Chapter Six

The gem was continuing its cycle of growing its territory and then enhancing its guardians when something strange happened. There was an intrusion into its valley. This in itself wasn’t strange, there were intrusions all the time afterall, but this time there were thirty odd creatures all invading its territory at the same time. It started to command its creatures to chase them out, but before they arrived the intruders stopped. Instead of intruding deeper it appeared that they were planning to stay there. The gem observed the intruders for a while and after seeing that they showed no intention of moving towards the center of its territory the gem decided that it would simply claim them and then allow them to live in its territory. They would be another line of defense in its protection.

Having learned from the capture of the bees the gem started its claiming with the one that appeared to be in charge. There was one of the creatures that was directing others, but appeared to be doing no work itself. The gem gathered all of its mana and then flooded it into the creature it had focused on. To the gems' surprise, the creature resisted. The gem had flooded a stupendous amount of mana into the creature. Enough that almost the entire body was completely full of it, but one part resisted the gem’s mana. The gem started again and this time it focused on the area that resisted intrusion. It tried to push past the resistance and finish claiming the creature, but only a miniscule amount of its mana could get through. It focused on the mana that got through.

It was planning to use that to destroy whatever defenses there were from the inside, but to its surprise it started to notice something. The creature's mind was screaming out that it was peaceful and meant no harm to the dungeon. Even further to the gem’s surprise, there were sounds attached to the thoughts. The creatures were able to communicate without a mind to mind connection. The gem was so intrigued that it used the mana it had gotten through the creature's defenses to study as many of the sounds as it could. Before long the gem felt sure that the creature meant no harm and believed it had gotten a good grasp of the communication method so it used it to communicate with its newest subject and said

“You live here you protect territory.”

After that the gem removed its mana from the creature it now knew was the drybold Snud and started to think. These creatures were different from the other creatures it had claimed. Should it ignore that and just forcibly claim them even if it took massive amounts of mana? The gem considered allowing them to act freely as long as they did no harm, but the gem felt an instinctual repulsion to such a plan. It considered just killing them and being done with it, but its most numerous defenders were fish. This made it averse to that plan of action because it would have to lose some of its precious land based defenders in a fight against creatures that appeared to not mean any harm. The gem pondered for quite a while before coming to a simple solution. Why not use the knowledge it had learned from drybold known as Snud and communicate with them. It could get them to voluntarily accept its control in exchange for living in the valley.

The more the gem pondered this plan the more plausible it sounded. The gem directed its consciousness back towards the drybolds and once again started to insert its mana into their leader. Since the gem's goal was just to communicate it only used a fraction of the mana that it had used last time. It put in just enough for its mind to connect to Snud’s mind and then it started to speak.

“You Snud? You lead Drybolds?” the gem asked.

The creature responded “Me Snud. Snud chieftain.”

After getting this confirmation the gem asked “Why Drybolds here? Why In my territory?”

Snud again responded saying “Drybold home attacked by giants. Here food plentiful and predators gone. Perfect for new home”

The gem considered this and said “Can build new home but must submit. If drybolds no submit then must leave''

Snud paused while thinking the idea over and then said “Can Snud meet master?”

the gem didn’t even have to think before saying “Once claimed. You agree?”

Snud paused again, but eventually he said “Snud agree.”

The gem said “Let mana in'' and started claiming Snud once more. It did not use the oppressive amount of mana that it used last time, but without Snud resisting the mana managed to enter into Snud’s whole body. Even the part that had fiercely resisted the gem’s mana before.

Soon the claiming was done, but it felt different than normal. The gem knew Snud would not betray it, but it could not control his actions as well as it could for its other creatures. The gem decided to ponder on the reason later and fulfill its promise to Snud now. The gem directed Snud up the side of the valley, and through its cave system. It took quite a while since there were no stairs and Snud had to struggle to climb foliage to go up. The gem realized this might be a problem if the drybolds were going to traverse its territory in the future, so it started making stairs so that the drybolds could come and go more easily. They wouldn’t be done in time to help Snud, but the next drybold heading into the mountain was likely to find them very useful.

While the gem pondered the stairs and its future expansions, Snud made it to the top of the mountain. Since he arrived the gem stopped giving him directions and said

“We met now. Go convince tribe to be claimed.” but Snud did not leave.

He said “Where master? Snud no see you.”

The gem responded “ I am tree. Your job to make sure no invaders get to tree.” and to its surprise Snud fell to its knees and started to exclaim about the “holy tree” and “great leader” once Snud finished with that outburst the gem said “Go to tribe. Convince them to be claimed.” and went back to focusing on its expansion while Snud prepared the drybolds.

Snud

Snud was left wondering what to do after the mysterious power left. He wanted to leave, but every other place they had tried to settle on the way here had problems. Some were lacking access to water, some did not have enough food nearby, and everywhere else that had those two things were filled with dangerous predators. Normally the tribe would be able to fight off some predators to claim good land, but very few warriors were left. Snud was still wavering between leaving and braving the known dangers outside and dealing with the mysterious power and staying here when he felt something enter his body once more.

This time, instead of freezing his entire body, Snud only felt a small chill before the mysterious power started communicating with him. It asked questions that Snud answered happily as long as it meant he did not have to face the power's full strength again until it asked Snud to submit. He wanted to know what he was submitting to first, so he asked to see the master, but he was told he must be claimed first. Snud did not love the idea, but he figured that whatever being claimed was it couldn’t be that bad. Even if it was that bad he just needed to leave the valley to avoid the power's control.

After deciding this Snud let the power's mana in and immediately knew that claiming was a more important process than he had assumed. Once it was done he felt an instinctive need to protect the territory from Invaders. The problem was that the closest invaders right now were the drybold tribe. Even knowing they were his own Kin he felt an urge to drive them out so that the valley would be safe. This change to his mental state was not the only reason he knew being claimed was more important than he thought. The power’s mana was still inside him. It no longer made him feel the crushing pressure he originally felt, but it was there. If he ever wanted to leave the valley he would have to get the power's mana out of his body.

Snud pondered all of this while struggling to climb through holes in the ceiling on his journey to meet his new master. After a tiring trip he came out of the cave, and saw nothing. He was alone on an island in the middle of a river with just bushes, flowers, and a tree.

He looked around, but saw nothing else, so he hesitantly asked

“Where master?”

the power spoke in his mind again and to his surprise it said “I am tree.”

Snud jumped up in joy before going down to his knees. He was so excited that he couldn’t even restrain himself saying “ Snud best. Snud found new holy tree. Snud greatest leader ever. New holy tree even better than last one. Last holy tree try to eat Snud. New holy tree talk and is powerful. Snud best drybold chief ever.”

Snud continued praising himself for a while, but eventually got bored and started focusing on his surroundings again. When he did, the tree talked to him once more telling him to go and convince the rest of the tribe to follow the holy tree. As he left he started trying to come up with a great tale of how hero Snud found a new holy tree for the homeless drybold tribe.