The Man

Marie was temporarily working for the orphanage in her town. Her parents had passed away recently and her older siblings left their home long ago.

Marie was 18 years old and the youngest of her siblings. But she was forced to take care of herself alone. 

There was no man in the village who was interested in her because of her personality as a kid. 

She once was the leader of the gang of local kids. They played around everyday and did mischief. She acted like their boss and beat anybody who dared to oppose her.

She was beautiful but her old personality sometimes reappeared, leaving all her peers in trauma. 

"I want to leave this damn place."

Whenever she would curse her luck in front of the kids, they would poke fun at her.

"Yeah, otherwise you will end up as an old maid."

"What did you say?"

Whenever the kids joked about her, she would chase them around. 

"Waah she is mad." the kids would scream without a hint of remorse or fear.

Marie was not going to hurt children now and they took full advantage of this fact.

Her days would pass like this while she tried to come up with a strategy to change her life.

Daily, she would sit beside a tree. This was said to be one of the oldest trees near the border of this town. 

All the ones before this were cut down, but every generation of the town's lord was supposed to protect it.

They did not know the reason why, but followed tradition anyway.

It was her habit to always sit near it and tell it stories.

Whenever she talked to it, her worries would be eased.

This tree was her oldest friend in this town and the only one that didn't abandon her.

"Geez, I wish you were a handsome man so I would just marry you."

She blushed in embarrassment after saying that. 

"What am I doing with my life? I should just leave this damn town and move to the city."

"I would live as an adventurer, and fight monsters everyday."

"I would eat and sleep whenever I want."

"I would make so many friends, and then… and then…"

She became silent as she faced reality. She wasn't strong enough to become an adventurer. Nor was she skilled in any other area.

All she knew was to fight people and do some minor chores. She wasn't even exceptional at those.

Everybody who grew up with her had left her behind and went on their own paths. Only she didn't know what to do.

The most she could expect was to catch the fancy of a rich man and live comfortably. But she didn't expect this dream to become a reality.

Furthermore, she didn't want to live such a life. She wanted to do something big or become someone famous, ever since she was a child.

She had barely saved enough money to leave the town and survive for a week. But she wasn't confident that she would make it far.

Reality was cruel to her.

She started tearing up.

*Sniffle*

"I know it isn't healthy to talk to you… but you're my only friend now. The others ignore me like they don't want me here."

Soon she erupted in tears.

She kept crying under the tree and fell asleep before she knew it.

xxx

Marie smelled a horrid stench in the air which woke her up.

When her eyes opened, she saw a big dark skinned child-like creature staring at her. It had big, vertical yellow eyes and sharp teeth. It was no more than 10 steps away from her.

A realization came to her mind.

This was a type of demon. She had seen a creature like this in one of the picture books she read to the kids.

Fresh tears welled up in her eyes.

The demon licked its lips as their eyes met.

Marie froze in shock, her body didn't obey her command to run. The demon slowly started moving closer to her. 

Only one word kept repeating in her mind. No no no no no no no no no no no no.

As the realisation hit her that this wasn't a dream she started praying to all 4 major deities, hoping one of them would listen to her pleas.

When the demon was just two steps away from her it leapt into the air. It extended its long sharp claws in the direction of Marie, her life started flashing before her eyes.

Just as the demon was about to take her life, the tree behind her cracked vertically.

Its sound reverberated through the town and the forests.

A bright light came from it as a black haired man emerged from inside it.

His eyes were lifeless but a spark flowed in them.

As soon as he saw the demon, he instinctively punched it in the face.

The demon's entire body burst upon being struck. 

As Marie saw this scene, she was left shocked.

The person in front of her had killed a demon in half a second.

Its blood and organs were sprayed around everywhere. Both Marie and the man were covered in the disgusting blue fluid.

The man took one look at Marie as he fell unconscious.

Marie rushed towards the man to help him but was stunned when she saw the naked man in his complete glory.

She took one step back and gulped hard. 

She took one look at his face and found out he was completely her type.

He had a lean body with toned muscles and looked just a little older than her.

She had seen his strength with her own eyes and he had even protected her on instinct.

She felt her heart throbbing as she controlled herself. She rushed towards the village to get someone to help bring him into the orphanage. 

As she was rushing back, two patrol guards rushed towards the scene, sensing something happening in that area.

When they saw the scene, they were left in shock. 

Marie gave them a quick explanation of what happened when she woke up.

The guards didn't want to believe her, but they couldn't ignore the scene before them either.

They didn't want to let an outsider in, but seeing as he had saved a person's life, they got permission from the guard's captain.

xxx

Marie nursed this man until the next morning.

After taking a bath, she had received help in cleaning his body and clothing him.

She rested near his bed and kept staring at his face. Her heart was beating so loudly that she could hear it.

The more she looked at him the more she felt attracted towards him.

"When I asked the tree to become a man, did it really listen to me?"

Her face flushed pink as she control her thoughts.

She saw the man regaining consciousness. 

As soon as he saw her face, he jumped up from his bed and hugged her.

She was sitting on a chair and the momentum carried the both of them to the ground.

She didn't get hurt when she landed on the ground but her face took the colour of a peach. The man was on top of her, hugging her tightly.

She could hear her heartbeat match with his. She could feel his skin on hers. She could feel his hair on her cheeks.

As her heart kept pounding in her chest, she almost hugged him back before she hesitated and returned to her senses.