The little tree had no true concept of time. Here, there were no signs of Seasons. The leaves never changed color nor did snow ever grace the ground. As if stuck in time, a perpetual painting of spring and summer. The same sceneries it had crawled past little over a year ago greeted it once more. The holes it left still uncovered, the faint traces of blood seeped into the ground, even remnants of previous meals. A claw here and there, a broken femur sticking above the topsoil. It had been a long journey, but the return trip had gone far more pleasant than its excursion.
Partly because it had grown. Both in mind and body. How to best swim through the earth, finding the path of least resistance, how to best make use of its long roots and newly grown vines. And partly because it wasn't alone, time seemed to fly by. It seems one of the drawbacks of intelligence was that it was no longer immune to boredom nor solitude.
What once took two years had been cut down into a mere six months. Already the duo found signs of the epic battle which once took place. The angry claw marks dug deep into the trunks of the ancient trees. Wounds that had yet to close even after all this time.
Fragments of swords and shields along with shattered arrows littering the ground like broken glass.
Before long they stumbled upon the area where the final clash took place, and more importantly where the tree was born. From the ground, countless tendrils slowly wiggled its way out of the dirt like dancing worms, waving and swimming through the air they curiously scoured the area, touching everything within reach and leaving no stone unturned.
The method of its rapid growth and healing surely had to be found here.
Its fluffy companion didn't know what it was they were doing here, but the sense of adventure engraved within it was sparked by the strange sight. Even it had eventually tired of the monotonous life so far. Smaller creatures dared not approach the flesh consuming tree, and larger beasts rarely had a reason to stop by. After all, the tree was bare of any fruits, and itself had barely enough meat on its bone to even get stuck between the teeth of the many behemoths which called the dark forest home.
Which was why it was practically vibrating with excitement at the change in scenery and all the strange objects scattered across the former battlefield. It leaped off its nest with nimble foot and raced around, darting between the rising pillar of wood. It had taken a fancy to a partially rusted helmet, finding it a most intriguing and comfortable seat.
Although sadly, as it had grown in bulk over the years, it could hardly fit now. No matter, it would make a wonderous decoration for its friend/home!
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The tree was perplexed. It had stumbled onto an unexpected problem once again. It didn't know what to do! It had thought that things would simply fall into place once it had returned as if some forgotten instinct would guide it or a spark of genius. Yet no such convenience had occurred. What was missing...?
The pieces had to be here, but how was it assembled.
It quickly became apparent that frustration and outbursts of anger were not a vice belonging solely to humans. The tree wildly waved its roots and vines, splitting the ground around it in a fit. It only had enough presence of mind to watch out for its friend.
A fact that an unfortunate bird would soon find out it was not a part of.
Like a crackling whip, the roots struck down the flying bird and slammed it directly into the ground. Its hollow bones couldn't ever hope to absorb the sudden collision and its ribs shattered at the moment of impact and so too did its life.
Never one to waste food, the tree quickly enveloped it, enjoying the snack while thinking hard about the issue.
What was the situation like again?... It was warm... A burst of heat... A liquid containing vast life force... the blood and flesh of a great creature...
Wait...
All at once, the roots rising to the sky as if ropes fall limblessly on the ground with a loud thump. A sudden whish was heard, and as if snapping nonexistent fingers something dawned upon the tree.
A liquid with life force...? Wasn't this just blood? Blood was rich in nutrient and it was what provided the moving things with life was it not? When things bleed out, they died, so... If they have more blood they'd have more life..?
This was, of course, a childish and wrong conclusion, but with the illogical existence of the plant that was baptized in blood and magic at its conception, a correct solution to a problem all while using the wrong equation was formed.
Plantlife was vastly more attuned to the energy of nature than any others. Of Mana which was especially dense and ambient within the Tenal Forest. Although ignorant and unaware of the fact, the apple tree had been gradually absorbing it to fuel its growth for the past 3 years. With the sudden inspirational breakthrough, it started to actively tree to draw in the energy it had always been bathed in. It came like second nature, like suddenly becoming aware of your own breathing, the tree quickly found a rudimentary method to move and interact with the energy.
Using the blood of the bird it had recently captured it carefully drained and pooled it into a makeshift bowl of tangled vines. With all the single-minded determination and focus that could only be found in one apart nature, it concentrated its own vast life force into the small pool. At first small blue bubbles formed within the liquid. It tried harder, yet the result was only a dense smattering of soaplike bubbles.
No, this wasn't it. Something was off. The mana had certainly "entered" the sanguine pool, but it wasn't truly mixing like how it remembered. Like water and oil the two distinctive substances refused to cooperate. Now what?
It kept trying, slowly tweaking its methods. A small stream. A large burst. Multiple flows. Nothing worked. Days passed and its experimentation continued non stop until the blood had congealed and started to rot. Many lives were sacrificed in its pursuit of knowledge. Countless gallons of blood were drained, yet it still didn't understand. Its vines were scratching at its trunk so frequently that part of the bark had been peeled off in multiple places! At this rate, it might be the youngest tree to ever go "bald".
Stolen novel; please report.
Perhaps... It was going about this wrong? It had been trying to forcefully infuse mana, but what if it wasn't about the mana or method? Perhaps it needed to change the blood itself? Maybe these birds and rabbits weren't enough? It remembered that the beast it fed off of was incredibly strong.
That's it!
It just needed higher quality blood. It was time to hunt.
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The Emerald Porcupine was a peaceful creature. Quite lazy too, and why should it be? Within this vast forest, it had no true predator because if its bright coloring wasn't enough of a hint to its poisonous and lethal nature, the numerous sharp needles covering its body would've gotten the message across. Being a passive herbivore and able to consume poisonous plants ensured that its supply of food was never in high demand nor scarcity.
Which was probably why it was so taken off guard as it was.
Minding its business as it munched on some brightly colored mushrooms I didn't pay any heed to its surroundings. Never looking up from its meal even as numerous brown roots slithered closer like hundreds of serpents. From the corners of its eyes, it saw a glimpse of... Something.
It stopped to take a quick glance around the area. Nothing unusual. Well, besides a quite long patch of upturned dirt, but it was probably a passing Titan Python, those hefty snakes often leave crushed grass and upturned dirt wherever they went. They knew better than trying to take a bite out of the Emerald Porcupine though.
Munch munch munch, back it went to its meal.
A snap of twig. A twitch of a green ear was all the response that got.
A brief rustle of leaves. Strange, this was far more activity than this patch of the forest usually got, what with the noxious fumes emitted by the animal and its favorite meal.
Another glance up. Still nothing new. Although... Was that tree always there? Who knows? It was an ugly tree to be sure, but every damn where you looked around here was full of them anyway.
The careless porcupine never recognized the fact that the tree was obviously too small and young to had belonged in the area, nor that it was slowly inching ever closer.
By the time it noticed something was wrong, it was far far too late. Its prided quills had trouble penetrating the thick bark, its nerve poison and hemorrhage agents proved equally as useless even after it launched its gleaming needles at the tree's roots. There was simply no nervous or circulatory system to disrupt.
It would not be the first nor last victim that this forest has taken, but it was one of the first that one of the forest had actively sought to lay its claim.
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Just as it thought. The issue was in the quality of the blood. It simply couldn't handle the input of energy. Its capacity was so low that even the minuscule amount it held onto was evaporated within seconds. However, with its numerous trials and error, it has found that the blood of a more powerful beast could naturally absorb and handle the mana infusion, like a sponge soaking in water. Surprisingly, fresh blood wasn't the best suited for the task. The blood from a beast that has died for a couple of hours or even a day was optimal to use. Because while the blood was still fresh enough to be "alive", it was forced into a state of starvation.
This made it far more manageable to coax in mana and its own lifeforce to act as a replacement for its original host. With the blood as a catalyze the tree infused mana and vital energy into one with the shimmering liquid.
At first, nothing happened, but it didn't mind. After all, it had all the time in the world. Maybe it would feel discouraged after a couple of months, but until then it had no intention to stop. Thankfully it only took a few hours before changes started occurring rather than months.
A faint vibration. Ripples started forming. Drops of blood gleamed with a light of their own like jumping rubies. It carefully watched the reaction with silent anticipation. Experiment #626, even if this failed, it still had quite a large selection of blood to chose from. This current patch was from a particularly rude bird that thought to defecate onto a poor innocent tree would've been amusing. It certainly wasn't laughing after having a short sword tossed through it like a split turkey, but perhaps a furred beast would've worked better?
All idle thoughts suddenly ceased as a reaction occurred. The blood shrank to barely a quarter of what it once was. Yet the vital energy within it was many times greater than it once was!
It gave the liquid a tentative poke. Yes, the feeling, it was slightly different and much weaker than the one it remembered, but this was a leaf in the right direction.
In its excitement to show the grey squirrel its discovery, it had all but ended up shoving a very much surprised rodent into the pool. Angry chittering was cut off midway as a pleasurable feeling of warmth seeped into it. It was like taking a dunk in a hot spring after a hard day. All tension washed away as it sunk deeper within the red depths. Its grey fur regained its former luxurious sheen, missing patches of fur regrew thicker and longer, gaining a crimson glow. Its eyes gained an amber hue, and although it had shrunk in size once again, the power within it had only amplified.
Deep within, its body had already been accumulating mana for a long time, all it had needed was a small push before it reached critical mass. The particles of mana roaming aimlessly within its body quickly gathered into a core. It was only the size of a cherry pit, but it signified one that has stepped beyond the border of mortals and onto the path of myths.
A Mana Beast.
Each would innately gain access to magic, engraved within their souls, attuned to a particular aspect of nature- usually one of the classic four elements. This one it seemed had taken on the traits of flames.
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After the evolution, its now red-furred friend had seemed to calm down some. Whatever anxiety that had been eating away at it had settled and they spent many days playing around on lazy afternoons. Well, after the initial panic of being set on fire that first few days anyway. Turns out having a friend able to spontaneously combust living on top of your head when you're made of wood and other flammable materials was a hazard.
Who would've thought?
It felt like walking on eggshells when even a sneeze could cause a meter long trail of fire. Its bark was still singed from the last little accident. On the bright side, the little pyromaniac had managed to make one of its longtime dream come true, sorta, kinda, ok not really.
It wasn't so much "flying" as turning itself into a rocket with an explosive blast. Although it took a lot of energy from the little fella. As for itself, after learning how to craft the bastardized "Health potion" it was the only thing it has been doing the entire time. Every free second it had, and every prey it stumbled upon, was used to create the stuff. It didn't understand at first but quickly found out that they both grew greatly from consuming it, much more than eating the normal way. And considering it never needed to sleep nor get tired, it had a lot of free time. It could use a hobby.
Day by day they both slowly understood the energy around them. Floating particles, flying in an endless stream. With every breath, they took they unconsciously absorbed some. Emptying out their own reserves would help them retain more. So would entering a strange state of mind. Not quite like meditation in which one looked inward, but broadening one's view and connecting to the outside world beyond their physical senses.
Well, that's how it was put into fancy words, the duo didn't truly understand what they were doing, but only followed what their "guts" were telling them. They explored their surroundings, eat whatever they could, sleep, play, and repeat.
Rarely did they ever had to avoid or flee from anything. Most creatures innately feared the power of flames, and the stronger ones were rare and few. They had yet to run into anything that could classify as a threat.