PART XIII - SYMBIOSIS (II)

“I go,” Tazrok said. Opening his footlocker, he asked Vanis, “Get please. Don’t want to squish.”

“Ahh, of course, Tazrok,” Vanis said as he retrieved the Ogre’s tiny Symbiote case. He passed the case to Tasi.

Tazrok followed the same instructions and lay down on his bunk. Tasi needed to stand on his footlocker to be high enough to be in position. “Tazrok,” Tasi said, “I know I asked this before, but I must ask again. You are sure you will be able to stay still?”

“Yes,” he responded.

“Alright. Everyone, stay back please, just as a precaution. Tazrok, what is your class?”

“I am Druid.”

“An Ogre Druid,” Tasi said, rubbing her hand lovingly over the wood case. “I never thought I’d see such a thing.”

Tasi and her assistants went through the same practiced steps as they did with Lena. Sania verified the Symbiote was for the ultra-rare Druid class. Tasi and Meyra put everything in place to apply the powder.

“Are you ready?” Tasi asked.

“One moment,” Tazrok said. “Thinking about trees and water.”

“I don’t understand,” Tasi said, a confused look on her face. “Do you know what he means?”

“I think he’s trying to meditate,” Callie said with a smile. “It’s a new concept for him, but his trainer told him to try. I promised to help. May I talk to him for a moment?”

“Quickly please,” Tasi said as she handed the plate with the Symbiote to Sania and stepped off the footlocker. Callie clambered up to take her place, close to Tazrok’s head.

“Hey, big guy,” Callie said in a low, soothing voice. “We need to make this quick, okay. Just concentrate on your breathing. Take a deep breath in through your nose, and then blow it out slowly through your lips. Just keep thinking about that. Breathe in. And then breathe out.”

The Ogre repeated the breathing exercise a few times. A little exaggerated at first, but then getting comfortable. “Good,” Callie said. “Just keep doing that. Just keep breathing like that. Now think about happy things. The warm sun hitting your face. The sound of the wind blowing through trees. Water flowing in a stream.”

“Okay,” the Ogre said slowly after about twenty seconds. “Am ready.”

Callie quickly hopped down, giving Tasi a thumbs up.

The Fairy retook her position on the footlocker and quickly, but quietly, called out the rest of the process with Meyra. She placed the dusted Symbiote close to the Ogre’s ear and spoke softly. “Hey there, little guy. I want you to meet Tazrok. He’s a very special Druid for you to bond with. One of a kind even. Take real good care of him, and he will take great care of you.” She turned quickly to her assistants to confirm in a whisper, “Three colors. It is a Druid slug.”

“It tickles,” Tazrok said with a slight chuckle as the Symbiote, sporting repeating rings of yellow, brown and white slipped inside his ear. The Ogre smiled and sleepily called out “Hi, Sluggo.”

And then … nothing. No violent jerking. No moment of panic. Absolutely nothing happened.

“Tazrok?” Tasi said tentatively. “Hello?”

The Ogre made not a sound, and not a movement. Tasi looked at his face, checked his pulse, and even picked up one eyelid. He just lay there, breathing slowly, with a smile on his face. “I think he’s tranced,” she said. “I honestly was expecting more…something.”

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“It’s in there, right?” Meyra asked. “It’s attached?”

“Um. Sania, would you check please. I think it is, but that was a very odd reaction.”

The Dwarf switched places with Tasi and concentrated hard through her gem, rotating it a few times. “It’s there, and it seems to be melding into place,” she finally said. “It looks like everything worked normally.”

“He did say he wouldn’t move,” Callie pointed out. “I guess the meditation worked.”

“Huh,” Tasi finally said. “This is definitely unexpected. Meyra, if you would put his blindfold on, I suppose we’ll start on whomever is next. You? What’s your name?”

Xin, realizing Tasi was indicating her gulped visibly. “My simple name is Xin. But my full name is Xinchaine, Daughter of the Sunset Valley Tribe, and I am a Shaman. I must admit, Tazrok sets a hard example. I do not know if I can be that calm.”

“I don’t think anyone can be that calm,” Vanis said. “I know I won’t be.”

Xin retrieved her blue and white box from her own footlocker and handed it to Tasi. Meyra fished in her basket, retrieving a strange item which she also handed to Tasi.

“We need to put this into your ear, Xin, so that it doesn’t close on the Symbiote,” Tasi said, handing the item to the Lizardkin. It was a small piece of metal formed roughly like a flattened funnel, with the spout only extending about two centimeters.

“Doesn’t close?” Callie asked.

“Yes, Little One,” Xin said. “Lizardkin have a muscular entrance to our ears that will close tightly if needed. It originally was part of our lizard biology to keep out desert sands and such.”

“It also has the benefit of being able to provide some immunity to sonic based attacks and charms,” Tasi added. “Very helpful for a combatant.”

“Oh, I see. So she might instinctively snap her ear closed on the slug as it crawls in?”

“Exactly,” Xin said. “This will be uncomfortable, but it is necessary. Please try to keep noise to a minimum as I will not be able to regulate volume.”

Xin took her position on the bed like the others and gently inserted the ear funnel, grunting and obviously uncomfortable. Tasi had Sania scry the sleeping worm, and confirmed the Symbiote was indeed the correct colors. Tasi and Meyra did their well-practiced dance in preparation for the procedure.

“Xin, I will need to cup my hand over your ear,” Tasi said in a whisper. “Since you don’t have any external ear anatomy, the Symbiote may not see where it needs to go. My hand will make it look like a nice dark home for it.”

Xin nodded in acknowledgement as Meyra dusted and then watered the little creature.

“Hey there little guy,” Tasi cooed as she moved the Symbiote into position. “This is Xinchaine, Daughter of the Sunset Valley Tribe, and she is your new host; a fine Lizardkin Shaman. Take good care of each other.” The Fairy cupped her hand over Xin’s ear to give the slug a direction to go. Once free of its armored shell, the slug looked around and started to move in the right direction. “There you go,” Tasi coaxed. “Xin, here it comes. Try to stay still.”

Towards the other end of the bed, Sania held down Xin’s tail as it started to twitch nervously. “We’re just holding you down,” Tasi said, barely noticing the Elf’s actions as she quickly removed the armored shell from Xin’s cheek, and handed it off to Meyra so it wouldn’t accidentally fall into her exposed ear canal. “We just don’t want you to whip your tail and hit someone with those spikes.”

Xin swallowed hard and squeezed her eyes closed. “Unnngh!” the Lizardkin yelled a moment after the slug entered. She started to spasm, but Sania and Tasi both held her in place, Tasi’s small Fairy frame surprisingly strong.

On the Lizardkin’s tail, three sharp bone spikes had sprung out, no doubt being quite dangerous if swung with violence.

“Sleep spell?” Meyra asked, preparing a casting if necessary.

“Not needed, she’s doing fine,” Tasi said soothingly as Xin continued to jerk violently for several seconds before she finally stilled. “Are you harmed?” Tasi asked, looking back at Sania, who was warily eyeing the spiked tail.

“She didn't get me. She’s down, right?” Sania asked.

“She is,” Tasi said, removing the metal funnel. Sania let go of Xin’s tail and slowly backed away. The three bone spikes were slowly retracting now that Xin was in her post-insertion trance and relaxing.

“I had no idea their tails had spikes!” Callie whispered. “That’s really cool!” She saw the confused looks on healers’ faces. “Sorry! It means interesting,” the Gnome quickly amended.

“I didn’t either,” Vanis said quietly, rubbing his chin. “All those Lizardkin dignitaries we made sure to disarm before an audience…”

“It isn’t something they talk about much, for obvious reasons,” Tasi said. “But trust me, you don’t want to be on the receiving end of that. One of the spikes even has a mind venom in it.”

“R-r-r-really?” Pixyl asked, wide-eyed.

“It won’t kill you, but even a little could put you to sleep for a few hours,” Sania said. “And leave you with a nasty headache.”

“Now, who’s next?” Tasi asked.