Don Kuykendall_RIP
RIP :(
Mallory, his heroine, finds a wizard enveloped in a tree trunk. The wizard was trapped there ages ago when the magic peoples of the earth were leaving the ordinary world to go to an island called Vale Innis. They were not to harm any living thing during this journey, but the wizard Arbican did not think the injunction extended to breaking off a tree branch for a walking stick. He broke a branch and was instantly swallowed up by the tree.
From "The Wizard in the Tree" by Lloyd Alexander
From "The Wizard in the Tree" by Lloyd Alexander