I stand in the garden behind my house, watching the birds fly to and from the trees. The roses sway in the wind with bee’s flying from flower to flower. Mary’s voice comes from the house behind me.

“Dominic, mom wants to know what you want for dinner.”

“What are the options” I ask back while turning around.

Only to find Mary half rotted, covered in vines that are digging into her skin. Her eyes replaced by putrid looking fruits, while sap seeps from her ears. I let out a scream and fall backwards. I hear more footsteps as my parents come running. My horror only intensifies as they round the corner and step outside the house. The same affliction covers them. Half rotted zombies covered in vines that twist and wiggle under the skin, putrid fruit leaking fluid from the eyes with sap coming out their ears.

“NO!NO!” I scream.

I wake up with a jerk, practically flying to an upright position. They aren’t real I keep telling myself. This is a whole new world, the one saving grace of Mary, mom, and dad not being here is the plants can’t get them.

I cup my face in my hands and feel something warm and wet in them. Pulling my hands away I find them covered in tears. I lay back down and take a moment to compose myself. It’s just a dream. It’s just a dream. It’s just a dream. I keep telling myself it’s just a dream to calm down. This is the first time I’ve felt fear since becoming this. It’s comforting in a way, lets me know I’m still human, still me.

I stay laying in my pod for the next hour, just thinking back on yesterday’s adventures. I guess my situation still hasn’t fully sunk in. Well, since I’m here I have a few ideas, I want to try. Like making the plants move, maybe see if I can get a spell to fire off. Probably blow my own face off in the process but hey, that’s the fun part, right?

I dust off the now crusty mud from yesterdays escapades and stand up. As I walk towards the edge of my pod I will it to open, and it does. The petals lower and sunlight penetrates in. It looks to be about mid-morning, judging by the position of the sun. Assuming this world has a similar day and night cycle as earth. I step out of my pod and off the edge, setting foot in the dew-covered grass of the morning. Time to test some things, but first I need food. I’m starting to feel a little hungry.

I think about the nutrition value on my status yesterday. And like I expected my status screen opens, with a pleasant surprise of only showing me what I want to know.

Nutrition: 50/100

Well, time for breakfast. I remember something about the flora network thing being able to absorb nutrients. I think for a second and decide to try my hand at doing the nutrients pull it talked about. I will for the nutrition to come to me, as expected I instinctively know how to do it. It’s pulling from the world around me, I can concentrate it on one area or spread it out equally over my area. I choose the latter, standing in place and feeling the sensation of drawing in from the world around me. A small gasp escapes my lips as the sensation of the draw reaches the base of my pod and enters the tail. The feeling of a pleasantly warm tingle creeps up my tail and into my lower back, slowly filling my entire body. As quickly as it started it stops, the replenishment having finished.

Nutrition: 100/100

Well at least I don’t need to worry about starving. This tail that connects me to the pod is going to cause problems. I turn around and pick up my tail, holding it in my hand and examining it once again. This thing is like a giant bundle of nerves, I’d hate to see what happens if someone steps on it. Ow wait I already did something worse by trying to yank it out of the floor. This thing is weird, I can’t feel anything when I’m dragging it across the floor but if I say grab and squeeze it’s like getting my fingernails pinched but worse. And it seems to increase in length when I move further from the pod, then decrease when I move closer again. I moved around a lot yesterday getting my balance and not once had it act as an impediment.

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Placing my musing on the tail on hold for the time being I take stock of the surrounding forest. My flora network seems to have reached the outer edges of the glade and now includes the outer ring of trees. The plants in the glade seem to be fine for now. I would have expected some visible side effects from the nutrition draw but everything looks and more importantly feels fine. Weird that I know how the plants are feeling but hey, it’s a dryad thing, I guess.

I move over to one of the bushes I didn’t look at yesterday. This one has green leaves, a green stem, and green berries.

Chupi Berry: Very nutritious berry, it is safe to eat for most creatures. It has an extremely bitter taste that it uses as a defense mechanism. While avoided by most animals for this reason it can serve as a good food source in an emergency.

Wonderful, edible in nature but not in taste. At least it’s good to know I would not have immediately starved to death if the nutrition thing didn’t work out. But I’m not here to admire the plant's nutritional qualities. I came here to test my powers.

I bend down to the plant and give it’s leaves a good prodding. It’s just a regular plant for now, but when I’m done it might be useful. I concentrate on the plant, I want its branches to extend out and its stem to lengthen. I want it to look less like a bush and more like a mini tree. The instinctual knowledge comes to the surface, enabling me to push and pull the plant to my whims. As I start, I feel something leaving my body but push forward. It’s not leaving through my tail or hands; it’s just leaving me. It’s like a void is opening inside me ever so slowly. I push forward anyways, slowly changing and shaping the plant.

I get to the about halfway point and call it quits. The plant is tired and I’m feeling winded. The plant is looking like a large bush now, closer to a small hedge. Functionally it seems to be fine, it still produces the berries and has the same name.

Chupi Berry

All in all, a good experiment. I’m curious as to exactly how bad these berries taste. I might be able to modify the taste, but something tells me that will be a lot harder. Plus, both me and the plant need a rest. I sit down next to the plant and pluck off a berry. Bad experience here I come. I pop the berry into the back of my mouth and with a small crunch bite down. As the berry breaks apart on my molars and the juicy insides spill into my mouth. It tastes sour, very sour. It’s a lot like sour skittles, I love sour skittles! I grab a handful of berries off the bush and pop them in my mouth. I savor the sour taste prickling throughout my mouth. Reminds me of how my sister used to call me a devil for liking sour things. A pang of sorrow hits me as I remember my family. I’ll see them again I tell myself, one day.

I wonder what that empty feeling I was getting is, better check the status screen. I open my status and find nothing out of the ordinary, except for my mana has gone down.

Mana: 900/1400

Hmmm, interesting. Seems like that feeling of something leaving me was mana moving out. At least I assume it was mana. Modifying plants requires mana, that makes things a bit more complicated. What happens if I run out of mana? Do I blackout, get sick, or worse? It would suck if I died when my mana reaches zero, suicide by spell cast. Hold on, I was so busy looking for the mana I missed something just as important.

EXP: 3/10

I get EXP for messing with the plants, that’s awesome! I wonder if there is a level cap, like in video games? I stand up and move over to the Witchi fruit bush. I need to regenerate some mana, so I pluck off a single berry and pop it into my mouth. It tastes sweet and provides a filling feeling as what I assume is mana courses into me.

Mana: 951/1400

So about 50 mana per berry. I pull 5 more out of the dozens of berries off the bush and throw them into my mouth. After swallowing I check my mana again.

Mana : 1202/1400

Yep, definitely I got some natural regeneration going on with the mana too. That’s good, means I won’t have to rely solely on things like berries. Speaking of berries, I think it’s time I earn some more EXP. I stand up and walk over to another bush, It’s a Chupi bush. I start the process all over again, pulling it into the shape I desire. This time I’m going for a bit of lawn art. I think a swan would look nice, or maybe it will be close to a duck. I’m not a very good artist, so it’s going to look like some semblance of a bird but nothing more. I get it grown into a giant lump of bush and a stump where the neck will start. All in all, a good start to my artistic career.

Mana: 645/1400

EXP: 7/10

I think I am going to call it quits here, no sense overworking myself or my berry supply. I don’t know the consequences of low mana and I don’t want to find out in an uncontrolled environment like the middle of a forest. It’s still late afternoon so I have time to burn, the question is what to do with it?