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  When They came, They told us we were prized and loved.  They said we were valued and appreciated.  They claimed to admire every trade and wished to learn our ways.  So we taught Them.
  They learned fast, and soon you could not tell our work from Theirs.  They were smart, and were strong.  They claimed They were stranded and without food of Their own.
  I was gathering outside of Our land, taking fruits well known to me when I came across Their campsight.  It sat near a beach, where in the distance large boats were heading towards the shore.
  They were on Their campsight, with Their weapons.  They laughed and drank as if They were not in Their right mind.
  In front of each of Them was fruit and bread, Their own, for I had never seen such fruit before.  And beside Their camp, beside Their strange shelters, was a cage of four or five of my people.
  I hid in the bushes, I had no weapons and so I could not fight.  I planned to free my people when no one was looking, perhaps when They were all sleeping.  However, my fate chose differently.
  One of Them opened the cage and pulled out a man.  He stumbled out, limping, tired, and clearly frightened.  They pushed him into the center of camp and laughed when he fell into the sand.  When he reached for the food near him, They kicked him and laughed.  I watched, filled with horror and disbelief.  They pulled out their knives, and foolishly i reacted.
  I dropped my basket an ran out from where I hid, covering him as he laid on the sand.  I crouched above him, in my hand was my knife, one that ha not been made to ever be a weapon.  How well it would cut flesh was unknown.
  They laughed, I was small and weak and only one, while they were many.  I crouched lower and watched as only a few moved.  One grabbed my from behind, I yelped and was pulled into the sand by my leg.  I hit the sand and my knife fell away, quickly I was dragged into the cage.
  They called us savages, but They took the man and beat him with sticks, They cut his skin an laughed as he begged for life.  When he died, after hours, they threw his body into waist deep waters and thought not of him.
  In the cage, we said nothing.  I sat in the cage an waited until all others were asleep before I allowed my eyes to close.
  The big boats arrived the next day, on the boats there were many more of Them, with heavy weapons and thick armor.
  They took us in chains back home and showed our people that we were the future.  We were an example of what They would do if we did not give them riches and gifts, They would take us an They would kill us.
  There was a man in the crowd, with a scar on his arm.  He was one of us.  He ran to us, a sword in his hands, he cut the chains that held us to Them and we ran, scattering into the city.
  After that, the days blurred together.  Time did not matter when we were at war.  Many fought Them, but I was to stay hidden.  I hid in the tunnels with many others, but the tunnels were not made for this, and we had no food.  We sent others to get us water and food, only occassionaly did they return.
  After a week, They found us and burned us out of the tunnels.  Only a few survived the fire unscratched, somehow I was one.  I left the tunnels, the city was now an unknown landscape, unrecognizable to my memory.  The others who left the tunnels let out cries of hopelessness and mourning.
  We ran like rats as they chase us like animals.  They hunted us and left our bodies where they dropped and bled.  Our beautiful city seemed to forget how to be beautiful, for They had taught it only to be horrid and terrible.
  I did not want to, I wanted to stay in my home.  This city was Ours, but They had taken it.  I did not want to, but once it was clear we had lost our city, only the warriors stayed.  The few who had lasted this long fled into the woods, away from Them.
   Weeks past, I evaded those who followed us, I watched as they pulled others through the forest, dragging them back to the beach.  I was not made for fighting, I was never a warrior an I never should have tried to be.  I was good at hiding, I was small an light, and could climb far and fast.
   When they stopped looking in the forest for us, the ships left.  I went back to the once beautiful city.  I found nothing was left.  Every building, every home was now rubble and ruins.
   In the middle of all the destruction, there was one lone tree left standing.