As my pack of hunting lemurs departed, roaming into the desert in a loping knuckle-walk, I found I still had a little Mana to burn on experiments.

I wanted fish. Sleek and beautiful forms to fill the waters with the life they deserved. Unfortunately, the last fish on this planet had probably evolved into some kind of horrible mud-dwelling predator. What I had were snakes and lizards, a few leaping spiders, a nearby owl.

A buffet of parts to try and build a fish from.

I started with the lizards, picking a specimen with a frilled ridge of spines on its back that resembled a ship’s scarlet sail. The outer scales I molded together to make smooth suit of armor that wouldn’t slow it in the water. The ‘sail’ became more and more a fin as I lengthened its spine and gave it the ability to swim easily, elongating its hindlegs and bridging the little toes together with webbing. Another thin membrane joined leg and tail, and there!

Voila!

A… Well. A lizard with no back legs, just a crude flipper that let it sweep through the waters. It still couldn’t breathe water. I had no clue how to begin with gills, and I didn’t want to ruin my hard work by ruining the poor thing’s lungs. Instead I shifted the frills that extended from its neck into huge, puffing sacks it could fill with air to extend its dive time, and in a stroke of brilliance, gave it a strange tongue could serve as a breathing tube - expanding into a tiny hollow pipe that could lift above the water to drink in fresh air.

Since I’d already gotten rid of the hindlegs, I decided to make something of the foreward set as well. Rather than removed them I stripped all but one digit, and strengthened what remained, lining the inside with gripping barbs. What resulted was similar to the claws of a mantis, simple scythe-limbs that could fold tight against its body as it swam.

My creation dived into the pool, its green body hidden beneath the algae that covered the far edges of the oasis.

Diving-Bell Lizard

[ Unranked ]

Kingdom Animalia

Age - 8 Years

Physique - Unranked

Arcana - Null Psyche - Unranked

Diet - Small Insects

Biome - Watering Hole

Cycle - Diurnal Designed to thrive in water, this lizard combines numerous strategies to compensate for its lack of true amphibious nature. An ambush predator, it lurks below, snapping up insects from the surface. Born from the Oasis Dungeon.

Notable Features - Resistant to radiation, adapted swimmer.

Now I gave it things to prey on. Water beetles were easy enough; there were already brave insects willing to climb across the colonies of algae to feed on the blooms I’d seeded. I simply gave them better bodies to swim with, and the ability to hold their breath. Some thin, stick-like insects were so light that they could walk on water with a few adjustments.

To lure them in I grew tall flowers, flowers with sharp prickling stalks to discourage the creatures below from gnawing them, and bright pink flowers shaped like bells that the insects above would be drawn to. Wanting to add something, I made the thin golden stalks inside each blossom grow and gain a brittle edge, forming tall stacks of little bubbles in which tiny seeds rattled about.

In effect, I created a thousand thin bells that rung as the wind swept over the blossoms and seedpods shook. Still needing more, I added green-shelled plants that would float along the water’s surface, never taking root. I gave them a shape like a snail’s shell with a thin gap in their armor through which long feathery feelers of sky-blue reached out, drinking in the sunlight.

Until something came near, at which point the delicate feelers would instantly draw in, a muscular squeeze shutting the entrance tight. Anything that wanted to eat them would need to crack the shell.

It was an experiment in making more active and lively plants. I was hoping to eventually create something like the strangling vines my first Schema pick had offered. Plants that were sensitive to motion around them were an obvious first step.

In fact, I went further, lining the base of the pool with long strands of slippery aquatic flora I worked over with care, giving a surprising strength to each flat ribbon. They resembled seaweed, but were dotted with hollow spines.

My diving lizards, and someday my fish, could pass through the underwater forest easily. But if anything damaged the stalks, they would begin to bleed an incredibly sticky sap and cling on to the attacker’s limbs. A human could easily be drowned as their limbs were held down by the forest’s collective grip.

Drowned Man's Hands

[ Unranked ]

Kingdom Plantae

Age - 0 Days

Physique - Unranked

Arcana - Null Psyche - Null

Diet - Photosynthesis

Biome - Freshwater Pools

Cycle - Diurnal Producing a powerful adhesive sap in response to force, these thin strands of algae are a protective forest in which small creatures can hide, while turning into a grasping, tangling wall against large predators. With extremely high tensile strength, they could hold an ox in place long enough to drown it. Born from the Oasis Dungeon. Notable Features - Resistant to radiation.

These were small projects. I was building the base of something strange and beautiful, and I wanted to be sure of my skills manipulated flesh and bone before I tried it on anything larger than skittish rock-dwelling lizards.

I had two goals. The lemurs occupied a useful role as pack hunters, but I wanted to build a smaller and more agile hunter for the gardens beyond Lazarus’ drowning pools, something that could sustain itself on fairly small creatures but still menace a human-size threat, and a scout who could be my eyes and ears.

For the first, poison was the obvious answer. For the second, wings were necessary.

So I began to work on a dark bird that was taken by my waters, spending the hours harassing lizards to gobble up their tails and staring at its own reflection. One encountered with the Spinetail had left it unwilling to commit to proper hunts, so it would simply frighten the less impressive specimens by flaring out its wings and cawing till they sacrificed a limb out of raw terror.

I thought that was rather clever. Cowardly, but clever.

Now follow my logic. Two wings, two wings works quite well, yes? How about four?

I began to wrap the crow’s scaly legs in bright snow-white feathers, tipped by sky-blue dots of coloration. The effect was striking, and it hopped about, examining its new limbs. I wasn’t done. Mana poured into its soul, every drop I gave strengthening our connection, letting me see deeper into the wicked thing’s mind as I worked on the hind-claw of its legs. I made thickened the base into a hollow bulb, and took the venom gland of a nearby scorpion to fill that new basin with a paralytic toxin.

Now the beast had a sting that could hurt a human, although I needed to pour a great deal of Mana in before it could kill. At this point I was pushing up against the limits of what was possible, the colorful Mana flame surrounding the beast’s soul beginning to dilute and turn grey. A little more and I’d accidentally break it entirely.

Buuuut.

I couldn’t help myself. I remembered the bright, striking feathers that surrounded the vulture’s eyes, and I wanted to add a dash of color to my grim crow. So at the risk of making the whole creature implode, I added a band of scarlet that crossed each eye and continued into ridge of feathers expanding past the back of its skull.

Annnnnd.

Really quite cross with myself, I added one more thing. The last, I promised. For now. A ring of that same fiery orange to the underside of each wing, creating the shape of a demonic eye.

Red-Masqued Crow

[ Bronze ]

Kingdom Animalia

Age - 11 Months

Physique - Bronze

Arcana - Null Psyche - Unranked

Diet - Small Birds / Lizards

Biome - Arid Desert

Cycle - Diurnal Clever and cunning, this predator of the high desert skies is fiercely armored in camouflage that turns its wings into terrible eyes that watch from above. With a barbed stinger on the back of each foot, one kick of its feathered legs can deliver enough venom to slay a man. Born from the Oasis Dungeon. Notable Features - Resistant to radiation, keen eye sight, deterrent camouflage.

The beast squawked, feeling quite dizzy with the sheer amount of power that poured into it. And with the new thread that bound our minds together, letting me reach in through its mind to see the world. For once, I looked out at my work not with the impassive, all-seeing gaze of my Mana, but with simple, flawed eyes.

And it was good.

The edge of the oasis was fringed with grass, algae drifting across the water, and moss-covered piles of rocks. Each stone hid tribes of insects, or the den of a burrowing lizard. Birds paused atop miniature mountains, waiting for a telltale shift of the undergrowth to call their attention towards prey.

Deeper in, the cool blue of the waters became the dominant color, interrupted by drifting wander-seeds and the tall thorned windbells, each exuding a haze of pleasant, honeyed pollen. The sweetness of the wind and the vibrance of the flowers surrounded a central island, where my faceless goddess stood beneath four pillars that curved to form a dome and hold up a bell that shone with droplets of light reflected from the waters below. With the turn of the breeze, the small windbells rang and the greater bell began to rock, letting out low, crystal calls. The waters rippled, broken by the movements of little insects and my hunting lizards.

I’d built a world, step by step.

Divine Protection - Abyssal creatures above [Unranked] are restricted.

Protection will weaken to allow [Bronze] creatures in:

4 Days : 03 Hours : 07 Minutes : 42 Seconds