Strength

"Minerva?"

Minerva woke from her slumber. It had been over 2 months. "Yes, Juniper?"

"I'm not sure I have the strength I should. Which direction is the sun nowadays?"

"That way," said Minerva, gesturing with a shaking leaf over her head and behind her.

"But you're growing angled slightly away from there," said Juniper.

"True. I don't need quite as much light as I once did, and I'd rather be closer to you than taller."

Juniper felt suddenly warm, as if the sun had walked in her resting in the shade. She didn't protest. She liked the idea of being closer to Minerva as well, so she selfishly suppressed some sass.

"How about this," Minerva proposed. "Can you reach my branch here?"

Juniper groaned and slumbered. She reached out to Minerva for a few fortnights until finally, they touched, and Minerva woke.

"Good job," said Minerva. "Keep growing that way, and don't stop."

Juniper understood. She grew steadily but slowly, while Minerva wrapped herself delicately around her, allowing Juniper to rest in her grasp.

"There, that wasn't so hard was it?" Juniper relaxed into Minerva and allowed her strength to become her own. She entered sleep for the last time she would ever need to, and they grew together like that for years and years, Juniper laying in Minerva's branches as they enveloped her. They never woke again. They simply slept, and grew, ever closer.