Egosum thought of his late master and lost civilization. It was difficult to accept that it had happened so quickly. The loss of the world as he knew it was tough but he had put his feelings of sadness to bed on the treetops of the elven forest not long ago and he was going to do the same today.
It didn’t matter how often they resurfaced or how often he felt the need to ponder them, he already had his decisions made for him and his will solidified.
“You’re right. What do I need to start with for the sense of smell?”
“Great! Most daos have smells intimately linked with them and the more smells there are the more powerful this sense will become. For the dao of destruction, it started off as sulfur and burning nature. They stood out the strongest compared to the others. I incorporated that into my domain and expanded it with time. What feels most related to wetlands?”
Egosum closed his eyes as he took deep breaths from the odorless air. Nothing peaked through despite the effort he put in.
“I thought I smelt the herbs and swamp when I was here before. What changed?”
“That was a trick of the mind. Your mind knew there was a smell associated with it and overlaid it on reality. Brains can do crazy things.” Pangu sounded like he was reminiscing about a time long gone.
“But the herbs don’t feel like a swamp. They are additions to it but not foundationally important. Beyond that, I can't smell anything.” The domain was pulsing with life around them, but the more he focused the less it felt like a true wetland.
“Think about it before you notice it. That is the only way it will work.” The toad looked over before shutting his eyes once more.
‘Wetlands are an amalgamation of so many scents. It feels impossible to isolate just one.’
He let his mind drift off into the past. His memories of home are still freshly vivid. Most of his life had been spent underwater and away from the most intense of smells.
The few times he came to the surface, he was preoccupied with the task at hand. He never sat around taking in the smells.
He knew they were there from the various lessons of his late master, but he struggled to pinpoint even a single one.
“I can’t think of any. Most of my life was spent in my vernal pool with only fresh water and the smell of food.” His food reminded him of youth, not wetlands. The sense was far from what he attributed to a healthy ecosystem.
“I can see how that will be a major problem. Let me think.” The silence traveled on for what felt like forever when the soil finally interjected." An odorless media with unnatural auditions that are separate from your dao….. yep, no idea.”
Egosum did a double take as his useless teacher went silent again.
“Then what do I do? Do I just waste away without being able to continue down the path of power? Without expanding my understanding of my dao?” The tirade spilled from him as he voice his pent-up frustrations.
“Relax. It isn’t that serious. Everyone has major hang-ups at some point in the condensation realm. You just need to find a way around it using your own understanding. Maybe visit a swamp now that you can breathe. Sounds like a simple fix to me.”
“You can’t tell me what smells combine to make that swampy odor. Really?” He scoffed in anger, feeling helpless in his own mind.
“It wouldn’t be your own thoughts then, would it? Maybe channel your dao long enough to see if it developed a unique smell or something if you can't find some kind of wetland.”
‘That is an option, I guess. An actually a helpful suggestion out of nowhere. What a surprise.’
Egosum turned to Pangu’s spot and let out a deep breath he didn't realize he had been holding.
“You need to calm down. You are making impeccable progress as is. A small pause might do you good.” The dirt tried to comfort him again as the world started to flicker in and out. “Talk to you later. Bye!”
The toad felt his eyelids flutter as he began to stir.
The air was warm on his skin and the faintest hint of daylight fell over his eyes.
He stretched his arms and legs out and felt a tightness from the previous day's battle slowly dissipate. The sound of birds and a bustling village helped him get up and force open the leather flap to the tent.
No large crowds gathered around a dead body and no screaming old woman marked the start of a good day.
Random beastmen carried large spikes and a variety of unfamiliar objects around to other workers that strengthened the walls.
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Small groups of children ran around with unrestrained glee plastered over them.
The reinforced spikes around the encampment provided them with a sense of safety Egosum had yet to see them express, even before the first attack.
If he had come only a few days later, he and his crew would have had a much worse time trying to introduce themselves.
A steady flow of women entered through the front gate with baskets in hand and small bundles of plants.
They shuffled the things they collected from one pot to another, simmering them over hot coals.
It felt like a truly peaceful place.
Faster movements from the side caught his eye as Thunkar came running over to him.
“I was the first one up I see. Gotta put on the right look before Granny gets any ideas on what we were up to.” The boy jogged in place as Egosum took his visage in.
“You look terrible.” The flat reply shocked the beastman as he stopped mid-hop.
“What do you mean? I look great. I mean, really? Chipper as can be.” The toad looked him up and down before shaking his head.
“You have bags under your eyes, messier hair than normal, and a half-permanent yawn. Plus-” HE kicked up a small rock and flung it towards the boy's midsection, hitting him straight in the gut.
“You would have reacted to that if you had enough sleep.” Thunkar sputtered lightly as he watched the rock fall to the ground.
“Okay, maybe I do look that bad. I think I am gonna go take a nap.” He turned around to go before being interrupted.
“How long do you think we can stick around before Morgal makes us get out?”
“You don’t need to worry about that. She might look tough, but she is really appreciative of what you've done. She wouldn’t really kick you out.” The beastman jogged back to his tent leaving the toad to think.
‘I guess today will just be a lazy day wallowing in my Dao.’
His private tent from recuperating was still standing off to the side of Morgal hut and offered the best place to sit undisturbed.
He dug himself into the hard soil and reached for his Qi. The dirt quickly changed as his will influenced it more and more with each second.
The hard-packed earth without an ounce of moisture had turned sticky and wet to the touch.
He pulled his control closer to himself to keep it from leaking out into the actual village and to condense it inside the tent as much as possible. His influence reached deeper and deeper underground until it was a fight to keep it from receding.
Quetinctol had once told him that the depth of wetlands was imperative to cultivating the lesser-known organisms. Egosum was determined to test it for himself in hopes of yielding something other than the trapped smells already present within the confines of the tent.
Time ticked on as he waited hours for a unique smell to arise from the ground. A small bubble gurgled from below him as he sat in silence. The quiet pop caused one of his eyes to flicker open as it caught his attention.
He took a deep inhale and didn’t notice anything of interest.
Hours carried on as he sat in the tent when another bubble popped on the other side of the tent.
Still, no smell stuck out to him as he breathed as deeply as possible.
He lost track of time when a sudden commotion startled him from his meditative state. His eyes flittered open and he turned to see his froggy friend slowly twisting himself deeper and deeper into the muck he made.
“Coyotl, I am doing something important can you not…” The frog looked at him like he was about to cry. “Fine. Just stay quiet.”
He continued getting comfortable when a rapid series of bubbles flowed around his webbed feet and into the air.
‘Did agitating the muck release those bubbles?’
He felt for the muck and finally took notice of small voids infesting his area of influence. It was plainly obvious it was full of something and he went to work circulating the top muck down below to get some flow going.
As the muck began to pick up speed, the voids moved along with it and soon the entire surface was undulating with small bubbles popping everywhere.
Suddenly a massive bubble popped at the surface, sending specks of muddle everywhere in the tent. Egosum closed his eyes on reflex and took as breath.
A rotten egg smell tickled his nose as he had a flashback to his youth.
The first time he had stuck his head above water and taken a solid deep breath, the very same noxious smell startled him like he had been slapped awake. It came rushing back to him like a flood.
‘What had my master said it was? Some kind of byproduct of rot I think. Plants that had been submerged below the air permeation. Ah yeah. It was one of the lesser know foundations of wetlands. I feel dumb now. He had stressed the little things being so very important and I almost just tossed it away.’
He took another deep breath to ingrain the smell into his mind.
A small meep of distress left Coyotls lips as he cringed at the smell.
“I didn’t ask you to join me in here. You'll need to leave if it's bothering you.” The smaller frog crawled to the farthest fringes of Egosum’s dao and watched his friend work.
The toad focused back on the ground beneath his feet.
Loose masses of organic material slowly rose through the mud as the gases brushed passed them.
Layers of nondecayed vegetation trapped under the previously dry soil began to break into pieces as they finally touched the surface after untold years.
The air quickly took on a sour and woody scent, reminiscent of burning wood and another smell he failed to place.
It struck him as belonging to some kind of wetland, but he was unable to place it.
The darkness of the tent was swept away as the flap was opened up and a short salamander walked inside.
“Phew. That is rank. It's like when the dorm mother forgot to dry the peat before burning it.” She turned her head in a bid to fend off the wave of odors.
‘Peat! Of course!’
It was acid and tangy at the faintest wisp of the substance. He let his dao pull back in and the Qi to slowly decay away.
“You are a genius Cinera! That was all I needed.” He shimmied his way out of the mud and stretched his arms for the second time that day.
“Obviously I am. As much as I would like to talk more about that topic, I have something else we need to talk about.” She dropped her smug look and nudged the tent close as she walked through.
“I feel like Thunkar has been hiding stuff from us for a while now.”