I was really excited to show my new invention to Bitey and Kendra. I had been working in secret for a few months now. They didn’t know what I was working on. I couldn’t wait to see the expression on their faces.

I could feel them walking down the tunnel to my newest of grand galleries. I grinned my leafiest grin. Get it. Leafy. Because I’m a tree. I shook my imaginary head. Man, I missed having a face and hands. So much of communication is non-verbal. Why else was I supposed to be able to say how big the fish was that got away.

“It was this big.” I’d say and wave my arms around to indicate the hugeness of my loss. Now I could only say, “The fish was approximately 10 feet long and weighed a thousand pounds.” Lame. I needed to be able to show my delight in such a huge fish. But alas. My loss was more profound. I couldn’t make funny faces at people anymore. I wonder if I could fix that? Maybe make a fake face. Maybe call it my Khuuramach. Hmmm.

“Tree, what is it this time?” Kendra called out. “I got a lot of things topside to handle. People are just the worst.”

Queen Bitey just continued to walk in all regal like. She was the epitome of grace and all antkind. I’d probably hear about it later. Bitey didn’t like other people to hear all the things she would say to me and about me. Did Kendra know I could hear everything in my domain? I’m certain I told her.

“You guys gotta hang onto your butts.” I started. “This will knock your socks off.”

Queen Bitey just shook her head at me. I could see Kendra roll her eyes at me. I decided to quickly explain what I had been up to down here.

“I made pods.” I proudly exclaimed. I waited for them to applaud my breathtaking accomplishment.

“Pods?” Asked Kendra. “What do they do? This isn’t going to be like the chewing gum thing and everyone’s head will explode will it?”

“No. Obviously not. This is totally different.” I rapidly said. Maybe the faster I said it the faster they would forget about the chewing gum incident. “This time the people go into the pods.” Man if I had hands I could have really sold that ‘ta-daa’ moment. I’m putting hands on the list.

“So check this out. Each pod can make a perfect copy of whomever gets in. See and here is a spot where I can remake their weapons too. If you die or become horribly disfigured; for any reason, inside my domain I can heal you right back up again. And if you die outside my domain, the connection between the pod and you is broken and it starts to regenerate you from the last time you visited the pod.” I was very proud of this.

It took an enormous amount of mana and resources to make a pod person, but thanks to some over industrious digging ants currently trying to bore a hole to china I was good on the mana front. Things were just flying out of the hole. I thought about asking Khugar and the girls to slow down but deep down I was a greedy guts. I was going to eat everything.

“Pretty Cool, huh?” I asked my speechless companions.

“Pod People?” Kendra asked. “You sure about that? There might be negative connotations with that name. People are already talking. This won’t help.”

“Don’t be like that.” I cajoled. “I feel really bad about what happened. This can fix people up. It’ll be great.”

“How does it work?” Asked Bitey.

“Thank you.” I replied to Bitey. “Alright so this might take awhile. Mana is bonding with everything. It appears to be the missing ingredient for everything. I almost surmise that Earth had mana at one point in time and for whatever reason it was cut off. Anyways, I digress. Mana bonds with everything. That is what is happening to all the metal and dead and dying material. It is bonding with mana and going back to the ether.”

I paused to gauge their interest and understanding. “Ok, so ether is what everything exists in. Think of this gallery as ether. Mana would be the air filling up the room. Just as we need to breathe, we also need to breathe mana. Not really breathing so much as absorbing. And we don’t die without it but we definitely become lesser without mana. So mana fills the ether matrix. Living creatures can pry mana loose from the ether matrix and recombine the mana in new and interesting ways. You guys with me so far?”

They both nodded.

“Right, so each living organism has a mana signature. This pod can read and store your mana signature. It’s just a matter of time and energy and you can remake anything you put in the pod.” I explained.

“And the items?” Asked Queen Bitey.

“Oh, sure. No problem.” I answered. “Everything that isn’t living. For the sake of argument, everything has an aura. That aura pushes against the ether matrix and keeps raw mana from eroding the creature, plant or whatever you are. Now why all the buildings and materials are disappearing is that they lack an aura. If you make an item now, it needs an aura. But Tree, you say. ‘How does a knife have an aura?’

Kendra rolled her eyes. I pretended not to notice.

“I’m glad you asked. It doesn’t. It borrows yours. See right here. The user pushes their aura into this mark. That then ties the item to themselves. It prevents someone else from stealing and using your item and it makes your item impervious to the mana wasting.” I finished explaining.

I was hoping for a bigger response. But neither Kendra nor Bitey were saying anything. Finally Bitey broke the silence. “How does it make a copy?”

“It’s pretty easy. You just hop into the pod. Go to sleep for a few minutes and your current state is saved as it were.” I explained.

“You’re just saying what it does.” Bitey observed. “Not how it does it. How is it making the copy?”

“Ok, I’ll be honest.” I said. “I am not one hundred percent sure how it works. Mana goes in, people come out. I throw in a bunch of material, mana and think about it really hard. I’m pretty sure it works.”

“I don’t know.” Kendra said. “It all sounds super sketchy to me. I mean who wants to die just to find out it's a sick joke.”

“Alright. How about this?” I asked. “I’m not asking you to die for me to test this. It’s a backup system that you hope you never have to use. It only takes a few hours of your time to set up and then after that it's just set it and forget it.”

“I’ll try it.” Queen Bitey said with finality. “After all, this looks nothing like chewing gum.”

“By the light of the sun. Will you guys lay off about the chewing gum. I already said I’m sorry.” I said.

“Tree, I still have those bloodstains on my shirt. I don’t think the stains are ever coming out.” Kendra said.

Queen Bitey climbed into her pod. I began focusing the required mana on the pod to create the first image of her. She was a magnificent specimen of ant hood. She was over six feet long. Standing up on her hind legs she became over seven feet tall. She had fuzzy little hairs all over her body. She had black chitin covering her abdomen. I didn’t have the heart to tell her how cute she was. I mean once you got past the sheer terror of her size. But if she had been a tiny little ant, she would be super cute.

“Bitey is in.” I turned my attention to Kendra. “Are you in or out?”

“Fine, I’m in.” Kendra sighed over dramatically. “I’ll do it. You happy now?”

“No, but I will be.” I hummed contentedly to myself. I now had a way to bring back my favorite people. I had enough pods for Bitey, Kendra, Gina, Khugar and Pinchy right now. But I was confident I could make enough pods for everyone soon. I hadn’t seen Pinchy for awhile now. I wondered what she has been upto. I don’t think she has died. Otherwise I would have received her memories. I just couldn’t sense her the same way I sensed my other pets. I mean my companions. I had the feeling they wouldn’t enjoy being called my pets.