'What am I? Where am I?' The tree asked itself. When it awoke for the first time, it was greatly confused. It could see the universe and yet it couldn't understand what it was. It didn't even know what it was. The Ancient tree was born as an infant.

The tree pondered over it for a long time. It decided to close it's eyes. When it did, it saw its real appearance. A giant tree that has been in existence for ten billion years. It saw the black mass under it's branches and couldn't understand what it was.

It looked down and saw a small figure with white hair sitting in a lotus position at the base of the tree. Although the tree didn't know what the figure was, it's curiosity got the best of it and it pushed it's consciousness to go observe the figure.

It worked and a wisp of light left the tree and floated down to meet the figure. It circled the figure and proceeded to settle on the head if the figure. It lay there for a long time and the figure didn't move.

Finally after a few years, the figure moved. It gently took the wisp of light that had turned into a little sprite during the years, to face it.

"Aiya, forgive me little one, I made a big mistake" The figure who was a white haired old man said. The little sprite who was an extension of the tree's consciousness didn't understand. It stared at the old man unblinking.

"You may not understand now but you will soon. My name is Ariama, the god of soul. I was supposed to reincarnate your soul into this different universe as a child when you fulfilled your purpose but you got stuck in the body of the Ancient tree because of the devourer. I'm deeply sorry about that" the god apologized.

"In order to rectify my mistake, I will impart knowledge of this world and your past life memory to you. You have the soul of a human and the body of a tree." He proclaimed, making thunder rumble.

The sprite stared at him as he did that. The god scratched his head awkwardly. He then tapped his head twice and tapped the trunk twice. The sprite was suddenly drawn back into the tree as series if information flowed into the mind of the sprite.

For the next hundred years, the god taught the tree spirit which he had name Dryad basic education. The sprite could speak well and it could understand basic commands.

"So, I am a tree?" Dryad asked floating lazily.

"Well, yes. You have the body of a tree and the soul of a human" the god answered awkwardly.

"What is a human? Are they edible like mana?"

"Of course not. A human should look like me physically. However, I have the soul of a god. Most humans have both human bodies and souls"

"So all humans are wrinkly and ugly like you?" Dryad mocked, angering Ariama.

He glared at the one meter long sprite. He waved his hand and a projection appeared. It showed different species of humans from different dimensions. Dryad was definitely fascinated by what it saw. However, It was not content with Ariama.

"None of the humans look like me" Dryad huffed.

"Well you have a human soul. Your physical body is up there and your sprite body is just a projection" He replied calmly.

"I want a physical body like yours"

"Sorry young one, it took me along time to get this body. It's not exactly easy to create. Only Bolsa, god of the body can do that"

"Why do humans have one and I don't?"

"You're a tree. Specifically, you're the tree that birth this world. When you died in the other world, you received the blessing of the god of creation, Simour. He put a life seed in you and gave you to me to put you in space.

I did and forgot to watch over you. You somehow started to grow and create counter measures by yourself. That's how you birth the devourer. The life seed is supposed to birth a minor god but yours got mixed up. You started to create this world and then you separated from the life seed and tried to go back in space.

The life seed didn't want to let you go as you were it's source of sustenance. So it had the devourer capture you and bind you back to it. That's how you lost consciousness for ten billion years as your world grew. You started to regain consciousness about three million years back and that's how I was able track you" Ariama explained.

"So I'm a minor god?"

"Yes"

"I'm also a tree and a human"

"Well, yes"

"Pick a race old man!"

The old god exploded in anger and tried to beat up the sprite. The tree was getting way annoying.

Three hours later, the sprite and the old man settled beneath the tree in lotus positions as the old man taught the sprite in the way of the gods.

"We will start with creation. This is your forte and since you know nothing about it, I will tell you about our origins.

Long ago, when the stars were non-existent and the universe was not yet formed, the creator was drifting in space

He grew bored of being alone so he decided to create life as we know it" Dryad's lips twitched as it heard that.

"He started by creating us, the first gods. We are about 300 in number. Then he created the first reality. A huge paradise. It was a peaceful place. Then he grew bored of that and decided to create a place called the Abyss.

He naturally forbade us to go there and we grew in curiosity, especially those of us that had no purpose.

A thousand years later, a few of the gods led by Herion, now the Lord of Hell decided to go to the Abyss. We watched as they set off after trying to convince them not to. Once they got close to the Abyss, it sucked them in and trapped them.

Then the creator came and the Abyss spat them out. For defiling his order and plotting to overthrow him, which we didn't know at that time, he banished them to a prison realm in the Abyss.

From there, he gave us all purposes and Simour started creating life seeds. I gave them souls and the others gave them their components. Thus the great universe was formed" He finished, a proud smile on his face.

"So, how does that concern me?" Dryad asked, bored. The enraged god gave it a knock on its head. Dryad yelped and controlled it's branches to attack the old man. They continued their fight for a few months, forming a weird bond.