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"CRACK"

A tree falls in the woods,and doubtful anyone has actually heard it. The saying that goes with it is true among most people; A tree falls, it /does/ make a sound, but if no one's around, it isn't...only thing is, it still makes a noise, and aloud one at that.
The sound echoes quickly across the forest surrounding the clan village, bouncing here and there off the thickly knit trees.

"CRACK"

Another tree falls, this time knocking down another three in the process.

"CRACK CRASH THUD CRACK"

The ruckus races through the forest, reaching the village enclosed within, echoing off sides of buildings and growing in volume, before petering out entirely. this is where we take a closer look. this is also the part of the story where your stomach turns to knots simply imagining what it was knocking down all those trees at once.
Nothing to fear, except fear itself that is, and isn't that fun?
So in we go, zooming through the trees and underbrush littering the forest floor. Deeper and Deeper we go, the last vestiges of the village dissapearing between the closely huddles trunks of ancient trees, until we come upon the source of the destruction.
Here, a clump of trees has been broken in a ring in every direction., yet they did not fall. In the center of them, a clump of what looks like ragweed has sprouted, and from it, tendriled vines extend out to each of the felled trees, suspending them angled above the ground, still slightly attached to their severed stumps.
As we watch, the vines slowly creep up and wrap around the felled trees, covering them entirety with vines. they weave in and out of themselves,creating knots and designs on their surface, almost beautiful in appearance.
Within 10 minutes the trees are no longer visible beneath the creeping vines, from trunk to canopy, they are solid green, each branch carefully wrapped and preserved beneath the vines like a twisted green mockery of nature.
As if this odd thing was not enough, a small flower appears in the center of the clump of ragweed. It is pitch black,and upon closer inspection seems to look like the void of space. Nothing with white dots speckled on its face, moving silently within the soupy black petals.

"pop"

the flower blooms instantly with an audible noise, the scent rising from it is sweet yet menacing. Small licks of fire spurt from the blood red pistils in its center, giving off immense heat as the stem stretches upwards. The petals expand to enormous size as they reach the crest of the vined trees felled earlier. A wispy sigh is heard from nowhere as the flower settles near the top...30 feet wide now from end to end, covering the gap between the trees, the flames licking from the now enormous pistils have grown in size as well, spurting 15 or so feet upwards. The void flower stretches one last time, touching the canopies of the felled trees, attaching itself to their surface and solidifying on contact. The massive petals, still inky black in color, quiver slightly as the small dots expand to whole galaxies spinning and colliding within their floral universe. Each collision resulting in another quiver and a faint feeling of energy release to any standing nearby.

"CREEAAK"

Loud and presumptuous. Vines whip upwards from the broken stumps and intertwine around and between the felled vine covered trees, creating living breathing walls of writhing green, quickly covering up to the giant void flower above, and within minutes the whole process is done. Within, the faint slithering and thuds of progress can be heard, but nothing is visible,and there is no entryway within line of sight.
What we now see is what resembles a giant living cocoon made of foliage.
A grande and mysterious thing. It's size rivaled only by its odd and mysterious origins.
A new smell this time, unexplainable to the human mind. it reeks of sex, and comforting foods,and grandparents, and holidays, summer, winter,fall and spring, of life and of death, beginning and end, of nothing and everything.
This, children, is called a 'Pheromone" and as with all plants, this odd structure is giving it off, and its quite pungent and obvious.
In no time at all,the smell will creep into the village, exciting curiosity, and inspiring all.

The fast approach fo the forest's edge loomed over him as he ran from his pursuers. Had it really been only a few hours since he'd arrived at that small village?
He'd been wandering for days looking for shelter, with no luck from the surrounding flatlands. The Barren rolling expanse merely mocked him with its dusty visage of death and decay, the golden sun burning brightly above him. the cloudless sky had killed off all hope of rain, and he was feeling it in his system. he needed to be replenished or he'd die. His skin had begun to fade brown and wrinkled slightly, rough under his touch.
that was when he spied the village; a quiant thing at best, but more home than this hellish plataeu he'd been traversing.

"By the Gods! Finally something civilized in this wasteland!"

He'd made a plan as he camped outside the village outskirts that night. Get in, find some work, get replenished and get out befopre anyone started asking questions.
It had seemed the perfect easy in/out plan for such a small place, but he did not expect what had happened the next day.
Upon arriving early in the morning before the sun had risen, he had found his way o the heart of the tiny village. It's buildings and roads were in terrible dissaray. Seemingly, this place was built, and then never taken care of afterwards. the years and use showed greatly in this village, broken walls and weeds higher than himselflooming in every direction. He almost thought this village was deserted.

"Hello?"

He called out sheepishly, as if the place were haunted and any exessive noise would awaken the spirits within. This would have been a bad thing, he'd had run-ins with such beings before, and wanted nothing to do with them again.
A faint whistling noise arose from somewhere south of the village square, growing louder. A heavy /whoosh/ sped past his face, the breeze refreshing on his skin, but the object that caused it was not pleasing at all. He spun around quickly as a large metal object slid past his face and slammed with a nasty clang into a pock ridden wall behind him. A disheartened grunt reached his ears and he spun around to investigate it. A gristled old man was standing near a well to the south of him, what seemed to be his son and two grandchildren at his heel. All of them equipped with nasty barbed metal things resembling Throwing Stars. The youngest of the group moved, whipping his arm out so quickly it was barely visible.
Again that whistling sound and suddenly one of the barbed throwing stars was slamming into him, knocking him back a good 4 feet. A barb peirced his leahery flesh as he hit a wall, connecting with the solid and latching himto it where he stood.

"What was that for!?"

He reached up and ripped the barb out of his shoulder where it had peirced, a sickening crunch erupted from the wound as it exited. He looked up just in time to hear two more barbed throwing stars being throw at him.

"This is no way to greet guests!"

His words seemed to heed no meaning to the villagers, either that or they just didn't care. He dodged another barb reeling past his face and looked at the now large gathering of villagers near the wellto the south of him. Each of them weilding a barbed weapon, and one supporting a cart filled to the brim with extras.

"s**t..."

It was at this point he turned blindly and ran in any direction he could get to. The air about him erupted noisily with the whistling and thuding of the barbed weapons of these villagers flying every which way and missing every time; though barely. He felt a sickening thud as one of the barbed weapons hit him square in the back. it had gone off center, and merely hit him, the painful barbs barely grazing him, but it was enough to rip the shirt he was wearing and the straps underneath. He'd been hoping he wouldn't have to deal with this here in the village, but it didn;t seem like a votable issue anymore. His shirt ripped off comepletly as a set of 6 vines stretched out from the skin on his back, whipping wildly in all directions, grabbing errant weapons from the air and flingling them back with deadly aim to the villagers chasing him.

"Maybe this will help hold them off for a while"

He heard the yelps and cries of the villagers, though he did not see them, he was too busy getting away, and he was still being attacked regardless of this new outcome of his. He used one of the vines to grab a ledge of a nearby roof and quickly raised himself up to it, catching his balanese and continued running, using his vines to jump from rooftop to rooftop, continuously catching and sending the flying weapons back at the villagers. on quite a few occasions, hea heard a muffled thunk as, he assumed, some of the villagers fell to the ground dead. But sadly this was nothing to celebrate about seeing as he was running out of rooftops, and more villagers continued to spill out of the buildings below. as he reached the final rooftop, he lowered his vines below him and jutted upwards clearing the outskirts fo the village. He quickly lost conciousness and plummeted to the ground, slamming into it with enough force to displace the earth around him into a small human sized crater. if it hadn't been for the thud of hitting the earth waking him, he'd have been dead, becasue the villagers took this time to bum rush him. He quickly dug himself into the ground using his vines as they aproached, moving swiftly away from the approaching sounds.

"I think I lost them, those basta-"

A sharp point ground into his chest. one of the villagers had caught on and thrust a spear of sorts into the ground, he cried out, muffled by the dirt above him and ripped the ground usunder as he freed himself from the dirt, running once more as he ripped the spear from his chest. A thick green liquid oozed from the hole it left behind, it smelled faintly of aloe.

This is when he saw the forest edge. it came on him fast, looming over his small form. a wide grin, marred by pain, crept over his face.

"This is my ticket baby!"

he yelled aloud, as he looked behind him at the approaching villagers.
He sped up now, and at the first ridge of trees, plunged himself into the green ether beyond. He continued to run for quite a few minutes before he noticed he was not being followed. the villagers must fear the woods,living in such an open exposed place like the flatlands he'd been in. this was good for him, as he did not know how much logner he would have been alive if not for he wooded sanctuary that now surrounded him.
His vines hung limply behind him, and the green fluid that seeped from his wound had jellied onto his skin, making it look clumpy and disgusting. The smell of aloe mixed with the acrid scent of unwashed skin and rotting vegetation. He smelled horrid. A faint trickle of water could be heard, and it vibrated deep within him.

"WATER!"

he followed the sound quickly, finding it with ease, his plant senses picking up on it better than his human sense. hHe plunged into the clear rippling pond he had found, taking no heed to any danger that m,ay have been near him, basking in the life giving waters of this forest, and as he crested again, his skin was revitalised again, pale with a hint of green. his eyes sparkled wildly as he crept up onto the pools edgem his vines digging into the earth and pulling up vital nutrients. here he stayed and slept, feasting on the space around him, regenerating and healing his wounds.

When he awoke, he did not recognize his surroundings, normal for someone who had been traveling for days and experienced trauma to the chest. He stood up and wiped his sleep clogged eyes, finally realizing where he was and what had gotten him here. He bowed to the pool and said a small chant of thanks, and turned away, surveying the forest around him. a faint smell hit his nose..something...almost familiar. it smelled like knowledge and money. Could this be some sort of hidden village full of mercanaries? They always smelled the same, and his snese of smell never failed him, not since his 'change'.
He followed the smell for a while, and noticed something strange...he was intentionally being led astray by something. The smell was keeping the same course he was following, but something was keeping him from actually finding its point of origin.

"Clever..."

He reached up and grabbed a nearby branch,feeling the rough wooden surface beneath his fingertips, gripping it tightly with his hand. He pulled himself upand quickly scaled the tree it was attatched to, bringing himself up to the canopy. it was here he noticed something interesting.

"Just as I thought!"

The forest was large and expansive, so much so that he was unable to see its edge on the other side, what he /did/ see however was a large circular clearing set into the center. He sensed some sort of ...power surrounding the clearing. No wonder he'd not been able tofollow the mercenary trademark scent, it as being hidden intentionally. He brought about his vines and lifted himself above the canopy, crawling expertly on the brittle branches below him across the top of the forest, heading towards the circual clearing ahead of him.

"Anyone living in a forest has to be better than those creeps in the village."

THE END

11-10-2006 GJJ
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