The Hole in the TreeBy Toby Bennett
JUST BEYOND the limits of Bothnal, less than a mile as the raven soars, there stands a blasted tree. Everyone who knows it has some story to explain the ragged seam that runs the length of its knotted trunk. The puckered scar is long healed and extends from the base of its coiled roots to a perfectly round hole, rimmed with thickened bark. The bark about the unsealed cavity is smooth, a jutting lip worn by years and rippled as old candle wax.
Whatever strength the tree found to close it up, the terrible gash in its side has never extended to sealing this final breach.
Some wounds cannot be healed.
At first glance, a stranger might not understand why the people of Bothnal hold the tree in any regard. Its position on the crown of the rise just above th
