The World Tree

SUSU's Perspective

I was born in her emotional world

I was born in my sister's emotional world.

No one explained it to me, but I knew from the first second. I knew my fur was white and curled. I knew my companion crystal carried a rare energy. I knew grandfather Lore had been sitting by the oldest root of the World Tree for ages.

Lore is the oldest cat here. His eyes hold every memory he has witnessed from her life. He says the roots remember every cry, every laugh, and even the moments she has forgotten herself.

We grew around the World Tree as she grew in real life. Each new emotional chapter gave birth to a new guardian cat.

Then one day a leaf fell. Leaves fall all the time, but Lore kept staring at this one.

He finally said quietly: "This was the first moment she felt she could no longer hold herself together."

He told me my mission had begun. I was the only one who could cross the wall into reality and help her absorb what she could no longer process alone.

So one rainy afternoon, I hid in a cardboard box and pretended to be a stray kitten waiting to be adopted.

When I first met her, I froze. Her emotional color was nearly black-gray, heavier than anything I had seen in our world.

She lifted me with trembling hands. Not from cold, but from the weight she had been carrying for too long.

I stayed by her side. I tried to absorb her gray energy and carry it back for purification while she slept. My fur gradually turned darker.

Days became long. Nights were longer. I purred on her chest when sleep would not come to her. She thought I was just a sleepy cat, but I was traveling between worlds.

Then one day, the gray began to show gold. A soft glow appeared in the places that once looked hopeless.

I thought my power had changed, until I returned to the World Tree and saw her standing there.

That was the moment I knew she had started rebuilding herself from the inside.

Sister's Perspective

The first time I entered that world

I first appeared in the emotional world on a night when I had cried for so long I no longer remembered when it started.

It was not a dream. Dreams are blurry and soft at the edges. This place was precise and alive, with the scent of rain-soaked soil and old sunlight.

I stood under a giant tree so high I could not see the top. Its roots spread over the ground like living veins, each one breathing in slow rhythm.

Then I saw a group of cats. Every one of them carried a crystal, glowing softly. Later I learned those stones were their companion instruments, each with a distinct energy: steady, gentle, sharp, or clear.

I saw SUSU, the little cat who had barged into my life. She appeared gray when she returned from reality, but white when she emerged from the World Tree.

Afraid to disturb them, I hid behind the trunk. They could not see me.

For what felt like a long time, I stayed there as a silent witness. Each cat had remarkable strengths, but each one also faced its own life lesson.

Whenever they hit crisis, they still found a way to pull themselves back with astonishing force, supported by one another and slowly reconciled with imperfection.

Then I discovered SUSU's secret. She had been absorbing my heavy emotions and carrying that energy back to the roots, trip after trip.

Her fur had turned gray because of me.

I remembered the nights I could not sleep, the afternoons I stared blankly at a screen, and the moments I believed I had become worthless.

I felt an urgent need to reconcile with myself. The successful version, the broken version, the joyful one, the hurting one. Together they were still me.

I did not need to win all the time. Without failure, I would never understand both helpless tears and the thrill of standing up again after effort.

The current crisis was only one fragment of a much longer life. If I crossed it, there would still be countless chapters ahead.

Then a white light pulled me back to reality.

I told no one. I could not explain it, and I was afraid no one would believe me.

After that, with SUSU beside me, I began rebuilding through daily practice: recording small moments, reframing problems, and noticing overlooked joy.

Slowly, my smile returned.

I also noticed that whenever I touched SUSU's forehead, or she pressed her head against me, a brief warm current moved through my palm.

One day I returned to the emotional world again.

This time was different. They could see me. SUSU woke near the roots, looked up, and froze in full-body shock as if saying, "Human, what are you doing here?"

Lore lifted his gaze from the roots with calm certainty, as though he had expected this all along.

After a long pause, he said, "Congratulations. You rebuilt your soul with your own hands."

He explained that the emotional world accepted me not because I became flawless, but because I had started facing myself honestly.

The branches of the World Tree trembled and several crystals fell into my hands, warm to the touch.

Each crystal had a different color, each one bright enough to light a dark corridor.

Lore said those crystals came from the guardian cats themselves: they condensed their forehead energy into forms I could carry.

He told me every person has an emotional world. Even if the outer world betrays you, your guardians are still waiting on the other side.

SUSU stood with the others, still gray, but looking at me with joy, relief, and undeniable pride.

I held those crystals so tightly my eyes filled with tears, but this time the tears tasted like rain after a storm.

I returned once more to reality. Life did not become perfect, but it returned to motion.

Since then, I still dream of those warm little beings. I wake up with energy, and I know this light should not belong to me alone.

That is why I chose to share it, for everyone who needs a hand through difficult nights.