I liked it. The best sentence “it was now dark and gnarled, reflective of its history” though its not the tree..but what has happened there that is dark. Nice use of words..

This sort of reminded me of The Giving Tree. You know that story? But like, a much later installment. And not quite the same. That was just the feel I got.

P.S. I love your name. I love the Series of Unfortunate Events :)