*This story is intended to be fairly wholesome, but it contains a descriptive male to female transformation, as well as mentions of domestic abuse that could be triggering to some. If you're not comfortable, then I hope there's another story out there for you...

Dryad's Grove

From a distance, one could spot what appeared to be three people by the river bank, looking over another lying in the mud...

But come closer, and the details are not as they seem... There are actually four standing over the unconscious person. Most would mistake the one with green skin for a plant... Which wasn't entirely inaccurate. In fact, all four of them were not humans at all: they were dryads, mystical plant people of the forest.

Two - one male and one female - had bark armor-like skin over their natural smooth flesh, holding weapons fashioned from hardwoods, reinforced in ways not visible to the human eye. The green one - a young woman in appearance, but with a stature of wisdom that came with centuries, in a pure white gown spun from natural silks - had bright purple hair and flowers sprouting from it. The last one was also a young woman, but she had fair skin and brown hair that easily could get her mistaken for a human, so long as no one noticed the maple leaf shaped ears...

"... No," said the green one.

"But... Lilac..." the human-like one started.

"Amy, look, I know you are kind-hearted. That's probably why you gained the gift of heartsight when you became one of us, but letting humans into our midst is always a risk..." Lilac explained.

"Besides, I can smell the dirt and gold on him," the male bark-skinned one noted. "He's a greedy miner, ripping apart the land for that shiny yellow rock."

"Asterosk, Lilac, I know that's the usual policy, but look at him..." Said the female bark-skinned one.

"I know, Pendra, but he will be fine," Lilac said. "He will recover in time. We should send him down the river so that he winds up in one of the human settlements. He isn't our problem... And I don't want him to be either. We have learned the hard way what these lighter-skinned humans do. They burnt down the cultures that respected us and the forests we lived in. This valley is one of the harder places for them to reach. We have to protect it..."

"And yet... We have one right here..." Pendra gestured towards the unconscious man.

"Well, he wouldn't know he was ever here if we just put him back in the river..." Asterosk suggested.

"No! There's got to be some other way!" Amy objected. "He might not make it..."

"Well then, what would you have us do?" asked Lilac.

"I have an idea... What if we have Amy use heartsight on him? We won't likely get his thoughts, but we can get his feelings. If he might be a danger, we send him on his merry way. If he could be trusted, we could open up to him, as we did Amy," Pendra suggested.

"I'm not entirely comfortable with it, but... If it will make Amy feel better, then we should try it," said Lilac, letting out a sigh as she said it.

"I think I can live with that..." Amy put her hand on the man's forehead. She concentrated, and mentally dug into the man's brain. She could only sense feelings, but if they were strongly tied to a memory, she could catch that too.

"I sense... Oh." Amy started to tear up, eyes still closed. "... Sadness. A broken heart. I think... A loved one left him... His love was true. He worked hard here to provide for them..."

"So even if we sent him back, what would he be coming back to?" Pendra asked.

"I sense... Anger and resentment. And shock. He was hurt by someone. He was stolen from... And do I sense jealousy? Oh! A memory! The man who beat him and threw him into the river stole his fortune in gold and was also having an affair with his love."

"Poor man. My condolences, he must be a tough one to survive all of that..." Asterosk muttered.

"He doesn't want to wake up... I feel it... But... There's something else in here."

"What is it?" asked Lilac.

"It's motivating him to keep going... I'm trying to reach it, but it keeps slipping away... This is really deep in there, really buried."

"It's some sort of secret, then. If it's that deep, it is something the person is trying to ignore about themselves. Can you reach it, Amy?

"I'm... Trying..." Amy muttered, putting a lot of concentration into uncovering the secret, sweating as she was digging in. She let out a gasp as her concentration broke. "Sorry. I lost it. I couldn't figure out what it was. But... I don't think it was dangerous, at least to us."

"You think he felt it was dangerous to him, I take it?" Pendra asked.

"I think so. Unfortunately, whatever it was, I couldn't find it."

Lilac pondered what that meant. A secret that felt dangerous to the person who had it, but not to others... She had seen the new arrivals who had been coming in the past couple of hundred years. She often found repression in their hearts, things they wanted to act on, but they felt their society or their God or gods would not allow. She thought perhaps this man was repressing such feelings... But how could they be keeping him alive? As the elder dryad, she had to make a decision...

=== Later that afternoon. ===

Steven stirred awake. He was still alive. He checked his surroundings, but there was nothing familiar. He was in some sort of wood structure, possibly a hollowed-out tree. He looked down at his body and saw that he was wearing some sort of silk gown. Parts of his body were wrapped in massive leaves, and he could feel some sort of sticky substance against his skin underneath them.

He tried moving an arm, but he felt a tug. He looked closer at the leaf, which was tied to a plant he had never seen before, growing out of the dirt floor next to his bed - a bed that he realized now was made from layers of some sort of fuzzy leaf and wood branches, seemingly grown into a surprisingly comfortable bed.

Steven started to panic. Was he a prisoner? He started to squirm, causing the plants to rustle. This caught the attention of the brown-haired girl that was in the room with him.

"Whoa, hey, take it easy!" she said, "You were badly injured. These plants secrete medicinal fluids that are helping you recover."

"Then why am I tied here?!" Steven exclaimed.

"Sorry, the plants produce more when they are rooted. We figured that while you were still unconscious, we should let them stay that way. Now that you're awake, I'll cut the stems..."

Steven watched as the mysterious woman went over to each of the six plants that were wrapping him. Rather than using some tool to cut the plants, she simply pinched the stems and the leaves became free. On top of that, the rest of the plant retreated into the earth, as if its job was done.

"Wha-? How did you...?"

"I will have to explain some things... My name is Amy. We found you on the riverbank this morning. You were badly beaten and hanging on by a thread. Rather than send you back down the river to hopefully reunite you with your kind, we took you in to help you recover in our own way..."

"Your way? Your kind? I haven't heard of a tribe like yours before. Besides, you look like someone I would meet in a city."

"Well..." Amy brushed her hair aside to reveal the leaf-shaped ear. "I'm not human. I am a dryad, a forest being."

"Wait, those are myths! You can't be real!"

"A year ago, I would have thought the same, but I was desperate to get away from my husband, and I traveled all the way out to Oregon. I must have passed out and fell into the same river you did, because I wound up here. The dryads took me in, partly because they sensed I was not a threat to them, and they also found out I was a florist. They appreciated there was a human that cared for plants like they did."

"How did you become one of them? I don't want to stay here forever..."

"Don't worry, you will be able to leave if you want to. I chose my fate. The dryads were so kind to me, and they were willing to protect me from harm. I decided to become one of them because I felt like I had a new family here. It also helped me gain a new understanding of plants I never could have as a human."

"So... If I want to stay a human and return..."

"Your only burden would be keeping this place secret. Understand, there have been conflicts between humans and dryads throughout history. We humans have burnt down their forests to make space for ourselves or looking for fabled treasures. Places where the dryads feel at home have dwindled over the centuries. This valley is a closely guarded secret."

"I see. I still feel kind of weak. Do you mind giving me a cane or something I can use?"

Amy held out her hand, and sure enough, a branch grew out of the wall, filling her hand. A quick twist of her arm snapped the branch off the wall, which she handed to Steven. "This should do the trick."

Steven held onto the branch. It felt comfortable to hold, and as he stood up, he could feel how sturdy it was. He would have no problem getting around with this. "Thank you. My name is Steven, by the way."

"You're welcome, Steven! Our elder, Lilac, will be waiting for you outside. You should talk to her. She will explain what she expects from you while you're here."

Steven nodded and headed out the door. Amy, meanwhile, was trying to piece together why the name Steven didn't fit him... It felt off, somehow.

Steven pushed aside the leaves that covered the entrance and gazed upon the sight of the grove before him. The dryad village was bustling with activity, with dryad children playing in the mud in the middle of the field, illuminated by the opening in the tall trees around them. Each was a home, with openings covered by large leaves acting as the doors much like his room. Branches connected the trees together, serving as bridges to their neighbors. He had seen plenty of grand forests with massive trees in the west, but they paled in comparison to the trees that grew here.

These people were as diverse as they could be. The skin colors of every human he knew of were here, as well as vibrant shades of green and violet, with hair colors that spanned the rainbow. Some had bark for skin, a living armor. Even still, not all of them appeared to be warriors. Contrary to myth, these people were clothed, either in silks and cottons or in weaves of leaves. It was a spectacular sight to behold.

"So, you're awake, I see."

Steven turned around to see a green-skinned woman with bright purple hair, and two lavender flowers growing from the top of her head. "Are you Lilac?"

"Indeed I am. I am one of the oldest dryads living here. As such, I make decisions that affect my people. Taking you in was a major risk for us. Don't make me regret my decision."

"Why take me in then?"

"Amy looked into your heart. She has the ability we call 'heartsight,' which allows her to sense feelings from other beings - sometimes memories, if the feelings they are tied to are strong enough. It's an ability most dryads don't have, only a rare few have it."

"Wait, Amy said she became one of you. She gained this 'heartsight' upon becoming a dryad?"

"It seems the most empathetic of our kind gain this ability - this includes former humans. She wanted to protect you, and according to what she sensed from you, she believed you were not a threat to us. She was even able to figure out what happened to you."

Steven noted something in her demeanor. "That's not everything, is it?"

"No, you're right. Amy detected something deep down within you, but she was not able to draw it out. You kept some sort of feeling a secret from an empath, and a very good one if I may say so. It piqued my curiosity."

Steven shuddered a little bit. There was something. He knew it, and these strange beings wanted to bring it to light? Didn't they know what it could do to him if it came out? That he...

"So what do you want from me?"

"I ask while you are here to respect nature and our people. I have seen many others like you harm others for nothing more than what they look like. I suspect you are not the same, but we will be keeping an eye on you nonetheless. I would like to get to the bottom of your secret, but I know something that buried isn't coming to the light easily. Besides, Amy said that you didn't feel it was a threat to anyone but yourself..."

"I... Don't want to talk about it."

"Fair enough. I ask that you stay until you are fully healed, another few days at least, then you may choose what you wish to do from there. Does this sound good to you?"

"I think so."

"Then, welcome to our grove! Feel free to use our people's services as you need. But please don't cause trouble..."

=== The next day. ===

Steven sat at the edge of a lake. Apparently, this was a sacred place to the dryads, the Lake of One's Truth. He was surprised they let him near it, but they didn't mind his presence too much. It got around quickly that the new human was harmless.

The lake was overlooked by a beautiful pine tree with rainbow needles. A strange sight to behold, but the lake itself was the thing he was here for. It had a flat and undisturbed surface, a mirror. It was said the lake could show the inner reflection of someone's soul. There was even a ritual that could be performed to make that reflection real.

That legend enticed him to come, but he was having second thoughts....

"I see you heard about this place," the familiar voice of Amy came from behind.

"I just wanted to take in the sights," Steven said, hoping to pass that off as his reason for coming here.

"I always like to visit the Lake. This is where I became a dryad."

"So that ritual is real, then?"

"Yes, although my reflection was nearly the same as my human self. I liked myself the way I was. There are others who changed significantly when they underwent the ritual..."

"Were they happy afterwards?"

"Of course! When you are one with your inner self, it always makes you happier."

Could I be... Happier? But wouldn't that condemn my soul? Steven's mind raced with all sorts of questions. He tried to push down the thoughts that were bugging him.

"You seem to be doing better today, Steven," Amy remarked. "I see you don't need the cane anymore."

"These leaves are doing the trick. I never would have thought they would have worked so quickly."

"That's good," Amy said, as she put her hand on his shoulder. As she did, her heartsight ability kicked in automatically, and she recoiled when she got hit with the feelings that brought Steven here. What was hidden before was now very much available to her.

Steven had long hidden a desire to be a woman. He was utterly convinced that if he tried to become one, it would go against "God's will" and condemn him to eternal suffering, something he was told as a child, which he internalized and it ate at his heart.

"Oh my..."

Steven could already tell what she now knew. He was deathly afraid. "Please... Don't say anything..." he muttered through a cold sweat.

Amy instead hugged him. "If there's anything I learned from my time here, it's that it's okay for you to feel that way. If you want, we can give you a test to make sure these feelings are real."

"What test?"

"Look into the lake. Your reflection will tell you everything."

"I... Can't."

"Hmm... Maybe I have another idea. Wait here."

Amy ran into the forest, leaving Steven with his thoughts. Was it really okay for him to think that? These people... Were okay with it? Steven started to think about what Amy said about the ritual, how some had changed drastically...

Amy returned a few minutes later with Lilac. "What is this about?" Lilac asked. Amy whispered into her ear. "Why do you want me to do that?" Amy whispered a bit more, a barely audible "Trust me" slipped out.

"Okay Steven, I am going to do something to you, if you accept it. It will hurt for a moment, then you will feel strange sensations as your body takes this compound in and uses it. Once finished, the effects will last for about two hours, giving you plenty of time to think about what this means to you. Do you accept?"

"I... Sure."

Lilac walked up to Steven and placed her hands on his chest. He felt a quick prick of pain from each hand, going straight into his pecs. She removed her hands, revealing two minute holes in his cotton shirt, which were repaired by the dryad's magic. Heat inflamed his chest, and he felt blood rushing to the spots. He first saw the bumps of his nipples poke out, larger than before. Then, as his chest pulsed, he saw mounds grow, pushing against his shirt. They settled down after about ten seconds, and the heat died down with them.

He realized what she had done: he had womanly breasts. He felt the newly formed flesh, which was still sensitive from the growth. He recoiled a couple of times from the pain before it subsided. He started to feel it... The softness in his hands, the weight. It was like it was always supposed to have been there... He started stroking his new breasts when he realized what he was doing.

"Wait, NO!" He yelped, leaping up. "This isn't right! I shouldn't be tempted by such things! I..." He looked down at the swollen chest he owned. "I..." he said a little quieter.

"Are you sure? In our culture, people like this have existed for all time," Lilac explained. "We believe that it is a trial set up by Mother Nature. It entails suffering, yes, but the path to your true self is never locked away from you. There exists some path to reach the person you want to be - who you are meant to be."

"But, God - I mean, Mother Nature, made me a man, so I have to be one, correct?"

"No. That's something I learned in my time here," Amy added. "You can be whoever you want to be!"

"I've seen a lot of repression in the hearts of men, especially the newcomers like yourself. I don't fully understand what it is about your religions, but they seem very controlling. It's no wonder you have put your own life in harm's way for others. You haven't cared about yourself, have you?"

Steven looked down at his chest. He admitted he loved what it felt like, what it looked like. For the first time, there was something about his body he liked... Lilac was right.

Steven started to tear up. "I... Don't have anything anymore. All of the effort to obtain gold for my family... My wife left me. My friend betrayed me, took everything. And here I am... With a woman's chest..."

"It's okay..." Amy said as she came over to hug him. "Do you want to be a woman?"

"I... Do..." Steven whispered, her truth finally coming out.

"Is there a name you would like us to call you now in light of that?"

"Skyla."

Amy felt this was a much better name for her. It fit the way "Steven" was not earlier. She finally understood why she thought it hadn't fit: she must have gleaned enough earlier that there was a subconscious suspicion that Skyla felt this way.

Lilac gestured the both of them over to the lake. Amy guided Skyla over to the lake's surface so she could see the reflection of her true self.

Skyla glanced into the water. The rumors of the lake were true. Skyla's reflection was not that of a man with breasts, but of a beautiful fair skinned maiden with striking sky blue hair, and an exotic blue flower with white edges on the left side of her head. She was seeing the reflection of herself as a dryad.

Lilac and Amy witnessed the reflection for themselves. "So, Skyla, what do you think now?" Lilac asked.

Skyla blushed at the name. "I have nothing to go back to, do I? For all anyone knows, I'm dead... This ritual, it will make me a woman?"

"Yes, it will make you a woman. You will be a dryad like the rest of us - a side effect of the ritual, you always become a dryad. You will not be human anymore."

"I think that will be fine," Skyla said as she glanced at her reflection again. "I'm so pretty..."

"I'm so glad for you!" Amy remarked.

"As much as I would suspect you want to go through the ritual now, I would like to see you heal up beforehand. Although the transformation doesn't hurt, it is taxing to the body, and in your weakened state, you might go into a coma for a few days if we did it now..."

"If you don't mind, though, is there anything you can do for me in the meantime? I don't want to lose this anymore..."

"I'm sure that could be arranged!"

=== Two day later ===

Skyla emerged from her new home. She now wore a silk dress dyed in natural purples from plants curated by her neighbors. She looked down and was greeted by her shrunken breasts. The dryads were giving her compounds to swell her chest, to help her be the woman she desired to be while she awaited her ritual, but the effect was temporary. She slept through the night, and they had shrunk again. But the hair growth serum worked beautifully, her hair now reaching her middle back.

And besides, she was fully healed today, the changes she would undergo later tonight would be permanent. She wouldn't need to rely on serums anymore to maintain her new feminine body.

Throughout the day, parties were held. All manner of foods were prepared, from plants of all kinds Skyla was familiar with to ones she knew the dryads made themselves. More surprising were the cooked meats and breads; dryads had much of the same tastes as humans, apparently. They had set aside caves in the valley walls to ensure they wouldn't accidentally burn down their own homes while cooking.

It was a lavish celebration, full of color and life. The dryads were not just celebrating the birth of a new dryad, though. Skyla came to realize this was a celebration of her life up to this point too, the journey to get to this day. She cried more than a few times as the day went on, but mostly of joy.

For much of the time, Amy had been at her side, making sure she was doing well. Having been through the ritual herself only six months ago, she knew well what Skyla was experiencing. She knew the kind of life Skyla had left behind, pressures to conform and to be who you were told you were. Amy reassured Skyla things would get better from this day forward.

As the sun set, many of the dryads followed Skyla to the Lake of One's Truth. It wasn't that often that they got to see the Ritual of Realization take place, let alone twice in one year.

Lilac was waiting, ready to perform the ritual. "Skyla, you came to us battered and broken, alive only for your heart's desire to become a woman. Upon the completion of the Ritual of Realization, you will be both your inner self and a dryad. Do you accept the transformation to come?"

"Yes, I do!"

Lilac offered her hand. "Please, step forward."

Skyla took her hand. Lilac's other hand began to glow as she pointed it towards the lake. The lake itself began to glow. "Touch the water, Skyla. Upon doing so, the magic will transfer into you, and the transformation will commence. Once it starts, your feet will sprout roots. Do not struggle, and let the changes flow. You will be freed from the earth once your changes are done."

Skyla nodded and approached the lake. There was the blue-haired reflection, staring back at her once again. She touched it with her finger and stood back. Then she felt the strangest sensation of her life: she felt some part of her feet begin to grow into the soil, and she could feel the growths snaking through the ground below. She had grown roots.

She was stuck in place, but she remembered Lilac's words. Instead, she let herself feel surges from her new roots fill her. She felt herself start to grow, a little bit everywhere at once. Her hips and thighs gained mass. She had been short as a man, but she watched as her perspective began to shift, and dryads that once stood over her were now shorter. She had grown more than a foot, maybe to over six feet tall. It was a good thing she opted for a long dress, as it struggled to reach her knees now. Her waist hadn't caved in so much as it was the rest of her grew to make it look slimmer.

Her face tingled slightly, and she knew it was changing. Her hair too, but thanks to the serums, it didn't need to grow much more. She grabbed a few strands to watch in amazement as sky blue overtook her original blonde, flowing down to the tips like water running down them. Her brows changed to the same shade. Of her face, the only thing still the same was the hazel color of her eyes.

She could feel what was next: Her chest had shrunk over the day to be barely visible, but that was going to change. She felt fluid rush to refill her form, her chest expanding outwards once again, growing larger than before. They still looked natural on her frame, but her new size was too much for the old bra to handle, and it audibly snapped. Skyla's face turned red from embarrassment.

"Don't worry, we can fix that shortly," Lilac assured her.

The final changes were taking place. She felt sensations between her legs that could only mean one thing: She was now completely female. A small bud formed on her scalp and grew, opening up into the same flower she had seen in her reflection. She was admiring the feeling of the new flower, something she could feel through its petals, when the roots gave way. She was not ready for it and fell over. It took several dryads to catch her, given she had become a lot bigger than anyone expected. At nearly six foot five, she wasn't the tallest dryad in these woods, but she was close.

"How do you feel, Skyla?"

"Tired, but good," she said, feeling the aftereffects of the transformation.

"You're now one of us, Skyla! There will be much for you to learn, but for tonight, you deserve rest."

=== Epilogue - 3 months later. ===

Emily was not happy. Her mother told her that Tomas was her new father. He came back from Oregon with a vast wealth in gold that mother told her could give her a happy life.

She missed daddy. Tomas was daddy's friend, not daddy. She returned to her room and cried in her bed for hours. Eventually, she prayed.

"God, I would like to see my daddy again... I miss him so much right now..." She slowly sank to sleep. As she did, she began to dream. In her dream, she saw a tall lady with blue hair and a flower sticking out of it. She was really pretty. She then heard the lady say something...

"God, I would one day like to see my family again. I know I have changed much, but if I could reconnect with them one day, I would appreciate it. I do miss them, especially my daughter..."

Emily didn't understand why, but this gave her some comfort. She liked the blue-haired flower lady. She was content to continue seeing the lady in her dreams.

Meanwhile, across the country, Skyla felt a sense of comfort too. She wondered if she was feeling her daughter's contentment at that moment...

Neither realized that one day, their wishes would both be granted...

END OF PART 1. PART 2: BOOK OF THE DRYADS

By CrystalSeaDragon44