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To pretty much everyone on the surface world, the subject of plant creatures allows goes immediately to dryads. It is pretty much a 100% guarantee that when you say "plant person," someone will follow up with "you mean dryads." I cannot fault people for thinking this, mainly because there are many variations of our species, and we can be found in a lot of different places. With us trying to coexist with other species on the surface, a dryad is going to be your first encounter with a sapient plant. With us being the poster children of the plant world, many are quick to assume that we are the only ones. Many legends and rumors regarding us even try to impress the fact that we aren't even a legitimate species, which is kind of frustrating. Tales of wizards crafting us from grasses and trees, or of married couples who couldn't bear children of their own making one out of roots and sticks, until their love transformed it into a dryad. There are dozens of them, many are fine as tall tales or supposed legends, but some of them get reeeeeally weird. Like the lonely mage and his arboretum. Yeesh! That being said, we are not the only species of plant that has taken up the lifestyle and mobility of flesh-based beings. There are other examples of such plants, but they live in such isolated places, that common folk rarely run into them. Outside of dryads, the second most common one that comes to mind are the entities known as Lost Souls. Many of the people who are familiar with the name, though, do not know it as a species of plants. Most knowledge and familiarity with the Lost Souls comes from spooky stories told around campfires, or terrified tales that are wailed from the throats of bloodied survivors. Lost Souls live exclusively in forests, but not in the way you would think. One would imagine they live like Dryads do, crafting homes around the trees and bending plant life to make a comfortable living. That is not the case. Dryads build their homes in the "what lovely scenery" forests, while Lost Souls live in the "I think I just saw a ghost" forests. It is unknown if they like living in spooky places, or if their presence causes these changes to happen. Regardless, Lost Souls live in the deepest, darkest parts of the forest, where they are miles away from any open ground or any form of civilization. It is this isolation that gives them the scary impressions and tales of terror and fear. For someone to even encounter one, they would need to be extremely lost and in a very scary stretch of land. Most of their activity occurs at night, which just adds to it. People stumbling out of the woods raving about shambling beings in the dark have encountered this species, and have surprisingly survived such an event. 

Just like the legends say, Lost Souls are hostile creatures when they encounter another living thing. When left to their own devices, they bury themselves in the soil until only their arm is exposed. Lost Souls can stay buried for years on end, as long as they are left undisturbed. It is only when a living creature wanders into their territory that they spring to life. They will rise from the dirt and litter, arms clawing towards the intruder. When they awaken, their number one goal is to slaughter the victim, that is all. No other motives or distractions. Find the intruder and snuff them out. Though seemingly eyeless, they are quick to lock on to a target and give chase. They shamble upon their legs, while their head-arms stretch out towards the victim. Lost Souls are slow, but that does not mean they are easy to escape. Folk who have stumbled upon their territory will clearly be frightened and lost. They will not be thinking clearly and just instinctively do anything they can to flee. This usually has them running in the wrong direction, or causing them to trap themselves in a corner. To go with this, Lost Souls have control over tree roots and thorny vines. With very little effort, they will raise spiky barriers to corral victims into one area, or make tree roots pop up to trip up prey. When prey is cornered or trapped, the Lost Souls close in around them. Vines and roots will slowly bind the target, while their sharp claws rake at their flesh. What happens next varies, depending on who the story teller is. Many of them claim that the victim will then be transformed into another Lost Soul, doomed to roam the dark forest forever. Some say that they are painfully morphed into a twisted tree, which the Lost Souls use to decorate their realm. The true ending, however, is that the victim will be torn and bound until they either die of blood loss or are strangled by the vines. Their remains are pulled beneath the soil, where their body will become one with the earth. Lost Souls use these victims to fertilize their home soil, which they then absorb as they sleep. Regardless of which ending you believe in, encountering a Lost Soul is not something you ever want to do. The unavoidable topic, when talking about Lost Souls, is their interactions with dryads. Since they are plants and we are plants, a lot of non-dryads love grouping us together. This leads to one of the most irritating misconceptions that have ever been tacked onto dryad kind. You will hear this practically anytime someone tells a scary Lost Souls-based tale, or any time uneducated folk start debating about the gender of dryads. To these folk, Lost Souls are the missing "male" counterpart to the "female" dryads. Long ago, our kind once had "males" and "females" like every other "respectable species" (ugh) but we grew divided when our lands became surrounded by sapient meat species. Our "males" believed that war would be the only option, that we needed to fight these "invaders" and destroy all fleshy beings. The "females," believed that love, kindness and peace were the true way, and probably all while frolicking in flowery fields, popping out saplings and braiding each other's hair my goodness I hate this stupid tale. Long story short, the "females" banished the "males" from our "homeland" (???) and have been living apart ever since. The males slowly degenerated into feral beasts, all warped by their anger, malice and other frustrations. This is what became the Lost Souls. I hope it sounded as stupid as it does to me and every other dryad in existence. Not to go on a rant, but Lost Souls are not our "missing male counterparts," not in the slightest. We are a single gender species. I know that we behave more "female like" and call each other "she," "her" and "sister," but that does not mean we are missing the male part of things. For the love of everything, could we please bury this stupid theory! Dumb legends aside, dryads and Lost Souls do not get along together. At all. The two of use despise one another and have zero tolerance for the other species. At this point, a lot of people like to say "oh! Like humans and demons, eh?" but that is not a fitting analogy. Demons and humans do indeed not like each other, but not ever single one of them flies into a spitting rage when they lay eyes on another. Lost Souls do exactly that when they see a dryad. Like a maddened beast, they will throw themselves at a dryad and do everything until their dying breath to murder them. There is hardly any pause or hesitation, they will just attack with savage ferocity. In response to this, dryads choose to kill any Lost Soul that they encounter. No matter what. When the two species collide, no one will stop fighting until the other is destroyed. Thus, you will not find Lost Souls in a forest that has dryads, and you will not find dryads in forests that have Lost Souls. The two do not, and will never, mix together. People often point out that since we are both plants, that we should find some kind of bond or sympathy towards one another. I will point out to them, that humans and rabid bears are both animals, but I have yet to see the two live together. Tales also speak of another that goes with the Lost Souls. A grand beast of wood and terror, that reigns supreme over the Lost Souls. Some treat them like a boss species, while others see them as another stage of life for the shambling creatures... Chlora Myron Dryad Natural Historian