knew that the Totara was laughing at her mention of his age. She ducked her head, embarrassed at the bluntness of her outburst.

“That is true, and that is why I must call upon you now. You have been a loyal friend, and we have given you sanctuary. But now we must ask too much of you. You know the ways of the Pines, and you will travel much faster than one of us on your two human legs.”

Cas frowned in thought for a moment, but really there was no choice at all. She had to save her friends, and if the Radiatas took over the land there would soon be no humans left. Her resolve strengthened and she nodded firmly.

“Here, take this.” A branch reached down to Cas and when it moved back she held a long yellow-green catkin in her palm. “You must reach Tāne Mahuta by the time its pollen is released in the spring, or all is lost.”