The Torch is lit

[Fran]

Since the beginning of recorded history, mankind has depended on nature to survive. Plants produce the oxygen humans breathe, and in turn feed on the Co2 produced by humans. Nearly all of the food humans depend on either comes from plants, or from another animal which also feeds on plants.

In the early 21st century it was discovered that plants were genetically twice as developed as humans, as well as the fact that root structures bore a striking resemblance to animal neurons. Yet, against all scientific logic plants remained passive and without conscious thought.

In recent times though, a strain of plant life has reached the level of sentience. It was no mysterious and inexplicable appearance... no, this was well documented. Scientists in the Omicrons attempted to combine a human being with plant DNA. The result however was for more than they expected. These experiments activated genes in the plants which had been dormant for eons, granting the plants affected the capacity for sentience.

This "spark" of sentience spread like wildfire, infecting any and all plants it came in contact with like a virus. Since the most developed DNA will always consume less developed strands in a body, the plant DNA overwhelmed its human host. After some time nothing was left of the human test subject, except her memories and emotion... What some would call her "soul".

That fire continued to spread, leading to the birth of a race which had lied dormant like a sleeping dragon for countless millions, perhaps even billions of years.