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.
As he strode toward her, his dark gaze keeping her frozen in place, she saw the horrors nature was capable of. Roots the size of small trees shot from the earth and killed the people around her. First the logger, the unwilling murderer of his lover. Next her guards, all of which had only attempted to reach for their swords as they died.
It only took seconds before she was left in the city square alone with this giant of a man. And finally, she managed to take control. Yet again to prideful, she kept from screaming and simply turned to run. Without screams, no help would come in time. Roots as thick as the ones buried in the logger's chest rose and formed walls in alley ways, in the roads, in doorways, blocking every possible exit for her.
Seeing this, she turned to face him. She had always been tall for a woman at 5'10, but this man made her feel small. If she stared straight ahead, she saw his muscled chest, so she forced herself to look up into his eyes. The eyes held such rage that she shook with fear. She knew this man was going to kill her and knew there was nothing she could do about it.
It wasn't until he reached her and ripped the cloak from her neck that she realized death would not be her punishment. It was then that she screamed. She clawed at him but while his flesh was soft to the touch, she found him still as resilient as bark, only leaving faint white marks on his skin. No matter how hard she clawed at him while he tore her clothing away, she only did damaged to her nails and fingers.
When the last shred of her ripped clothing hit the ground, she looked down. Once again she was struck by horror, but this time it was of another kind. This man was taller and stronger than any man she had ever met. Now she saw yet another reason why he would put any male to shame. She screamed again and tried to run. She was no virgin, but she knew a man of that size would hurt. And he wasn't even erect yet.
She ran, even though she knew she had nowhere to go. Her bare feet smacked against the hard stone ground until she caught an arched root. Even as she fell she knew it wasn't just some random root. He was on the chase. She fell forward at the hard ground. Strangely she landed on a soft bed of leaves and looking down she found a newly sprouted blush. She was still pondering its existence when he caught up and grabbed her hips.
