Restoring life in my domain took a whole moon turn. So for ten rotations, I remained largely motionless to conserve energy and let nature take over.

My ants managed to grow from half a colony to three full ones again. Plenty of insects and birds from outside my domain came to feed on the insects I slaughtered in my creation of Eva. I even managed to kill a few birds and create molds for them, although I did not risk making any.

After I created a few more ubee constructs Eva began to build her hive in a tree almost directly above my core. Once she made a hive and some honey she began spreading her scent all around the edges of my domain. Apparently my constructs cannot breed with her. The wild ubees did not directly follow my commands but they followed Eva’s orders.

Furthermore, Eva’s offspring inherited the same connection to me as Eva. This means breeding loyal monsters will maintain their own populations by rather than requiring constant energy upkeep from me.

Now that my resources are at a safe level again, I want to experiment with plant life. Unlike most living things I am able to directly interact with plant life. Using my limbs I can push, move, or cut the trees around me. When I cut down one of the smaller trees around me I received a minuscule amount of energy, the same amount as a few ants despite the tree’s much larger size. Too bad, looks like direct farming won’t be a realistic method of energy gain.

For my next experiment, I infused my energy into a sapling. The young tree soaked it up like a starving babe. When the tree became fully saturated on my energy I could feel its body, the nutrients being soaked up through the roots, the sun shining on its leaves and even how the tree would grow. Eventually this tree would be a towering behemoth. To see if it was possible, I imagined the roots expanding farther and the future trunk growing shorter but thicker.

As I finished the image, the energy saturating the tree began to move throughout the tree. The tree started growing so rapidly that I could barely perceive the changes. Quickly, I found which nutrients the roots sought and water in a stream at the edge of my domain. Bringing them to my sapling, the growth exploded! The tree shot up five clicks in less than a spin. Then the trunk swelled and branches burst out to create wide foliage.

“Bzz bz!” Eva excitedly flew through the newly grown tree, twirling and twisting. Her children also began exploring the new addition.

“What do you think Eva? Now I know how to grow and shape the different plants around here!” I exclaimed with glee.

To demonstrate my increased magnificence I then instructed the tree to bloom entirely with pale white blossoms. This sent the ubees into a frenzy, immediately they went to work collecting pollen. One of the female ubees also began the process of forming a hive in the top branches.

Flying to me, Eva bobbed up and down. “Bzzzzzz!” She then raced back to the tree of her own hive and circled it while still buzzing.

I couldn’t help chuckling to myself. “Yes of course I can grow your tree, Eva. I’ll make it extra special just for you.”

Another moon turn later and all the trees in my domain towered over the rest of the forest. Eva’s tree turned out especially tall, its branches winding up the entire trunk like a spiral staircase. I also put in plenty of natural tree hollows for creatures to live in. Eva’s tree covered the ground above my gem core now and the roots encircled me in a web of safety. At the very top of the tree grew dozens of plump, pearly white fruit.

Nearby birds obsessed over the fruit as soon as they grew. When a bird consumed a fruit they grew faster and stronger than before. But as soon as Eva realized the potential of the fruits she posted guards to vehemently protect the fruit. Every rotation the guards honed their combat abilities more and Eva improved her tactician abilities. Where originally four ubees needed to work together to take down a bird, now two could manage. Her best warriors were rewarded by consuming pieces of the fruit, increasing their size and speed. Thus Eva’s Queen Guard formed.

By now I also created several types of bird constructs. Yet I decided to hold off creating any monsters until I got another large influx of energy.

Now that I took control of all the plants in my domain, I not only made the trees larger and vibrant. I also cultivated the underbrush to be dense, full of poisonous plants and thorny brush. No large creature stood a chance at getting through without slowly chopping their way through.

At this point, I nurtured all of the insects, plants, and birds in my domain. My energy stores are full and defenses stronger than ever. Now to expand my domain further.

This time I decided to try expanding differently. Instead of slowly pushing out, I fill up my domain up with over half my energy. Once everything is saturated I begin spinning all the energy. Faster and faster, my energy whirls around with my core as the eye of the storm. Slowly, the energy all moved to swirl around the edge of my domain and became extremely dense. Every second I glimpsed a wisp of visible energy. I couldn’t keep this up much longer. What originally felt like whirling a rock on a string now felt like a boulder.

So I cut the string.

Energy whizzed out everywhere. Whereas before I needed to push and force out my energy, now it sliced through space. My radius doubled. Accomplishing the same feat with my old method I believe would use eight full cores worth of energy.

I quickly evaluated my new domain. My domain now contained plenty more vegetation, a larger stream, but more importantly, several new species of animals. I sensed squirrels in a tree, fish in the stream, a rabbit den with a python lurking nearby, and stalking the python were several mongagers. A monster hybrid between the mongoose and badger, mongagers are vicious and fearless predators capable of taking on monsters many times their size. Normally solitary, these parents seem to be teaching their two cubs how to hunt.

The father mongager crawled forward silently. When the snake twitched its head, alerted to something, the mongager struck. Lunging for the back of the python’s neck, the python barely dodged those deadly jaws. Yet the python failed to dodge one set of claws that raked down her face. Hissing, the python counter attacked, tanking another swipe to bash into the mongager and try to wrap around him. The mongoose genetics showed their strength as the mongager swiftly dodged around crushing coils.

Their dance continued, the mongager swiftly dodging while chipping away the python’s health. Finally, the mongager’s balance failed him as a stick broke underfoot. Before he recovered the python entangled the slippery monster. The mongager stood no chance now. If he was alone.

The other mongagers swarmed the python. There was nothing for the snake to do, she could not dodge or retaliate without letting another enemy go. So she squeezed as quickly as she could, trying to claim revenge before her own death.

In the end, the python successfully took down her kill before she succumbed to her own wounds. Then the energy I expected flooded me. Acting quickly before I passed out, I chose two hawks nesting at the top of a tree and ordered a two dozen queen’s guard ubees to take them out. The hawks never knew what hit them and swiftly fell to the barrage of elite ubees.

I consider the standard mold for the hawks. In the end, I simply scaled up the size of the male’s mold and made him stronger. Then I placed the mold over the bodies. As with Eva, the bodies of the hawks flowed into one, twisting and merging. As the energy void appeared I fed it the python’s, mongager’s, and two hawks’ energy. With such large sources of energy I did not need to siphon off any of my insects this time. In fact, the only required an additional quarter of my core energy.

As I watched, the newly made monster rose, the size of the two hawks combined. He stood there, magnificent and dignified.

“I name you Avir, hunter of the skies and all-seeing eye.” I proclaimed as another chunk of energy left me to name him.

Avir bowed deeply before me, a gleam of light sweeping across his eyes. He looked ready for the thrill of the hunt. Unfortunately, I felt the feedback of previously holding so much energy at once starting to hit me. Soon I would pass out for a time.

“Avir, protect my core until I return. Work with Eva, the queen ubee. Do not engage unless necessary, I will return soon.”

I faded to darkness.