<div style="text-align: center;"><a class="postlink" href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e327/steusloffa/Junk/9b4c67d7-5e06-4750-8d35-191de0acc40c_zpsagryk5tp.jpg">[ img ]</a></div><br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-size: 200%; line-height: 116%;"><span style="color: #BF0000">I Z U</span></span></span></div><br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #008000">"But you know, that is...more or less...who you are now."</span></span><br/><br/>Those words set him off kilter a bit, but she wasn't wrong. Izu was technically some form royalty-in-law or something while in Alida's world. The thought sent a shiver of disdain up his spine, his wings giving a small involuntary flutter.<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #008000">"I don't find it a bad thing. I believe most human females would be very jealous of me right now...They do have a fondness for Princes...from what I can tell anyway."</span></span>Izu simply shrugged at her remark, it wasn't something he really payed any attention to. Truth be told, his dislike for the title didn't stem from anything important. Izu simply just wasn't exactly keen on being thrown into a new world without warning, then suddenly being crowned a prince. It sort of put things into perspective for  the young man with how Alida must have felt earlier in their lives on his world. All things considered, Izu was just having a small hissy-fit in his own way.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #008000">"Izu, would you like to go exploring with me?"</span></span><br/><br/>Her question couldn't have come at a more opportune time, Izu was becoming increasingly antsy as time passed. That being said, Alida's sly grin didn't exactly put the young man at ease. She didn't sport this sort of grin often, as it was usually reserved for when she was bored and wished to play a prank on Izu or something. It wasn't ever anything crazy, but the girl did seem to get bored easily. She was certainly a free spirit, that much was certain.<span style="font-weight: bold">"I guess."</span>His answer was simple, and Alida wasted no time in leading Izu out of her room and away from the hustle and bustle of the cities events.<br/><br/>The wilds of Alida's world were hypnotic to say the least. The flora was like nothing he had ever seen, with flower stems as thick as his body, and petals larger than a full sized sedan from his world. Alida seemed to know a little about every plant they came across as well, filling Izu's head with her passion for everything flora. From the smallest plant to the largest tree, his partner carried on and on until the earth began to shake. Izu stopped dead in his tracks, searching around the immediate vicinity to see if he could see what was causing the disturbance. Alida was less visibly shaken up by the disturbance, on the contrary, she seemed to grow more and more excited with every rumble of the ground.<br/><br/>Of coarse Izu was considerably more alert and cautious than Alida was, the sound of creaking wood filling the forest as the rumble approached ever closer. And then suddenly, the trees parted and<a class="postlink" href="http://imgur.com/XEkPPLd">a massive wooden face</a>loomed down at them from the treetops. The Ent, as it was known in his world, was bigger than comprehension would allow and literally startled Izu enough to knock him onto his butt. The Ent was adorned in many different trinkets, some of which seemed to have formed naturally from the Ent itself. Other trinkets were obviously given to the Ent and fashioned very specifically. It was a gentle giant though, simply content with studying the two with great curiosity. As it seemed to examine them, Alida took the time to explain what an Ent was, how it was born (from the oldest tree's in her world), and that they guard the surrounding forests from danger.<br/><br/>It took some time, but the Ent ended up taking root in the area it had discovered both Alida and Izu by digging it's root-like-feet into the ground under it. Before long, A large wooden arm reached down from where the Ent was, as if it was welcoming the two onto it. According to Alida, this was something that usually only a younger Ent would do. The purpose was so that they may offering trinkets or the like to the Ent, as a gesture of respect or something. Alida wasted no time scaling the giant, branches seemingly sprouting from nowhere to give the girl easier access to the giants tree-top.<br/><br/>Izu wasn't as trusting of the creature as Alida had been, offering little in the way of desire to scale the Ent. But, he did anyway. The Ent seemed to pick up on this though, surprising the young man by wrapping him in vines and raising him right on up to where Alida currently was. The vines unraveled themselves from Izu as he walked towards Alida, as if the Ent was somewhat trying to help the young man retain his balance. Izu watched silently as Alida prepped a spot on the Ent's shoulder, burying a small seed in the mulch like substance of the Ent's shoulder. It only took seconds for the seed to sprout and begin to grow, Alida explaining that the Ent had accepted her gift and was supplying nutrients to the plant so it would take root and become part of the Ent.<br/><br/>And then, the Ent began to break from the ground, lifting it's massive wooden legs and raising the two up just under the forest canopy. From there, the Ent seemed to wander deeper into the forest. From the shoulder of the Ent, the two spotted many large creatures. None were exactly as big as the young Ent was, but Izu couldn't imagine anything being bigger then this Ent. Alida, however, assured him that the creatures of her world came in much larger sizes than this. And that was just in the forest near them. Who knew what lived in the other parts of her world.