Elissa’s pain was gone and she was feeling ravenous as her consciousness slowly came back to her. The cold damp feel of wet stone under her was replaced with the soft, gentle touch of blooming vines and warm moss. Opening her eyes, at first she thought she must’ve died and had her spirit travel to the heavens, the warm glow of light and life was so intense all around her!

Thousands of small plants grew all across the ground and bloomed in a cornucopia of vivid colors and shapes, Vines of various thickness wove and crossed in an intricate tapestry of life across the walls, and florescent moss clung stubbornly to the roof of the cavern, twinkling and illuminating everything in an unearthly, but undeniable glow of pure beauty.

“So the fleshling is now awake,” the Elissa-statue stated calmly, seeming to move out of the very vines which draped so tightly against the wall. Her voice was no longer booming, nor whispering, and sounded much more human than previously.

“I’m… I’m awake,” Elissa admitted, slowly. The pain in her flesh was gone, but the wound to her pride was still large and gaping. Looking back, she deeply regretted her actions – asking a demon to save her, without even knowing what price she’d have to pay for the bargain! All she knew was that she would have to pay whatever it was sometime later.

“Then come,” the Elissa-statue demanded, waving a hand towards the center of the small, enclosed chamber they were in. Walking slowly, swaying her hips suggestively back and forth in a manner that made Elissa almost blush watching her own body move in such a manner, the Elissa-statue slowly sashayed across to the center of the room. Then, as it gracefully turned to sit, a multitude of colorful vines rose up out of the floor, to create a chair for it to rest in peacefully. Crossing its legs in an almost humanlike manner, the Elissa-statue motioned in front of it. “Join me,” it demanded, softly, but firmly.

Uncertain what else she could do at the moment except obey, Elissa slowly forced herself to stand. Taking a moment to check her balance, and to check herself over for any sort of injury, Elissa was shocked to see that she appeared to be in perfect health once again. Except for her skin and hair still being dyed pure white from the priest’s magics at the festival, she was completely whole and fit once again. “You fixed me,” Elissa whispered, uncertainly.

“I did,” the Elissa-statue confirmed, moving its eyes up and down to examine her body as well. “Is it not to your satisfaction,” it asked, sounding half-amused, half-puzzled.

“Am I still human?” Elissa asked, swallowing back a lump of dread in her throat as she forced herself to ask the question. Slowly, hesitantly, she walked towards the statue of herself, not really wanting to approach it. As she closed the distance, more vines rose from the ground and formed a living chair in front of the statue. Even more vines rose after, twisting and shaping themselves until a natural table of brilliant colors and natural blossoms grew in the center between the two chairs.

Leaning forward to rest both of its elbows on the newly grown table, the Elissa-statue half laughed as it rested its head in its hands. “Of course not, fleshing,” the statue chuckled merrily. “You have a spark in you now which is beyond those other fleshbags.”

Gulping back a lump of pure dread that suddenly made her mouth go dry, Elissa forced herself to sit on the chair-like vines. “So what am I? What are you,” Elissa asked, not at all certain that she wanted to know the answers anymore.

Laughing merrily, the Elissa-statue tilted its head and then fluttered its eyelashes at her in an awkward parody of seduction. “You are the lover,” the statue told her, lips twisting up in an inhuman curl, “and I am the mother.”

“Lover?” Elissa asked, blinking back tears. “Who’s lover? Who’s mother?”

“Why my child’s of course,” the Elissa-statue laughed merrily, sitting back and feeling its own breasts awkwardly, as it stared directly at her. “You should know him,” the wooden-Elissa told Elissa. “After all, you did come here, inside my innermost home, with him.”

“I did?” Elissa frowned, puzzled. “The only one I came with was Stone,” she stated, slowly, frowning at where her mind was trying to take her.

“Yes,” the Elissa-statue laughed. “My child. Stone. The one you came into my womb with,” it reminded her, sounding completely amused by the whole situation.

Stubbornly dragging yet another load of wood into the cave, Stone tossed it beside the ever growing heap which now stacked almost to his waist in the corner. Snorting softly to himself, he glanced left and right to see if Elissa had returned yet.

When it was obvious that she was still gone, Stone snorted once again and then turned and trudged back out into the forest, completely oblivious to the pouring rain which was falling all around him.

“Stone is your child?” Elissa blinked several times, feeling light-headed and dazed. First, the priest told Stone that she ‘was his now’, and now she’d apparently just bargained herself into becoming his lover, with his mother! Just who the what the hell was he?!

“Hmmm…” The Elissa-statue half hummed, while pinching on its own nipples in a manner that made Elissa cringe and wince in sympathetic pain just by watching it. “Fleshlings always want to know a tale from the beginnings,” the wooden-Elissa mused. “But the question is which beginning one should start a tale at. At the beginning when the mountains were being born? When the first seeds took root? Or when the first fleshthing first walked upon us?”

For several long and awkward moments, the Elissa-statue seemed to focus solely on exploring its own newfound body with its fingers, before it finally laughed and hummed again. “Hmmm…”, it mused, leaning back forward with its elbows back on the table and rested its head back in its hands. “I supposed, the best beginning here is simply with Fool.”

“Fool?” Elissa repeated, actually grateful not to have to watch what so closely resembled her own body, do such painfully inappropriate things to itself anymore. Her father might say that it was rude to sit with elbows on the table, but she’d take that over what the not-her had been doing to itself for the last few minutes, any day!

“Fool married Beauty,” the Elissa-statue laughed, nodding its wooden head up and down slowly. “Fleshlings had other names, but why would I care what fleshlings are called?” Shrugging her wooden shoulders, the Elissa-statue sounded completely indifferent to the actual names of the people in her story.

“Fool married Beauty,” it repeated once again, as one wooden foot slowly snaked under the table to caress itself up and down against Elissa’s. Elissa half jumped and tried not to scream as she forced her body to freeze up and not run away as it so strongly desired to do so.

“Beauty got big in the belly, as happens when fleshing mates,” the Elissa-statue told Elissa, its foot exploring ever higher up her leg, and trying to worm its way between them. Eyes wide, Elissa tried to pull her knees as tightly together as she possibly could and nodded slightly to show she was still listening.

“Beauty died,” the Elissa-statue told her, as it finally straightened back up in its chair and began to explore its own chest once again. “Babe was born, but Fool had no milk. Had no other flesh-thing to make milk. Fool was a fool; had no metal to trade for milk. Fool was alone and with no way to feed Beauty’s babe.”

“And Stone was that babe?” Elissa guessed, trying to understand what Fool or Beauty had to do with anything. Apparently they’d gotten married and Beauty had died in childbirth, leaving Fool alone to provide for the child – at least that was how Elissa was interpreting the story.

“Stone babe,” the Elissa-statue nodded, leaning forward once again to rest atop the table. “Fool, being fool, had too much pride to ask other fleshlings to feed Beauty’s babe. Instead, Fool asked I.” The statue blinked furiously several times and then winked at Elissa, before blowing her a kiss.

“Warned Fool, I did,” her statue told Elissa, “but Fool insisted. Debt was owed and price must be paid. Fool demanded price be paid in Mother’s Milk.”

“What could one do,” the statue half shrugged, leaning back and squeezing its breast until a greenish-white sap eased out to stickily cling to its finger, “but pay the price?” Holding its finger out, the Elissa-statue leaned across the table and gently rubbed the sappy substance across her lips.

“Taste,” it commanded, glaring at Elissa until she hesitantly licked her tongue over her lips.

“It tastes like cherries in milk,” Elissa half gasped, licking her lips more fully, for a second taste. “That’s actually not bad at all,” she admitted, astonished.

“Mountain milk,” the Elissa-statue told her, half smiling at watching her shocked expression. “Milk of the Forest. Nature’s Milk,” she nodded, finally seeming happy with the name she was giving to describe it.

“Nature’s Milk is not the milk of fleshlings,” the statue admitted, leaning back once again and slowly caressing its own chin. “Nature’s Milk can make the sick well. The old feel young. Nature’s Milk carries strength of nature,” the statue tried to explain.

“And, Stone grew up on this Nature’s Milk?” Elissa’s eyes widened at the thought. Even now, her lips still tingled and she found herself wanting to taste the substance once again – the finest wines or sweetest honeys couldn’t compare to the ambrosia which she’d just glimpsed upon the tip of her tongue.

In a move very reminiscent of Stone himself, the Elissa-statue simply nodded and said nothing.

“So that’s why he’s so big? So unusual,” Elissa reasoned, slowly leaning back in her chair and gently rubbing her hands through her long hair.

“Born fleshling,” the wood-Elissa confirmed, “but grown on Nature’s Milk. Stone is Nature’s Child now. My child,” the statue told her, sounding rather possessively.

“And I’m to be his lover?” Elissa’s eyes were wide as she tried to figure out if this was fate, or just absolute misfortune. First the priest of Chaos told Stone that she was his. Now some timeless spirit of nature was telling her that she’d have to be his lover, as payment for saving his life.

“Can I even be his lover?” Elissa asked, not at all certain if she wanted to know the answer.

“Of course you can,” the wooden statue of herself assured her. “At least you can, now that I’ve fixed you,” it corrected itself, laughing merrily.

Shivering slightly, Elissa was right – she really didn’t want to know the answer to her question.