Complications I
Still same.
"Did you see what happened just now?"
She said walking towards the middle-aged man who also was also walking towards her. They almost walked into each other when the man stopped and said,
"What business did you have with her? She's not whoever she says she is."
The man's husky voice came, his face rough, but quite trained to filter whichever emotions he was nursing at that moment.
"We barely talked before she left. I actually freaked out seeing what she looked like and ran away. But she just stood there watching me like I was mad and had just made the whole stuff up. Then I walked back to her and then she didn't wait for me. She then walked into that tree. You saw her. Please don't say I am mad."
She paused to catch her breath finally. The man looked past her towards the tree in which Aynea had entered. He then started walking towards the tree.
"Please say something. My state isn't good for these several emotions plaguing my thoughts at this moment."
She said hurrying towards him. The man got to the tree and placed his palm on its bark as though he was trying to feel something. Then he turned to her,
"What state do you speak of?"
The Princess halted and assumed a stray stance,
"Tell me about the lady first before I answer that."
The man sighed and turned his back to the tree. He leaned on it, facing her, her round face smothered by the wiles of fate, it seemed.
"She's a dryad. That's what you call them. She's a magical creature, firstly a spirit. But you do know that there are some spirits who are capable of revealing themselves, though in their true forms, to humans. Aynea is one of them."
The princess walked closer to the man,
"You speak as though you've had an encounter with her. Have you, tell me. Please do not hold back anything from me."
The man's broke into a gaunt frown. He shot,
"It doesn't work that way, lady. I answer a question, you answer mine too. I don't get to be the only one talking."
The lady dropped her bag, folding her arms beneath her titties,
"You don't show no trait of a gentleman at all."
There was scorn permeating her face. The man felt beaten as he admitted,
"Fine. I've met her on two occasions I guess. And believe me, none of the two was good. Both were ugly."
She tossed her head aside,
"Are you trying to scare me now?"
He scoffed,
"That's quite a way to think of it. But really, why would you think of it that way in the first place."
She looked away from him towards the East of the forest, from the point of stance. There was a Jay persuading another, probably trying to woo it. She allowed herself to be distracted for a while before looking back at the man,
"Do I have a choice to choose what to think anymore? I don't think so. I'm only in need of help, and water. I have food that would save me for few days and few change of clothes."
He leaned uprightly and mimicked the position of the lady. Then he said,
"You seem to forget too soon our bargain. It's now my time to ask you a question."
"Very well then..."
She puffed the air in frustration,
"What are you doing here and where are you going to?"
She looked around as though someone was there. Then she said to him,
"It's hard to say, but why should I stand here saying all?"
He snapped at once,
"It's your choice to choose which position to take. You might as well sit but I won't quit leaning on this tree. Plus there's no cave around."
"What would that do?"
"Don't get off the topic. Doesn't really matter."
She shrugged and answered,
"I'm certain that you're not quick to judge or are you?"
She said, tossing her head sideways in anticipation and scorn. He shook his head,
"All you're doing makes me want to know what happened even more. So if you're thinking of bunking the words, I'd double-cross you over and over again."
"Fine."
She snapped. Then she continued, though she was quite reluctant,
"I used to wander around this forest when I lost my parents and found no care. There was a great war between my land, Aiowa and this land. Many of my people were killed and I ran into this forest. One day, the king of this land found me hanging on a tree, a tiger had been on me. He killed the tiger and took me with him to his palace. Since then have I been living in the palace until the king was about to die. Then after he died, I was sent out of the palace."
She stopped talking. But she didn't need to be told by a sorcerer that the man wasn't even convinced. He didn't keep her hanging,
"That sounded like a story made up five seconds ago. Don't tell me that you were telling lies to me."
"Why would I want to lie to you? You're just a stranger?"
She denied. But he came again,
"Remember you said you were scared that I would judge you? I'm certain your story doesn't even ply that route.
She couldn't hide it for long. He crashed under the weight of his pestering,
"Fine."
She sighed and hesitated for a while.
"Trust me, your secret is safe with me."
She scoffed,
"It's no secret. Every soul of this land already know about it. I'm surprised you don't. Where are you from?"
"Leaving the topic again?"
She shook her head, licking her lips in frustration,
"Okay! The king fell for my beauty and we started making out."
"You didn't like him?"
"Not really?"
"Does that make it a rape or you enjoyed it?"
"What does it matter. Ah!!"
She exclaimed. He allowed her the audience and she continued,
"So, I became pregnant and that was what I told him before his death. Well, he told me to tell the people about it, but I warned him. Eventually I told the chiefs who were crazy, and here I am."
Her face was pale already. Before he could probe further, she asked,
"I forgot to ask your name."
"Vulcan."
He said without hesitating.
"Vulcan!"
She called at him and he said,
"Yes that's my name. Like Vul-can, as in Vul-ture. But instead of 'ture', we have "can". Like you --"
He quit talking as he noticed her concerned face. There was worry splattered on it.
"What?"
He asked confused as she pointed behind him . He didn't know what to think. There was only a tree behind him.
But then he began to turn slowly, trying to figure if twas a wild cat she was point at. But his jaw dropped instead, the tree he thought he was leaning on had opened behind him.
He gasped as soon as he saw it and began to run towards the lady, he had barely grabbed her arm before he felt a force pulling him, as well as the lady he was holding, into the tree.
Twas like a nightmare. The force had the best of them and they were swallowed by the tree. The tree in which Aynea had entered.
The tree closed and a strong wind blew past the tree, shaking it ruthlessly as though it would pluck it out of the earth and fling it away. But the wind couldn't. But it did leave a mark of the tree.
All the leaves on the tree were plucked. The tree stripped naked. A tree striper.
