"What do you mean you need me to help you? I don't even know you! And what is all this that I helped you to do, I don't even know what you look like or who you are. I helped an older woman cross the street on campus. I gave a child my rain jacket after she accidentally stepped on and broke my umbrella. And finally, I gave a homeless man a free dinner at work one day because you could tell that he had been struggling." I huffed and puffed, or I did whatever it was I was doing, it was hard not having a body or being in an egg or whatever it was that I have or don't have. It's all quite confusing at this moment.
*Crack* Suddenly there was a crack in the darkness around me. "Whats that thing I saw in one of your human movies, oh yeah! HERE'S HEBENAMI!" Two hands reached in through the crack and pried whatever I was inside of open, showering me in light. I blink a few times and as I look around, I see myself in a beautiful forest clearing full of colorful flowering plants of all kinds. Beautiful hues of purple, orange pink, red, yellow, green, and plenty of other colors bloomed from bushes, vines, and trees of all different statures. "Wow, you look a lot different than what I thought you would, you are quite small, you only rise to a little below my kneecaps. Women should be wary of a person your size. If that was your taste" The lady before me laughed boomingly at her joke and seemed to grow a little also.
I looked at myself observing my new body, aside from being stark naked, there were a few more obvious things that should be noted. For one, I don't happen to have any genitals. In my original life I was a gay guy, but in this life I'm just… for lack of better word, I'm just. My body is also well defined, I finally have abs, along with an amazing butt! Back home I had a good butt, you know and an amazing "personality" but this one, it is amazing, all I need is a good pair of bells and some skates with a tube top and you'd think I was right out of the 80's. Another very astounding trait I happen to possess is that of green skin. It's not a sickly green or a forest green, more like that of a soft tea green. Not deep and overly accentuated, but a green like that of the first few days of spring, one where the grass is still lightly frosted so it doesn't show its true color. It's very cute, very demure. The final things that stood out to me were the vine like marking and wrappings all over my body and the four horns on my head and…. a tail!? A freaking tail! I know right fuck the green skin but be surprised by a tail. The vines were extremely intricate and looked to have been handcrafted by that of the finest artisans and my tail was long, like I mean loooooong.
"Ooh, those swirls you put on yourself are extremely beautiful, how did you do it?" Hebenami stared at me wondrously why I too looked back towards her. "What do you mean, did you not create my body and stuff? How am I supposed to have added those to myself when I was in the dark void for ages?" She just looked at me staring extremely hard, I feel like she was looking at my soul to be honest. "So, since you're new to this being created thing let me explain. I made you a vessel for your soul to inhabit and placed you in the egg/tree you were in moments ago, but as for your form and features, that is all up to you. You are the reason your skin and hair are the colors they are. The soul is a very powerful thing. I remember 73 years ago when I brought you here, your last thoughts that weren't about friends and family dealt a lot with plants and flowers, hence how you ar-" I interrupted her abruptly and extremely confused. "Did you just say 73 years ago? But I've been conscious the whole time and it only felt like minutes passed, ten at most, but there is no way 73 years have passed since I had my car accident!"
I paced around, albeit unsteadily as my legs felt a bit foreign to me, probably due to my 73 years of being cooped up in a tree. I take in more parts of my body such as the color of my hair; it seemed to change colors depending on the mood I was in. White being a natural color while it became yellow at shock, pink at surprise, and green when I thought hard on something or asked important questions to the deity before me and other colors I haven't even discovered yet.
"What is this placed and where am I? I understand that you brought me here from earth when I was near death, but you've never explained what here was. You've also conveniently continued to leave out what it is that you need my help with while traversing this plane of existence." At this the goddess's face turns from one of cheerful laughter and smiles to that of something dark and grim. I don't mean in just expression, but her face actually changed. Her skin turned from that of amber to one of ash grey. Her luscious brown locks became that of needle straight white hair. Her eyes from a bountiful green and brown to that of a blood red. Her wings that had cloaked her body the entire time surrounding her like clouds and puffs of happiness melted away to reveal a bony skeletal type wing beneath and a black gown that seemed to vanish into thin air where its ends met the ground. The edges of her body seemed to be almost completely black and covered in ancient markings.
"I Hebenami, Goddess of Life and Death, have brought you here to help me save this world. The leaders of different factions among this planet have brought war and ruin to many of its people and refuse to stop the war. I have conversed with the many other gods of this realm, and they care not for the people. They would prefer to end life on the planet and start anew. That is not the full truth though, some gods would like to be the only god" the goddess professes this information while staring at the sky. "Why can't you or another god stop them?" the goddess finally tilts and looks at me, her blood red eyes unnerving as they look me up and down. "The power of a god depends on the amount of people who believe in them. Eons ago, I was one of the most powerful gods presiding over life and death and many other subcategories, medicine and whatnot. Now I am a myth, a bedtime story told to children to keep them away from the terrors of the night."
"My wells of power have long run dry along with the few prayers I receive, I used all my saved energy to search and look for someone to carry out my mission and luckily I found you." As Miss Hebenami explained to me the reasoning behind my summoning, I looked at the world around me. There were two suns, the bigger one, much like the one on earth, and a smaller one that was above and to the right of the first one. The plant life around me seemed like the same kinds you would find on earth although much more beautiful and fragrant. "Are you even listening!" suddenly I am being yelled at by Hebenami who has gotten significantly closer to me. For a giant woman she sure moves quietly. "You said that due to being summoned I can receive three wishes from you, you will incorporate them into the system and something else along the lines of using them responsibly." The eye roll I received from that statement was actually wild. I've come to the realization while listening to her explain the system that this world is much like those ability-based novels, I read in high school. Our librarian was an interesting lady and had a whole shelf of books that were light Mangas and stuff like that. Curiosity got the better of me and I read many of them.
"I said that I would grant you three wishes after you have completed the training that I want you to do. This world is harsh and much like the realm you come from, there are plenty of dangers. You are special as you are the only one of your kind so far. Poachers and many other criminals will see you and immediately you will become a target of all kinds of perversions." The goddess circles around me lifting my arms and poking and prodding at the different parts of my body. "Why am I special, and how can I be the only one of my kind, am I a new species or something?" The goddess chuckles at me and her colors begin to revert back to how she was when I first met her. "You have such a funny way of speaking and you use words I've never heard before, what is a species? To answer your second question as I have already explained why you're special, you are a plant being, something never heard of before in this land. In your planet there are other plant beings, although I'm sure you've heard of them. Their names are Gaia, Demeter, and Persephone. They are gods and giantesses of your world are they not. You pale in comparison to them and their abilities though you may yet reach their potential with time. But still, you are different from them as well, although that is a surprise you'll have to wait to find out."
Hebenami smiles at me expectantly as I look at her pondering what the surprise could be. "Okay miss Goddess of Life and Death and a variety of other things, why is it that I should help you? You uprooted me from my home, placed me in a tree egg type thing for 100 years! And now you expect me to just go along with your plans of saving the world? Newsflash honey the world apparently doesn't want to b-" I stopped running my mouth as I looked at the goddess and instantly wanted to run away and hide in fear.
"You happen to misunderstand my request; in fact it's not a request at all. You will do as I ask or you will simply cease to exist, but not after I've made you regret that decision. It's more like that thing from your world called a rhetorical question, you know that kind you don't answer back to? I have brought you here to do MY BIDDING." I think she's getting bigger again. "I used my powers and abilities to give you a new body so you could do what I WANTED." She's most definitely getting bigger; I turn to run away but am grabbed by her and dangled in front of her face. The ground looks so far away. Her cheery appearance is once again gone and she's now the scary bony angel lady. "But since you refuse to do as I ask, I'll make well on my promise and end your pitiful life after you go through immense pain and suffering." She pulled me above her head and turned to open her mouth.