Hey! I really enjoyed your story. It brings up a very interesting thought experiment around a phrase I haven't really pondered about before. I really liked your world building - the great pine trees and the appearance of the sorcerer really intrigued me!

However, I need to agree with the other comment, that your order of introducing and talking about certain aspect could be improved. Additionally to what was already mentioned, I believe it's the same thing for your first paragraph. I really liked this one! But I only understood its purpose as an introduction to the sorcerer after finishing the story and coming back to think about it more. Perhaps that was your intention (make the readers wonder to make them keep thinking of your story), though I believe you could enhance this even more by connecting the end of your story to your first paragraph (repeating it, repeating parts of it, writing one single sentence that connects well and makes the story go 'round, ...)  or making the transition between your first and second paragraph less stark.

Overall, though, I really liked it :D

I liked your story.

Your worldbuilding is pretty cool. It reminded me of the anime "Frieren" at first, from its style & thematics. The best thing to me was your interpretation of magic. That basically every dream of someone is caused by magic.. or a perception of magic. This was also a good introduction to the sorcerer.

I think you can trust your audience a little more to connect the pieces. After that "Crub still thought about the question of the sorcerer", you take too much time (for my taste) to tell the reader "on-the-nose" that there is a sorcerer. You are obviously very talented in inventing fantastic & magical stuff. The images in this story are truly innovative. But for a short story, you take a little too much pride & time in describing your stuff. The description of only the sorcerers physical appearance (which IS awesome) took around a quarter of the whole story.

I liked the idea of the Giant's Pines, but the timing to introduce them couldn't have been worse: the hero just presented his problem of insecurity. The tension was growing. And then you introduced those Pines, which stabilize the whole world & give a feeling of security & orientation.

So: worldbuilding, magic & creativeness are your definite strengths. The story tells about inner conflict & bravery. Even teaches a little lesson, which is great. Please keep those skills. Get your understanding of atmosphere right, so you can build it up instead of breaking it. Restrict your pride a little (hard for me too). Then I can see unimaginable fantasy-stories come out of your fingers.

I liked how it shows the problems of a fear driven life full of mediocrity.