"M'not Cully, I'm Nell, but yes, I'm talking to you," she said. "And of course I can see you. You're standing there big as life - some sort of tree I've never seen before - and believe me, I know my trees."

She walked around the tree, never taking her eyes off it. "Never knew one to talk before though. Or are you somehow stuck inside the trunk?" They couldn't have been, though. It wasn't big enough and there didn't seem to be a separate being there - just the tree.