Mike struggled for the better part of an hour but it was no use. His legs by then were nothing more than a thick tree trunk, now almost double their length. Once it reached his hips and they locked into place, he realized that there was nothing more that he could do.
"Well, well, well, what have we here?" came a voice from below. "Someone has been drinking from my pool, have they?"
Mike looked down to see the dryad he'd seen earlier in the water, slowly circling his trunk. "Please, help me!" he said. "I don't want to be a tree!"
The dryad took on a fake hurt look, but she was clearly bemused, "Really? Then you should have known better than to drink from the pool. You are not the first traveler to add to this glade. Just the first in a long while."
Mike felt the changes accelerate, probably because of the Dryad. "Please, is there anything I can do to get out of this?"
The Dryad just smiled, "Get out of this? Once you've completed your transformation I plan to use you as my new home. You and I will be joined as long as you are my home." She carresed his trunk, "I do this with all my new trees."
Mike felt his arms start to point upward, unbidden, as they started to slowly turn into massive branches. "What happens when you leave me for the next tree?"
She reached behind her and pulled forward from nothing a small white cloud about the size of a large fist. "Once I leave the tree, your body stays behind as part of the forest. Your essence comes with me until I decide a new form for you. Like this."
She ran her hands quickly over the white cloud until they became a blur, then abruptly stopped. Sitting on her hand was a confused chipmunk. "Thank you for being such a good tree. Now find your future in the forest."
The chipmunk didn't move at first, then darted off into the woods.
Mike felt his heart sink. He was trapped for now, but maybe he could convince her to make him human again when this was all over.