Legno, God of the Trees
Poseidon reluctantly drew back his hold on Athens when his gift of the salt water spring was considered worse than Athena’s olive tree. Years later, the olive tree still stood on the mountain. Strangely one side of the tree had taken on a humanoid face. The face grew more and more and slowly a body grew and took shape. One day, just as Apollo was riding overhead on his sun chariot, the body finally emerged from the olive tree. His skin was green and striped all over with the likeness of the trunks of the tree. Legno, the god of the trees, was born. Legno was born as a mortal clothed fully in tree bark and leaves, with the flowers blooming and the leaves becoming lush and green. His features resembled an elf and he was elegant and graceful. When he was born, the sleeping god Pan awakened because he caused such a stir in nature. Legno wandered the forest finding his happiness with the trees. Legno found that he could talk with the trees in the forest and aided them in any way he could, healing them when they were wounded.
One year, not too much after Legno appeared on earth, Hephaestus had a call about the completion of Hercules’s twelve tasks and went to see it. He left his forge to his loyal Cyclops as always and quickly left. A bird of fire had been trapped as a punishment in Hephaestus’s forge because of the damage and destruction he had caused to many cities. The bird, named Karrchra seized his chance and coaxed one of the Cyclopes to open his cage. As soon as Karrchra was free, he swooped out, being careful as not to make too much sound, burning several giant Cyclopes to crisp. Finally free, the bird traveled as far as possible away from his imprisonment. Created accidentally from a volcano eruption, Karrchra knew his job was to burn and cause destruction. He found a large forest, built up a fire, and launched again and again. Pan was very disturbed that this was happening to a wild piece of nature, untouched by man. That night, Pan decided he needed to do something fast, and remembering the strange disturbance in nature years ago, he quickly sent a dream to the sleeping Legno. At first when Legno woke up, he thought the dream was impossible, but then he saw the blackened tree branch Pan had sent and knew he had to save the forest. Legno turned himself into a small striped leaf and his tree companions whipped him quickly to the place of the burning. He became one with the forest and felt the pains of the trees. Legno healed the ones that were still alive and, becoming himself, faced the flame bird.
Karrchra turned and faced the new challenger. He didn’t see Legno as someone who cared for these things he destroyed, but instead, saw him just as a new target. Delighted, Karrchra sent a flame at Legno, which hit and set him on fire. The nearest trees uprooted themselves and gently patted the smoldering Legno until the flames were out. Legno painfully stood up and faced Karrchra again, caring only for the survival of the forest. The fire bird looked at him quizzically, for no enemy had ever tried to face him again after they were struck down. But Karrchra didn’t care, he liked target practice. Summoning all his strength, the flame bird called on the destructive molten power of the volcano and unleashed the biggest flame pillar ever seen. Man that lived on the edge of the great forest saw the explosion and ran for their lives, thinking the end of the world had come. Karrchra felt himself fading away, his life force of the volcano burned up and he became a small blackened statue. Legno, on the other hand, at the time of the explosion had called on the life force of the forest, ancient powers that had existed since the earth began. But Legno had to use most of his own energy also to defend the area that the pillar covered. The explosion that was seen was the collision from the flame pillar and Legno’s invisible shield. After the smoke had cleared, Legno was barely breathing, most of his body on fire because his shield only covered the forest. The trees all uprooted themselves and carried the unconscious body of Legno towards the sanctuary of Pan. Pan was sympathetic for this mortal and was respected at his decision to try to put the forest before himself. He created a special a special healing potion and poured it down Legno’s throat while he sent a message to Zeus, king of the Olympians, to ask him to make Legno a god. Zeus had saw the entire battle and gladly made Legno a god. But being a god was still not enough, even combined with the potion made by Pan, to save Legno, so all the gods came together and made an unmatchable potion. Legno was healed, but could only hold off the wound for two seasons. The other two seasons would be spent enduring his pain. And to honor their savior and commander, the trees all lost all their leaves during autumn and winter and grew them back in spring and summer. Hephaestus felt so bad about the incident with the flame bird that he crafted a magnificent symbol of nature from the branches of the olive tree, adding strange metallic leaves as sharp as knives and enhancing it with his secret salve. Legno gladly accepted his gift and took his place as god. Years later, still another mortal was born from the same olive tree and the gods gladly changed his status to god also. Seeing it was his brother, Legno handed him the power over some trees and these trees stayed green all through the season, shielded from Legno’s wound. And while Legno lay in pain for two seasons, his brother sat by his side and comforted him.
Note: I wrote this awhile ago . . .so its not really as good as the others.
But still, i like this one XD
