Last of its Kind

“Last of its Kind” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Bozhena Issakova, 7 Hills International School, Kampala, Uganda.

Last of its Kind

The calm plant grew in a fairytale forest in Japan, the last of the beautiful plants kind, surrounded by five special trees to protect it throughout the pregnancy! The plant gives birth to its pretty white kind every five years! The helpful plants that are sent to protect the last kind are…A Japanese zelkova, a beautiful tree grown tall and strong, gives the plant as much sunlight and shade as needed, as well as a Japanese zelkova, a red oak tree will help the Japanese zelkova with the amount of shade and sunlight needed. The plant needs more than just beauty though, it needs fruit to give color and energy, two trees with plum give its bright color, a prunus (Victoria), it has yellow flesh with a red or mottled skin, a damson has purple or black skin, and a green flesh. The sun-loving plant needs water to survive the heat, even with the red oak and the zelkova serrata blocking most of the bright sunlight. Luckily there was a lake nearby, and a willow that would lend some sparkling blue water whenever its delightful vines full of leaves would cover the light green ancient forest.

Years smoothly passed by, everything in peace and quiet. The plant grew stronger and even more aromatic. Five weeks before it gives birth to its attractive floral kind. Suddenly the large aquatic willow tree sadly vanished into the soft air, the water was too polluted in the lake, and it could not survive. Day by day the decorative fruit trees started to rot, the lovely fruit stopped producing, the plant that was once colorful was now plane boring grew, and one petal fell as the rest tried their best hanging on. With only four darling petals left.

Very soon three weeks later to be exact, before the poor plant gives birth to its unusual type, the young Japanese people have discovered the eye-catching fairytale forest, and so they decided to build a few fancy wooden houses, they thought using the wood from the trees that were already growing in the forest would be a good idea. Since they did not like to go back and forth like some homeless dog looking for a nice home when it’s right there, and so they started to cut down trees, weeks past and the forest that once was elegant now is bare.

Only a few trees left, most were prettified the others dull. The rare plant was now protected by only the zelkova serata and the weak red oak, it had only two joyful petals left. Sadly the red oak eventually fell to the ground, the polluted air was way too much. How could the plant survive now? Only one cheerful petal left. The zelkova serata eventually was cut down by now. Don’t people care about the forest, the environment, the animals?

The last petal fell, and the plant died out. No one saw the small plant again, except for those that care.