As Nico Paolo approached his family's home with victuals and loot, he saw a sight that made his misty heart sink: weeds and vines had overgrown the cottage as if Nature itself was trying to reclaim it! And then he saw them: the lifeless bodies of his parents, rotting in their wicker rockers! The teen's mind reeled as he stumbled through the garden gone feral, his eyes fixed on the decaying remnants of his childhood.

He had always thought that his singing, especially his falsetto, would be the perfect tribute to his parents at their funeral. But, as he gazed upon their corpses, he felt the song inside him die!

Yet something shifted within him as he inhaled the scent of decay and growth; he felt a fresh sense of power and possibility! His thoughts drifted back to his childhood, to the lessons he learned from a man he couldn't quite remember. A man who taught him the art of beneficent arbormancy.

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Nico remembered the feel of small twigs bending to his will, the way they sentiently reacted to his touch. With a sense of purpose in the present, Nico reached out and touched the trunk of a nearby tree. He felt the energy of the wood coursing through him, and he knew that he was no longer alone. Nature was with him, guiding him, empowering him. And with that knowledge, Nico Paolo began to breathe again, his heart filled with a perverse sense of hope and possibility.

Soon, the teen’s eyes ignited with a jade green energy, casting an eerie glow on the landscape! His fingers moved with a life of their own, orchestrating a macabre waltz of breaking bark and splintering xylem as the ancient power of the forest coursed through him!