"No! I refuse! I have been carving handles for this and handles for that and handles for everything! I want to work on my statuettes!" Yenna huffed and squealed annoyed, as Gharna, followed by Michael, interrupted the young swine while he seemed to be mid carving.
"Oh, for Brood Mother's sake! That is all you always do if yer not working! This is useful! We need this!" Gharna said pointing at a "blueprint" of the peeler handle drawn on parchment with coal.
Michael awkwardly kept silent as he waited at the door, which was open. He leaned against the frame and looked over to Yenna's work bench, spotting the figure he only seemed to have roughly been shaping out. The young man's eyes squinted as his head reared back slightly in disbelief and surprise. 'Is that... no...' As the two blood siblings argue, the human simply nonchalantly made his way casually past them and to the table.
"Well, I couldn't care less! I do my duties for our people and what I do on my free time is my own business! I am working on an important piece here! Just let me be!" Yenna said as he let another louder squeal in Gharna's face.
The older sibling sow was about to say something angrily in retort, but Michael coughed over from Yenna's workbench, which broke the intense argument, with the two looking back at him. "I see what you are trying to do, but you are doing it wrong. You basically have a sculpt started with my body shape as base and you slapped teats on it. As much as I am flattered, this is worse anatomy than my own when I was younger, but..." He began looking about at finished pieces of animals, tuskir people, unique and creative styles of tribal like masks. "I don't think it is because you are not good at what you do, it is because you lack a proper reference. I know the pain." The young man said with a nod remembering all the years he spent struggling to draw female body types and how he still struggles with drawing feet and hands from certain angles.
"Ah! No! I- yes... well..." Yenna began stuttering embarrased as his voice seemed to choke in his throat, his ears flopping.
"Why didn't you just ask me to show you?" Michael said as he looked at the younger Tuskir with a smile, which got Yenna's expression to look at him with surprise and excitement.
"Y-you would? How? Oh! Can you do that with your magical relic?" The tuskir carver asked as his eyes seemed to surge with a renewed calmness and vigor.
"Yes. I can lend it to you, but you must be gentle with it. I have a wide library of what human anatomy should look like. Drew plenty of them myself, because looking up proper references constantly was a pain." Michael said, taking off his backpack and pulling out of it, his phone. After checking if Tuskir fingers could use the screen, which they could, he began explaining to Yenna how to operate it.
Gharna was looking at the two a bit surprised, but most of all, curious to listen in and take a peek at the device as Michael explained how to operate it.
"Now, I would like if you only used the Gallery. Like I said, the first folder are a reference collection, second one is pictures with my blood family, as you say it, and friends, from the past..." Before Michael could finish his sentence, Yenna pressed on the third one, which made him go silent, but instead of the folder popping open, a password prompt appeared on screen.
"Why is this one not opening like the others? Is it broken?" Yenna asked most innocently, Gharna looking to Michael, just as curious as her brother.
Michael stood silent and his expression intense, which made the two Tuskir, feel slightly uneasy. "That one is a forbidden one... upon which I put a seal only I know how to undo... if anyone besides me looks at that one, I will kill them." He said with a cold tone, which surprised Yenna and Gharna, who seemed to trully stiffen up at how easily he made that remark.
'Gods... what sort of secret tomes or drawings made of light does he hold there? Something of such importance that he would kill to not reveal them? How is a learning scholar allowed to weild something like that?' Gharna thought a bit worried about this exchange, thinking of reporting this to Urla at some point.
Michael just screamed on the inside of his mind during that moment. 'I made that mistake once and never again. Fuck. Yenna nearly gave me a heart attack by clicking that. If anyone sees that folder, I will brick my phone against a rock and then burry myself with my shame.' He thought as he cried mentally, immesurably happy that he password protected "THE FOLDER" in which he has gathered unique art pieces in, since his middle teenage years, via cloud transfer of data.
"R-right. No worries, I will stay away from it." Yenna said as Michael left the device in his grasp. "Although I must say, I am a bit dissapointed. Your kins women look thin and fragile." Yenna added as he looked at the first few pictures.
"Well... some are, but... uhhh... scroll a bit more, I have more diverse body types later on. The first few ones, I made to get a more... basic form down, before I diverted into specific body types. Also you will find them mixed with male body types as well, but I am sure you can figure it out. I would say observe the skeleton bases I drew with basic shapes and see how they change once I added detail." Michael said as he reached and scrolled on the screen to show Yenna some sets of pictures that went together.
"Oh! Thank you so much Michael, may you be blessed by the Brood Mother. It is fine to see someone else interested in arts, although your way of doing art is way different from mine." Yenna said with a genuine happy oink following his chipper tone.
Michael smiled, without showing his teeth and nodded. "Well. Glad I could help. Gharna, let's go. The man's busy." He said with a leisure tone as he stepped out.
"B-but, we still need his help with the handles!" The sow retorted as she stomped after him.
After the two got a bit of distance from Yenna's and Gharna's home, Michael seemed to look to her still smiling. "Don't worry. He will come to help." The human said waving in the air lazily.
"Why would he?! You just gave him what he needed to focus on his stupid statues!" Gharna said with a groan of frustration.
"Well... as good as "the artifact" is, it will shut down in like... thirty minutes or an hour? It needs energy to work and I haven't charged it, yet." Michael said smiling. "I will just trade him hours on it in exchange for helping us out, but first, I gotta let him have a little taste. Get him hooked on it." He says making a fishing motion through the air with his hands.
Gharna looked at him and she seemed to be about to say something, but the sow stops herself. "Yeah... those types of ideas are starting to be less surprising coming from you. Clever, but not surprising." She said with a chuckle of light oinks afterwards. "So. What is next to do, Michael?"
"Uhh... Well, I want to see how Urla is doing on the amulet to help talk with the Hay-yen, but I do remember Oinna wanting to do some learning on me. She did ask if I could go by her place, so it might be best I head to her." The young man said as he popped his knuckles.
"Then I will visit Ulra to see if she has managed to use her wisdom in starting to make this amulet." Gharna said as she held her fist towards Michael with a snort.
The young man smirked and he bumped his fist against hers. "Glad you like that way of greeting."
"It is awfuly convenient and simple. Glad you shared it." Gharna said back as she then waved at Michael while walking away, the human himself walking in a separate direction.
While making his way towards Oinna's place, he passed by his tool shed shack of a home and stopped next to a bucket in which Woh was relaxing. "Greetings, Woh. How are things?"
Woh happily hopped out and stretched. "Hello Michael! Just keeping out of the heat. What of you?" The amphoran asked as she hopped onto the wood wall of Michael's "house" and looked at him with her big eyes and a dopey wide smile, her gullet inflating to let out a few croaks.
"Well. Making my way to check in with Oinna about something medical. But. I wanted to pass by to give you something. Urla helped by asking someone who is good at this, gotta remember to thank them personally. I know it isn't permanent, but I thought it would make you happy." The young man then pulled out a small black amphoran sized outfit that was like a onesie with a hood. He then held it towards Woh.
Woh croaked and then yelled out loud as her bubbly big eyes stared in awe. "NOOOOOO! Is that it?! You weren't joking about it before?!" She said as she hopped in the air and grasped the black onesie, landing on the ground while holding it.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Michael chuckled as he looked over Woh with a satisfied expression, as the tiny frog then hopped about while trying to put it on. "We can test it out if you wish."
"Y-yeah! Wait... Does this mean you don't have neither of the gloves anymore?" The tiny amphoran asked as she finished getting into the onesie.
"Yeah. Took both gloves to make it, but, honestly, I don't think I needed them as much as you could make use of them." the young man said with a tone like it wasn't a big deal to him to lose the gloves, but he knew how much this might change things for Woh. "So. Ready for a test?"
Woh excitedly was about to hop towards Michael, but she seemed to hesitate a moment. "Uhm... Just sorry, ahead of time, if it doesn't work." The tiny one added before nervously hopping at Michael's chest and hanging onto his T-shirt.
The human then wrapped a forearm around Woh and the two held their breaths for a moment waiting. And they waited. And they waited some more. Still, nothing happened, at which point Woh squeaked excitedly. "I- It is working! I am hugging you and you aren't getting the red spots a-and you aren't locking up!" She began saying as her big shiny eyes began to tear up. "I- I can hug people now!" Woh added with a cry of a croak.
Michael let out a small awkward giggle in response as he gave Woh a head pat with two fingers on the top of her head, over her hood. "I bet Azhul will also be excited to see this." The young man said as he then gently grasped Woh and put her down. "I have something I need to do, but I thought giving this to you would be more important. If you wish I can still give you hugs later."
"Sure! I am going to go and hug more things! Thank you so much, again!" Woh said wiping a big tear from one of her eyes as she began hopping off while waving to Michael.
The young man smiled back and waved silently. 'Nobody should have to suffer like that. Sigh... those gloves would have been useful collecting things I don't want going through to my skin, but... if that becomes an issue in the future, I am sure I can find another way to deal with it.' He thought while going on his way towards Oinna's place.
\++++
Oinna was at her home within the village, going through some shelves and boxes, looking for something with quite a bit of determination trying to find it. Her rather messy search gets interrupted as there is a loud rhythmic knock at her door. "E-enter!" She said as she kept on looking.
"Hello? Did I come at a bad time?" Michael asked as he entered, mainly after seeing the messy interior.
"N-no no! I am just-... i was looking for a crystal that I will need to use when inspecting you and I can't seem to find it. By the Hunt Father, how can a rock be such an elusive quarry. I had it earlier today!" She snorted and oinked slightly annoyed at her predicament.
Michael listened to her and he began furrowing his brow in thought as he scratched at his chin. He began to look about, scanning over the many shelves and book cases, the boxes thrown about, the messy bed and simple night stand. After a bit more looking around, his eyes finally landed on a work table. It had many tiny shelves with dryed plants in jars, different potted plants on the table itself and wooden cups and bowls as well as parchment pieces of notes strewn about. The young man quietly began making his way to the table, and gently scooping papers and putting them aside in small stacks. In between the bowls and vials of dryed plants there was a palm sized nicely carved crystal. It was a hue of light blue with two sides, opposite of one another, looking nice flat and smooth while the rime of it was roughly notched and carved. "Is this it?" He asked holding it up.
Oinna turned around to look at him with a few chipper oinks she made her way over, taking it from him. "Thank you! How did you know, it was there?" She asked looking at the human curious.
"I didn't. But you said you needed it for my examination and you did those around this desk before. So... I just assumed you left it there so it would be ready to use. I am guessing, you put parchments on it by accident and because you couldn't see it, you forgot it even was there, specifically. Honestly, I know the feeling." Michael added with a chuckle. Oh, what sweet memories. He can't even recall the amount of times it felt like his keys grew legs and moved about the house, despite it just being him misplacing them often.
"Oh. Huh... that does make a lot of sense. Hmm... I am wondering if Gharna was genuine when she said you weren't one of the clever ones of your kind? Although she could only know that from you, so you might be wrong, about yourself." Oinna said with a gentle tone, as she began searching the shelves of dried plants for a few specific ones.
"I- ... Thank you, that might be so." Michael said with a meek smile on his lips, as he took a stool and sat on it waiting. 'Maaan... sigh... gotta watch myself. Come on, you know what an inflated ego does to you, you went through this before, so don't let it get to you. Remember, you are still just a nerd with a liking for knowledge that was irrelevant for my personal life before... which now suddenly became somewhat relevant... great. I swear, if I hear one more person sing me praises I think, I might go insane..." The young man thought as he held into the bridge of his nose, taking in a deep breath.
Michael's mind tuned out his surroundings for a moment as he remembered spending time with friends online, getting introduced to some games, him introducing his group of friends to it, after playing them out for a while and showing them how to play. He loved helping out and giving advice, until they began playing more than him and their knowledge, outdid his. 'Why did I care so much if they were better than me? So many arguments over knowledge that didn't matter, just because I didn't want to feel like I am worse than them. Then we would just make up, look for another game, play it ahead of them more and the same thing would happen, but it would just take longer... sigh..." Michael groaned with annoyance at his past self. "I can't slip back into that. Just tell them whatever I think is useful when it feels like the right time, let them use it and if eventually they develop something better than what I can do, I will help them with it if I even can. That's it... You don't need to be the best one there is, because you never were... nor do you have to. Don't let it go to your head.' The young man then slowly exhaled slightly shakily as he finished his inner pep talk, which he needed to keep himself grounded. 'Last thing I need now is know-it-all protagonist syndrome.'
"Michael? Uhm... are you ready?" Oinna said as she lightly tapped his shoulder, which made the young man slightly flinch.
"Ah! Y-yeah yeah... sorry. Just. Was figuring out some stuff to do after this in my mind." He said awkward as he cleared his throat. "So, what do I gotta do?" He asked with a slightly confused tone as he watched her hold on the crystal, which now had the small nooks and crannies on the edges of it filled with what looked like some mushy plant mixes.
"Oh! Nothing really. I just wished you to take off your amulet. I will be checking your mana. I have been worried lately. You have been constantly wearing the translation amulet and the druidic magicks I used on you to help heal your wounds and deal with your infections... they didn't act as usual. I barely felt drained at all of my own mana, so I was worried that your own might have taken more of a hit. Last thing we need is you to fall ill with sickness due to lack of mana in your body. So just put it aside a moment and we will start." The young sow said with a kind and warm tone.
Michael nodded and began taking the necklace off and leaving it on the table aside from him. 'Man, she would really make a nice pediatrician. I feel like a kid going to the family doctor, again.' He tought as he let out a single light huff of a silent chuckle.
Oinna began chanting, Michael unable to understand her. The herbs in the nooks of the crystal's rims starting to burn into a green smoke, with no flame visible, the middle of the blue crystal now having a green pupil in the middle of the flat side. Once the chanting was done, Oinna then put the crystal up to her eye and began looking through it, the pupil on the crystal moving. She stared at Michael and then she seemed to freeze up for a few seconds.
The Tuskir woman took the crystal away from her eye and she looked at Michael confused, as she seemed to mutter something. She pulled the crystal to her eye again and she began slightly approaching towards the human and half circling him. A few more minutes passed before she seemed to oink annoyed and let out a groaned squeal. Over the next short while Oinna stopped herself several times. She would stare at the human and then either rub the crystal's lense with a rag, shake it, redo the small chant she originally did, while using more vegetable mush mix.
'What is going on?' Is all Michael thought as he sat there, getting slightly impatient.
Eventually Oinna seemed to sigh and her body language conveyed a sense of defeat and frustration. She signaled Michael to put his necklace back on, which he promptly did. "Is something wrong?" He inquired immediately, with a bit of concern on his expression.
"I- I don't know... I checked everything. The spell went well, the materials were correct, the lens is clean, but I can't see your mana! All I can see is the environmental mana around us. Sigh... I haven't practiced this one in a while, but I didn't think I would mess it up this bad." Oinna groaned as she looked at the crystal in her hand.
"Come on, don't be too hard on yourself. This is not exactly a common situation. Who knows, maybe I don't have mana? Nobody back home can do magic, so I wouldn't be surprised. Maybe your... crystal whatever it is, just has nothing to see?" The young man said trying to calm Oinna down.
"But that doesn't make sense. Everything has mana! And if you had none, you wouldn't be able to use the necklace! It uses the user's mana to work! Even it has its own mana signal that can show up when it actively works!" Oinna said as she held the crystal back to her eye and she stared at Michael, pointing at his medallion. "The medallion is right there! Blue light! Easy. Why is there none... for you...?" She said as her tone trailed off. "OH BY THE HUNT FATHER!" She shrieked out as her expression looked on with awe and shock.
"WHAT?! WHAT?! Is something wrong with the amulet?!" Michael shouted back, as he got scared to hell and back by Oinna's scream.
"NO! YOU! I figured it out! There is no distinct mana of your own, because you are leeching on the surrounding mana! I can see it now! The amulet is pulling mana from your center leaving a slight void outline which shows around your body, when the center fills back! It is pulsing inwards continously as the void made by the amulet absorbing mana is just filled quickly by the ambient mana! HOLY DIVINITY! This is not... This is... I don't know what this is, but it is new from anything Urla taught me or our old tomes talked about. You don't make your own mana because you don't have any... so your body just... funnels it?" Oinna yelled out baffled as she seemed to have a nerdgasm over this... medical? magical? ... magic-based medical anomally?
Michael looked at her as he was still trying to process the previous half coherent explanation he was given, at the end of which he just groaned and held his forehead with his palms. "Fucking damn it! Why can't things just be easy and simple?! I am a "Mana Leech" now?! Like a bloody Gathering Da Magick card? Amazing..." The young man groaned exasperated. Although he was glad that his body's unique way of functioning helped him not die before, he was somewhat getting sick of the severe amount of unique interactions between his new home and his own body. Well, just another thing to keep under wraps, if it becomes relevant, but for now, the focus was on other objectives.