"Woo! Where's my autograph book?"
- Calamity Ganon
Fina stepped through the forest brush in search of a hideous monster. Twigs snapped and dry leaves crunched under her white boots as her footfalls slowed. Her eyes followed the roots of a giant grotesquely winding plant surrounded in an overgrown garden of its siblings.
Fina became aware of the creature's presence the same moment it became aware of her.
The markswoman grasped her bow tight and cautiously backed away, drawing her white cape around shoulders protectively. The flowery creature growing out of the giant stem unfurled her greenery, displaying herself as a shameless mimicry of a young and nubile human maiden approximated in plant skin. Her anatomy ceased pretending to be human and turned back into its winding botanical form somewhere near her lower torso. Her evergreen eyes took one glance at the blonde-haired and fair-skinned trespasser and became enamored.
"Ooh! What a lovely little petunia you are!" the dryad said to the lone battlemage. Her face was blushing with excitement and her fingers were covering her mouth. "You're dressed in such pretty red petals! Your cape sparkles like moonlight pollen! And those melons hanging off you! They're so lush! You should be picked right away!"
The base of dryad's stem rustled quietly. The leafy walls of a giant bulb spread open, exposing its soft, inviting, and slightly damp interior a few feet in front of Fina's eyes.
"Rest yourself in my decontamination pod, darling," the dryad said happily. "I'll cure you of all of your human rubbish in no time."
The archer mage glanced up with determination etched into her fair features. The edges of her silver bow roared in bright pink flames as she strung an arrow for the dryad.
"Save your temptations for someone weaker, monster," she growled through the corner of her mouth, holding her head steady for her aim. "I won't be debased by your disgusting ways."
"So the flower has thorns." The dryad's innocent smile transformed into a sarcastic sneer. "We'll just have to do this the hard way."
The ground under Fina's feet rumbled. Vines thrust straight up from the dirt like moist green spears. Fina narrowly cartwheeled toward her right to escape a quick weed infestation.
The archer fired round after round of arrows as she strafed the plant woman in a half-circle. Each shot was blocked by a wall of petrified bark the dryad summoned in front of herself and constantly repositioned. The creature playfully bobbed her head to the melody of an imaginary battle song.
Fina gave up her ranged attacks and ran straight for the dryad. She punched her way through the dozens of vines trying to wrap around her arms and swung the edge of her bow like it was an axe. The dryad tilted her waist sideways to avoid the first blow, then turned her arm into a tree branch to catch the next one. Fina gnashed her teeth as she pushed her weapon against the dryad's leaves. The dryad giggled and held the bow in place with her matching strength. The human woman and the plant woman were locked in a stalemate.
A mist of violet pollen exploded from underneath them both. The dryad smiled and took a deep breath of her sweet-smelling defense pheromones. Fina staggered backwards with her bow dangling at her side, her mortal senses numbed by the pollen's toxins. She was too weak to notice the dripping stem rising up to the right side of her head.
The invading species plunged into the decorative cream-colored lily tucked above Fina's ear. The dryad's stigmas tangled with Fina's ovules, fertilizing the lily viciously and mutating the harmless decoration into a living, thriving organism that desperately needed a food source. Its roots burrowed through the rocky surface of Fina's skull and delicately caressed the outermost membranes of her brain.
Fina's eyes grew wide and blank, like a freshly reanimated zombie's. She turned toward the dryad with an almost shy complexion, blinking toward the perfectly Fina-sized pod that still awaited her. The dryad beckoned playfully, and the mage archer seemed all too willing to become her guest.
Fina nestled into the silky bed with her bow still in her grip. The dryad's vine remained entwined with the flower above Fina's ear and followed her everywhere she moved, constantly pumping its stem with nectar and parasites to help it grow stronger.
Fina curled comfortably on her side as a pair of green needles grew over the sides of her neck, pinching into her jugular veins. She yawned and closed her eyes as the pod closed its Venus jaws around her.
Above the steamy organic prison, the dryad sighed and began to photosynthesize.
A rescue party wandered into the dryad's nursing grounds several days later. The team was comprised of Rain, Lasswell, Barret Wallace, Celes Chere, Tidus, two or three different Cids, Ariana Grande, Puffy from Star Ocean 3, the Magician, and a few brave others. They were careful and cautious, but their attention was drawn toward the dark and menacing forest creature looming over them from her vine-covered trunk. They hardly noticed the motionless green bulb tangled deep in her root system.
An arrow suddenly shot out of pod and struck Zack Fair in his heart, killing him instantly. The rest of the party stared in shock toward where the arrow had flown. The dryad coiled back in anticipation.
The pod spread open into a bed of veiny green leaves at the base of the dryad's stem. Fina sat up in her flowery incubator with her back toward the fighters and a ring of giant filaments waving alluringly around her. She was clutching her angelic silver bow in her left hand.
Fina was a product of merciless and uninhibited biology. She was drenched in sticky emerald chlorophyll mixed with the natural oils from her sweat. Her red and gold tunic clung to her shape like pressed rose petals. The organic fittings that had kept her secure and protected her more fragile features during her long rest began to remove themselves. Vines gradually untied from her bare waist, uncurled from her gloved arms and legs, and untangled from a leafy wedge between her cleavage, making her giggle in ticklishness. The invasive flower broke off from the creamy lily petals above her ear and shrank away on its stem, squirting a few ounces of sparkling lime plant blood through the air before its stamen completely closed.
Fina glanced behind her shoulder toward the party of mortals, taunting them subtly with glowing rosy eyes. She climbed to her feet, carefully stepped out of the pod's petals with her cape dripping behind her, and silently faced the group of armed fighters.
The reborn Fina was physically the same as her old self, but the flowery aroma that wafted from her was unrecognizably pungent and sweet. The sentient lily in her hair made her its slave, turning her body into tender soil where it could spread its roots. With her mind cleansed and her body enriched with nutrients, she was now nothing more than an extension of the flower itself, a weapon for carrying out whatever vile and catastrophic deeds it willed.
This new lifeform was a wicked flower wearing a human decoration.
"She's one of the most confusing ones I've had to weed through," the dryad said, her voice chiming with mystery. "Some kind of earth goddess with mixed up memories pretending to be a human. I never would have guessed before I started cultivating her. I just thought she was pretty."
The leaves on her shoulders rustled as she innocently shrugged.
"But now she's simple. I helped her go back to her roots."
Every member of the party was horrified by the revelations.
The lily quivered in Fina's hair, whispering sugary impulses through the hollows of her infested mind. Fina slowly lifted her bow as its pink flames began to blaze. Tiny twinkling plant spores streamed through the embers of the magic fire, hinting at only a fraction of her new contagious power.
She drew her first arrow toward the rescue party, her pulsing red eyes fixing her aim like laser sights. Her former self had drowned in enchanted chlorophyll, but her hunting instincts had been perfectly preserved with her flesh.
The party raised their weapons in defense. Fina let the arrow loose in a raging typhoon of flower petals.
Author's note: Hey it worked for Drakengard 3.