In his final moments, Kigen experienced the greatest shock of his life. The person who had sneak attacked him was none other than Mistress Kering, his mentor and master. A person he looked up to as he would his mother.
Growing up, Kigen had been an orphan, and his parents had perished in some random landslide. Even his home was covered, and several other people had been caught in it. It had been quite the catastrophe.
Luckily, Kigen had been taken in by one of the members of the village, Mistress Kering. She was renowned in the village as a kind and benevolent woman. Though not a native of the village, the old lady had started taking in orphans since she first arrived in the village.
Back then, she had been a gorgeous bird that every man pursued in the village. However, her willpower won out in the end, as she rejected each and every suitor that came calling.
Many people spoke ill of her, coming up with various theories as to why she refused all her suitors. However, she paid such rumors no mind. Instead, she was focused on her task of raising the orphans she took in as her own.
She was a weaver, and a talented one at that. Hence, she would make baskets and sell them at the local market. All the children she raised excelled in one way or another, each with a well-developed trade. Be it weaving, pottery, clothmaking, you name it, she demanded that her kids should learn to be self-reliant.
She also happened to be a powerful mage. She would use her powers to entertain her children. However, ever so often, among the various kids she raised, there were some who possessed a talent for magic.
Perhaps out of boredom, or just to pass the time, she had begun training these kids how to wield magic. Kigen had been a beneficiary of this.
While pottery, smithing and other similar professions were honorable, in the village, the real stars were the hunters. The village did not battle or engage in warfare, so there was no need for warriors. Therefore, the hunters were the next best thing.
Kigen had been in love with Nina, one of the prettiest women in the village, ever since he laid eyes on her. However, she was a daughter of a prominent merchant in the village, while he was just an orphan. he doubted she even knew of his existence.
Not one easily discouraged, Kigen had outdone himself to become a proper hunter, receiving all the glory that this profession came with. However, there were other better hunters too, and if he was going to catch the attention of the village belle, he had to stand out.
When the beast was spotted, and further details about it were released, Kigen had seen this as his chance. Now, he found himself dying, he never would have thought his death would come in such a way.
A thousand questions filled his mind as he stared at the woman he regarded more than his own mother. These questions would remain unanswered, as light slowly left his eyes.
Kigen couldn't explain what happened next. All he knew was that he found himself in a dark place, unable to move. The next moment, he felt as though the floor had given way, and he was falling.
Down he went, falling faster and faster. This feeling was so scary that he started screaming. However, no sound came.
Kigen went to feel his mouth, only to come to a devastating shock. He did not have a mouth. Worse still, he didn't even have arms, or a body. He didn't understand where he was, what he was, or what was happening to him.
Just as suddenly as it had come about, the feeling of falling came to an end. He found himself standing on something, or rather, tied to something. He was also rolled up somehow in a child's pose.
Seeing that he had a body, or rather, feeling, he suddenly stood up. His suddenly jerk caused him to stumble somewhat, but he managed to stabilize himself. He finally opened his eyes, seeing a wide expanse of the forest.
Excitedly, he hurried to feel his face. Happily, he could feel his eyes, nose and a mouth. Untold joy was feeling his heart, but it was suddenly cut short when he looked at his hands.
Rather than the familiar dark shade of his skin, he found that his arms were spotting the color green. From his elbow to his hands, he was light green, and he looked like a branch of some green herb.
However, from his body, and covering his torso, the back of his head, and his legs, all the way to his knees, were covered by some fur-looking substance. Looking closer, he realized they were green filaments the size of a baby's finger. They were flexible, and very soft to the touch. He even felt ticklish when he touched these filaments.
They were dark green, much like the color of leaves from a tree in the rainforest. They directly grew from his skin, just like fur, or feathers in birds.
Below his knees, things got even more trippy. His lower legs, below the knees, all the way to his feet, were white. They also did not have that familiar human shape he had grown accustomed to. Rather, they looked more like a plant's root.
His feet were not like normal human feet. They extended from the legs. For toes, he had five root-like projectiles, each the length of his fingers.
Kigen had been too distracted by the legs he forgot to notice a very important fact. He seemed to be levitating, since his feet were not on the ground. Yes, he was floating!
This fact shocked Kigen so much that he found himself losing balance and tumbling. It took great effort to finally stabilize. As he did, he realized something. There was movement in his back.
Looking behind him, he realized he had three pairs of wings. These pairs extended from his back. At the moment, the top and middle pair were fluttering away, making him levitate. Looking at his lower, or hind wings, he noticed that they barely seemed to move.
What was shocking was that he was effortlessly levitating. His wings seemed entirely capable of carrying his weight without much effort. They almost seemed as though they were controlling themselves without his input.
Consciously, he attempted to make them stop. To his shock, he succeeded. Unfortunately, without his wings fluttering about he started to fall down off the sky.
Thud!
He landed on a branch of a tree. Kigen then tried to levitate once more, and it came about so easily. He even found this to be the natural position.
Once more, he willed himself to stop flying, and he landed on the branch. He turned around to inspect his wings, now that they were stationary.
The three pairs of wings seemed to have some similarities. They were all very dark green, much like the leaves of the trees around him. There were veins snaking around in them, making them look exactly like the leaves of the trees.
However, the differences were even more pronounced. First, they all had different shapes. The upper pair reminded Kigen of the butterfly wings. Big, and taking up quite some space, they played a vital role in getting him off the ground.
The second pair looked leaner. They looked like a wasp's pair of wings. From his tests, Kigen found that they were mostly used for balancing him and keeping him upright.
Then there were the third pair. Thicker, stiffer, and more powerful looking than the previous two, Kigen still had not found a proper use for them. For the most part, they were dormant when he levitated.
They looked like a fly's wings. They were also quite large, extending from his back and almost sweeping the ground as he stood. From a far, one would think he was wearing a long cape.
As Kigen was processing this, he suddenly had a realization. The tree branch he had been falling on was extremely thick. So thick that he could comfortably stand on it as he would a bridge.
Looking around, he realized the leaves were also massive, some even bigger than him. If the leaves and branches were this big, just how massive was the tree he was in?
As he extended his vision from the branch he was in, he realized his supposition was correct. The tree he was perched on was massive. Even in the forest, it seemed to dwarf everything around it, but not as much as Kigen had imagined.
Moreover, there seemed to be a clearing around the tree, where nothing seemed to grow, even the grass on the ground. All he could see was a large space, full of good, fertile soil. Yet, this soil did not seem to have any life in it.
Extending his vision further, he noticed that the trees in the forest, while not as big as the tree he found himself in, were also quite big. In fact, everything seemed super-sized, much larger than the size he was used to.
Even some fruit he could spot from where he was looked almost as big as his entire size, some even bigger.
Just as Kigen was freaking out, he got an even scarier thought, what if everything was normal sized, and it was him who had become smaller?