Quoted Text

Two mammoth oaks danced to the breeze--
Branches rubbing gingerly in beat.
A gust. A not-quite-ripe acorn.
Falling... It was falling towards
Ground. The wind blew, and blew, and blew.
By a pond, it grew, and grew, and grew.

Went from seed to a spruce sapling,
This tree had just about everything
A tree could ever want, except--
Another tree to share it all with.
All day he talked with his reflection
Thinking he was making conversation.

Over the years, his bark coarsened,
And he naturally began to lean
Over the pond that quenched his thirst.
What? What was coming up the glade?
A boy--no two--giggling, playing.
On one of his limbs, they placed a swing.

The boys returned day after day,
Year after year the boys grew and changed,
But so did Tree: Grew big and wide.
Every evening the moonlight shined
Upon tree's constant companion,
The pond; once upon a star-struck boy--

With a beautiful girl in hand.
The tree tried to cover his branches,
But the Fall left him with few leaves.
The boys' visits became less frequent,
And Tree was left his reflection
Thinking he was making conversation.

The tree's branches had grown heavy,
But now his boys had returned ready
To swing boys of their own from him.
Something was different: A sad hint.
The swing was removed quietly
Leaving their boyhood haunt with a "bye."

Vroom! It was a ghastly noise.
Metal and bark violently join.
Rotted, the old tree's trunk crumbles,
And out from the hollow, crawl spiders
Living in his empty insides.
The day the boys left, the day he died.

The boys' parents had sold the plot;
The boys gone had no use for the pond.
A mall to be built in its place
Where large crowds would hustle and race
Just to glimpse at their reflection
Thinking they were making conversation.

At least the tree knew what it was like
To have felt love, to have been alive.
Many bustling above his grave
Would never experience the same
For they were already hollow
Still searching for what the tree had found.

Quoted Text

Our story begins with a mirror. The said mirror was found hundreds of years before the map makers Rusty, Tonya, and Bear were even born. It was found by Trenton Pennywonk. Yes, you would be correct in assuming Trenton is related to Temple Pennywonk who hid his treasure in the Stellar Graveyard, the very treasure Captain Margay entered the Stellar Graveyard to find. Trenton was Temple's great¹⁷ grandfather, and he was a pirate who sailed the High Seas. Little did Margay know the treasure she sought was not the kind of treasure you want to find.

Trenton soon discovered that the mirror he found possessed a strange and most undesired power. When Trenton looked into the eyes of his reflection, the reflection came to life and stepped out of the mirror. Except for being a pirate, Trenton was a pretty nice guy. His reflection was not. Being a reflection, he was not a perfect copy of Trenton but rather a reflection of one aspect of him. In this case, it happened to be his avarice. And being a mischievous reflection, he looked into the mirror until there were several Trentons.

When you are used to being just you, it can be quite jarring to become a one of you. Trenton resolved that the mirror could not stay on earth, but in the 1700s, he had no way of carrying through with his resolution. The mirror was passed down through the family with precise instructions to never look into it and that the first family member capable of it would hide the mirror among the stars. Thus, Temple hid it on a planet in the Stellar Graveyard covered with glassy mountains where he was sure it could never be found. The planet was like the universe's largest fun house. He hid it on…

"The Glassy Planet"