Many years ago, the now flourishing city was doomed to die a slow starving death. No crops would grow, no rain ever fell. The people were too poor to up and move. The distance to the nearest town was much too far away for them to make it to without horses. So none of them tried and kept up the foolish mission of trying to keep their town from dying.
Two powerful beings took pity on this town. The people, though misguided, where strong willed and deserved a second chance. These beings sacrificed themselves. Already creatures of nature, they simply allowed nature to reclaim its energies. The lovers embraced each other in the center of the small dying town. His lips found her neck, his fingers raking up her moonlight pale thigh. Her fingers gripped his shoulders and she threw her head back at the pleasure she found in his arms.
It was in the middle of the passion and love of their embrace that they allowed nature to take them, their emotions allowing every drop of their power to be reclaimed. Just above the knee, just below where his strong hands grasped at her, flesh faded into bark, growing strong thick roots into the ground. Wild magic swept up their otherwise naked bodies and caught the waist long locks that flowed around them both. Magic wove and thickened their hair into branches, growing out a massive canopy.
For centuries this tree stood. Even after the real stories faded into false ones, the bodies between root and leaves held their detail. The wooden forms of a naked couple in each other's arms. Never did it grow taller than it's already impressive twenty feet, the man in the middle easily seven feet of that twenty. Lonely adults stared, young adults giggled; children laughed and dared each other to touch it. For life times, the tree stood there, mostly undisturbed.
Until one stuck up princess took offence. Never had she liked the tree, but never had she had the power to take it down. Not until her father passed the crown to her. As Queen no one could tell her no, no one could refuse to take the vulgar thing down that she believed was clearly carved by some perverted gardener.
Kyra gathered her guards and together, they forced a logger to approach the tree with his biggest axe. Even as the man approached it, he knew it was wrong. There was a power coming from this tree that all of the peasants in the city knew better than to disturbed. It was why in all its life, never once has it been vandalized. Yet now he was to cut it down. His heart broke as he drew back and swung, aimed for the female half of the trunk.
When his axe struck and bit into the tree, the sound was of strong steel hitting wood. But when he pulled back, the dark liquid that gushed out was not sap. He stared in horror as blood ran down the lower body from the female, down her legs and into the roots.
As horrified as the logger, Kyra drew back, staring at the tree. Blood had already started to pool around the roots and the bark that made up the females body started to darken. The color change spread to the male and then the leaves. The tree, in seconds, seemed to die. The leaves fell, turning to ash long before they touched the ground. The bark, now covering the entire tree, turned black and like the leaves, turned to ash.
It was what happened next that truly horrified everyone watching. The seven foot man depicted in the tree was now a living, breathing man. He had waist long leave green hair, pale moonlight flesh, and two orbs of swirling green energy for eyes. In his arms, as naked as he was, was a beautiful woman. She was even paler than he was from blood loss. By the look on her face, she was already dead.
His seven foot frame lowered and he laid her limp body on the ground, a single tear sliding down his beautiful face. When he looked up, the bright green light that made up his eyes darkened until both of his eyes were pure black.
Rage caused his muscles to tighten and tremble. It wasn't for a few moments that the people around him, still frozen in fear, realized that the ground was also trembling with his rage. He stood slowly and his dark gaze fell on the Queen instantly. If not for her pride, she would have fainted then and there.