As soon as they got out of the witch's sight, Chris and John bolted as fast as they could, wanting to be as far away from her as possible. They both slowed as they ran out of breath, their sudden adrenaline boost leaving them, and they began to laugh. "A witch, can you believe that?" Christ said, hands on his knees.
"And we fell for it," John said. "We're so dumb. We should've just kept the goose--I'm hungry."
"I know, right?" said Chris. "She sure played us. Let's go back, yeah? What's she gonna do? Wave her hands and pretend to cast a spell?"
"I know, haha," John laughed, warming to the idea. "Plus that goose was so messed up. What was with those eggs? Probably some mutant, no way that was actually metal."
"No way. We totally got played. Let's go back."
They both agreed, and once they'd caught their breath they turned on their heels and started walking back to the witch's hideout. But it was slow going--with each step, it seemed harder for both of the boys to draw up their feet, almost as if they were stuck to something. On top of that, they wandered, trying to get out from the shadows of the trees. The sunlight felt divine, and both of them kept lifting up their heads to soak it in.
Finally, Chris called out in panic. "John! I'm stuck. I can't lift my feet." Both boys had been standing in a particularly nice patch of sun, seemingly forgetting about the world around them until Chris decided to move. It took a minute for John to come back to himself, but he slowly turned his head to look at his friend.
"Huh?" he said, dazed, then suddenly more awake: "John. Your skin. It's green." His voice shook with fear.
"What??" John exclaimed examining his arms. They were, in fact, a beautiful leafy green color. "What's happening to me?"
"I dunno. Let me get a closer look." Chris sighed, not wanting to move from his spot. That turned out to not be a problem, because he, too, was stuck to the ground. "John--I can't move either. I'm stuck! And my skin--it feels weird." Chris' skin was thickening, turning a deep brown and becoming ridged and rough.
"But it feels--it feels so good--" John said, his voice trailing off into ecstasy as his toes burst from his shoes and burrowed into the ground, taking in the nutrients of the lush forest soil as they became roots. He lifted his head again to the sun as his hair was replaced with yellow petals. His palms, too, turned a dark brown to match the darkening color of his face, then segmented into hundreds of seeds as his fingers and hands changed suddenly into a mass of yellow petals. Underneath his clothing, John's skin grew leaves and his internal organs shifted into the vascular system of a plant. "This is---everything--" were John's extremely satisfied last words as he became a very large, very strangely shaped sunflower plant.
Chris was horrified as he watched his friend change, but soon he felt a satisfaction of his own as his feet hardened and spread out in front of him, toes spreading far in multiple directions as their roots crept across the ground before plunging in deep, seeking out groundwater and nutrients. "Oh!" he cried, feeling better than he ever thought he could. Part of him was afraid--this wasn't natural!--but part of him didn't want to be anything else, couldn't believe he'd spent so much time as a human. If he'd known he could be a mighty oak tree--as he was rapidly becoming--he would have freely made the choice years ago.
He grew tall, his arms stiffening above his head as his fingers launched into longer branches and sprouted lush green leaves. More branches burst out of his hardening skin, destroying his clothing, and his face became a series of strange knots on the side of a thick trunk, a strange smile on his face as he felt the wind blow through his leaves for the first time.
The forest was silent and had two new seemingly permanent residents.