Eli POV

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"Ugh, where?" I forced my eyelids open. The sharp pain on the left side of my forehead left me wishing I had stayed unconscious. I looked around and saw I was in a slightly older section of the forest, if the number and size of the trees was any indication. I looked up and saw the underside of a canopy shaped out of a tree as the soft light of the morning sun filtered in between the leaves. At my movement the tree quickly morphed back into Lilly, the buxom nature spirit.

"Are you all right? that was quite a fall" she asked with concern plain in her voice and face. She checked on the padding of leaves and mashed herbs she had apparently applied to the gash on my head. My involuntary slight twitches of pain told her it wasn't fully healed.

"What ...." as I was about to ask a memory came back to me. Along the trip we had discussed how to suppress the mana I was apparently pouring out all over the place. She had said that there was a muscle network under my skin that I had to concentrate on and contract.

I only meant to humor her so I intended to just constrict my visible muscles. However, as I went to constrict, the mental command also got sent to some previously unknown muscle network. It left me feeling disoriented, as I instantly had the sensation of goo moving throughout my body just under the skin as it all jiggled and moved at my command. I was trying to gather the mental resources to figure out how this could have possibly happened. It was like discovering a tail on your backside that you secretly had from birth.

At this critical moment of reflection, a vine that felt it was time to make itself known got caught up on my foot tripping me. I didn't see what I hit, but all the evidence pointed to a rock or I fell with more force than I realized.

"It seems your land is a far safer place than these wilds, free from the malice of Gaia's rope. But do not worry Great One for I will shield you from their wicked designs." She said with mock bravery and a smile as she propped my head on her lap.

A sheepish look stole over my face as I looked away in embarrassment. 'My first interaction with a beautiful woman in who know how long and this is how I shows off my moves?' Well, at least I got a good pillow for this humiliation.

" Thank you for your help" I said with as much dignity as I could muster, the visage of the mysterious traveler finally shed. From this safe position on the slope of a big hill, I decided to try this new muscle group out. When I tried moving that skin muscle I moved it around in a less nauseating fashion than the first time.

Taking no risks I slowly tested other muscle groups and parts of my body as I laid down with my eyes closed, pretending to rest. I eventually found two new muscle groups and one weird sensation from my brain. There was a kind of flap behind my eyes that, when I pressed it down, suddenly brought out a bright light blocking most of my vision. My throat had two new muscles above and below the tonsils. When I forced them to flex apart from each other, my mouth became filled with ...something. I gagged and coughed but the chocking sensation went away when I managed relax those muscles back into their slacked position.

The weirder addition to this body was what happened when I thought about all of the nerve and motion coordination portions of the brain that would have to be changed to accommodate these additions. When I mentally focused on the frontal cortex an almost electric sensation came from my forehead. I felt an intangible connection with this electric buzz.

After some experimentation, I found that I could move this... thing, throughout my body if I imagined it moving. Down to my stomach, through the arms and legs at the same time. Testing it to the limit, I found I was able to spread it out over my whole body except for a marble shaped hole in my center, which I couldn't get into no matter hard I tried. A headache was steadily forcing its way to the front of my thoughts so I stopped the exercise.

"Aside from patching me up, was there anything interesting that happened during my nap?" I asked her, half embarrassed and half curious.

" Many things actually, but I must ask: can you close off your mana pathways yet?" she replied in a worried tone.

'Oh yeah, the entire reason this all started' I thought to myself. I tried various combinations of movements until I had the flap behind my eye down and saw a glimmer of forestry when I pressed part of my skin inward towards the muscles. Trying this all over my body my vision was almost turned to normal. In certain parts of the ground there were barely noticeable particles of something in various parts of the air and in the ground. The soft dots, smaller than grains of sand, gave off a gentle blue light.

"Finally, I thought it would be days before I could look at mother Gaia's breath again" Lilly said as she and I looked at a large spout of mana about the size of a mans arm coming out of the underground exit of a creek. I wanted to put my hand in it but resisted the urge as Lillie's earlier tone had me worried. " So, what was the problem?" I asked.

"Some unsavory characters were investigating the mana fog you were emitting and caught our track. I am a druid and getting a tracker spell on me in a forest would otherwise be impossible if not for the... circumstances." she said with gentleness.

"I'm.... uh." I had no idea what to say. A sense of shame and guilt came over me.

"It's alright, what's done is done. The important thing is getting out of here now that we aren't as easy to follow, so we need to get moving or we will dead come sundown." Lilly said trying to mollify my unease.

The loose jacket of shame around my heart bloomed into a winter coat made of the thickest bear fur as it snuggled into every nook and cranny of my soul. I had always valued my independence and ability to provide for myself. Sure, I was put into an impossible situation surrounded by fantastic oddities but that stubborn pride still wouldn't let me get away with this injustice I had forced upon this poor woman.

" Your right, Lilly. Lets get out of here" I said with a small amount of shame no doubt showing in my face. I couldn't find the words at this time, but I made a silent vow to make this up to her at some point.

When we speed off the hill side, I didn't know where we were going but Lilly had no hesitation when going around a tree, up a hill or choosing a side when the road presented a choice. For a while I was content with this arrangement, but I noticed that the hills were becoming more pronounced while the trees became fewer and farther apart. The hills abruptly took over completely, without any obvious cause.

"Where are we and where are we going Lilly? I can't imagine a city being here." The hills rolled with sharp, decisive rises and falls like a roller coaster track designed to break your teeth through repeatedly slamming your head back and forth.

"This is called Dwarves Rumble. When the Coalition tried to push into their mountain range a few years back they let off a huge and sustained magical earth working that left the land like this. It makes moving an army through here almost impossible while also providing a handy reference for their might to would be attackers." Lilly replied academically.

"The Front goons got tangled up with a troglodyte nest. Those idiots are probably new guys from the west, and never grew up around a tree that wasn't trimmed and proper for a city park. Otherwise, they would have known that metal armor is like screaming meal time for the bigger beasts out here. Once we lose them we can double back."

"OK" I said, my voice already getting hints of strain keeping me from voicing the many obvious questions. The constant up and down, along with half dodging past the random jagged rocks and rotted trees sticking out of the ground burned my thighs, that wasn't even counting the previous travel I put in today already. I couldn't imagine what kind of stamina Lilly had to be having a tirade in the middle of this slog.

After a while, the sun was almost down as the deep reds played across the clouds in the sky. "Lets stop here" Lilly said. I promptly flopped onto the ground gulping down air and wiping sweat from my face. We were in the middle of the trough of two hills which Lilly used the side of one to quickly grow a small, almost vertical tree.

"I think I know why I have been helping you. You seem to have such a love of the woods from the way you look at the trees to the awed expression you get when I use my growth power. What has engendered such love in you?" Lilly said while we lounged under the tree, letting the heat of a harsh day gradually slip away from our tired bodies.

" My people are wealthy. Wealthier than perhaps anyone here could properly understand. But there are somethings mountains of gold and seas of jewels cannot buy." I said cryptically as I rubbed the tree with appreciation, not sure how much of my history I should trust her with. After a few minutes of munching on hard bread and dried fruits, Lilly asked me something odd:

"Could you look further down the hills trough until you find a stream then come back so I can get an idea of where we are or come back after 10 minutes."

"Wouldn't the dwarves have destroyed any creeks or rivers here?" I asked.

"Pff, messing with the flows of water is a dangerous and chancy thing. A lesson hard learned by the dwarves through years of underground life. They made sure to leave such features of nature untouched by their workings, now hurry along." Lilly replied with amusement.

I headed out moving around the sharp rocks and bits of trees sticking out of the ground which lent the whole place a sense of the surreal, until I got to a river. It looked weird with the roughly head height dirt waves on both sides with only 4 feet of flat earth between them and a regular looking river. I looked further down and stared at the beauty of the late day sky as its rich tapestry of oranges and blues reflected off of the river. The conditions of the air and my sense of the seasons honed from my time working on earth gave me a feeling of oddness compared to what my experiences typically associated with spring. The air was light except for the the heavy pollen of spring, but this morning was chilly and the trees had the mythical slight yellow color on their leaves that fore told of coming winter.

As I headed back to Lilly I heard a shout coming from where I had left her. I strode over as quickly as I could without making a sound. As I looked on the vision of a group of 6 men standing over a Lilly bleeding from her side came into focus. The gashes on their faces and the mix of bandages around the portions of their armor had the look of wounds several hours old at least, and some newer ones bleeding fresh blood. The corpse laying off to their right told of how dire the combat that gave them these new wounds must have been.

"Listen you parasite on humanity's ass. We both know you can't give out that kind of mana so tell us where your prey bounded off too and we will make this quick" This gruff threat came from a larger man with long black hair on his head and face, with a nasty cut above his eye. Half blinded by his own blood, the sword he had in Lilly's stomach didn't need his full vision to do its work. They all had iron plate armor helmets, chest pieces, arm pieces, and leggings. The fact they could still move in that get up in this type of terrain was impressive, but my mana eye saw some faint flickering of blue going into them that told me it wasn't just regular metal armor.

I felt a small slap on my right leg. Almost jumping out of my skin I looked down and saw it was a small flower rubbing against me in deliberate motions. I lent down to touch it and felt an electric sensation very similar to the frontal cortex experiment earlier but it had a different feel and texture to it. I then went through the motions of focusing on his brain and then pushing the sensation out to the flowers.

'Quickly, feed you mana to me' the flutes and birds of Lilly's voice said in my mind, like I was thinking to myself but without me initiating part of the conversation. Pushing aside this discomfort, I quickly relaxed sections of my skin muscle to allow the mana to flow from my legs and arms which the flower basked in.

" I am a druid, what do you know of our power among the woods? I belong here, unlike you. Were you so incompetent at stealing from children and groping passing women that your betters sent you out here so your failure wouldn't infect any of your peers who have a real future to look forward too?" Lilly said with a tone that was mixed with mockery and pity.

'May I know your name?' Lilly asked Eli through their connection.

'Eli' I responded before I fully processed the finality her tone. A sense of horror crept up my spine when I saw a surge of mana from Lilly's main body.

'Farewell, Eli. Run now.'

" Find the boy and -" The large man said as he grasped the two sides of his swords handle preparing to twist his sword with red hot rage written all over his face, as he was looked upon with approving scowls from his men. He must have seen the bulging green mass coming up in between Lilly's skin, because he made a fast motion to get back but his face passed from rage to curiosity to fear and at the last, acceptance, as Lilly exploded.

The acid spray shot out in all directions. It instantly melted the large mans skin, flesh, blood, and bones while corroding his armor in short order. The more appalling display was the surrounding men.

The spray itself was more like a quick gas spray than a solid liquid, as it cut through the surrounding men with ease . Well, part of the men anyway. The area of this spell seemed to have a well defined border because it cut just the front facing part of them.

Some were leaning more forward than others and instantly fell into the acid pool, others just had half their head and their chest melted. Their half brains and entrails spilled out onto the ground as they briefly teetered. The weight of their corroded chest pieces pulled them into the pool, joining their fellows in the toxic soup of dissolving metal.

For what seemed like an eternity, I just stood there. I looked down to the flower but it had withered and was fast dissolving. Coming up to the pool, I gagged on the smell of the bits of man that escaped the attack but I cared little for my discomfort.

'All right, she said to run so I have to get out of here' I thought, my adrenaline overriding the despair.

I pushed past the headache that was now coming up as I looked to my right and saw a crumpled body with a wooden spear sticking out of his neck.

On closer inspection I found that he had lighter leather armor and a back pack. As I rummaged through this pack I saw a symbol stitched onto his shoulder with white thread . It had the outline of a shield with four symbols in the middle: A rock, flame, lines looking like a gush of wind, and a tear drop that looked like water.

I found some bar that smelled.... edible. Beside it was a scroll that when I unfurled it displayed what looked like a crude map. I looked it over and decided that the sharp waves in between a forest and some mountains must be my current position. It had a river running through it and eventually led to a town called Dunwhich.

I collected myself and resolved to head out. With a brief look at the green puddle, now clear of everything but a few wisps of smoke, I headed back towards the river and followed it to the town. The same messages played over and over in my head with an overlay of Lilly's smiling face:

'Lilly'

'YOUR FAULT'