— Taeya —

Is this a bone? There might be a monster ahead… nooo… I just want to see, hopefully it doesn’t notice me, or at least grants me a quick death. I don’t know how much further I can go - my old injuries are acting up. My bones hurt, my muscles ache, I can barely see, but that enticing shimmering ahead is just drawing me in. I just want to see what can create such a beautiful effect… Please…

Wow, so beautiful. I’m here, this place, ‘sniff’, is everything that I never had. I feel at peace…

…’thud’

Zzzzzzzz…

— POV Torgue —

Stupid Jard, I know he hid my bone over here somewhere. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Just because I accidentally stepped and broke his bone, he tackles me and we fight for awhile, but then he ran off with my bone! There was still some tasty stuff on the inside! I wasn’t done with it! Rrrrrrgghh.

Then he went and hid himself, I can’t even pin and make him tell me where he put it! Ugggh. At least he couldn’t have hid it very far, we usually don’t leave the glade very far, unless it’s to hunt some small animals to eat. It seems that at first there wasn’t very many animals around, not even birds, but slowly animals have started to come closer again, thank goodness! I like the fruits papa makes us, but nothing beats the taste of meat!

Hmm, what is that? It’s dirty and smells, and it seems to be holding my bone. Gross. This is rare, it hasn’t run away from me yet! This is new! Maybe I can have another friend! Awww, it fell over for some reason. I don’t sense any mana inside of it, so maybe it ran out and came here to get some more? Or maybe it’s just tired, I guess I should drag it back to papa! He’ll definitely be proud of me! But eeewwwww, I’ll have to bite it’s covering to drag it over! Yuck! Maybe I can grab my bone… Good! It seems to have a solid grip on my bone, so I won’t have to taste or smell it very much. It’s very light, so it’s easy to drag it over to papa, but there’s a lot of roots and rocks in the way that keep catching on it. I should go and get Jard to help.

— Jard —

Stupid Torgue, he broke the bone papa gave to me. So I took his bone as compensation, but then he started to chase me! It’s only fair that it should be my bone now, plus his still had some tasty stuff inside, mine had just run out. But it’s still fair! I didn’t go and break his bone. I hid it from him for now, I’m already full anyways. I’ll come back and sneak it away later, hopefully he forgets about it soon.

‘Jaaaaard, where are you? I found my bone already, but there’s something weird here! Come help me!’

Hmmm… this could be a trap! There’s no way he could have found my bone with my supreme hiding skills! Rrrgggg, but I wonder what he’s found? I didn’t sense any mana coming towards us, so it must not be a monster or anything. Besides, if it was, papa would just dig a big pit under it anyways! He’ll show them who’s boss around here! I saw a large snake get swallowed all at once one time when we were just waking up! Then the ground closed right back over it! Papa’s strong, so if Torgue isn’t calling for papa, but me, it must be something he needs help with that isn’t a monster.

I’ll just l eave it to him. He should be fine. But if I just peek… No, no, I’m fine. I don’t need to go over there.

‘Jaaaaaaaard! Coooooome oooooon! I’ve never seen this thing before! I can’t move it by myself! Come help!’

I knew it. He did need my help. But he hasn’t seen this thing before… What is it? Eh, I should just wait for him to drag it here himself…

I wonder why I’m walking towards him already? I’m definitely not curious about it. But as the older brother I should be there to protect and help Torgue when he needs it! That’s why I’ll go see what it is.

‘Ok Torgue, I’ll come help you. Stop being so noisy!’

What is that animal? It’s weird and smelly! It’s bigger than us by a little bit, and it’s covered in something weird. It has long fur on it’s head, brown colored, but it seems to be sleeping clutching my bone!

I’ll just take this… Grrrr, let go! This is mine! And now Torgue is biting it too!

‘Thanks for the help Jard! Let’s drag it to papa, maybe he’ll give us each another bone to gnaw!’

That could work, a whole new bone! Drool. ‘Let’s do it! While we’re dragging it, use your feet to kick the twigs behind us away, that way it won’t get tangled in it!’

— POV Mathias —

Haha, those kids. They got into another spat, this time over a bone. I have tons underground for them to chew on, but I’ve learned before that if you give cats all of the toys at once, they get lazy and then ignore all of the toys. Restricting the rewards keeps them active in hunting and reliant on me! Plus, I get to do some Pavlov training on them. I have a carrot and a stick this way - behave and hunt, you get tasty bones, shelter, protection from dangerous animals that they aren’t ready for, and all they have to do is be cute, cuddly, actively hunt, and not piss and shit on me! Of course, they didn’t know that the grass is me and not the tree, but I didn’t give them any bones for a day and actively sent them a disgruntled emotion until they learned to do their business at the edges of the glade, off of the grass. At first I thought it would be good fertilizer, but just seeing piles of poop is way different than imagining the potential of having it. It also attracted a lot of bugs, which did feed my Slaughter Guards some, but still man. I can’t have poop all over me! It’s fucking gross!

After that stupid thunderstorm, it drained a HUGE chunk of my GP to keep regenerating that stupid tree after lightening kept striking me. I kept the cubs safe, but damn, I need to devise a plan to mitigate the damage from thunderstorms more effectively. If I found some gold, I think I can mold it to create a simple lightning rod. It’d be a huge waste of precious metal, but anything is better than passing out from pain and wasting so much of my hard-earned energy damnit! It’ll be one of my neutral metals I have wrapped up underground. I’ll have to bring up some of the smaller chunks of metal I have underground and have them detail me the properties of the metal, like color and weight. I’ve been able to convey more and more specific meanings from my thoughts to them, but I’m not sure if it’s my skill that’s evolving, or if I’m just getting more used to the . I looked while in my into why I can understand the two cubs, but even with additional information, it didn’t tell me anything about language comprehension. It is probably part of an ability that they have, and not on my end. Something that allows you to communicate the meaning of your thoughts, which is conveyed in a form that I can understand. If that’s the case, then I have hope to naturally obtaining the ability without having to another beast!

While my roots slowly bring up some metal, I guess I can continue practicing my magic spells? Fire and electricity are out still, I still get shivers from thinking about that lightening and the pain I felt. Stupid me for building my tree just slightly taller than the other trees out of my need to be better than them. Add that to the fact that I’m on a hill, then no matter what I did, I’d get struck. So this leaves me with Dark magic.

There’s two problems I have with it that I’ve verified. One, I don’t know what the true meaning of Dark is to magic. There are so many different ways it’s been utilized that it’s giving me a headache. It’s been used to symbolize death, decay, poison, curses, stealth, blood magic, demons, teleportation, and even necromancy! I just don’t know which one I should try to use first. My view of darkness is the absence of light, or absorption, so I want to try that out first, but that leads to problem two: the symbol. The Yin Yang symbol didn’t work, and I think I know why. The symbol represents TWO energies mixing, so if I draw one, the other side, in negative space, is still there. But since I only am trying to bring forth Yin, then it doesn’t work and sputters out. If I knew the Chinese character for it I think it’d work alright, but I’m not that cultured haha.

I just want to create a ball of dark damnit! Ooooh, what about an eclipse? The symbol of darkness eating away at the light! It should work! Come one, come on………

Eureka! A dark mana ball appeared in front of me! It seems to be eating any mana and energy that approaches it, and it’s slowly decaying because of it. Darkness must mean the nullification of energy, the eater of anything! Finally, I can turn off my OCD! Other than the fact the ball is slightly smaller than my water ball zzzzzz, leading me to believe it’s not as efficient. I’ll just ignore it for now, and avoid any other potentially dangerous symbols that I could try. This will work for me.

I’ve been ignoring the Jard and Torgue, but it seems they caught something and are dragging it over. It looks a mess, lots of mud and blood is covering it. It’s still alive, but barely. It has almost zero mana, but it has a tiny bit of each type at least. If I it I should have the capability to gain all of the different mana types! I wonder why they kept it alive, I don’t need it to be alive when I siphon it’s blood out to study?

‘Papa! We found something! It won’t give me back my bone!’

‘Your bone! It’s mine that you stole! Papa, I found it first! I’ll give Jard my bone, but can I get a new one for finding it?’

‘No fair! I want a new bone too!’

I knew it, they would throw away their old toys for a new one at a moment’s notice! Looks like I need to take even more care about when I give them a new bone. Well, since it’s not dead, I guess I should wash it first to see what it is. Let’s drag it over to the spring, and…

Huh. It’s a kid, would ya look at that. I guess I should give them a couple of new bones for bringing me a human - wait, pointed ears. More pointy than the ears on those adventurers. That means, I’ve found a fabled Elf! Wow, that’s so cool! Shit, I think its drowning, forgot since the kid is unconscious. Let’s cradle the head, take off the rags and get rid of them. There are fleas and a whole bunch of nasty stuff on him. Oh, her.

…

Who could have done this to her? Oh my god, this is terrible. Shit, I have to be careful, it looks like she’s been through a lot, she’s covered in so many scars. How can this happen to a little girl like this? Oh my god, what the fuck, her bones… One of her arms looks like it has two elbows, her forearm bent at an odd angle. Her fingers… Her feet… Her rib-cage… Jesus Christ, and she’s so malnourished. I knew this world wasn’t peacrful by the wanton monster slaughtering done by that group of murderers, but this… I though at least this wasn’t here. Slaver, or child abuse, I didn’t even think of that being here in a fantasy world. This world must have been hell for her. Now should I end this hell for her, removing her from this world, or should I try to heal her? Shit, Fuck. This is just too sad. If I try to move her arm, her face scrunches up in pain. Her tendons, muscles, her vascular, and nerve system are totally demolished and hurt in so many ways.

Since she’s unconscious, I can make an with her, and maybe see what she’s dreaming, to get a better understanding of what happened to her.

…

‘Bleurgh.’ I’m vomiting in my mind, just, why? If I saw who did this to her, let’s just say I’d make it extremely painful for them for the next several hundred years. Extremely painful. I’d recreate hell her on this world just to fucking hear them scream to soothe my anger. Those monsters don’t even deserve death, poor child.

For now, my anger will have to wait. I need to make a drip full of nutrients for her, stat! A saline, sugar drip into her a vein to stabilize and nourish her body, as well as putting her in a comfortable position. Hmmm… My natural energy has a huge amount of healing properties, but I don’t think it will be able to fix her bones… And even if I use my energy on her, I don’t know if she will live, or want to keep living with her current deformed self.

Forgive me God, for I will sin. Without her consent, I will try something that can take her life away, but might also give her a life again. She is a child, born innocent into this world, but the world is dirty, and has ruined her pure form from birth. So I shall take your place, as you have failed her, and try to give her that pureness back again. I will become god in your place, for you are not worthy.

———————————————

Drug Compounding: Propofol*

A general anesthetic for use on animals.

Cost: 100

———————————————

Buy. Insert the correct dose for her emaciated weight. Keep a steady, constant amount. Good. Her breathing is getting slower, and she’s not moving. I can begin. I’ve brought her right above my main body, and I have given a bone to each Jard and Torgue to keep them busy. With her body so close, I can utilize 100% of my attention and ability to treat her. I have a small stem/needle placed in drip placed in a vein in her most healthy leg, as her arms need to be fixed first.

‘Crack’ ‘Snap’

Now I can splint that arm. And again!

‘Crunch!’

I need to pulverize the excess bone, position it correctly, and wrap it tightly in my vines. Her body is covered in my grass, trying to keep her wounds from being exposed to the air.

One arm, two bones done. This will be a long night.

…

It was worse than I though. The damage… Was terrible. I don’t know how she has lived until now, her will to live must be incredible. And she didn’t die during my many operations I had to do. I had to invade her body with a stem and leave to go into her abdomen and fix a lot of internal scarring, just in case my natural energy doesn’t fix the internal damage.

It’s finally time. I have her body wrapped and stabilized, but now’s the time to fuse her body with my energy. If I don’t do this, almost certainly her body won’t heal right and she may die while recovering I can’t let that happen. I’ve been holding back from doing this earlier, because I know this will fundamentally change who she is. When I did it to my Slaughter Guards, they gained a portion of my power within them, and have become more in-tune with nature and the flow of its energy. This child already doesn’t have a lot of mana, both a blessing and a curse. If she had more mana, then she would be more able to absorb my natural energy and combine it with her own, or even expel it after it’s done its job. But without it, I fear my sudden influx of energy will completely take over, and affect her body tremendously. I don’t think she would want to become a plant… Damnit, what can I do?

This is a crazy idea, but it might work. This will be hard though. If I also infuse and bolster her mana with mana I collect out here, then the mana in her body might be able to assimilate my natural energy into her body without changing her too much. The problem is is that I only have Fire mana while she has all types… I can only influence mana types with spells, so what I need is a big magic circle that’s only job is to collect, segregate, and pour that mana into her body a I force natural energy into her body through her blood. Even if her body can’t handle all of that mana, just like with my Slaughter Guards, my Natural Energy should be able to soothe the absorption and stop it from destroying her body.

Fuck whoever did this to her, like really, fuck them. From her dreams I could only feel fear, sadness, and pain. Who could do that to a little girl? I can’t make a magic circle big enough using my mana… Wait, maybe. I need to test this out. If I create the circle using my roots, since I am a huge mana conductor, I should be able to to do this. Let’s try a water spell… YES! It worked!! A water ball appeared! If I create a circle of roots with all of my symbols surrounding her, and visualize the mana entering her body, this should work. It has to, she deserves another chance at life.

A 10 foot circle, with her sleeping body in the middle. The symbol in the middle is my own, I’m using a symbol of grass, my personal symbol for the will to live. With my power, and the power of life, I will fix this poor child and giver her a new life! I’ve layered multiple circles, connecting each element to all of the others, as well as two more symbols: I’ve drawn the Libra scales to signify balance and the Caduceus to symbolize healing.

No time to experiment. It’s time to activate the circle! First Water, to signify the body. Then fire, to signify the energy in the body. Then Earth, for that is where our bodies are born from. Then air, for it sustains you. Light and Dark to signify the soul, and finally the spark of life, in lightening. The Libra Scales should balance out the necessary mana for her new body, while the Caduceus symbol will blend with my natural energy to heal and calm her body.

The mana starts to form a vortex of energy, swirling in towards her body before being moderated by the Libra mana symbol, then forming a cocoon of light. It’s constantly streaming into her body, and all of the mana is starting to cause her body to twitch, now’s the time! I need to quickly inject her with a large influx of natural energy, to stabilize her new body and to start healing her body from the many tortures it’s been through.

Come on, work! Work! Be born anew!