City of Trees Summary

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EDIT: Oh hey, you found the summary of the second half of old City of Trees! Sneaky sneaky. I leave this up just to compare how my story telling skills have come a long way, but I just want to leave this note here letting people know that I am not at all proud of this story. I find many aspects of it problematic -- hence why new City of Trees is very different. The characters share the same names and there's a very similar moments and connections, and that's about it. Whether you want to view this summary as spoilers or not? Up to you. Some aspects may be similar to the final product of new CoT, but overall it's going to be very, very different. So, there ya go.

So I don't think I'm gonna be able to finish City of Trees.  So, here's the summary for the rest of it!  We'd been about halfway through the comic, so here's the last half.  I broke it up between the chapters, so yeah.

Obviously, there's a crap ton of spoilers here.  I may, MAY return to City of Trees someday, but no guarantees, so... yeah.

So, here it is!  Beware, it is long.

Chapter 5

We left off with Tani and Adi in a small clearing, with Adi saying grass is a good start for being vegetarian.  When Tani fails to pull up some strands, Adi offers some that he pulled up and she eats.  However, when he turns his back, she throws it up.

Later, they’re in the forest again, near some berry bushes.  Tani moves to try and eat some berries, but Adi quickly steps in, warning her that those are poisonous.  He then leads her to another berry bush, telling her that these are much better.  She takes a bite, but once again, as soon as Adi turns around, she throws it up.

The next day, Tadaka gives her a rabbit to eat.  Tani takes the rabbit over to hers and Adi’s cave, and buries the rabbit.  Once she’s finished, Adi arrives with a large fruit, saying that they can share it.  Him taking one half of it, and her the other, they break it apart and start to eat.  However, due to her teeth, Tani is unable to swallow it properly and starts to choke.  Adi quickly moves to her side, trying to help but not knowing what to do.  She eventually manages to spit it out, but is quite shaken.  Concerned, Adi tells her to just eat some of the grass around them.  Tani tells him that’s not such a good idea, but he demands she eats, for him.  She agrees to eat, but almost immediately begins to feel sick.  She struggles to hold it in, but is unable to, and throws up, right in front of Adi.  Shocked, he asks her if this happens every time she eats plants.  Guiltily, she tells him yes.  Feeling horrible, he thinks for a moment, then licks her cheek, telling her to go back to her pack, and that he will return soon.  He then begins to run off.  Weak from throwing up, she is unable to follow, but yells for him to come back.  He doesn’t.  She falls asleep there, and dreams of herself as a pup.  She comes across a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest, and despite the cries from its mother, eats it.  The scream scars her, and her father Ashoka quickly appears, telling her that she should never eat a child, and once again to respect all life.

Chapter 6

A few weeks later, Tani is laying beside hers and Adi’s cave, near death due to starvation.  She hears Tadaka calling her, desperately, saying she knows that she’s been starving herself.  Near tears, Tani slowly drags herself into the cave and lays there, awaiting death.  Tadaka’s voice dies out, but then suddenly, another voice appears.  Adi has returned, and is yelling for Tani.  She weakly calls back, and he appears in the cave.  Tani, despite being incredibly weak, stands up and happily nuzzles him.  Adi nuzzles back, but is horrified upon seeing her condition.  However, getting straight to the point, he tells her that he’s found a place for them to go.  Tani asks what he’s talking about, and he says that he found a place that has both predators and prey (cattle and dogs).  The predators, instead of eating the prey, were eating something else that didn’t appear to be plants, but wasn’t living either.  Tani says that the place sounds wonderful, but she doesn’t have the strength to get there.  Adi tells her she has to, but she once again declines, but asks him to stay with her until she dies.  Telling her he’ll hear none of it, he demands she at least comes out of the cave.  As soon as they exit, Adi pulls Tani onto his pack, commenting about how light she is.  She simply smiles, and rests.  He begins to walk off the territory.

Minutes later, Tadaka appears near the cave.  She sniffs the air, following Tani and Adi’s trail until she reaches the territory borders.  Believing that her daughter has gone off to hunt, she gives a sad smile, and leaves.

A few days later, Adi finally arrives at the place he was talking about; a human farm.  He takes Tani to the food, which is dog food.  He drops her there, telling her to eat.  Just barely conscious, she starts to eat, slowly at first, but then hungrily and almost savagely.  The food is gone in seconds, and she quickly starts to sniff around for more.  The food has given her enough energy to move on her own.  Happy, Adi moves to a safer spot and finally rests, as he has not rested in the few days it took to get here.

Tani eats every bowl of dog food she finds, then finally returns to Adi and rests there beside him.  Despite him being asleep, she gives him a loving smile, saying, “You risked yourself to save me.”  She licks the top of his head before resting her head over his.  Just before falling asleep, she says, “I love you.”

Meanwhile, back on the old territory, Tadaka is sitting with Balaji and Baladhi, whom are sleeping.  She’s staring up at the moon, on the brink of tears.  She silently prays for her daughter to come home.

Chapter 7

Tani and Adi having been living at the farm for several months now.  Adi’s antlers have grown, and Tani has reached a healthy weight.  After returning from one of her daily rounds around the farm for food, Tani lays down beside Adi, whom is eating some grass.  She comments on how he looks so much older with his antlers now.  He grins and tells her she looks a lot more healthy now.  They both agree that this is the perfect home for them, and that they will never leave.  Getting settled for the night, Tani lays her head over Adi’s, and they fall asleep.

The next day, Tani wakes up before Adi and heads off to the farm to get her food.  However, upon arriving, she finds two dogs sitting by the bowl, with one eating and the other standing guard.  The one standing guard notices her and calls out before she can get away, “Hey you, get over here!”  Though hesitant, Tani walks over, though doesn’t get too close.  The dog eating stands up and asks her if she’s the one that’s been eating their food.  She confesses to doing so, and while the dogs are incredibly pissed off, they are confused as to why she hasn’t gone after the cattle, as they would make a much better meal.  She tells them it’s because she promised a friend she would never eat a living being.  They are deeply confused, but don’t question her further.  They tell her that normally they would kill a dhole on the spot, they will let her go, as she isn’t harming anything.  They allow her to eat.

Meanwhile, Adi has woken up and is walking around.  He smells a tiger nearby and quickly moves away from the forest edge and onto the farm, going to stand among the cattle.

Then, a third dog appears, growling at Adi.  Adi is terrified, and also confused, wondering why a predator here is going after him, as he thought predators here were herbivores.  The dog laughs and says that he is not herbivore, and that he eats meat like any other dog would.  He adds in that he not only guards the cattle, he also acts as a hunting dog for his master.  He then attacks, causing Adi to scream.  Tani hears this, and quickly leaves the two other dogs.

She reaches Adi and the third dog, and attacks the dog.  The two dogs from before arrive and try to pull them apart, but before anything can be done, the master appears with a gun.  Assuming Tani is a dhole trying to get his cattle, he shoots at her.  Knowing the danger, but unable to bring himself to leave without Tani, Adi comes up and kicks the third dog to make him let go of Tani, and they both run, with the master shooting at them and the dogs chasing.

They continue to run for the entire day, until they finally lose all energy.  They collapse and pass out, and Tani dreams of her mother, who is pregnant with Balaji and Baladhi, screaming at Ashoka, “You’re corrupting them by saying all life is equal!  Don’t you understand!?  YOU’RE KILLING MY CHILDREN!”

Chapter 8

The next day, Tani and Adi are waking up.  Tani sniffs around a bit, saying that they’re on a tiger's territory.  Adi asks if they should return to the farm.  Tani tells him that it’s no longer safe there, but asks if Adi ran into any other places like that while he was gone before.  He says no; that the majority of the areas he’s been to all belonged to predators.  Tani, knowing what her fate is for the future, nods and says that they should go back to the old territory.  Adi says that that’s a horrible idea, and Tani reminds him that it is the safest place for them now; Tani’s family won’t hurt her, obviously, and Adi's herd can protect him. Adi thinks about this for a while, but finally agrees to go back.  They start walking.

A little while later, still walking, Adi brings up the fight they had with the dogs.  He thanks Tani for coming to save him.  She smiles and thanks him for saving her as well (referring to when Adi kicked the dog).  She adds in that she had no choice but to save him.  Adi asks what she means by that.  She tells him if she just let him die, she would have failed as a friend.

Several days later, they reach the edge of the territory.  Tani tells Adi to go back to his herd for now, and that they’ll meet up by their cave tomorrow.  He agrees, and they go their separate ways.

Meanwhile, Tadaka crying in her sleep.  Balaji and Balahi, who are adults now, watch her, commenting on how she’s probably going to die of depression soon.  Then, suddenly, Tadaka’s head shoots up.  Without even saying a word, she jumps to her feet and runs off at full speed, thinking to herself, “Sanatani’s back!”  She then runs into Tani, and tearfully reunites with her daughter.

 

Chapter 9

A month later, Tani and Adi are laying on their backs, staring up at the stars.  They’re talking about how close the stars may be; Adi thinks they’re very close, Tani thinks they’re very far away.  Her argument is the world is very large, and everyone must be able to see the moon and stars.  Adi says that even if the world is very large, maybe the stars and moon only appear on one side of the world.  Tani is visibly upset by this suggestion, but tries to hide it.  Adi notices and asks her why it matters.  She tells him that her father and siblings are very far away, and she hopes that they can see the stars like her.  Adi frowns and asks her why they aren’t here with the rest of her family.  Tani is silent for a moment, but then admits that her father taught her and her siblings to respect all life, and treat all creatures equally.  Adi asks why that’s such a bad thing, and Tani stares at him for a moment, then stands up, telling him to look at her.  She is back to her old skeleton looking self.  She then goes on to tell that Tadaka saw what was happened to her, and confronted Ashoka about it, resulting in a fight.  Tadaka won the fight, and ordered him to leave the territory.  He did as told, but Tani’s three siblings decided to go with him.  Tani was unable to go, as she was too weak from lack of nutrition.

Adi feels horrible after hearing the story, and asks if Tani regrets meeting him.  Tani smiles sadly, and says, “Of course not.  Meeting you was…is the best thing that ever happened to me.”  She moves closer to him, nuzzling him.  He tells her maybe it would have been better if they never met, because then Tani wouldn’t be starving.  Tani tells him, “I would rather die tomorrow than live a whole life without you.”  Adi smiles and says, “Me too.”  Tani then says, “I love you, Adi.”  Adi’s smile disappears, as he is shocked by this confession.  Unsure of how to respond, he tells her that he loves her as a friend.  Tani frowns, but says she understands.  She then stands up, saying that they’d better be going home now.  He agrees, and they leave.

Up above, Prasavitri the squirrel has been watching the whole thing.  She smiles dreamily, then hops off.

Meanwhile, Balaji and Baladhi are sitting together, talking about their latest kills.  They then see Tani coming, and they ask her if she’s made any recent kills.  Before she has a chance to respond, Baladhi comments that when she came home from her journey, she was at a perfectly healthy weight; now she’s on the brink of death.  Balaji laughs and yells as Tani retreats, “Better get lost, Sanatani!  You’re gonna die!”

Once Tani was gone, Balaji and Baladhi went back to talking.  Balaji asks why she’s starving herself anyway; she used to eat before, even if just a tiny bit.  Then, Prasavitri appears, on the ground, saying Tani is a vegetarian dhole.  The twins stare in shock, wondering how stupid this squirrel must be.  Baladhi breaks out of the stupor, asking who Tani is and how a dhole can be vegetarian.  Prasavitri grins and claims that it’s out of love for the spotted deer, Adi, and that if all predators held love for prey, then they could be vegetarians, too.  Balaji laughs and comes up to Prasavitri, saying, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I do know this….you’re gonna be an easy kill.”

Chapter 10

Tadaka is feeding on a dead rabbit, when Balaji and Baladhi appear, carrying the now dead Prasavitri.  Tadaka compliments them on the kill, though Balaji just shrugs it off, saying that this squirrel was stupid and easy to catch.  Tadaka asks how so, and Baladhi explains how Prasavitri was talking about a vegetarian dhole named Tani being in love with a deer.  Tadaka thinks for a moment, then finally realizes he’s talking about Sanatani.

The next day, Adi is waiting by the cave for Tani.  He hears paw steps approaching, and smiles, looking around, saying, “Hey Tani, I was thinking about what you said last night, and I just wanted to say-“  He realizes too late that the paw steps are not Tani, and that there are multiple dholes approaching.  Before he gets a chance to run, he is surrounded by Tadaka, Balaji, and Baladhi.  Tadaka snarls, saying, “So this is where Sanatani has been going?”  She sees Adi and laughs, commenting how its hilarious that her daughter has fallen in love with such a scrawny deer.  But then she grows serious, adding how its ironic that the very thing she loves is killing her.  Tadaka then says, “I couldn’t avenge Sanatani before by killing her father.  But I can avenge her now by killing you.”  She then jumps onto Adi, but instead of going for his throat, she clamps her jaws on the back of his neck, saying, “But I can’t just kill you.  I need to make an example of you.”  Despite him struggling, she drags him off, the twins following.

Tani appears a while later, limping and obviously out of energy.  She calls Adi’s name, then notices blood.  She smells, realizing it’s Adi and then also smells her family.  Horrified, she quickly follows the scent, praying Adi’s alright.

Meanwhile, Adi’s herd is grazing peacefully.  Then suddenly, the twins appear on opposite sides, and begin circling the herd, making sure they stay bunched together and don’t run.  Tadaka’s voice then sounds, yelling that they won’t hurt the herd so long as they shut up and watch.  They all turn to see Tadaka holding Adi down.  Tadaka goes on a speech, saying, “There’s the predator, and then there’s the prey.  The prey is hunted down, killed, and eaten so that the predator may live.  Prey receives no respect, as the predator is the ruler of the forest.  This is the way it’s always been, and the way it always will be.  Yet it seems one of you, specifically this brat under me, has failed to realize this simple fact of life.  This brat thinks that he can befriend a predator.  He is going to pay for this mistake, and you’re all going to watch, and hopefully this mistake won’t happen again.”  Receiving no response, she smirks, then lunges for Adi’s throat.  Then, out of nowhere, Tani appears and runs into Tadaka, pushing her over and off of Adi.  Standing protectively over Adi, Tani says, “I’ve never been a murderer.  But try to touch him again, and I’ll become one.”

Tadaka snarls, outraged and tells Tani that if she continues to be with Adi, she will die.  Tani just smirks, saying, “At least my life would have been more fulfilling than yours.”  Tadaka growls and moves forward to attack.  Tani looks back at Adi and yells at him to run.  He tries to protest but she yells at him to go, which he does.  Tadaka snarls and jumps after him, but Tani jumps in the way.  Tadaka pins down Tani and moves as though she’s going to rip Tani’s throat out.  But then she stops, looking almost regretful, and moves off Tani.  Angrily, she tells Tani to leave.  Energy finally leaving her, Tani limps away.

 

Chapter 11

Adi is hiding in the cave, when he hears Tani’s voice.  He happily moves to the entrance, and Tani slowly crawls in.  At first he gleefully nuzzles her, saying how happy he is to see she’s alright.  She smiles, but is too weak to return the nuzzle.  It is then that Adi realizes just how bad she’s doing.  He grows concerned, asking Tani what’s going on.  Tani tells him not to worry; that it’ll be alright, and that her life was full and happy.  Adi finally realizes that she’s dying and starts to panic, crying and begging her not to leave.  Tani smiles and once again tells him that it’ll be fine, and that maybe Ashoka is waiting for her.  Adi says that Tani is not meant to leave with Ashoka, she’s meant to stay with him.  He tells her he loves her, and begs her to eat him so that she can survive.  She is overwhelmed with happiness to hear his confession, and says, “But…you love me back?  I can die happy now.  If I ate you, I would only live my life in misery, before I finally died of depression.”  Adi just continues to cry, burying his nose in her fur.  Tani asks him to go on and live a happy life, and find a mate and raise a family.  She asks him to promise.  After several moments, he promises.  She smiles, giving him a final goodbye kiss, then finally dies.

A while later, Tadaka and the twins are still holding the herd hostage.  Adi appears from the forest, slowly walking back.  Tadaka demands to know where Tani is and runs toward him.  Not even flinching, Adi says Tani is dead.  This stops Tadaka dead in her tracks, and Adi slowly moves to the safety of the herd, collapsing and sobbing once he’s reached the center.  Vinati and Sri try to comfort him, but to no avail.  After a time, Tadaka quietly tells the twins to let the herd go.  They all leave, even Vinati and Sri, though Adi stays behind.  Tadaka and Adi keep their backs turned to each other, and Tadaka asks if he knows for sure that she’s dead.  He says yes; that she died right in front of him.  Tadaka asks where she is, and Adi tells her she’s in the cave, but he covered the opening so that nothing can get in ever again.  Tadaka nods to herself and seems to try and move forward, but instead collapses.  The two cry.

Chapter 12

Several months later, Adi is laying next to the mound of dirt, where Tani's body is, silently mourning her death.  Sri then appears, and Adi tells her it's dangerous out here, and that she should leave.  She says no, that she wants to stay with him and make sure he's okay.  He looks away, but doesn't protest as she lays beside him, licking his cheek before resting her head on top of his.

The two of them start spending more time together.  Eventually, they become mates, and Sri gets pregnant.  However, Adi still spends quite a bit of his time at Tani's grave, rarely leaving.  The one time he willingly leaves and stays away for a long period of time, is when Sri is close to giving birth.  When she finally does, it's a boy.  Adi smiles for the first time, and he and Sri nuzzle their child.  But when Sri asks what they should name him, Adi frowns, and hesitantly asks if they can name him after Tani.  Sri frowns deeply at him, but eventually nods.  The child is named Tano.

Tano grows into a happy young fawn, but wonders why his father is always leaving the herd.  Sri refuses to take him out into the forest to Tani's grave, so they see very little of him.  But a larger dhole pack has moved into the forest, so the herd decides it's best to move on.  Adi is by Tani's grave, when Sri and Tano finally come to see him.  Sri tells him that they have to leave, and that now he has to decide if he wants to go with his family, or stay behind and mourn Tani for the rest of his life.  She tells him to choose now, and that if he decides to stay, to never come looking for them in the future.  She tells him she loves him, then turns and leaves.  Adi watches her, shocked, then looks back to Tani's grave.  He stares at it for a moment, then slowly starts to turn.  He glances back only once, before following after Sri and Tano.

A short time later, Tadaka is laying on top of Tani's grave.  She is thin, as she has completely stopped eating.  She tells Balaji and Baladhi to leave the territory, to find their father.  She tells them that he would be a better parent than she ever was.  They hesitantly agree to leave, and when they do, Tadaka dies on Tani's grave, saying, "My beloved Sanatani.  I die with you."

© 2014 - 2024 SanjanaIndica
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inesmarques2011's avatar
must. hold back. TEARS.
Cry forever Cry forever Cry forever Cry forever Cry forever Cry forever Cry forever