Sin of the Earth

Lily answers your question before it could even leave your lips.

“I am neglected. I am forgotten. I am buried. But I am not dead.”

Rational thought slowly trickles back into your fog-addled mind.

“I am yesterday, but also today. Vengeance, but also victory. What am I?”

You see more clearly now about what she is.

And what she is-

“You’re wrath.” A slight growl accompanies your answer.

“Intelligent meat, too. Oh, the gods have blessed us twice this night!” she beams at you, even clasping her hands together.

But there was no cause for celebration yet, as you rise to one knee, then push the other one up from underneath.

Ascending back to your full height, you stare at the plant girl as she leers back at you forward-facing now.

You tower above her, easily, but such an advantage is only surface-level.

This is her kingdom.

And you are the sole invader.

“What else do you have to offer us, I wonder…?” Her jade eyes flicker down your tunic, your waistline, down further.

“Nothing that you’ll take freely,” you tell her firmly, steadying your stance.

Lily laughs at you like you’ve told some magnificent joke, a sound almost as sweet as the bees’ honey.

But her true cadence is just as poisoned as the rest of her.

“You wouldn’t be the first to say that to us, human.” The green-haired woman starts to walk, her bare feet softly pressing into the dirt around you.

“Others have come to this place in search of what you seek. They were warriors. So proud. And powerful.” Her voice goes along your peripheral view, accompanied by that palpable aura of pheromones. “But in the end, well…”

She stops behind you, prompting a subtle tense-up.

“In the end, they all served their greater purpose.”

Breathe in. Breathe out.

“They paid for their sins against nature.” There was no playful candor in her tone. Just pure malice. Hate.

Wrath.

“And so the strong made us even stronger.”

She resumes walking, reappearing on your left side.

“The ones before. Where are they now?” you finally ask, not out of curiosity but rather simply to keep her talking.

“Oh! Well, they’re...around.” She giggles, but again, there was no playfulness there.

A sideways flicker of your eyes caught something that seemingly only became visible right after she said that.

Sticking out of the dirt some feet away, you see a gloved hand.

With no meat on it. Just bone.

You look even farther, and see what looked like the dark, hollowed out eyelids of a human skull resting against a bed of gnarled roots.

Right next to that, you see what remains of a ribcage.

Then right under a mossy log, more scattered bones.

“It’s been such a looong time since they’ve had company.”

Turning to her again, you see that Lily has her arms wrapped around a tree, hugging it with her considerable chest while again showing you the roundness of her bare bottom.

It finally dawns on you where you truly are.

You’re not in a forest.

You’re in a graveyard.

“I will bring their spirits peace by ending your evil,” you vow, reaching for a weapon. “For good.”

“You can try. But you will fail, hero,” she says, and then laughs at you. “And then you will make us stronger too. Stronger forever.”

Your hand, moving fast like lightning, goes to draw…