The Heartwood of ash and silence

for @Cry
obviously backdated to like forever ago :)

Prowling through the thick mist of the morning Damien found the core of a dead forest. Like giant needles trees that once brought abundance to those lands now stood branchless, lifeless, burned to the core to guard miles of ash and silence. Whatever sprout of life that had found its way to the surface had been dried during the autumn, and with winter already in full force the ice and the cold had finally killed whatever life form could ever call this place home.

The heartwood was dead. And it would be for many years.