From Where ...?

In our area we have a lot of natural cedar and an equally overwhelming amount of invasive juniper.


The so-called trees in our pasture look mostly like this:












or even, the few that we've trimmed to look like a more normal kind of tree look like this:











But, after nearly 15 years in this area, this year I noticed something a little different. I noticed this tree.

and not just one, but I could see two others who'd had similar treatment from where I was standing.

Closer examination revealed a tortured and destroyed inner circle.

My mind being the overly complex and complicated kind, didn't consider anything like a wet spring and unusually heavy growth following a couple of years of dry or take into consideration the high winds we've had -- it immediately leaped to thinking how I could use such a thing in the world building or conflicts of my next novel. What could be the meaning of so many random trees being flattened from above? Spacemen? The Hand of God? Monsters or Monstrous Beasts?

What wonderful ambiguity, misunderstandings and conflicts these 'topped' and flattened trees could cause naive or superstitious characters. ...!