~Avery~

After giving a few orders to my two lovely hench-spuds I took the opportunity to slip their watch and wander about on my lonesome. In truth I needed some time to decide on the rules I planned to take to limit my powers while on this little incarnation of mine.

So far I have just been idling about, passing the time with the maids, guards, and occasional guests I could get my spores into. It was a fun break, but it was time to decide on my character sheet as the girls would say.

In terms of quantity of power, I would have to limit myself to miniscule amounts compared to my companions. Otherwise, even as a mere fragment of my true self, my knowledge and skill would ensure ecosystemic collapse. Armed with a similar trickle of power as the others, when used to its fullest capability, it would still spell catastrophe.

No, in this game of life I would need to consider myself the GM for all intents and purposes. While I wouldn’t be creating the world from scratch nor the various adventures we depart towards, I do have the power to control the overall situation. While Lisa claimed it was bad form for the GM to have a PC in their own game, this was my distraction and I planned to enjoy it to its fullest.

To that effect, I decided to limit myself to amounts of power that most on this planet would consider incapable of magic. Crippled, in fact. Still, I would have to continually limit the quality of my abilities until the others progress to prevent myself from being overpowered.

I decided to excuse myself from certain abilities, namely the binding of souls to add to my collection and the resurrection of those bound to me. After all, this little excursion wouldn’t be enjoyable if my party of toys were wiped and lost forever. No need to play on hardcore mode whilst enjoying vacation.

Further consideration would need to be made considering the amount of impact I shall allow myself to invoke upon this primitive ecosystem. Some would claim the strong have the right to do as they will, others would abstain from harming so much as a fly. After all, said fly may have been destined to create a lineage of enlightened descendants that achieve greatness. At the extreme, there are arguments about manipulating fate and whether those with power have the right to do so.

Still, I had to hamper myself. WIthout self imposed obstructions, there would be neither challenge nor satisfaction from playing on easy mode. With that in mind, I gathered a few nuts and berries here and there along my trail before arriving at my destination.

At the transmaterial border of the forest and the Twisted Thicket, I scattered the seeds after some simple alterations. My spores would infect them similar to a virus, allowing me to guide magical energy from the environment into them and alter their growth as needed.

The growing plants would emit a weak pheromone with an effect similar to drinking alcohol, but instead shortening impulse control, this would instead cause a sense of safety and cloud the mind; similar to returning home after an arduous journey.

Normally, plants with such effects would be easily spotted in advance and avoided, but those exiting Thicket will find their detection nigh impossible. In addition, it should seem somewhat natural at first considering the stark difference in tension between the Thicket and this simple forest.

Task accomplished, I returned to my guards. Upon noticing my return their glares’ were quite cute, but they knew better than to bicker about such things. After praising their work, we departed to reassemble with the others.

~Sara~ Six days later

I’m nothing but grateful for the relative calm and time to prepare that we have been blessed with. As time ticks, I’m more hopeful that whoever plotted against us has already been captured before their minions can be sent after us.

Yet, preparations were still required, no matter how hopeful I am of it being wasted effort. We settled up against large rocks leaning against one another, forming a natural stone lean-to. Two flaps constructed of large leaves glued together with a type of sap covered both entrances, forming a semblance of privacy and protection.

With our numbers, it's a cramped setup. If it weren't for the fact that half our guards are on a constant lookout rotation then it would be unbearable. By now even the guards on lookout have a few simple tree stand shelters to take post in so hopefully they aren’t too miserable. I’ll have to remember to send a letter of praise to their respective houses when we get out of this.

The cubs are doing better than I had feared. They were already weaning off milk and happily feasted on a paste of mashed berries mixed with finely diced fish. They’ll have to settle for just fish soon though, as berry bushes in the immediate surrounding area have already been picked clean.

They were currently playing in a shallow offshoot of a river that formed a large puddle. One guarded the entrance while the other chased after a large fish they managed to trap. Every time the fish tried to escape it got batted back to the other who eagerly tried to catch it. Their childish joy made me smile, even as I pushed away the feeling of fear from the fish.

Ashley, Hellen, and Avery spent nearly all their time at the river either swimming or playing tag, which was a pitifully obvious excuse for grab-ass. Still, I at least managed to get them to establish a few boundaries–they no longer attempted their excessively long baths involving vigorous scrubbing.

Unfortunately there was little I could do to prevent the blatant flirting, even if it was in broad daylight. To a certain extent, that is what this trip is for after all, bonding. I undoubtedly would have been more strict, but I could tell Ashley in particular was hiding a mountain of worry. She grew up in the orphanage after all, only basic training was affordable for the church. There were simply too many left abandoned at their doorstep.

Looking over, I saw Lisa as busy as ever. She spent all her time preparing for an eventual combat. After setting up three poison fog traps around our camp, she started crafting a binding talisman. Apparently she knew two types of bindings. The first bound quickly but took time and effort to remove. The second was the opposite, difficult to apply but removable with a simple invocation of will.

Additionally, she conscripted the spruds into transplanting trees, bushes, and bamboo into various patches around our campsite. Our lean-to went from being in the center of a barren rocky meadow to being surrounded by a lush and varied patchwork of vegetation with a nasty surprise that would take but a thought from Lisa to unleash.

At first I was interested in bushcraft, but after hearing the explanations of how a few traps would hopefully leave crippling injuries and imagining the agony involved, I just made sure to know which areas to avoid.

Lisa’s constant work made me concerned at first. While myself and the others eventually started to somewhat relax, I was afraid she was letting the stress overwhelm her. Instead I sensed very little emotional fluctuation from her. In fact, she's more calm preparing to deal with attackers than interacting with others and making small talk, with the exception of ordering people about. She's a hard nut to crack, but I’m certain I will have her consider me a true friend eventually.