Chapter 3: Green is the Color of Skin.

Jude:

I woke up to the sun shining through my sheer curtains. The window was open, allowing a breeze to blow fresh air through my hair, gently caressing my cheeks. There was nothing that made me happier than standing at my window, looking at the people starting their days below. My people.

"Your Highness, you have a lengthy schedule ahead of you today. First, we have a meeting with the genetic council, then on to meet with… JUDE! Where did you run off to?" I can only take so much of the "official business" before I hop out my window. I slide down the growths of the castle, connecting to the living vines as they reach out to touch me. My steward tried so hard to keep me on track for the royal agenda, but I needed to be free, and out with the people. The world is my treehouse and I am going to soak up the sun.

The castle opens up to me, revealing my secret place. A little crevasse of my own to soak up my morning sun. Nothing like a photosynthesis with a side of fresh grown strawberries for breakfast. My castle always provided for me what I needed most.

My mother was a kind woman, and an even kinder ruler alongside my father, but my birth changed her. As much as she and my father had tried, she had never been able to carry a child after my birth. I'd love to have a sibling, but I am one of a kind. My mother was from a different time, a different place lost long ago. My father was born an experiment, meant to help save a dying world. He fell in love with a human, all had thought extinct from this world.

We are a thriving race, but a dying one. Without the opportunity to reproduce we dwindle in number. We are "humanoid", you could say. A plant-based race, created in a lab, implanted in a womb and grown as naturally as a babe can. I wasn't subjected to this, and luckily my mother wasn't either, but everyone currently in existence other than us two has been created unnaturally.

Their lifespan is dependent upon the strain of plant they have been mixed with. Luckily no annuals were used in the making of our people. Poor joke, I know. My "uncle" is like a tree, dark brown bark-like skin, and tall liked a giant in ancient folklore. My grandmother died in childbirth, most of the women did who bore our kind. They weren't natural and babes sucked the life force out of their mothers; Women who sacrificed themselves in the name of saving our planet.

We connect to the Earth and everything in it. Not long before scientists started genetically modifying humans, splicing genes and experimenting illegally, the plants had started taking over the planet. A scientist had done something bold, and irrational, and created a plant that devoured humans whole. Our history shows there was an exhibit at a Botanical Garden featuring a newly created plant. One mishap with a curious girl, and the plant had claimed the entire Garden for itself. It grew, taking over the property and building itself up. This plant with a dark past has become my family, my friend, my castle. . A living home we call Awanasa.

Awanasa has many mysteries. She cares for and provides for us and her gardens are unending. The most mysterious of her ways are the enormous black and green buds at the base of her. They look like a dark lily about to blossom at any moment, but no one has ever seen her bloom to know for sure. She is one of a kind.

After bathing in the rays of the morning sun, happily crunching through my berries, Awanasa opens a pathway to the outside. Finally, I can greet my people. I walk through her majestic green and black arches, looking like a grand, medieval castle's doorway. The people have gathered in the streets, going about their business and I walk amongst them.

GREEN. The fluorescent color of skin. The people I love.

I can't imagine the bare, naked feeling humans must have felt with their skin exposed. My friends and family have a vast, and radiant collection of colors in their makeup. Hues of fire red, to a soft, baby pink and Greens from the brightest grasses to deep moss green. Oranges, and yellows and every shade of purple. My people were mad up of a beautiful rainbow.

My own skin was a mixture of my mother's human origins: a pale yellowy and pinkish color, mixed with my father's green flesh. I can grow leaves and vines from myself as others can, but I have to consume more food than they do. Most of the others can absorb nutrients from the ground, and sunlight from the sky, but because of my mother's DNA and the way I formed, I need to consume food the old-fashioned way.

"Jude! I thought you'd never make it out of your mini fortress!" Rhydian exclaimed. He's my best friend and mentor. We look the same age, but he actually grew up with my dad's generation.

"Hey bud, how are the leaves blowing?" I replied. This was a general greeting similar to asking how someone's day was going.

"Up and down, up and down. You know I'm not very in to this time of year. Makes me miss my mom after all these years. You're so lucky your mom is still around."

"I'm sorry Rhy. Let's go toss a gourd around."

"Not without me, you two! You know you'll never win without my vines to pinch in!" Roselia was our pest of a girlfriend. We love her but her attitude can be as sharp as her thorns. Her hair was like vines, braided and snake-like in its flow. Any man would allow himself to be hypnotized by this modern-day medusa, but her poison ran deep. No one so far could touch her without having to be treated in the depths of Awenasa. She brushed it off and played hard to get, but we knew there were times all she wanted was a hug.

"Hey Rose, how about we grab a couple gourds then. We never know when you're going to squeeze one too tight." Rhydian and I laughed as we started walking back towards Awanasa's gardens.

Just then, the ground started to shake. Leaves fell from our large dwelling, and for the first time, one of Awanasa's lilies blossomed. We stared on in awe, watching something happen that had never occurred before. It was beautiful watching the bud opening up to us. I had never seen a child born, but this must be what it was like. Petals of red, pink and yellow peeling outward, sap leaking down.

GREEN. Sap and lifeblood of my people.

I approached it slowly, wanting to get a better look, but my eyes could not believe what they held. It looked like a woman, pale and pinkish skin covering her naked body, and almost no green to be found. I blushed, realizing her lack of covering as Awanassa sacrificed one of her leaves, plucking it from herself to cover the young woman. Her vines wrapped her gently, swaddling the woman like a newborn baby, pulling the girl in towards her depths. I followed, needing to know what had happened, needing answers from my mother tree, and hopefully my mother and father as well.

GREEN. The protective covering of Awanassa.