Nature Girl

The Stranger

Once upon a time, when the earth was new  and young...two spirits came to the valley. The Lorax, guardian of the  trees for they cannot speak for themselves. And his pupil, a forest sprite,  Fiora, who brought forth life and tended the flora and fauna of the  Truffula valley.

Soon, a stranger came to the Truffula valley...destroying the once peaceful, uninhabited forest...

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Fiora was old as time itself, yet young and beautiful as the spring. Her long, flowing hair was multi-colored like all the Truffula trees, adorned with  flowers; sometimes it changed depending on her mood. Most of the time it was orange. Her pale green skin had thick and thin vines with tiny leaves embedded all over her  body. Her cheeks glittered with silvery specks. Her eyes were mossy green with earthen speckles, filled with life, innocence and love. Her ears were pointed. She wore a long flowing dress of dark green. Her voice was soft like a whispering wind with a silvery lilt. With a touch  or a step, plants would grow: anything from a flower to a small Truffula tree...depending on how she felt. Her touch could also heal anything.

The animals of the Truffula forest adored the forest sprite, following her everywhere.  She would play and sing with them in a soprano voice: she harmonized  with the humming-fish, serenaded with the bar-ba-loots and sang with the  swomee-swans. Fiora enjoyed the peaceful valley: the fresh air, clean  water, the animals...and mostly the Truffula trees.

Yes, life was blissful in the Truffula forest.

On a beautiful day, Fiora lay on the grass, feeling sleepy; her eyes fluttered shut, enjoying the atmosphere: the summer breeze, the sweet aroma of the trees, the sounds of the woodland creatures. Just as she was about to drift off into a blissful sleep, there was a strange  noise in the distance. Fiora raised her head, looking in the direction  of where it came from.

What was this? She looked to her animal  friends who were just as confused and curious as she. Fiora hid in the  bushes, getting closer to see this new thing. It was the strangest thing  ever: it was a rectangular box on two circles with a soft white cave,  being pulled by some kind of unusual beast.

Soon, the strangest  creature stepped out...something she had never seen before. Everything  about this creature was unusual: tall and slender like a Truffula tree  trunk. It had hair like a starless night. It wore the strangest clothes,  mostly grey...and on its feet, what were those? On its head, what was  that? It held something in its hands: a unusual object with a long tree  trunk and shiny vines that made extraordinary sounds when it brushed  them...oh! It was a tree that made music! It had to be magic! So foreign and new...so interesting!

"This is it!" the creature spoke, looking around full of amazement. "This is the place!"

The  animals ventured forth while Fiora stayed hidden in the bushes. Soon,  the creature started singing! Fiora listened to the creature sing as it  stroked the shiny vines on the music tree.

It's bound to have just what I need
I wanna hold it all in one big embrace
But first...
Let's find the stuff to make my Thneed

The animals: the humming-fish, the bar-ba-loots, and the swomee-swans began to sing and dance with the creature. Na na na na...

Soon,  the singing creature began to toss things out of the box on circles all  over the place: an odd assortment of objects she had never seen before. Some were shiny, hard, sharp...Fiora didn't like any of these things.  They looked dangerous. She didn't know if she should approach this creature.

Next the creature carrying something in its arms, laid it on the ground, and then pulled on some brown vines and drove sharp wooden sticks into the ground with a very strange object made of wood.  As the creature pulled on each vine, a unusual thing sprang up from the  ground: a yellow and green cave with holes! There were markings on the front of the cave; she couldn't understand them at all.