GCSE Essay - The Tree

In the deep forest, there stands a tree beside a river. It is an ancient tree, standing tall against the sky. On its bows grow lush green leaves of thousandth generation. At its base, grey roots pile on top of one other like an old man's beard. A cicada lies on top of a root with its legs pointing uselessly at the sky.

An ant happens to walk by. Upon seeing the cicada, it promptly turns around to tell its family of the dinner it found. The ant traces its steps and arrives at a tiny hole at the base of the tree. Many other ants are scurrying in and out as they hastily perform their duties. The ant joins the crowd and enters the hole. Once inside the underground fortress, it goes to the command center to get a squad of carriers.

From another exit of the nest, ants are flowing in a stream, and spreading out in all directions. Our proud ant marches out of the shadowy exit with the squad following in single file. They march to the gigantic meal, and lift the mass with amazing strength, making it look as if they are picking up a feather. From above, it looks as if the cicada is floating towards one of the larger openings to the ant nest. The corpse eventually gets swallowed up into the tunnel.

A monkey peers into the hole the ants entered. It has just climbed down with a few young monkeys to have a snack. The monkey picks up a stick, and pushes it through the hole. She waits a few seconds, and pulls out the ants-on-a-stick, and licks the scrumptious ants off the bar. A young monkey tries to do the same. First he searches for a stick while the others are busy wrestling. Once he finds a good sized stick, he tries to shove it into the entrance clumsily, failing a few times before finally getting it in. But when he pulls the stick out, there are no ants. Instead the top half of the stick has broken off inside the hole. Frustrated, he tries gets another stick and tries gain, but the ants have stopped using the entrance.

Miserably, the little monkey climbs up the tree. It goes to one of the branches hanging over the river to take a drink. A hawk watches from the top branch like a Gargoyle. The monkey walks down the branch. A sharp eye moves. As the monkey leans over the branch to take a sip, the raptor swoops down in one movement and grabs the child at the neck, killing it in an instant. The hawk glides up to its nest where its eyases are waiting hungrily for their meal.

Around the tree, life moves at a rapid pace. But the tree just sits impartial of the world it supports.