A few days had passed since Mlezi and Ua took in the boy, whom they named Musa.

Thabiti and a few other patrolmen had helped move Mlezi’s hut to the spot he’d found but that was all the help they could give.

Mlezi, Ua and Musa were exiled, forced to fetch water from an unprotected part of the river and hunt for their own food.

To add to their problems, Musa was a newborn meaning he needed breast milk but since Ua wasn’t a mother, she couldn’t produce any.

Well, that was the case up until I experimentally gave her some Life Energy.

I had learnt from my experiments with bacteria that I could manipulate living organisms down to their DNA and so, by tweaking her hormonal balance, I made it so that she produced milk.

Both she and Mlezi were shocked by this and they thought that the “Ancestors” had blessed them or something.

Speaking of which, I had learnt their language and some of their culture and traditions.

The tribe they once belonged to called themselves the Umande, a word which meant Dew and was coincidentally the name of the river they built their village along. They believed that all living things were made of a sacred dew which fell from the sky as rain.

The mountain to the south was called Kupumzika Kwa Baba or just Kupumzika and it was said that it was the path that the spirits of the dead took to get to the spirit realm where the ancestors awaited them.

The valley to the north was known as Shimo la Kifo and, according to the myths and legends of the Umande, it was a dark and dangerous place filled with deadly animals and evil spirits.

I had flown over there a few times and although it did have a few dangerous animals, it was sorely lacking in evil spirits.

The people beyond the valley were known as the Chofumah.

They had a monotheistic belief system and thought that all things were spat out into existence by the ocean god, Aviyv.

As for the ocean itself, it was called Makor.

As for what the two tribes thought of Glass, the Umande thought Glass was made from the salt of the dried tears of the ancestors above who mourned each time something died. The cycle of life and death was widely accepted as a natural part of life but I guess acceptance didn’t lessen the pain of loss.

The Chofumah believed that Glass was crystallised salt from the ocean and this made me wonder how many of them tried eating Glass under the assumption that it was edible.

Was it edible?

I didn’t know although I wondered what the effects of ingestion would be on a living organism.

My eyes widened slightly as Ua started singing a certain song, one which I had grown to like. So much so that it often played in the back of my mind.

“Hush now, sweet child

Don’t lose your smile

The rain's returned

Hear as it weeps

So wipe your eyes

For soon, we'll eat

Let every drop

Sing you to sleep”

I let out a sigh while floating high above the lonesome hut.

The sun soared brightly above illuminating the Hatua Planes, as they were called. The word Hatua meant “steps” and the Umande believed that it was on this plane, in these lands that the living walked along before ascending to the next.

Mlezi was out on his midday patrol, making sure no predators got too close.

I could have easily helped him by making him stronger but I saw no reason to. If he was determined to raise and protect Ua and Musa in exile, then that was that. If he failed… that would be the end of it.

I still had no idea how to attain true immortality and, after realizing that there was no point in rushing to the end, I decided to spend some of my time watching Mlezi as he and Ua raised Musa.

Speaking of which, the boy was looking pretty healthy. He had big grey eyes and kinky transparent hair.

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I hadn’t given him any Life Energy since his birth because I didn’t know how it would affect his development.

I did, however, want to see how excess Life Energy affected living organisms so I flew to a random part of the savannah where a lone tree stood.

I gently placed my hand on its trunk and poured Life Energy into it.

The tree loudly creaked as it slowly grew.

Its trunk widened and its branches reached further out.

Dark purple, peach-like Fruits then grew from those branches and it was at this moment that I paused my outpour of Life Energy.

I grabbed one of the fruits and raised a brow in surprise upon feeling that the fruit felt somewhat weightless.

I let it go and watched it float mid-air.

I wondered if this was a technique the fruits used to get to other parts of the savannah, like spores and other such phenomena.

Regardless I took a bite.

I had long since given my doll the ability to smell and taste and although I didn’t have to eat anything, having the ability to do so was handy in times like these.

What did the fruit taste like?

Well, it tasted like peach. Sweet and succulent.

I thought about giving some to Mlezi, Ua and Musa but I didn’t even know if they were edible.

Sure, they tasted like peaches but I couldn’t know for sure if they didn’t contain toxins.

I needed to test this and so I finished eating the peach in my hand and grabbed another.

I then pumped the tree full of Life Energy and, as I expected, it kept growing up until its branches were too big and heavy to remain upright and so the fell to the ground where they kept growing up until they tore open from their own weight.

Satisfied with my findings, I flew to the Kifo Valley, peach still in hand, to find that it was teeming with dangerous life.

Flying above were creatures which looked like winged scorpions and crawling all over the ground were insects that chewed apart anything they came across.

I wanted something more mammalian and so I flew around until I found a herd of animals that looked like inverse turtles.

Their bellies were covered in a dome-like shell and their upper halves were covered in thick brown hair. They averaged around five metres tall and three meters wide. I assumed their shells were meant to protect them from the nasty-looking bugs that crawled below and I was correct.

The shells were had a dim blue glow to them to them and any time something got too close, it promptly got electrocuted.

This puzzled me.

Glass was needed to use magic and yet the spikes and shells of the creatures who used it never grew smaller or suffered any apparent degradation.

I lightly tapped my chin before peering closely at the surface of the shell.

I couldn’t tell what it was made from but whatever it was actually stored Glass within the complex lattice it was made of.

But where did these creatures get the glass from in the first place?

I turned my gaze to the grass they fed on and although a vast majority of it was simple and green, a few patches were transparent...

I looked into them and saw that they were made of a similar transparent material to that found on the shells and spikes of some animals. They also held trace amounts of Glass...

So that’s where the turtles got it from but where did the grass get it from?

I shifted my perspective to the ground while keeping my doll afloat.

I followed the roots of the grass and saw that, mixed within the dirt, were trace amounts of Glass.

Ah...

I guess it was only natural that this was the case, especially after my countless collisions.

Glass was probably infused into every part of me.

I was just only ever focused on the big ones.

I returned my perspective to my doll and landed next to the herd only for one of them to charge towards me with its maw wide open.

Its jaws were lined with shark-like teeth and although I knew my doll could take a beating, I also didn’t want to risk getting any part of it broken since it cost a lot of Glass to make.

And so I dashed backwards while extending my left hand towards the inverse turtle and sent forth five bolts of high-voltage electricity but, to my surprise, the turtle let out a wild screech and continued its forward charge even though many of the hairs on its back.

I didn’t want to kill it but it looked like there was no easy way to get it to sit still and so I waited for it to try and bite me again and just as it did, I took a step back, narrowly avoiding getting crushed.

I then punched its jaw, shattering it instantly and sending the turtle tumbling to the side.

It let out a pained moan but I wasn’t done.

I needed to make sure that it wouldn’t move so I dashed to each of its four legs and kicked its knee joints, shattering them and leaving it to lie helplessly on the ground.

“Phew!” I breathed while walking up to its head.

I then shoved the peach into its mouth and crossed my legs while I floated mid-air.

It was here that I realized that even if the peach was poisonous, it probably wouldn’t be enough to affect the turtle since it was significantly bigger than the humanoids and probably had a different digestive system.

I let out a sigh before making my way back to Mlezi’s hut as the sunset.

He had returned and was gently rocking Musa in his arms.

He was so focused on the boy that it seemed as though he was in a trance, one which was broken when Ua giggled.

“What?” Mlezi asked. His voice was deep and sounded almost growl-like at times.

“You holding him like that feels strangely natural,” Ua said while trying to make a piece of clothing similar to the robe I had given Musa.

She didn’t have too many materials to use and so used an old strip of leather.

She knew that she didn’t have the materials nor the skill or tools necessary to recreate the robe but she was determined to try and that was somewhat entertaining.

“Humph! I agree. I always imagined I would be doing this one day... Just not like this.” Mlezi sighed making Ua hum in agreement.

I then saw something approaching from the south and raised a brow upon seeing an elderly couple making their way to Mlezi’s hut.

I remembered seeing them during the big village argument and wondered what they wanted.

I knew just by looking at them that they were somehow related to Ua but I was curious as to what they had to say.

They eventually reached the lone hut and they stopped a few meters from the front door with weary eyes.

The woman turned to the man who simply took a deep breath before taking a single step forward.

“Ua! Enough time has passed! End this foolishness right now and return to the village with us! We may have to suffer a thousand shames for the rest of our lives but it has to be better than anything that man promised you!” The old man yelled, startling the woman a bit.

Mlezi and Ua exited their hut with Ua tightly holding Musa.

“Sorry, Baba but, even if Mlezi decided to return to the village, I would stay here with Musa,” Ua said with a pained expression.

The old man’s face twisted violently.

“So you would choose that... Thing over your own family?”

“No, Baba. By staying here, I am choosing my family.”