My eyes narrowed as I watched the woman float down the river with her face submerged.

She had long since stopped moving but my focus was less on her and more on the life within.

My eyes narrowed further as I realized that this was the perfect time to test out the second law – the law of Vāḻkkai – the law of Life.

I had already tried testing the first and second laws on bacteria a few aeons back but the results were... Uninteresting.

They had souls but those consisted of a single string of white light and when I absorbed their Life Energy, they instantly died.

There was not much else to it.

The floating corpse and the child it carried, however, had far more potential in terms of what I could learn from them.

That being said, I needed to consider the consequences my meddling would have.

The possibility that the humanoids would one day inhabit most of my surface was high.

What role would this child possibly serve in their history if I saved it?

I shook aside my concerns since the child's time was running and flew down to the floating corpse as it made its way into a part of the river that was covered with tall grasses.

I then grabbed it by its shoulders and pulled it to the riverbank. A place covered in mud and tall grass.

I parted the corpse's legs and removed its loincloth while inspecting its belly.

The way I used Gravity Magic was by imagining and visualizing the gravitational lines that existed around all things with mass.

Soul Magic, from what little I observed, manifested as countless white strings within all living things, with me being the exception.

I tried visualizing the corpse’s soul but, as expected, there was nothing.

However, housed within her belly, was a ball of countless white strings which assumed a form resembling a child.

I gave myself a nod before trying to visualize it’s Life Energy or something along those lines and saw it.

A weak, pulsating green light that came from the child’s heart.

I needed to get it out and although I could tear the corpse’s belly open and retrieve it, I couldn’t risk harming the child so I decided to take the more traditional route.

The only problem was that the mother was dead so there was no way for her to help in getting the child out.

So I would need to forcefully widen the path the child would take.

I took a single deep breath before slipping both of my hands into the corpse’s vagina and, after reaching about ten centimetres into it, I tore it open.

Blood, water and amniotic fluid poured out from within but I couldn’t stop until I knew the child was out and alive and so I pushed deeper and eventually reached the womb.

At this point, the corpse’s legs were widely spread and her lower body had almost been entirely torn open meaning I had ample room to retrieve the child.

I grabbed the boy and pulled him out, further tearing the amniotic sac and pulling the placenta alongside everything else.

I eyed the blood-drenched baby boy over and saw that he was quite small, even for a newborn child and so I tried pouring some Life Energy into him.

It came directly from my heart and poured into his own while I snipped off his umbilical cord and before long, the boy was loudly crying.

I held him closely and gently, hoping that his cries would lessen but they never did.

I even tried turning away from the mangled corpse of his mother but he just kept crying and so I decided it was best to just let him cry.

Our time together was then cut short as I heard the voices of several men approaching.

I quickly took off my robe and wrapped the boy in it before gently placing him next to his mother.

I then rapidly flew high into the sky, accidentally creating a sonic boom in the process.

Upon reaching the clouds, I quickly looked down, hoping I hadn’t scared the men away.

It was a group of four and they continued their cautious approach towards the weeping boy.

They eventually reached it and were understandably horrified upon seeing the boy lying next to the mangled corpse of his mother.

One of the men quickly grabbed the boy and from the clubs and spears in their hands, I deduced that they were guards or patrolmen.

The first man said something I couldn’t understand to the others before leading them away from the grassy riverbank.

I watched them leave the Riverside and assessed what I had managed to achieve.

It was possible for me to perform such a crude procedure but I didn’t really see any use for it.

I was inanimate and didn’t need Life Energy.

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I could have theoretically developed a biological vessel for myself but what would be the point if it died one day?

I glanced at myself and saw that not only was I naked, I was covered in mud and blood and so I quickly flew towards the ocean.

I cannonballed into it and beheld, as the sun steadily set, a vast array of life.

I saw countless fishlike organisms which used Light Magic to coordinate and make their way across the ever-darkening waters and larger, more gigantic mammoth-like creatures which walked along the ocean floor. They had long legs which reached the very bottom of the ocean and had trunks which were hundreds of meters long. They glowed brightly green and it seemed as though they were sweeping the ocean all while absorbing Life Energy.

Lining the ocean floor was a carpet of life that seemingly breathed, releasing countless bubbles with each breath.

The small fish fed off the life-rich ocean floor and were preyed on by the larger fish.

It seemed as though the mega mammoths were absorbing Life from microscopic organisms that filled the ocean's waters.

They would one day die and be consumed by the ocean floor, starting the cycle all over again.

I glanced at myself and saw that I had gotten quite clean and so I left the ocean and returned to my Island where I slipped into my spare robe, one which I had gotten from the dead pilot of the broken Pāttiram vehicle.

Speaking of which, I sat atop the functional one and watched as the last of the sun’s light touched my skies, creating beautiful waves of dark blue and orange.

What followed was a night sky that glittered with stars.

I wondered where the earth was from here.

I wondered if it was even still around.

I laid on my back and thought about all I had experienced on this day.

All the wonders of life.

The horrors of death.

And my favourite part, the dragons.

I closed my eyes and let out a deep sigh as, for the first time in a long time, I felt tired.

Not physically.

Just....tired.

I wanted to sleep.

To rest.

Since consciousness was a never-ending stream for me, I had been awake since the moment I was reborn.

And so I laid still.

Under the bustling night sky.

With almost no thoughts on my mind.

.

..

I let out a sigh as I woke up.

I had “slept” for about six hours and although I didn’t physically feel any different, I felt a little better.

I lightly stretched even though my doll didn’t need to and thought back to the boy I had saved.

His face had appeared a few times in my mind as I slept and I wondered how he was doing.

I didn’t particularly care about him and was more interested in whether or not he was still alive after the messy process that was his birth so I flew back south to the mountainside village.

I assumed a hybrid perspective, allowing me to search for the boy while still commandeering my doll.

I heard it’s familiar cry only it was coming from a hut within the village and it sounded like several people were yelling things around it.

I flew over towards the Riverside hut and peered into it to find that the patrolman was sitting in front of a woman, spear in hand, while she cradled the boy.

Several other men and a few elderly people yelled various things and I pieced together that they were saying that the child be either killed or discarded based on the multiple violent gestures several of the men made.

I looked at their cracked lips and hollowed cheeks and saw that there was indeed a food crisis so maybe they were arguing over whether adding another mouth to feed was a good idea.

Others were seemingly afraid of the child and they gave it looks that varied from apprehensive to disgusted.

But, regardless of how loud their yells got, the patrolman did not respond.

One of them, a man whose skin was covered in scars, pointed to the north and hissed out a few words before leading everyone out of the patrolman’s hut.

Apparently, his name was Mlezi and the woman behind was Ua.

I had done my best to learn as much of the language they spoke during the big argument but I would need a little more time to understand it completely.

Ua sat a little closer to Mlezi and gently rubbed his scar-lined back.

The two spoke for a moment before allowing each other's foreheads to touch.

Mlezi then whispered something and Ua simply nodded.

He stood up and began grabbing the handful of things that were in the wooden hut before placing them in a corner.

After ensuring everything was in the corner, he left the hut and I would have followed him but I chose to stay with Ua and the boy.

A few moments passed and my eyes widened as she began singing the song the boy’s mother had sung before she died.

I wondered if it was a commonly known nursery rhyme or something.

Ua gently tightened the robe-blanket around the boy and looked up.

She then said something with a saddened face before returning to singing.

I looked at her transparent hair, which, unlike that of the humanoids to the far north, was short and kinky.

I let out a thoughtful drone and turned to the northeast.

Mlezi had long since left the village and it looked like he was searching for something.

He kept his spear raised and his eyes rarely blinked.

It was still quite early in the morning and so the air was cool.

This probably helped since I watched him walk for nearly five kilometres to the north of the village.

He eventually found a clear spot in the grasslands that was a few hundred meters east of the village and he seemed satisfied with it but just as he turned to make his way back home, something hissed at him from within the grass.

I then watched as a cat-like creature emerged from the grass only its back was lined with spikes which glowed brightly blue and emitted sparks of electricity.

This was the perfect opportunity for me to see just how strong these humanoids were.

I mean, judging all of them from the Pangolin attack was a little... Unfair, so this was their chance at redemption in my eyes.

The cat-like creature lashed out at Mlezi, reaching out towards him with its sharp claws but he quickly backed away while yelling various things at the top of his lungs.

The cat tried to attack him again but in turn, Mlezi stabbed it in the shoulder with his spear.

However, just as his spear dug into its flesh, the spikes along the cat’s back brightened and a bolt of electricity shot forward and struck Mlezi in his shoulder.

He let out an agonised scream but, even though his skin had been burnt severely, he stabbed the cat again and this time, his spear went straight into its eye.

The creature let out a pained screech before trying to run away but Mlezi stabbed it again, piecing it’s ribs and keeping it in place.

The cat let out a few more hisses as it bled out and it wasn’t long before it stopped moving.

Mlezi let out a tired sigh as he grabbed the creature’s bloody corpse.

He then made his way back home under the blazing heat of the afternoon sun.

He eventually returned to the village and a few of his fellow patrolmen walked up to him.

They offered to help him walk but Mlezi shook his head fiercely while barking callous words at him.

One of them, however, walked up to him regardless and grabbed him by his arm before accompanying him back home.

Ua was understandably horrified upon seeing Mlezi’s state and all she could do was watch as the helpful patrolmen placed him down.

The three then spoke for a bit while the patrolman, whose name was Thabiti, prepared a fire.

Ua accompanied Mlezi to the river where he washed the dirt off of his body.

She then returned to the hut and skinned the creature using a sharp piece of obsidian.

Mlezi eventually returned to the hut and he sat next to the baby boy, who had long since fallen asleep.

He then gave the boy a look which I had not seen in so long, it felt less like a memory and more like a dream.

Dinner eventually came in the form of roasted meat and after it ended, the trio stared at different things.

Ua and Thabiti stared at Mlezi who stared at the baby.

I wondered for long they would survive.

After all, my surface was a harsh place.

It looked like Mlezi was willing to sacrifice a lot for the boy.

I wondered just how much he would have to lose as a result of keeping him.

I guess, in this sense, he and I were the same.

Depending on how things played out, the boy’s life would most likely drastically affect our own.