Forever Forest

Prolouge

This chapter is best read with sorrowful music.

Enjoy.
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Once upon a time long, long ago in a forest so hollow. Was a woman named Enid. And a man named Mrithun.

Enid wore leaves in the form of a dress. Her hair was a tangle of vines and flowers. Her eyes a white of light and cheer. A goddess of growth, a goddess of life.

Mrithun, on the other hand, wore crisp grey branches and twigs that appeared as though they had long since fallen from their trees. His skin a dim colorless grey. His hair like shriveled leaves that often brushed up against his shoulders. Eyes a dark night. A god of decay, a god of death.

Both spirits lost themselves in their duties amongst the forest's silent protection.

Enid tamed the plants and birth of animals festering in hollows and treetops.

Mrithun left a trail of shriveled grass and graying plants where he walked, sending life on its way when its time in the forest was complete.

They knew nothing and no one at all, only themselves and their duties to the forest.

Mrithun was never a happy god, one would assume it so if partaking in death should be his life bound duty. Creatures ran from Mrithun, even plants seemed to lean away.

Enid was most infinitely the opposite. Silk hearted and grinning even as she slumbered. She danced amongst the forest, Animals cherished her presence, plants often growing small gifts to her from their leaves.

Enid was completing her duties to the forest when she found the creatures and trees had begun leading her to a path. A path of grey sticks and greyer shriveled leaves. The trees whispered death and the animals begged her to rid of it.

So, she stepped through the wood and for the very first time, caught sight of him.

Lifting a hand from a small rabbit's final breath, Mrithun turned to watch the goddess as she stepped closer. Mrithun, who had never smiled in his life peered at the woman dressed in light, in color, in life. And he felt something inside him weaken.

For the first time, he wept.

in shame and self pity of what he had done all these years and how the animals hated him so.

Enid stepped closer and grew him her favorite flower, a lily as bright as her eyes though it shriveled and died at his touch.
He frowned but she shook her head and touched a finger tip to the dead lily, and the lily was reborn yet again, beautiful, if not twice as much so. Mrithun wanted to make something to gift Enid with but found he could not create no matter how hard he tried.

His touch only destroyed, his presence only defeated.

Though Enid only smiled and held his cold colorless hand.

"I will have enough life for the both of us." She promised.

Soon Mrithun began to smile. No later he laughed and watched her grow trees, creatures and her most favorite of all, lilies.

Mrithun, god of decay, found himself entwined in Enid's arms, spinning in lovely broad gestures across the forest floor, a dance of life and death, trails spreading under their footsteps as they wove paths of newborn blossoms and weeping shriveling weeds into the forest floor.

Day after day they met in wordless trances and strolls across clearings. They danced in the evenings and returned to their duties by mornings. They often spoke with their powers, brushing up against each other as they held hands and walked through the woods together.

The god of death and the goddess of life were in love.

However, Mrithun soon found he could not decay the lilies after their time had concluded. He found he could not help the rabbits leave their place in nature. He found his skin had turned greener the more he held Enid's hand, his hair had become dappled with pinks and violets. Mrithun found he could not bring the death the creatures needed when their time should have been completed. He would not touch plants and kept his hands enclosed either behind his back or entwined with Enid's.

His once shriveled heart had grown, a once diseased touch weakened when embraced with Enid's.

Enid sensed this concern for his depleting powers one day and took her hand away from his.

Mrithun promised her it was alright, that the power of Enid's love for him was greater to him than his duties of death.

And by Enid's side, with no death to be done, the forest around them became bigger.

As creatures kept living, animals kept breeding. Plants continued growing. Trees became like vines growing longer, entwining their branches and stretching their roots. Animals became older and wiser, creatures spoke words and built homes more complex. Mushrooms became villages. Caverns and tree roots became kingdoms and palaces.

From life gifted by not one spirit but two, the small forest animals became born anew, became powerful. A gift Enid and Mrithun called it.

Ancient creatures were born, creatures of infinite knowledge, creatures that had learned spells and chants and spoke in rhymes and riddles. From bugs and monkeys came fairies fae and sprites. In mushroom homes gnomes with tall pointed hats roamed free with buck teeth. Goblins and trolls drunk rum and ate apples on the edges of the forest. In the tangle of ancient trees timber men roamed and guarded Their castles. Some trees even began to walk, bugs began to whisper. The caverns became grand with power and riches made from crystals.

But the fae were greedy. The fae sought their spirits Enid and Mrithun and begged them for magic of their own to wield. Mrithun spoke against it but Enid agreed and blessed the children each with a power, one to transform, one to read others, one to grow life, and another to heal. The fae relished in Enid's gift and worshiped her protection.

Mrithun watched Enid become the beloved spirit of the fae people.

With no power to show of his own, Mrithun merely watched her back, his love's happy smile, and found he could not do much to contain his own.

A party from the fae people to thank her for their new powers was held and the two spirits of the forest danced for hours in each other's grasp.

Bright green leaves grew up from Mrithun's skin as the two waltzed hand in hand across the floor once more, flowers bloomed and vines entwined across his head.

"A miracle."

Enid told him as she examined the color in his hair and skin while she danced with him amongst the fae. Even his eyes became bright like her own.

And yet, something inside Mrithun felt distant and fading.

Something so weak and tired that he had never felt before growing greater every time his hand closed around Enid's.

That night when the two spirits returned to their moss forest bed to sleep, he watched his lovely Enid dream of their dances together, always hand in hand, and felt something like water dropping from his eyes as he clasped her fingers tighter.

Mrithun watched the smile laid across her mouth, even as she slumbered and felt the moss bed grow around him, curling into his skin, become part of him.

He felt his fingers turn into branches and his eyes turn to crystals. His hair flowed in vines and his nose turned to rosebuds.

He stayed silent, still smiling as his love slept.

For she could not know the truth. Even now.

Her smile was all he needed, all he wanted, even as he struggled to see her through his growing crystal eyes, even as she still held his hand, unknowingly weakening his very existence of death and decay.

Even as his eyes closed for a final time and whispered his final breath,

"Have enough life for the both of us."

Even as he left a lily at her side, as bright as her eyes, the gift he was finally able to give her, the very first and final farewell to the only love he could have ever known.

To the life that loved death.

And the death whose heart had overgrown.