When it started growing, it really started growing. Guisseppe spotted it one morning as he rolled his fruit cart into the market, a strange, brilliantly green shoot pushing its way up through the cobblestones, defiantly pointing towards the sky. The next morning it had doubled in size. Guisseppe had tried to pull it up, but it stubbornly clung to ground, remaining entrenched in the stones at the edge of the market.

Over the next several days, it shot up several stories, its thick green trunk bursting through the ground, its flat broad leaves opening and gathering in the sun. No one had even seen anything like it before. The guards had attempted to hack at with some axes, but the plant had just shuddered slightly, and the axe blades had bounced back as if they had struck stone. Someone was sent to inform the King, and the talk was that the King's Wizard would soon come to inspect the plant and tell them what it was.

By the time the wizard arrived, the top of the plant disappeared far up in the sky. The wizard stood in front of the plant, looking up its length, stroking his beard and shaking his head. "Not another one," he muttered.