[[The Beauty of the Tree Woman]]

Before Total Transformation-JoannaRuckman

Branches and bark. Leaves and sap. I have branches for hands and my head..where could my head be? All I know is there are things growing out of it in every direction. It often gives me headaches because it feels like its always growing. Always growing up and away. Often times passerby's will ask me why? Why tree woman,why would you be stuck in this form?
I simply say it starts like this...
She was beautiful, her skin was a creamy dark brown and her lips luscious as they were formed the most dazzling smile.  Beautiful and large brown eyes and a perfect button nose. She was the embodiment 
of beauty, in her tribe. Her name was as pretty as her face, her name was Afi.

"I do not like fish! I do not! I do not!" Faizah spoke like a

Faizah-Redbubble

spoiled woman, which she was.
They were all as poor as they could be, but Faizah was not. Her father was the tribe leader and he was as selfish as her daughter. Faizah, was the exact opposite of Afi, she was not beautiful because her soul was as tarnished as old brass. She was also a jealous girl, she wanted and she took. She dictated and she threw away perfectly good food because it did not taste good to her. Needless, to say she was rotten to her very core. Her biggest problem was that she had an acute fear of fish. Her child servants always made it her mission to cut off the heads of fish before serving it to her, if not she would slap her hand across their little faces.

Thinking that she could rid the tribe of Faizah (whom was worse than her father and was sure to control the tribe as her father past on to the other world). She thought she would send the bravest warrior of the neighboring tribe to woo the tribe princess, maybe softening her heart.

Elimu-Margrit

"You must do this Elimu! That is the only way we could be rid of her future tyranny!"

"I cannot Afi...She is as dark as the wolves that come out at night, to feast of the flesh of our youngest."

"Elimu! Please! Our fate..is dismal.."

Elimu thought about it for days, Afi was right Faizah would starve us all, at least her father would give a scrap here and the there. The daughter would give none. Only two days passed before he came to this decision and he promptly saw Afi at the river washing her cloth and bent down next to her to tell her the news.

"You are right...I must, not just for the sake of us, but for the sake our tribe."

The Fish Faizah Hated-LiamsC9

Afi clapped her hands together happily, then her face fell as quick as it was lit up.

"There are things you must never do Elimu. You must always cut off the heads of the fish, the very fish we try to feed our own families with. If you do not I fear the death of not only you, but me as well. This is because as soon as she sees this fish whole she will know the trick we played on her."
"Do not worry yourself Afi, I will not. You are safe, now finish washing those clothes fore there will be a wedding to attend."

Afi did as she was told.
Faizah accepted without trepidation because Elimu was the greatest warrior and they all thought that he would marry the beautiful Afi, because they were always together. Anything to take away from Afi, Faizah was happy about because she was jealous of her beauty and her

Elimu's Remembrance of Afi-Etsy

ability to connect to other members of the tribe. Something Faizah could never do.
They lived together blissfully, for many years. Even after she was granted leadership of the tribe. Just as Afi predicted she was happy and therefore did not reek havoc. If only Elimu was happy, he had loved Afi since he was a child and wanted her more and more everyday. The years were slow and miserable for him, but everyday he gave Faizah the headless fish. One faithful day Elimu was contemplating his miserable marriage by the river Afi and he would sit by talking. So engrossed into his memories he did not tell the child servants to cut the heads off of the fish. This was the biggest error for Faizah was angered and the truth of her marriage was out. In a furious and jealous rage she condemned Afi to live a life of a tree, watching her loved ones pass on daily. As for Elimu, she had the river witch drown him right were he sat.

Afi as a Full Tree Woman-BidorBuy

That is the story I always tell passerby's, so they will know to be careful of the tribe they are a few miles from, because no longer was it a tribe full of kind people. It was now a tribe full of death, murderers all lead by the evil tribal queen. Even though I'am stuck in this form, I tell them that it is my punishment because I sent the great Elimu to his death.

Author's Note:

I took two stroies from Note of the Folklore of the Fjort and combined them together to make a more epic story. The stories were The Vanishing Wife and the Other Vanishing Wife
In The Vanishing Wife a woman lures a man to her and promises and tells him that he must always cut the heads off the fish he gives her if he does not she will disappear and in the second story
I wanted to give a reason why the first wife did not like fish and thought I could make her a villain even though she originally was not. I thought it would be a good explanation as why the girl in the The Other Vanishing Wife was turned into a tree. The sending of the man was the idea of a Afi and that caused all that happened with the husband. I also wanted to give the characters of an identity because the woman did not have one to began with and I wanted everyone to feel a personal connection to them, therefore I named them. The mans named did change though because the character changed, in the original the man was not a warrior, but a poor man ridiculed and beaten by his brother. I did not want that, I wanted him to be a warrior, a lovesick warrior that does not think his actions through in the end. Another inclusion is the love a woman, the only difference instead of two different man loving two different women, in two different stories. I combined it all together and because I liked the second story just as much as the first I made her be the one that the man truly loves.

Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett (1898).