After penning a letter, I pondered what to do next. My body was still on fire and my legs too weak to stand on for the time being. When I focused my attention inward, I could faintly feel the remnants of Amelia’s blood magic as it painstakingly worked to reattach muscle fibers that had torn when my body exceeded its natural limits. The fight with the masked cultist had taken much from me, and it seemed my use of multiple haste spells hadn’t helped me either.

Since I could only sit and wait, I decided to delve into my soul space. I let the foxes know and they simply curled up on my lap with their eyes on the doorway, ready to protect me as needed. I smiled at the thought, my careful defenders overwatching me.

With a deep, heavy breath, I closed my eyes and allowed myself to sink back into the forest within me. As always, I appeared on the steps of an outdoor chapel. It was a bit different than the last time, some vines and bushes had grown, giving it an overgrown look and not strictly the appearance it had had in my memories. That was okay, it was still the same place.

I started by slowly walking toward the campground nearby, and taking in the nature of the place. Part of me was wary to attempt to appease the maelstrom that rested within my core. I was unsure if, now that my hour of desperation had gone its way, the mana would again refuse to cooperate. Either way, I had to try. I had to develop my skills so that such an event as Lindens massacre could be avoided or stopped in the future. So that folk like Perry wouldn’t have to say goodbye to their family due to the whim of monsters.

For that’s what they were. Monsters shrouded by human flesh. Beasts without a care for others. Those who fed on selfishness and desire, with no regard for others. I steeled myself, my heart hardening as I considered what I’d be up against. The others were seeking these enemies but I didn’t have much faith that they'd find them. If they did, and were able to stop them, all the better. But if not, well, I’d have to get strong enough to stop them myself.

I was lucky, my loved ones hadn’t been harmed. I had lost an arm and a sword, but there were worse fates. I had fought someone who should have been, by all rights, much more powerful than me. It was simply a matter of luck that I had not been accosted by a pure warrior or combat mage, but instead what seemed to be a high level support mage. She was skilled with her dagger, of course, but she lacked the physical stats to back it up.

As I thought, I wended my way through the national park. The trees shifted in the breeze, and the oaks whispered to each other. The sound of chittering squirrels and chirping birds made me smile before I remembered there were none. This place within my soul was lifeless yet. I was the only being within it, regardless of what I wished for. But did it have to be that way?

As I had that thought, I turned and strode confidently to the washtub, to the kings rock that meant so much to me, to my family. I climbed to its peak and sat down, legs dangling beneath me as I gazed up at the whirling raging storm of my core. With an iota of timidness, I reached a hand up, my right hand for even in my soul my left arm was gone, the sleeve of my purple silk shirt tied over it. I mentally called for the Lightning mana, requesting it to form in my palm as I turned my hand and pulled it back toward me.

“I want to thank you for heeding my call when I needed you. Please allow me to do so.” Despite the mana having no coherent thoughts, I could tell it felt something. The mana began to curl up into my palm, crackling and sizzling within. Only a small amount came to me, the rest waiting by my core. It didn’t hurt, it felt warm, and powerful. “I see now that I have probably been going about this the wrong way. I've been trying to force you to do as I wished. But thats not what you want, is it?”

It felt a little silly to be talking outloud, to myself. What felt sillier still was that I received feedback from the mana, my mana. It appeared to be nodding as the orb of lightning mana, a small amount of the lightning mana that dwelled within me, pulsated. It seemed to be agreeing with me which I took as a sign to continue as I was.

“I don’t really know what I’m doing with magic yet. Or really how to use you all properly, but I want to work with you, not force you to work for me.” I looked up at the orb of mana with its various storms surrounding it. “I feel like you just want to be free, and what I was doing before was trying to shackle you. So I had a thought, just a few moments ago. Why shouldn’t you be free?”

My hand tingled as the lightning mana in my palm seemed to quiver agreeably. It danced along my arm a bit, still in the shape of a amorphous orb that kept crackling, tendrils of electricity flying off towards me or the air around it.

“My thought is that, well, theres so much forest here. Mountains and rivers too. So, why don’t you all play in it? Why don’t you make it home? But I don't know how to let you do that. My next thought was if you could take the form of some animals?” As soon as the words left my mouth I felt as though all of the mana, even the fire mana, was listening intently. They watched me, not with the intelligence of man but with instinctual and primal curiosity.

I closed my eyes and tried to press on the lightning in my palm. I tried to compress it, not forcibly but with great care. I compressed it into a shape I felt befitted lightning, the shape of an insect that I had seen a’ plenty in this forest. I felt it resist at first, hesitant to let me shape it, but,after a moment of feeling my intention, it relented. When I opened my eyes the orb of mana was replaced with an orb and a small monarch butterfly. Yellow and blue lightning made up its wings and it flapped them trepidatiously a few times while still clinging to my palm. Then it took off, sporadically flying into the air.

I grinned at the display, watching the small flying insect flutter its wings in my forest, in my soul, affirmed my theory was correct. Plus, it was pretty. Darker blue lightning made up the vein membranes in the wings, while a lighter blue shimmered at the edges of the wings and bright lightning bolt yellow permeated the majority of it. But butterflies weren’t all I imagined inhabiting the forest. No, now that I knew my idea would work the ideas flowing through my brain sped up. I tried to think of all creatures native to the mountain range, and what element would be best for them.

It was shockingly (pardon the pun) easy to transform the mana. I had expected the shaping process to take time and effort, but it really only took the whirring of my skill [Syncopate]. To condense and bring together. To shift the wavelengths to increase or decrease power. The butterflies were a decrease of the rhythm of my mana, a shortening and weakening but that was okay, there was higher strength in freedom. There was strength in shifting the rhythm of static mana, unchanging and mindless, into a symphony of nature. So that’s what I intended to do, as the skill clicked within me and I came to better understand it.

I quickly turned the rest of the mana in my palm into three more butterflies, which fluttered all around me. Now that I knew what to do, and with the mana itself helping me to shape it, [Syncopate] felt effortless. I knew I’d have to return and continue to press my mana together, but for now it felt seamless. I gestured to the remaining lightning mana near my pool and smiled eagerly. I broke off a large chunk, about a third of what remained, and closed my eyes again as the magic before me trembled with excitement. It took a little while, mostly due to having to revisit my memory of the animal to make sure I got it right, but soon a perfectly molded mountain lion stood before me.

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The puma shimmered with golden electricity, a ferocious beast made for hunting and power. Its claws, fangs and eyes glimmered blue, and when it let out its first roar the air became static. The roar itself resounded across the trees like thunder, causing the four butterflies to flutter in fear, moving autonomously. The trees vibrated with intensity before the world settled down again. Even my heartrate had spiked with a primal fear despite this being within my own controlled space.

“Excellent! Do you like your form?” The puma again roared, nearly deafening my ears. I smiled wide, and reached out to scratch it behind the ears. It chuffed at me as it let me do so, and my hand tingled from the lightning in its fur.

With another third of the lightning in my core I formed a female presenting elemental puma. She too roared before approaching and nuzzling the first. They, together, wandered towards an outcropping of rock that sat within the sun and laid down on it, relaxing beneath the summer sky. My soul space didn’t change seasons, I had only seen this land during summer and so it would stay that way.

With the final bit of lightning available I called it down to me, tapping my chin as I pondered what would be next. In the end, I decided to form it into a pair of hawks. I hoped in the future this process would be more autonomous when I “Condensed” my mana. I hoped they would “breed” and create more of their ilk when [Syncopate] was working.

Soon, the hawks were made. Thunder cracked with each flap of their electric wings. They were beautiful and majestic. Small though they were, I knew if they were real creatures they could hunt most animals from earth with little resistance. They were still larger than a normal hawk, as I didn’t want any of the mana to go to waste. When they screeched, the hair on the back of my neck stood up and goosebumps rippled across my arms. They quickly flew off together, trying to find a place to nest. I watched as they glided into a massive oak across the river.

I was ready to condense more mana, to form it into more animals, but before I had a chance the water mana decided to take its own form. I felt my energy get drawn into it, pulled from [Syncopate] almost by force. The water fell from the orb of mana that was my core and dropped into the washtub below, the basin of swirling water that was fed by rapids upstream and fed the river downstream, and seemed to shatter into a large school of different fish. Several different species of trout took form and splashed into the water excitedly, swimming about with an eagerness that assuaged my shock. I started to cackle exuberantly as the remaining water mana formed into water snakes that wriggled on the surface of the pool.

The air mana was next, taking the loose ideas in my mind and becoming birds of various sizes. Small sparrows and a duo of massive eagles took flight. Cardinals and bluejays squawked and chased after them. A small fleet of dragonflies were next, shimmering different colors under the ever bright sun.

To my surprise, earth mana followed soon after. This one took a bit more molding as I shaped the mana into a variety of small fauna followed by a single bear. I didn’t have enough mana to make a second, so it was a half dozen squirrels, two pacific fishers, and one solitary black bear for the time being. The fake chittering around me stopped and was replaced by the new squirrels that clamored up the trees to pick acorns or pinecones. The bear immediately went to the edge of the river and with a roar, slapped its paw against the surface in an attempt to snag one of the fish. A rainbow trout exploded into the air before changing to pure water, slipping through the bears teeth playfully.

The squirrels were of three variety. The first, the one I most commonly had seen, were black furred squirrels that often grew fat off of food given by tourists and hikers. Due to the earth mana forming it, they still had brown specks in their fur and hazel eyes. The second type were chickaree squirrels.They had gray backs and reddish stomachs, were a bit smaller than the black squirrels that came before them, and tended to make a lot of adorable squeaks. At least, the ones I made did. The last were golden mantled ground squirrels They looked like a large chipmunk with black stripes down their backs and brown fur near their face.

Lastly, I stared at the fire mana before me. The most stubborn of the mana. I didn’t know yet what it wanted to become, or what I wanted it to be. Fire was, to me, the most difficult to assign to the creatures that lived here. I tried at first to imagine it as the wolves that prowled the forest, or as a bear. To see it as a variety of bird or snake. I just couldn’t see it as such.

No, when I thought of fire I thought of foxes, deer, and horses. Perhaps that was the pokemon player in me. Given the size of horses and deer, I elected to only make a pair of one of them. Likely the deer. I didn’t know exactly why I thought of deer when I considered what fire mana would like to be. I knew, for most, a lizard of some sort would make more sense. But there was something about a stag that called to me.

So, I looked up at the lone type of mana flying around the orb above. I called on it, asking it to come down to me. This was the mana I had spent the most time trying to get it to conform to my whim. It was understandably reluctant to trust me. I called on it, and tried again and again. Each time I felt its resistance falter. I felt it grow less reluctant. I felt it paying attention to the other mana that was now frolicking and playing and finding a home in the massive landscape that made up my soulspace. It watched as ravens and canaries and robins flew above, chasing each other gleefully. As the squirrels fled up and down trees, following each other. As the bear slapped at the water at the fish formed of water mana.

I felt its jealousy as it slowly relented. How it wished to run through this forest too, to be free. Free as none of them have truly been while contained within the maelstrom. I felt its desire to be allowed to run, to be allowed to do whatever it wanted. It asked me, through feeling alone, what I wanted it to be. And so, I opened my mind to it. It was me, after all, in a way. It gazed on the image of the Sierra Nevada red fox and two strands of energy broke off to become it. The foxes were gorgeous. Their fur flickered with heatless flames and their eyes shimmered as they took form. They chittered a foxes laugh and one of them, the male, bolted toward a tree as a squirrel raced up its trunk. The foxes yowled excitedly, eager to play with their new bodies.

Still, there was more to be done. More to make. I could feel myself growing more exhausted. Even with the mana cooperating with me, I was still using [Syncopate] this entire time. It still took my energy to create these creatures even if they were a part of me. But I had enough for one last pair. A stag and a doe, with red fur instead of brown, slowly took form in front of me. They were gorgeous, and massive. Bigger than deer on earth typically would be. Flame and veins that looked of magma flickered on the stags magnificent antlers. The pair pranced away, hopping as their hooves clacked against the rocks surrounding us but undeterred. They were promptly chased by the female fox, who laughed in delight at the wind blowing on her.

A small amount of fire mana was left. I knew what it wanted to become and so I formed them into the shape of a pair of small lizards. Tiny gray things that blended with the rocks despite their flame filled eyes. They went to sunbath on rocks near the pumas, eager to be free from the form of mana.

It astounded me, the difference in the behaviors of the mana creatures. How vast the range of their personalities was. It made me excited to add even more to this dead forest. With life returned to the forest in my mind, I crossed my legs on the stone and simply closed my eyes to listen to the critters as I began to meditate, thankful that the headache I had outside wasn’t present here. I sat that way for a long while, enjoying the sounds of my personal forest. Enjoying the now much calmer basin of water before me, above which a shimmering blue orb of pure mana, unaltered by the maelstrom, floated. I knew that my core itself wished to remain as it was and so I let it be.

I thought about inviting my foxes to the forest but I decided to wait for some time. I wanted to see what would happen as I further condensed the mana or grew my mana pool. If new critters would form from the mana I gained. There were a great many things I wanted to see, but for the time being I let go of my meditation and skill, and blinked my eyes open to a kaleidoscope of colors filtering through the open window from the sunset. I didn’t know when I had woke nor spoken to Perry, but I figured it was early considering my party left shortly after. It was unlikely they'd leave near dusk.

I couldn’t wait to show Liana and the foxes my progress.