I am so so SORRY for the delay! I've been in a mixture between school/procrastination/writer's block so it's been, like, a month since I last updated this. I'm sorry.

Anyway, there is probably a ton of errors and a reasonably crummy chapter, so please if you find any errors, point them out to me! I would like to fix them. Thanks! :3

I have more information on Xephos' background on my tumblr page (link in profile) so if anyone wants to get a bit of my thought process behind him please take a peek! (be warned there are spoilers so proceed with caution).

Anyway, onto the story!


There was something going on in the forest.

Xehpos paused in his hammering, the happy babbling of Honeydew falling deaf on his ears as his azure gaze gazed at the gently waving sea of leaves. He and the Dwarf had been working on the barn all week, and now with the supports and the walls up, they were working on the roof. Honeydew had bought more nails than should be reasonable when they had gone to town, but with Xephos' inability to hit a stud or the nail so that it wouldn't go flying off into the unknown, they were going to be needing all the nails they could get. Honeydew had laughed at Xephos' frustration as he missed a particular stubborn nail over a dozen times before he had hit it so hard it went shooting off and thwacked the Dwarf in the forehead. After that Honeydew showed the azure-eyed man to take it slow and practice his aim. He got a little better, but he was still putting dents into the wood more often than not.

Taking care of the roof left Xephos with little time to peek about with the alternate colors, but even with it being invisible his azure tendrils weaved and explored. He had gotten used to the touch of the tickling greens from the flora and the soft rustling of creams of the fauna that thrived near their quaint home, and even learned to tolerate the more hungry grasps of the trees in the forest nearby.

Yet today the many greens of the forest were more active than normal. He could feel them dance and writhe even with his own colors at a distance, distracted this time not by him but by something else, something deeper in the shadows of the trees as the greens learned and curled towards the forest's core. Some of the tendrils reached out to his azure, tugging not in a hungrily fashion as before, but in a beckoning, eager sort of way.

"What'cha looking at?"

Xephos startled, the hammer dropping from his hand and sliding off the roof with a heavy scraping noise before hitting the ground with a muted thump. He turned wide azure eyes to his Dwarf companion, who was peering at his face with curiosity.

Xephos stared at Honeydew for a moment before letting his eyes drift back towards the woods as one of the green tendrils tugged a bit too enthusiastically on his colors. Honeydew followed the gaze, his brow furrowing as he tried to see exactly what had attracted his friend's attention.

"What, is there something in the woods?" the Dwarf asked, his dark eyes going to look at Xephos as his rusty hues rubbed gently against the azure, curious and questioning.

Xephos shook his head, forcing to ignore the eagerness of the trees and busied himself in climbing down the ladder to retrieve the hammer. He saw Honeydew shrug and go back to working, but his colors swirled about in slight confusion and concern. Xephos did his best to ignore the tugging and distracting dancing of the greens, yet it was difficult to concentrate with it constantly tugging on his azure to get his attention.

By the afternoon the tugging of the forest had grown so irritating that Xephos had bound his own colors tight around his body in hope that the other colors would leave him alone. His hope was in vain, for as the day progressed, even the grass and flowers began to act in the same excited manner, their usual gentle caress turning into sharp, needle-like prods that distracted him from his work to the point where he was hitting everything with the hammer other than the nail- including his fingers.

His overall frustration and inability to hammer nails had not gone unnoticed. After lunch Honeydew all but banned Xephos from climbing up the ladder back onto the roof, his worry conveyed through the rust colored hues as the Dwarf rested a hand on Xephos' arm and suggested that he go and tend to the garden for a little while instead. Xephos complied, but only for the safety of his fingers. Not even gardening was peaceful; the soft green of the vegetable seedlings and stalks of wheat were just as bothersome as the grass and the trees, even if they were a bit gentler in their eager pulling.

The constant nagging was making the azure-eyed man feel ill. He sat himself down on a bare patch of earth in the garden, curling his legs to his chest as he rested his forehead against his knees. His head was beginning to ache, the persistent yanking and prodding and he didn't know how to make it stop. His own colors had swatted at the bothering greens, but that was in the early morning before he pulled the tendrils close to his being. Now his azure hues were not even a finger's length away from his flesh, curling about him in a bright cloak, scared and confused of what was going on and trying so hard to protect himself from the constant stream of eagerness that the plants sent him.

Xephos lifted his head, his eyes turning to gaze towards the forest. Perhaps… perhaps the plants wanted him to go there? The idea was strange to him, but at the same time it was one of the few that made any sense to him. What would be in there that would make the green colors pull at him so?

Swallowing hard, Xephos's gaze flickered towards the direction of the muffled pounding of a hammer. He didn't want to go into the forest without Honeydew; the very place itself without the groping greens put him on edge. It was dark, too dark for his liking, and he simply did not want to enter the forest again. Yet, going into the forest may be the only way to get the plants to cease bothering him.

Gingerly Xephos rose to his feet, stepping around the garden gate as he approached the forest with caution. He was only going to get close, to see if he could spot whatever was making the flora so excited, he told himself. He felt himself suck in his lower lip between his teeth, gnawing on the tender flesh as he took a step into the shadows of the looming trees.

The closer he got to the trees, the colored tendrils had calmed in their prodding, yet he could feel them linger. Blinking let him see how close they were; the greens threaded together around him. When he paused at the foot of the forest the green pressed closer, gently nudging him from behind, as if trying to push him into the dark cover of the foliage.

Reluctantly Xephos complied.

He concentrated on the green swirling about him to take him off the thought of the shadows that lingered under every leaf and past every trunk, knowing that he would freeze or bolt back to the safety of sunlight if he thought of the darkness pressing about him for even a moment. He didn't realize how deep the green was leading him, not until the trunks of the trees around him were thicker than he was tall and the leaves above him so thick that it was a seamless curtain of deep, dark green.

The green tendrils suddenly stopped pressing against him and despite their weightlessness he stumbled at the lack of presence. Before him was a massive tree, the largest he had ever seen, bigger than the ones around him tenfold. It stretched high above, its leaves overshadowing the others and its roots weaved over and though the soil around it. Xephos stared in awe at the sight, unconsciously taking a step forward towards it. Napier green coils swirled about its being, swirling close towards a lower portion of the trunk. It wasn't until he followed the swirls downward that he noticed the splash of May green that was suspiciously human-shaped.

Xephos blinked rapidly, the greens melting into the darker hues of the forest and the May green dissipating into tanned skin and bright blond hair. The person before him had their back to him, their hands pressed against the mighty tree's trunk. The bark seemed to have folded over their fingertips, creeping up their arms like a strange gauntlet. The Napier refused to disappear from his vision, a soft glow around the person that mixed with their visible May green hues. There was a presence in the air, one that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end and vibrate a silent hum in his chest. It felt strange, as if he was intruding on something very important.

Yet Xephos could not move, his eyes wide as he watched the green fade as the person's hands lifted away from the trunk, the bark remaining on their arms and continued to grow over their flesh as they turned a lapis lazuli gaze to meet azure.

Both pairs of eyes widened, both startled at being caught for two different reasons. Xephos reacted like anyone who had been caught watching something meant to be secret: he ran.

Xephos's feet slipped on loose leaves and his toes caught on lifted roots as he scrambled back in the direction that he came in, not daring to look back and did not stop until he broke through the trees and into the open afternoon sun.

""It could be one of those tree folk," Honeydew said thoughtfully at dinner that evening. Xephos had silently mouthed out what had transpired after the Dwarf had gone to call him for dinner and found the azure-eyed man collapsed near the garden, panting, leaves and sticks threaded into his hair. He had tweaked a few details, leaving a writhing pain in his gut as he did so, but he did not want Honeydew to learn that he only went into the woods because he wanted the alternate colors of the trees to stop bothering him. He didn't want Honeydew to learn anything about the colors he saw, not now. Instead he mentioned of seeing a figure near the edge of the woods and went to investigate, only leading to him tripping in a chase after them after they had darted away.

"They're like… nature guardians," the Dwarf went on to explain, stabbing a piece of chicken with a fork. "Human-like creatures who thrive wherever there's grass and trees and things. They do this weird plant magic. I know of two types: dryads, which are the females, and nature sprites, which are the males, I think. Dryads are usually pretty passive, but between us and the town, they would probably be pretty pissed at us for cutting down all those trees. Nasty pieces of work, dryads are when they get their leaf panties in a bunch." He popped the slice of meat into his mouth before continuing. "Sprites are a bit different. I have never actually seen one before, but I've heard a few stories. They are more secluded than dryads, and a bit more mischievous, but at the same time more skittish of outsiders. Still can be quite nasty if you get on their bad side, or so I've heard. Whatever you saw, it's probably best that we take a break on the barn and plant some of those saplings over there." Honeydew jutted a thumb towards the many pots of small treelings that sat near the windows at the front of the house. "Best not to piss off them tree folk. I don't want to wake up and be buried in roots because one of them decided to grow a redwood on top of the house in revenge of the trees being used as lumber."

Little else was said about the strange nature being that night, but when Honeydew was sleeping Xephos couldn't help but ponder about the strange person he had met. The Dwarf had said that they could use magic… was the green glow he saw outside the alternate colors this magic? The bark growing on the person's arm, the strange hum in the air, was this magic as well? Was this power the reason why the colors were acting so strange? The word "magic" was foreign to him, and this time his mind could not supply him with an answer. Xephos did not have enough information to work on, and now as the initial fear of an unknown entity had passed, the azure-eyed man was curious and wanted to learn more of this strange being.

The next morning found the pair loading a small push wagon with their little potted saplings and shovels as promised. The Dwarf pulled the cart, leaving Xephos to carry a sapling that did not quite fit into the cart without severe threat of falling off. They traveled to a location close to where they found the cows a few weeks prior. Xephos had silently mouthed out why they did not plant the trees in the areas that Honeydew had cleared, but Honeydew said that the saplings would have an easier time growing here in the open than being overshadowed by the other trees. The cleared area would eventually grow back in with other flora, and not to worry about it.

The green hues of the plants had calmed significantly since the fiasco yesterday, yet the tendrils still brushed up against azure when Xephos got too close. They spent most of the day planting all the trees, and Xephos was sure he caught glimpses of soft blond amongst the browns and green of the undergrowth, but every time he lifted his head to get a better look there was nothing there.

Still, Xephos was hopeful to meet this strange being, even as they were marching back towards the house with dirt under their nails and empty pots in the cart as the sun started to sink into the horizon behind them.

The rest of the week panned out in a similar manner as that day. Xephos would catch glimpses of blond watching he and Honeydew finish the roof of the barn, build stalls and herd the animals in after collecting enough fodder for them to last until the next time they went to town. Yet the lapis-eyed being remained out of direct sight. Xephos remained hopeful, though, that he would eventually catch up with the strange person so he could satisfy his curiosity as to what they actually were.

However, it was the nature sprite that caught up with Xephos.

It was in the early afternoon. Honeydew had decided to take a quick mining trip and promised to be back before sunset. Xephos had been placing feed into the cows' pen when the hairs on back of his neck prickled in an all too familiar fashion nary a moment before his blue azure tendrils brushed against something gentle and warm.

He started quite violently, spilling feed onto the floor as he staggered backward while turning at the same time, his shoulders slamming hard into the back wall. He could see the faint glow of his eyes mutely lighting the backs of his arms as he held them out for defense. He could feel his heart thrum against his chest as he stared at the lapis-eyed being who had been standing just behind him before his moment of frantic movement.

They were quite young, their face much like those of the adolescence from town, but their lapis eyes held an ancient presence that displaced their true age. Their skin was a mix of tanned flesh and bark, mostly along the arms to the shoulders and up their neck like an exotic collar. It spread slightly over their chest, breaking up more so along the bare lower torso. Their waist was covered in leaves threaded together, and their legs and feet were bare. There was a strange symbol that peeked out from under their blond bangs, a swirl-like figure that glowed the same May green as their alternate colors. A crown of leafy twigs rested upon their brow, but the branches still seemed very much alive and not just discarded pieces.

The being raised their bark-covered hands, their fingers splayed slightly as they gave a universal sign of non-aggression.

"I mean no harm," they said, their voice softly masculine, young in pitch but ancient in tone.

Xephos slowly lowered his arms, feeling his cheeks color in embarrassment. He wanted to meet this person for several days, and when he does he immediately freaked out. The azure-eyed man straightened himself out, his gaze lowered as he busied himself in dusting off his clothes, cautiously peeking through the corner of his eyes to the strange bark-person.

The being had lowered their arms, their head tilted to the side as they gazed at him curiously. Xephos paused in his dusting to gaze back, his curiosity returning as the embarrassment faded.

The pair stood there for several minutes, silently examining each other before Xephos decided to be a little bold. He let his vision change to the alternate hues, watching as he let his azure tendrils cautiously approached the May green, brushing up against the soft colors.

He saw the being straightened up for a moment, a flicker of surprise before understanding crossing his lapis eyes before he relaxed. Then the green coils moved, slow and steady like reaching branches, curling about Xephos' azure in a warm greeting. It promised safety, tranquility, a hopefulness of friendship. The May green was soft, like running his fingers through moss, meaning no harm and equally curious as Xephos was of them.

The gentle texture made Xephos relax, feeling his lips quirk into a small smile, which was returned by the strange half-wood being.

Slowly the being moved, creeping closer towards Xephos. When they were in arms reach the May tendrils brushed against the azure in a soft questioning, to which the azure affirmed.

The being's hands were coarse as the fingers reached up and brushed along Xephos' face, physically exploring his features, yet they were surprisingly warm despite the bark. He let the being tip his head back further into the shadows, the green coils conveying their fascination of the soft blue glow they emitted.

Soon the hands drifted over his shoulders and down to his arms, the coarse but gentle fingertips tracing over the many scars on his flesh. Xephos let his own fingers trace over the barked arm of the being, exploring the ridges and bumps of the features. He was so intrigued that he didn't notice that the free hand had moved until he felt a light pressure on his chest.

Xephos, startled, looked up, gazing at the lapis eyes that crinkled slightly at the corners. "This is why they like you so," they murmured softly. A small smile crossed their face, but Xephos was left confused.

"It's alright, child," the being murmured, sensing his confusion. "The trees have spoken highly of you. There is nothing to worry. All will be discovered in due time." The hand lowered from his chest, but Xephos was still confused as to what the being meant. Many questions flitted through his mind, but one questioned was on the forefront of his mind when he stretched out his azure tendrils to once more brush against the green as his lips formed the silent inquiry. Who are you?

The being's smile brightened lightly at the question. "My name cannot be spoken in the language that you hear now. It is loosely translated to 'One Who Resides in the Little Woods', but it is a rough meaning. I have taken a liking to the name 'Martyn', though."

Xephos pondered over it, slowly forming the name on his lips. Martyn, a strange name for a strange being. He nodded, affirmed that he managed to place his tongue in the right positions for the name, his mouth moving once more as he introduced himself to them.

"Xephos," Martyn replied, the name sounding lithe coming off his tongue. "Well then, Xephos, it is nice to meet you finally. But I fear that I must take my leave now. Do not be sad, starchild; we shall see each other again."

With a soft smile, the being departed from the barn, leaving Xephos standing there both in fascination and confusion and did not stir from his position until he heard the muffled voice of Honeydew calling of his return.


We got to see Martyn! Yay! I see him as some sort of sprite/spriggan type, and so I used they/them/their for him because...well...tree person.

I would write mote notes but I am really tired and should get to bed. (I do not mean to ignore your reviews I'm just too tired to respond to them atm. If you have any questions please ask me on tumblr. I'm more active there) Thanks for reading and putting up with my laziness!