Count The Trees
Daniel woke on his second morning at the campsite convinced someone had planted a tree beside his tent overnight. It stood barely a metre from the entrance, its pale trunk marked with strange horizontal grooves. He mentioned it to his friends, but they laughed, insisting the tree had always been there. By the third morning, another tree had appeared, followed by several more arranged in a perfect circle around their campsite. Daniel began counting them every evening. There had been twelve when they arrived. Now there were twenty-seven, and the circle seemed noticeably smaller. His friends finally grew concerned when they discovered that the trees blocked the path leading back to their car. They tried cutting through the forest, but every direction brought them back to the clearing. That night, Daniel stayed awake, watching the trees through his tent's open flap. Just before dawn, he noticed something impossible: the trees weren't swaying in the wind. They were perfectly st...