Waking in a vast field of flowers under the light of day…

Then running across a wide meadow under a canopy of stars…

Playing with the others who woke along with it under the light of the Great Tree…

Then learning while speaking to one of the most beautiful of those who came before…

“Curious little child of the Waking Green, once you’ve come of age, return to me... At that time, you will receive your name and then your powers will truly blossom, just like your sisters…”

Memories resurfaced while basking in the warmth of a soothing pool.

Still groggy and hardly remembering what happened, the little Fae stirred as it slowly came to wake.

It lightly moved its limbs and found that wherever it was, it seemed to be floating in a dark pool of warm liquid.

The liquid around it felt soothing. It was nearly drawn to sleep again when the sound of barks and howls suddenly jolted it awake.

Remembering the terrible experience of having its side gouged and falling into the darkness from the edge of a cliff, it panicked and tried to move around but found it was swimming in a warm liquid.

Feeling its way around, it came upon a stretchy rubbery surface that seemed to be encasing it entirely along with the liquid.

Putting more pressure onto the elastic walls, it surprisingly broke easily as the liquid spilled out while the elastic casing fell all over it.

The two pups were too busy fighting over a ball seemingly made of weeds tied together to notice the little creature struggle over its elastic prison.

The changeling let out a breath as the little green creature’s struggle seemed to be tying it up even further into a little ball.

Grabbing at one of the ends sticking out, it pulled at it to unroll the little messy ball.

Dizzy at being spun around, the little Fae wobbled until it fell on its butt with its back resting on the wall.

Finally noticing its little antics, the two wolf pups stopped their little fight as they got closer to have a look over the changeling’s shoulders.

Shaking away the dizziness, the little Fae came to its senses as it saw three monstrous-looking literal wolfish faces staring at it; the one in the middle being the most horrifying with its skull-covered face making it silently scream.

In a panic, it curled into a little green ball of grass and rolled away into the back of the cave, hiding behind a protruding boulder.

With apprehension, the little green creature shakily peeked out of the rock it was hiding behind to stare at the three creatures.

Seeing its reaction, the changeling understood it was afraid.

It tapped its chin in thought then had an idea. With its sense of taste, the changeling enjoyed tasting various edible things and had a wide collection of fruits since it mostly liked the taste of sweetness.

It squirrelled them away in an alcove within the cave and covered them in its preserving goop.

Going through its loot, it found one particularly small red fruit that could fit in the palm of its hand.

It found it quite juicy and sweet and offered the fruit to the little green creature.

Looking at the skull-faced creature offering it the fruit, the little Fae was wary at first but then it realized that the beastly thing never did aggressively come at it along with the two wolves.

Seeing the markings and objects in the cave, it appeared to be their home. Also, whatever the creature did, somehow the Fae’s injury was gone.

Not only that, the fruit it offered was actually quite a favorite of Fae. Aside from being very sweet, it was actually filled with mana so Fae were quite fond of it since it helped with their growth.

Was it a coincidence? Or did this creature understand Fae?

Looking at it closer, it also seemed to resemble wild Fae that were often called Wildlings.

Ironically, they were rare in the Faelands which have strong nature mana, but were often found in regions that have accumulated wild mana; the residual mana of mana-dense beings such as Titans and Dragons.

Wild Fae were known to be a bit more aggressive and mischievous, but they were still Fae and part of the natural order of magical beings.

Knowing this, the little Fae slowly stepped forward and got closer to the skull-faced creature.

Seeing it still extending its hand with the fruit, the little Fae slowly reached out, hesitating just a little before it finally touched the fruit and took it from its hands.

Looking at the beast once more, it made the gesture of eating the fruit before the little Fae finally brought it to its face to eat it.

A horizontal crack split near the bottom part of the wood that acted as its face and opened like a mouth as it took a bite out of the fruit.

Seeing this, the changeling was quite surprised and saw the small fluctuation of mana.

It was honestly intrigued. This little creature was definitely one of the strangest things it has encountered. It was as if a plant evolved into a creature similar to animals. Only, what makes it function as one remains a mystery since it couldn’t perceive organs that worked similarly to the organs of animal lifeforms.

From its perspective after studying the green creature in the bio-capsule, all it could find were botanical cells. There was nothing that stood out from ordinary plants and yet for some reason the plants were naturally structured in such a way that they mimicked the form of a humanoid body.

But that’s simply it, they just looked like a body. There was nothing to suggest that it should move at all other than the flowing mana.

The changeling believed there must be something more subtle involved that it couldn’t quite see yet. And once again, the key most likely lies with mana.

Just learning that there might be new and extraordinary possibilities regarding the potential structure of genetic compositions made the little changeling salivate with greed.

Fortunately, the little Fae was too preoccupied with its fruit that it hadn’t noticed the changeling’s current look, but it wasn’t lost to the two pups and they decided to paw its head in hopes to bring it back from its worrying looking state.

Coming back from its daydream, it noticed the crack on the wood consuming the fruit moving and chewing as though it were a normal human's mouth.

From this, it concluded that the holes above the wood would most likely serve as its eyes. Looking closely at those holes, it noticed small glowing blue lights that seemed to shine within the darkness of its eyeholes.

Not realizing it was staring into the Fae’s eyes, this time the little Fae noticed its intense stare and couldn’t help but shiver in embarrassment. Covering its face with its little hands, it ran back to hide behind the boulder while peeking out again.

The changeling was stumped. It didn’t really understand what it did, but it felt like it went back to the beginning.

The two wolves barked at it as if they were scolding it. It held up its hands at them and waved them while shaking its head as if to say it did nothing wrong.

Seeing how flustered the skull-faced wildling looked, the Fae silently chuckled. In its head, this creature was undoubtedly a wild Fae.

It heard stories from the elders that wild Fae were usually fascinated with nature Fae and when two meet, they would usually become eternal bondmates. One such elder had a wildling bondmate and she always appeared happy and glowing when they were together.

Wild Fae were also physically much stronger than nature Fae, so having bonded with one is a great boon for any nature Fae especially since they were incredibly rare.

With a bit of determination, the little Fae silently swore to itself that once it has come of age and gains a name, it would make this wild Fae its bondmate, even though it didn’t really understand what this meant.

Stepping out of hiding once more, it walked up to the wildling and stood facing its back.

Noticing the creature coming close and standing behind it, the changeling turned and looked at it hoping it wouldn’t be scared.

Even while hunched, it stood at least a head taller than the little green creature.

Wondering how it should interact, it noticed the little thing looking at its own hands while a faint glowing green light emanated from it.

Suddenly, a small oddly shaped pink fruit grew from within the creature’s hands as it offered the fruit to the changeling.

It first stared at the fruit but seeing as the little green creature was doing something similar to what it did earlier, it accepted the fruit thinking it must be its way of returning the earlier gesture.

Looking at the fruit, it seemed split into two winglike round curves at two sides from the top that eventually slightly downward until the two ends met at the bottom turning into a pointed tip.

It had an odd shape, but had an enticingly sweet smell. Seeing as it was offered as a gift and it being a fruit, the changeling saw the little creature much more favorably.

Without hesitation, it bit down the entire fruit and chewed on it whole. A fresh and sweet taste it hadn’t experienced before erupted in its mouth and gave it a pleasant feeling.

While the changeling was enjoying the new taste it couldn't help but notice the little creature started squirming as if its entire body was tingling. It even hopped around looking like it was doing a little dance.

Whatever the changeling did, this little creature seemed to be reacting quite positively towards it.

After hopping around like an energetic cricket, the little creature suddenly walked over to the changeling’s back and started climbing atop it.

Wondering what it was doing, the wolves and the changeling continued to watch it. The changeling didn’t really mind since the creature was so light and actually smelled fresh like the morning dew.

When it finally got on top of the changeling’s head, it curled into a little ball and actually shrunk while sticking onto the back of its neck like a green patch of fur.

This all honestly felt strange to the little changeling. In its head, this creature must have been very young and somehow imprinted on it when it saved it. That’s the only conclusion it could come up with considering how it was acting so carefree around them.

Not wanting to miss out, the two pups also snuggled onto the little changeling while licking at its face.

Patting their heads and rubbing their bellies, the changeling wondered how things ended up like this when all it needed to do in the beginning was absorb different creatures.

The play and warmth continued for a moment until the changeling suddenly sensed something.

The earth rumbled.

Letting go of the pups and grabbing the little creature off its back and putting it down, it walked out of the cave as it stared onto the distance.

Beyond the trees, the forest canopies seemed to shake as birds and other flying creatures flew off in the disturbance.

It continued to watch, unknowingly pulling at its own mana to enhance its vision.

There, its form slightly hidden by the smaller trees, was a gigantic creature coming towards their nest.

It had four massive jointed legs that appeared more like the trunk of oaks and had two smaller sickle-like legs that pointed upwards at the sides of its head; an eye-filled gaping toothless maw that split three ways.

Its body was like a round spiked cone with a shell-like surface; something similar to a beetle. Only, this beetle was so large, it even dwarfed the size of the changeling's previous enraged form. This creature was almost like a living mountain or hill.

Looking at its ten sets of compound eyes, the beetle-like creature let out a high-pitched cry that sounded like thousands of cicadas in a chorus trying to shatter stone with their cries alone.

Hearing its cry, the two pups shivered and the little green creature curled into a shaking ball at the side.

But instead of cower, the changeling merely stared at the beast with cold calculation.

Once again, fear was absent from its expression. And what it had learned, is its chances weren’t zero.

It would think and it would fight this new invader of their new home.

And once more, it will feed and it will grow.

***