500 Words 2024/25: read a finalist's story from the 5-7 category

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This story was chosen as a top 50 finalist for 500 Words 2024/25.

Remember, spelling, punctuation and grammar are not taken into account for a 500 Words story, therefore all the top 50 stories have been published how they were submitted.

The Tree, The Cloud, The Ocean and The Litter by Anjali M.

Branchy was a towering Tree. She was so tall that she almost reached the sky - her friends sometimes told her that she was a stairway to heaven. She came from a family called the Redwoods and she had spiral leaves that were evergreen. She was also an ancient tree as she had lived for a thousand years. She had seen it all - from the changing of the seasons to the thunderous storms and scorching fires that sometimes engulfed her neighbours.

Her best friend was Wispy the Cloud. Wispy often changed the colour of her dresses. When she was feeling happy, she wore an invisible cloak. When she wanted to play, she had a pearl-coloured dress. When she was angry, she turned peppery black and when she was sad, she wept tears which flooded the Redwoods. Wispy was often away travelling. She would travel over cities, over mountains, over jungles and over water. Branchy had never travelled in her life. Wispy would love to tell Branchy stories of the things she had seen.

One day Wispy came to see Branchy and was quivering with fear. She had been on an ominous journey to the city and seen People. Branchy had seen a few People before in her long life but Wispy had seen millions. She told Branchy that People were making a new type of creature called Dusty. Dusty was litter and he was becoming larger and larger. He was getting too large to fit in the city. People were therefore throwing Dusty into the Ocean. Branchy knew the Ocean - his name was Splashy. She could not see Splashy but she could hear him sing in the distance. On a crisp clear morning, Branchy could hear Splashy singing - it was usually a joyful tune but lately it had turned into a whimper. Wispy told Branchy that this was because Splashy was sizzling with heat and feeling toasty. Splashy would blow as hard as he could to try to cool off and make Wispy turn peppery black and weep. Lately, Wispy was spending more and more time weeping.

Branchy thought 'what can I do to help?'

Branchy had a secret gift that even Wispy did not know about. Branchy could suck up the heat that Splashy was blowing into her spidery tangle of roots and help Wispy turn invisible again. But Branchy was only one tree and could only do so much. She needed the help of her family. She started to sway and whisper to ask the Redwoods to suck up as much of the heat as they could. They swayed and swayed like the waves of Splashy and sucked up the heat. Now Wispy could be invisible again.

But little did they know that People were watching. They had other plans. They wanted to make Dusty even larger and throw more of him into Splashy. How would this end? Who knows. Perhaps Branchy would find out in another thousand years…perhaps not?

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