Let's face it, getting reincarnated as a tree has got to be the lamest thing to get reincarnated into. But when the tree is actually a King Forest Keeper, born every thousand years with a 15% chance, with abilities beyond human comprehension, even p...
Lucien had followed the team for a bit before stopping at the border forest and valley, with the view of the city walls in the distance.
"What are you waiting for." Leiah sneered, a little shaken by the power that such a young sapling could hold. It was normal for her to feel intimidated. She did get a first hand experience of having the basic power a human can possess, willpower, forcefully stripped away from her. Who was this tree to think it had the right and power to do that.
"It's just, it feels weird to leave. Something like a faint pull." Lucien closed his eyes, searching for the sensation that tugged on him, as if begging him not to go. He opened them to 4 pairs of eyes, each showing a different emotion.
Sen cleared his throat "But first, you should do something about your appearance."
Lucien looked down to see a collection of interwoven roots that made up what would have been his abdomen. Come to think of it, he had never noticed up until then.
"uh...i can try to change? Idk what i can do, to be honest."
All four of them collectively took a step back as if he said something dangerous. Lucien had not missed that action. He rolled his eyes to a close, imagining what he wanted to be. Nothing in his skill set indicated that he had the power, but that did not stop him. Something unexpected did happen though. His woven roots split up, shrinking exponentially to the size of thread. Then like living ropes, the structures interwove themselves in a complicated way, creating the form of something remotely human-looking.
Watching it happen, Filomena, Rurik, Sen, and Leiah were entranced. When the last of the root-strings stopped moving, they then noticed that Lucien's new form was the size of a 15 y/o human. His "skin" was a rich root brown with streaks of deep greens, dark oranges, and dull reds and yellows. He was admittedly fascinated, raising a hand to where his hair should have been.
He grabbed a handful of leaf, soft and downy, but also tough and durable at the same time. It did not feel anything like what its look implied.
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Lucien squinted at the box, then at the adventurers who seemed oblivious to it. They seemed to look through it, right at him.
"I guess this is the form i feel most comfortable in." Lucien clasped his hands behind his back.
"I guess dryads are not too uncommon in Aiona..." Filomena trailed off as she reached into a satchel by her side, pulling out a brown blanket-looking thing. She tossed it at Lucien, who had yet to realize that he was stark naked.
Lucien caught it with a small grunt. Embarrassed, Lucien wrapped himself. He'd managed to learn a new skill and show a bunch of strangers his nudity all within the span of 5 minutes.
"Shall we?" Rurik motioned for the rest of us to follow. The trek was not long, but it was awkwardly silent besides the constant chatter between Sen and Leiah.
"You know you'd find no other archer like me." Leiah nudged Sen, who didn't look like he felt the strike of that sharp elbow. Lucien winced, but smiled sadly at their relationship. He'd had that once, with his parents, no matter how corny that had sounded.
Even his childhood best friend who had stopped talking to him a couple of months prior to his death after he told her off for deciding to date one of the morally wrong people in the school, and then coming to rant to him about her relationship problems.
Our relationship was strained anyway. Lucien sighed. It was probably better this way, with him dead to everyone he ever knew, not that he was very popular to start.
They had arrived at the gates of the city wall of Aiona. The guards that watched the gates had shifty eyes, like those of a seasoned thief. The closer they walked, the more frequently their eyes paused on Lucien, taking in his leafy-green hair and unique skin.
"Got a dryad there, eh?" One of them, to the right, coughed.
"You know a specimen like tht will fetch a high price in the black market?" the other informed, acting like he had . just gave away a valuable piece of information and it would have to cost them something.
"We know." Rurik scoffed, turning away. "We don't take on those kinds of deals anymore."
"ah, so the famous group Flare really has died out, leaving the weakest behind to fend for himself." Right hissed, twirling his spear in one hand. "If you want, you could give us the dryad and we'll let your Wanted ass in for free."
Lucien, though feeling it wasn't his right to interfere, pointed a palm, open to the sky at him, before slowly closing it into a fist. He had no idea what he was doing, but it felt...right. Beneath their feet, the ground vibrated and rumbled. Roots sprouted, splitting the ground, to coil around the offender.
They formed the shape of a hand, trapping him in place to struggle against the bonds. Lucien then turned to the rest of the adventurers.
"We better continue. And soon" as he knew it wouldn't be long before the guard started screaming bloody murder.
They looked amongst each other, Sen shrugged and was the first to walk on. None of them had the courage to pry at Rurik's past. Once they were past the gates, they were welcomed with a trading center of some sort.
Who puts a trading center right at the doorway, Lucien thought tilting his head to the side as he looked from stand to stand taking it all in.
He looked at the fellow adventurers, who looked like they wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible. It was clear to him that they weren't on the best terms with the general public. Together, they wove and ducked around just about anyone from sellers to buyers to squealing children. One of them nearby had taken a keen interest to Lucien's physical traits. He could practically hear them whispering to each other about the new, weird kid in the square.
"I don't think you'd want to get lost in a place like this...uhh" Leiah turned to him, motioning for him to finish her sentence.
"Lucien. I'm Lucien."
"Right." Filomena butted in. "We'll be taking you back to the ol' guild. You'll meet our mage of a guild master. Maybe he'll be able to take a look at you and identify what you are."
"I already know-" Lucien began only to be cut off by a collision of a small, furry mass ramming into him at full speed. He turned around to give the culprit a piece of his mind, eyes blazing only to find no one. Instead, it was a small, green, fuzzy thing. It opened an orange eye to meet lucien's, whose anger disappeared at the sight of the adorable ball of fluff.
"what's this..?" he inquired scooping it up into the air
"That," Rurik smiled. "would be a pompon...the guild master's pompon to be exact."
"We must be closer to the guild than we thought."
The pompon hopped off of Lucien's hand, flapped its translucent wings into the sky and flew off to who knows where.
"Let's get going, I want to see if we can get you into the initiation ceremony before it begins." Rurik starts off with a light jog.
Lucien was amazed that he could even do that with those large things strapped to his back. Everyone else followed him and continued their weaving journey with the destination of the guild in mind.
A/N: Again, let me know if there are any errors, I won't take it to heart and i'll get to them as soon as possible :)
