The sun was slanting low in the sky as the duo climbed into the hot hills behind a somewhat rundown older house that was perched at the end of a long driveway. The golden rays cast deep shadows across the pathway where old, moss covered trees stood unmoving in the still air. The cicadas were starting their evening song, screaming from every treetop with the force of thousands of vibrating wings. The air almost thrummed with their calls, drowning out all the evening birds and frogs in their quest for a mate.
As the pair crested the rise in the trail, they paused and wiped the sweat from their eyes. The marker Jessica was looking for was still a little ways along the ridgeline, but she took a moment to catch her breath and look out over the valley her house was nestled in. The still, heavy air was thick in her lungs, and carried all the scents of the forest. Her brother Tyler was panting slightly next to her, watching for where she directed they would go. His eyes were passive and waiting, the spark of curiosity and love inside them gone. He worshiped her now as if she was a goddess of the forest, and he was her slave. Somewhere inside her mind she hated this. But that part was locked away, unreachable. And so she just smiled, and caressed his cheek with a hand nearly completely covered in small white flower tattoos.
The bite she had marked her brother as her mate with had only been 2 days ago, but the amount of sex they had engaged in caused the tattoo to spread like wildfire. It now traced from the tip of her nose, around and over her scalp, where her once beautiful chestnut brown hair was totally a deep purple. It ran down her spine, accenting every shapely vertebrae, and radiated down her legs to curl among her toes. The branches twisted along her arms as well, encircling her perfect C cup breasts and steaming into the nexus of the tatoo, a giant purple blossom that lay open across her stomach with its massive stamen reaching between her breasts and waiting for pollen.
Tyler had gotten a bit luckier with his. The small purple flower at the base of his skull had grown branches up into his brown locks as well, but then it only stretched down around his neck and to his crotch where it seemed to cage his balls and twist up his luscious cock. Even thinking about that organ made Jess wet, but she was out here on a mission.
The sex they had been having was wonderful, yes, but the parasite now firmly entrenched in Jessica's mind could feel there was an incompleteness. Usually these plants would want a harem of willing men to tend to and impregnate them, letting the plant sort and find the best genes from its many hosts and making itself perfect from their bits of DNA. Having access to only one male was a problem, but one that the plant knew how to fix. It wasn't ideal, but it would work.
The light was almost gone by the time they reached the stacked stone marker Jess had put on the trail so long ago, and Tyler turned on the electric lantern he had brought with. The creek was right around the corner, and they hurried along to take a rest at its cool edge. A quick drink later, they were climbing along the rocks and bushes, following the stream to its source. The floral, musky, familiar smell was unmistakable to the infected duo, and they hurried their steps to the crack in the large bowl that lead to their destination.
Sliding carefully along the narrow ledge by the creek, Jess led the way into the dark cavern, feeling like she was coming home. Tyler looked around, a spark of his old curiosity in his unnaturally purple eyes, and they both inhaled deeply.
The trees were in bloom like last time, but their delicate white flowers seemed to glow with a white luminance, bathing the whole place in a gentle glow that let Tyler turn off the lantern and let them still see the area clearly. The tall tree that Jessica recognized as the one she had climbed seemed dormant, its white blooms glowing softer, and it's purple crown lacking its distinctive flower. There were what seemed to be new trees scattered all around, too, small saplings barely as tall as she was, also lacking purple flowers, or even white ones. The only way she could tell they were the same species is the leaves, and the way her plant parasite resonated with them as kin.
Jess took Tyler's hand and they wandered through the still woods, looking breathlessly up at the tall trees and enjoying the stillness of the hot night. Tyler looked carefully, touching the bark here and there of one tree or another, until their shared parasite finally pushed them towards the rear of the bowl and a series of shallow pits that seemed to glow a golden light. As soon as Tyler spied them, his breath caught in his throat and he practically flew to the edge of the largest one. He knelt, staring into the depths of the strange golden light, and as Jess joined him she saw thousands of golden flowers, their buds open and blanketing the base and sides of the shallow pit.
