Chloe liked to think of herself as the bravest of the bunch. She got the sense that her friends were unsure about getting new, unpredictable changes while they were here - or, in Hwan's case, openly admitted she was too scared to try anything. Chloe scoffed at all that. She was excited to see what she could get herself into. And that's what was going through her mind the moment that she walked into the tree.
The branches scraped roughly against Chloe's hair, a sudden ambush that seemed to come out of nowhere. Looking up at what she'd just stumbled into, the leaves reaching down until they were four feet off the ground, she thought to herself, This thing really needs a trim. What the hell is an apple tree doing on the beach, anyway? And she started to walk away.
But she didn't get far. She felt a tug on the top of her head, as the branches continued to rustle above her. Something was stuck fast on there, and it wasn't letting her pull free that easily. Chloe could immediately guess at what had just happened - a sharp stick must have punctured its way through her thin vinyl skin, and now her head was caught on it. Hoping she wasn't about to collapse into a deflated pile of plastic, she gingerly reached up and tried to pull it out. It took a moment to feel for the offending protrusion and grab it with her fingers, well aware that they could get impaled too. But when she finally located it, she found that it wasn't just poking through the surface of her head - it was actually attached. The stem she was holding onto actually merged directly into her hair. And when she tried to yank it out, she could feel it, like she was trying to pluck a single hair straight out of her scalp (back before she became a floatie and still had individual hairs that she could pluck).
Involuntarily, Chloe's head swiveled toward the trunk of the tree she had just found herself attached to. She immediately saw that this was no ordinary tree. The whole of the trunk resembled a woman's curvy body, covered in bark, her legs intertwining as they reached toward the ground until they became one thick, solid mass at the root. Chloe recognized what she was looking at right away: a dryad. (Okay, she only knew that because her nerdy little brother was super into Dungeons & Dragons. But his encyclopedic knowledge of fantasy creatures had really come in handy ever since they started walking the earth.)
The dryad-woman opened her eyes, which turned out to be a piercing shade of yellow, and met Chloe's wondering gaze. "Hello, my child," she said in a deep and resonant voice.
Chloe couldn't resist giving the first response that came to her mind. "I'm not your child," she said, with a little bit of a smirk.
"Not yet," the woman responded calmly. "There are many gifts that have been bestowed upon mankind in recent times. I can see that you have one of your own. Mine is perhaps the greatest gift of all. While others consume Fruits and consume their magic, I can grow Fruits of my own and imbue them with magic." She raised an arm - a bough of the tree, really - and the many branches and leaves that sprung out from it in all directions shook. The many red fruits that grew from the end of each branch glistened in the sunlight as she did so. The vibration soon shook Chloe as well, even though she was attached to a different limb of the tree. "Everything is connected," the woman said by way of explanation.
Chloe stared back in awe. Her mouth would have been hanging open if it wasn't just a painted design on her face. "Wait... are you the one who started all of this? You're the creator of the Lilith Fruits?"
The dryad laughed a bit, shaking her leaves again. "No, no," she intoned in response. "I was once an ordinary human man, until I happened upon a Fruit and took a bite. I do not know from whence the Fruits first came. But I have done my best to spread them ever since."
Chloe had practically forgotten that she was stuck to this tree-person. She could hardly hold back her excitement - this was exactly the sort of limitless opportunity she had come here for. "So can you make me a special Fruit, then? And do I get to decide what it does? Or is it still random?"
The dryad smiled widely. "Yes, I can make you a Fruit. That, after all, is exactly what I am here for. However, I will require you to pay me in return." Chloe was reaching for her purse when the woman stopped her. "I have no need for human currency any longer. What I need from you is energy. If I am to grow something for you, I must have the nutrients to grow it."
"Oh," Chloe replied, not sure what that meant. "Do you want me to like, cr-" But her question was cut off there, as she watched her head suddenly separate from the rest of her body. From the neck down, her body crumpled onto her feet, which had been standing right on top of the dryad's veiny network of roots. Her view of all of this was unchanged, though, as her head remained suspended from the branch it had become stuck onto. So Chloe could easily see what was happening below, as the plastic sheet that was her body started to degrade against the rich, composting soil.
"Hmmm," said the dryad, her voice rumbling through Chloe's head as she spoke. "I am used to taking something more organic to feed myself. But this is magic. I can make it work." And just as she said that, the light pink of the plastic turned a deep brown as it melted into the dirt underneath. Chloe could still feel what was happening to her body, although she didn't know what to make of the sensation. It felt like everything below her chin was being sucked through a straw, like she was a liquid.
And then she noticed something dripping from the stem that attached her to the tree. Her hollow plastic head was slowly filling, drop by drop, with a brown liquid that quickly turned a juicy yellow. She couldn't help but recognize it as the liquid that her body had been melted into. She could feel it folding back into herself, her entire form recombining into a new whole.
Soon enough, Chloe's head lost its translucent plastic sheen. She now very much resembled a bright red Fruit, distinguished from an ordinary apple only by her face. She felt like her head was swelling, but in fact it was shrinking. It was becoming denser, though, and more solid as it shrank to be about three inches across.
Chloe's head swung freely from her stem as a gust of wind came over the beach. The dryad looked quite satisfied with herself. "I have made you a Fruit. A very special Fruit, indeed. I'm afraid I didn't let you choose what it does, or what you do, but I assure you it will be something special. A gift, to give back to the world which has given both of us a gift of its own. Remember that everything is connected."
Even after being turned into an apple, Chloe's feisty spirit had not been dulled one bit, and she was really hoping she wouldn't be trapped here forever. "What if I don't want to be connected to you any longer?", she spat back.
"Very well," the dryad replied curtly, and Chloe abruptly fell from her high, dangling perch. She landed face-first in the sand and rolled helplessly away from the tree that had just cut her loose. When she came to a stop, she was dizzy - she could feel her juicy innards sloshing around through her head, which was also her whole body. She would have gotten up and dusted herself off, but she had no arms or legs. She was definitely going to need some help with this new form...