frondescence
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Jeff watched as the recently appeared but opened into to leaf. The leaf was triangular with smooth edges. He had no idea what kind of plant it came from, but that hardly mattered. What mattered was where it had come from.
“Uh, hey, Cass?” He called to his girlfriend. She looked up from the small hole she was digging. “You, uh, you’ve got…something on your hair.”
“I do?” She checked, missing the offending object. “I don’t see anything. What is it?”
“It’s, uh, it’s a leaf. But it’s not at the top.”
She tilted her head to the side before taking part of her hair and looking at it. She kept doing that until she saw the leaf. The leaf that was growing out of the end of her hair.
“Huh.” She said. “That shouldn’t be happening.”
“No kidding.” Jeff said. “Any ideas?”
“Hm, not really. I mean, I should have another five years before I blossom, so I don’t know why this one is early.” Another leaf started to form at another part of her hair, even as she spoke. She regarded it with mild curiosity.
Jeff thought it was somewhat more important. “I’m sorry, what? Cassie, what’re you talking about?”
“Oh, it’s just that it’s a little early for me to start flowering is all. But I guess I have been getting more outdoor time lately.”
“Uh…flower? Blossom? You’ve lost me.”
“What, didn’t I tell you?” Her face scrunched up in thought. “Oh, I guess I didn’t, did I? Jeff, I’m a quarter dryad.” She said, acting like it was no big deal.
Jeff waited for her to elaborate, but she did not. “Come again?”
“My grandma’s a dryad. You know, a tree spirit.”
“You’re…joking, right?”
She held up her hair right as a third leaf sprouted. She Just looked at it and grinned.
“Okay, so you’re not kidding.” It went against everything he knew about reality, but the evidence was hard to ignore. “So, you, what, grow leaves sometimes?”
“And flowers, yes. No fruit yet, but I am only a quarter, so that probably won’t happen. It’s supposed to be every ten years, but this is five years early. I’ll call mom and see what she says about it.”
Jeff watched as another two leaves formed, this time in the middle of her hair instead of the ends.
“So, uh, don’t dryads have to stick by a tree? Or…something?” He asked, not quite sure what else to say.
“Oh sure. Grandma can’t get passed ten feet of her tree. But I’m a bit freer. I can go a few miles from mine.” She gestured to the lone tree in the middle of their back yard.
“That’s your tree? Is that why you never let me trim it?”
“Yup. Trimming off branches hurts. It’s like ripping off my fingernails.” As she said it, those nails started changing color. They started looking more like bark that matched that of the tree behind her. “Wow, it’s really going fast this year. It usually takes a few days for that to happen.”
“Uh, I think I’m going to go inside and…think about this.”
“Oh sure. I’ll be out here communing with nature.” She said as more leaves sprouted.
Jeff wobbled into the house and sat. This was going to take a lot of getting used to.
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Sometimes I wonder how my brain spawns ideas like this. Is it normal to have a word that basically means growing leaves and come up with a dryad? I guess my head is just full of that kind of stuff.
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