The Tree of Protection. A staple to our remote village high up in the mountains...

According to what the elders of the village had told me when I was 8; this tree wasn't like any other.

But despite the rest of villagers who tell me the tree isn't anything special, I choose to believe that the elders might just be right.

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HEY! HEY ARNOLD!

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You're at this stupid tree again? I don't know what you see about this tree at all. Anyways Shea will come up here any moment now. She has something cool we wanted to show you!

It's really cool and I think everyone in this village has already received one except you and those elderly people you hang out with.

First off, you do realize the only reason our village is even still striving is because of this very tree right?

Even if I had told him the same thing every time, the Tree of Protection is said to have grown so large that its roots border around the village preventing things such as floods or wild animals to get in.

Even if he's seen the actual roots around the village and all the other villagers, they just don't care about it or just disregard it as some border the elders used to keep us in.

So in the end, even if I or the elders try to tell them about the tree, they won't care at all. And that's what scares me.

The tree hasn't grown a lot bigger and faster than before, which concerns me, but I try my best to preserve it.

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HEY GUYS! I'M FINALLY HERE!

But all of it would change one day..

Look what I got! My dad finally got that box of these smartphones that people have been dying for ages! Isn't that cool?

Everyone has one now! Except you Arnold? You want this one I have right now? I can always just grab another one when we go back dow-

No thank you Shea.. I'd rather focus my mind on taking care of the tree than focus on that.

Suit yourself.. Come on Perry, let's check out what this thing can do at my house!

Sure! I'll catch up with you in a moment, you go ahead first. Let me just talk with Arnold for one quick second.

Look man, you really should stop wasting your time on this tree. We have so much other trees around us anyway, we don't get any typhoons around the area too so there's not really much importance to taking care of it.

Even though I don't just do this for my own's safety but for the trees, I swear this new smartphone trend is going to cause a massive problem for the future..

Unfortunately my prediction was correct. Less and less people who believed in the tree's protection started to leave the tree be. It has got to a point where there are less leaves growing on it than I remember.