Black and grey tattoo of a bare tree with a flock of birds rising above a dark forest, on the inner forearm of a raised hand.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Bare tree and birds on a forearm

Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A bare tree with spreading branches rises up the forearm, with a flock of black birds scattered across the wrist and upper forearm. The base of the design fades into a dark silhouette of a forest, and the lines are solid black with soft grey shading. The arm is photographed from above with the palm raised against a pale carpet.

Forearm Tree Bird Flock Forest Silhouette Branches

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The rooks left the dead ash again this morning, all forty of them at once, lifting off the top branches as if someone had shaken a sheet out over the wood. I counted from the arrow slit in the north tower, where the stone stays warm until noon, and I lost count at thirty-one because the last few went low over the bracken and I could not tell them from the shadows of the trees.

Mother said the birds were the souls of the men the Harcourts hanged from that ash, and that they flew out each evening to see whether the road was still open. I told her that was nonsense, and she said I would think differently once I had a letter to send. So here it is, though the post has not come up the hill since the frost took the bridge at Wenlow.

You asked whether the castle is still standing. Most of it is not. The great hall has no roof, and the stairs climb to nothing, but the north tower holds, and the chapel bell still hangs in its frame, green as a pond. Father says the forest creeps closer from the east every year, grey trunks pushing through the walls like old fingers. From up here I can see all of it: the dark wood thick at the foot of the hill, and above it the lone ash with its branches spread wide.

I have decided to stop counting. Last night I opened the window and let the cold in, and the birds came back at dusk, settling one by one until the branches were black with them. I think they are only looking for somewhere to sleep. I am going to do the same and wait for your reply.