Author: Undead Prowess
Challenger: Stargazer 559

Note from Seraph: The challenge was given as Perverted!Tree Rex so it gets a little weird in places. You've been warned, read at your own risk.

Hardwood

Prowess darkly glared at more dying shrubs that had only shown after Tree Rex had finished clearing out a dead tree. She and Tree Rex had been chosen to clear out all the debris from around the railroad that led into the mines. They had been fixed by the molekin, and the track was ready. Except for the masses of vegetation that had grown around the track, as well as all the dead and dying small shrubs everywhere. From the test runs of the trains, the fumes given off had begun to take a toll on the overly abundant wildlife.

Due to her involvement in the Undead, she was to remove the dead plants and was supposedly supposed to help them 'move on'. As deep as that sounded, help a plant move on? Eon had explained to her that she was intended to become a reaper, eventually—a Portal Master all the same, but as a reaper, she would help dying creatures move on into the next life—and her first assignment was to help plants move on.

Right. So how exactly did you help a plant move on?

Tree Rex snorted in her direction. "Having fun fondling leaves over there?"

Prowess shot him a glare. "I'm helping it 'move on', as Eon says. Shut up with your nonsense before you even start," she hissed snappily. She was in no mood for his antics today. She was already frustrated and having a fifteen-foot-tall giant constantly making dirty and dark jokes was annoying all by itself. Not to mention some of his jokes were simply too close to home for her. She ignored him and went back to touching the leaves of the dying shrub tenderly.

Tree Rex only shook his big head. "Keep touching it that way and staring at it with that fixated expression, somebody might think you're thinking about something different," Tree Rex mused.

Prowess cut her eyes at him. "Nope, only you. So shut up." Prowess suddenly felt a rush of energy flow through her fingertips, it seemed… The plant felt even limper in her hands, but the rush of power was there. It spread warmth like no other through her body… but then was briskly replaced with a cold and sharp emptiness that seemed to prick at her skin from the inside out. It filled her, until she felt like she would turn to stone from the frigidness of it. She clenched her eyes shut. She wanted it all to go away… and it did. It slowly dissipated the natural warmth of her body returning. She opened her eyes and blinked away the blurriness. Tree Rex was watching her with an amused expression.

"Hey, what kind of shrub is that anyway?" He asked.

"The kind I want to shove up your—" Prowess's retort was cut short by a shout. Prowess jerked her head and felt an uneasy tug at her heart. Tree Rex had a pained expression on his face.

"Prowess," he said, "did you feel that?"

"I felt something uneasy, after that scream, so let's go check it out." Prowess got up to walk past him, and shivered as something brushed her shoulder, seemingly teasingly. She shivered and swallowed hard. She then whirled to face him, her face burning. "I SWEAR if you touch me or talk to me again in the way you have all of today, I will report you so many times and I DO remember everything you have said to me. Maybe you were a tree one day and gender didn't matter and since you think of most plants as being male DOESN'T mean you get to treat females however you want, so KINDLY do me a favor and STOP." She snapped at last.

That seemed to get his attention. Tree Rex reared away from her. "What are you talking about, Prowess? I didn't do anything just now."

"But you don't deny doing anything any other time," she stated, "that's nice." She felt even worse and then turned back towards where the shout came from. "Come on, I hear some of the others already heading there, it sounds like it came from the mines…. Grah, we told those molekin to leave that mine alone," she grumbled.

Tree Rex seemed more subdued after that. Good, if it made him behave, she would snap at him more often… she didn't need him dragging up old wounds and memories. She fought the living vegetation and finally reached the train tracks. She looked up and gasped at the opening of the mine—or what used to be the opening. The mines had collapsed yet again. She cursed the molekin's horrible eyesight; almost certain someone's bad eyesight had made for faulty walls yet again. Honestly, why did the molekin keep coming here? What was so special about these specific mines?

Tree Rex easily brushed the trees out of his way like they were nothing. She pointedly walked away from him, wanting to completely ignore him now. She watched as several other Skylanders—Spyro, Wash Buckler, Rattle Shake, Sprocket, and Cynder—all gathered around the mines' opening. A few other Portal Masters had arrived as well. Adam's fiery-red hair was so noticeable it was almost like a beacon, not to mention his short stature. Seraph wasn't that far off, either.

Prowess arrived at the scene with a frown on her face. The uneasy feeling in her chest wouldn't leave her alone. "What's happened?"

"Front of the mines collapsed," Spyro explained, "and we think one of the workers was inside…" Prowess's eyes slowly widened as he spoke. She remembered Eon talking to her about becoming a reaper as well as the certain feeling she would get when a spirit was calling to her to be released. He described it as an uneasy tug, and sometimes, a dark or foreboding, oppressive feeling.

She felt that.

She bit her bottom lip and backed away some. "A-anyway to get into the mines?"

Adam casted her a sideways glance. "We're workin' on it. You look a little pale. Doing alright, Prow?"

Prowess quickly composed herself and gave him a defiant look. "Yes, I am. Come on Tree Rex, let's go finish this."

"Ooh, sure," Tree Rex grinned as he followed her.

Prowess groaned inwardly and stuffed her hands deep in her pockets. There was a reason she disliked Tree Rex's 'attentions' so much. He objectified her, and teased her constantly. Normally, she'd just blow all of that off. But… some of his comments… made her uncomfortable.

Back on Earth… there was a reason she was so snappish and mean. Okay, it sounded crazy to some, but she would constantly have to put up and listen with a creature she didn't see until she was older. He called himself Breach E. Grimm (how she figured out the spelling, she didn't know, it was just sort of… there, in her head?). He spoke to her, but he wasn't nice. He was actually very mean and crude. For a long time, all he did was taunt and purposely whisper words of deceit and lies into her head. Then, once she turned thirteen, she finally caught glimpses of him in her head.

He was a black wolf, with large, feathery wings. He had forest-green eyes, and a smirk was always plastered to his face. He continued to talk to her, and in her dreams on Earth, he even went as far as to say a figure in her dreams was … was her daughter. In her dreams, she would see a blackish-gray wolf pup. She could stand up on her hind legs and walk like a human, but she was still a wolf pup. Soon after that, this Breach began to tell her Hurricane, the pup, was hers. Her daughter and the father was Breach.

That had started a very dark spiral in her mind. Prowess had been unable to process this. She wrote off Breach as insane, crazed, and everything else as well as many other unclean words… but ever since she entered Skylands, she had not caught a glimpse of Breach or Hurricane. She had not heard him, not seen him, not anything.

But she would never forget his proclamations of Hurricane being her child, nor his goading and explicit words. Tree Rex brought those memories back, kicking and screaming.

She hadn't realized she had stressed herself to the point of shaking. She shot Tree Rex a dark and hateful glare, daring him to say a word. She approached the last dying shrub she could see, and began to touch and caress its leaves carefully.

"Wow Prow, I never realized how jumpy you were about a few dead plants… would you rather see a live one?" He boldly stated. She wasn't stupid and with Tree Rex, there was always innuendo in his words. Always.

Prowess curled her fists around a couple of the dead plant's leaves, her job of plant reaper all but forgotten. She stood up, stark-stiff, and narrowed her eyes darkly at him. "What is wrong with you? What of 'STOP' do you not understand?" She hissed at him. "I don't like you. You're ten fucking feet taller than I'll ever be, and for Christ's sake, what are you, ten thousand-plus years old?" She defensively squared her shoulders at him and crossed her arms. "Just, why?"

"Because you're cute, and it's a shame to see nobody has tried to claim you yet," he explained emotionlessly. "Why, Prow, it's only compliments I'm giving you…."

Prowess backed up. Compliments? Those were his ideas of compliments? Breach's voice only replayed in her head.

You're just a beautiful toy, I mean; obviously you are if you have a daughter at the age of twelve!

She had no daughter, Breach was insane, and so was this stupid tree morph. She was now livid. She bared her teeth in a very feral manner, despite being human, and felt her back arch like an animal's. "Those are not compliments. I have heard all of those before—in fact, since I was seven years old, I heard those 'compliments' constantly. They are not compliments, its harassment, and trust me, you don't want to know what I'll do if you keep it up," Prowess's voice was beginning to break but she kept her overall-defensive posture. "I hate you, and everything you say. Sometimes I think you're even worse than him."

Tree Rex seemed stunned by her sudden burst of anger. "Prowess… who's him, exactly?"

Prowess whirled away from him. "Nobody you need to know. But you do need to know he treated me as badly as you do and all you do is bring up memories of him!" Now she was shaking and she didn't care if he saw.

"Prowess… I joke, a lot, I know… but I didn't think… That it would…" Tree Rex honestly seemed lost for words. She arched her shoulders and flared her nostrils. He had screwed up big this time. "..Prowess?"

"Yeah?" She growled, again, pure animosity showing.

"…I'm sorry. I didn't realize… all of that," he murmured. "I'll leave you alone, I promise…"

Prowess sighed in relief, but she didn't dare let him know. She turned around and only glared at him with glossy eyes. She stalked past him. "I'm going to go make sure I'm not needed at the mines. Stay here and help with the vegetation," she muttered. "And leave me alone."

"I understand," Tree Rex nodded, sadness etched in his eyes. She didn't care. He needed to know. And now he did.

Note from Prowess: Okay... so Prowess, we just learn a lot about her here. I exaggerated a lot in this, and it was to show how dark she can be and how if you overstep your boundaries with her, you've lost your chance, buddy. Anyways, here's this, and I know it's not as good as it could be... It's 1:49 AM, and I just wanted to finish something.