2014 Christmas Tree Retired

On Monday, the 2014 Christmas Tree was retired after curing the tree of a disease. When the tree started looking sickly over the past few days, people in the Rose Garden tried to figure out what was wrong so the disease wouldn’t later spread to the other retired Christmas trees.

First, the group tried to give the tree water by placing it in the fountain, but the tree sucked the fountain dry and didn’t look any healthier. Next, Ruby (fox) burned a tiny hole through the bark and into a part of the tree where others thought they could feel something amiss. Kandra (foxthingfox) shrunk herself and went in to investigate, finding there was an amoeba with extra-dimensional capabilities that was consuming all the water and nutrients in the tree.

After Kandra relayed what she found, Soren (Nybrin) offered to use his skills as a mage to shrink everyone down to try and safely remove the amoeba. A large group assembled, was shrunk, and then placed into the hole, where they walked inward and met the amoeba face to face. There was much conversion, with many trying to verbally coerce the amoeba to leave. It sent a small paramecium to serve as its eyes, ears, and mouth, and said it had no intention of leaving because it needed to survive, too. There was a suggestion of simply moving the amoeba elsewhere, but a major issue with that approach was that the amoeba might kill the new tree while taking water and nutrients and then infect the whole forest after awhile in search of more to consume. For the moment, there seemed to be a stalemate.

After some thinking, Faraday (fluffy PDA), together with Natasha (cartoon coati), came up with a solution: Create a cartoon Christmas tree that the amoeba could inhabit. As a cartoon, the tree could never die and the amoeba would get all the water, nutrients, and space it could want and would never need to leave. This idea combined with the threat of possible antibiotics made the amoeba decide that the cartoon Christmas tree was the best option. Natasha went to work, and soon the amoeba was transferred into its new home.

With the Christmas tree cured, the group was made their normal sizes again, then carried the tree to the official resting grounds at N4 E0, thus ending the yearly tradition. (The writer apologizes if they missed any names or plot points, as they are going completely on memory.)