Sun and moon whirled past while I slept. Mele and Kahula grew more adventurous, exploring the forest and learning its songs. The task I had originally made them for– luring the distant lemur colonies into my domain so I could absorb them– was accomplished within a few days, as the two managed to trick an incautious little lemur down into one of my pitcher plants.

I half-woke to absorb it, and fell back into torpor.

Dreams drifted through my view of reality. The bee colonies grew at a massive rate; every flower and plant in my domain was rich with mana, and the honey on which they fed their young was a miracle elixir of different magics blended together into rich syrup.

The slime gourds swelled and populated, and I felt a nature core beginning to form in a prize specimen. Again I shook myself just awake enough to spend a little of my mana reserve generating a colony of grass sprites. They would tend to the prize gourd so that it could develop the core in peace…

More time whirled past. The grass grew long and locusts buzzed among the wildflowers. The forest was somewhere between life and death; I felt the steady growth of the trees and the decomposition of leaves, bodies, and rainwater in the soil.

The wasps were successful in their mission. Their larvae steered the doomed megasloths back to my domain, docile now, heads hung low and eyes fevered by pain, stumbling forward unwillingly like convicts approaching the gallows. I consumed them.

Rainclouds swept the sky above and showered down a stingingly cold salvo. Kahula sheltered under Mele’s wing, and they both went hopping through the mud to gobble the worms that were driven up from beneath the earth.

Deep below, my sloth dug and dug and dug, its fur stained with mud until it barely seemed like anything more than a living part of the earth.

Mana accumulated within me. Deep beneath the crystalline face of my core there was a tiny fracture in reality. A rift that led to a place beyond the world, a plane of pure magic. That rift poured forth an endless tide of mana…

Before, it had been the shapeless Ethereal mana of the Beyond. A magic that could inhabit any form, strengthen any life, that took on the properties of the container into which it was poured, be that a living body or a spell.

But now that I had my phenotype Blood mana welled up within me. A more virulent, unruly strain of magic, one that desired to grow and consume and multiply. It was the basic desire encoded within all living things: the survival instinct. It was a magic that excelled in healing and mutating organic matters.

It was reflected in my domain; things grew wilder and stranger, mutations blossoming among the jungle and its creatures. My mere sleeping presence shaped the world.

But soon it was time to awaken.

Ahe had returned. Urgently he slithered into my domain, Mele and Kahula hopping through the branches overhead. “Brother snake, brother snake!” Kahula called. “What have you seen?”

He tilted his head up and said in his slithering voice, speaking through the shared connection that unified us, “A boat has landed on the island.”

I snapped myself awake with such force that a ripple ran through the air and birds burst into flight, going screaming into the air. Instinctive panic sent creatures stampeding through the undergrowth, insects writhing their way under rocks.

“Where.” I demanded, but I could already read the answer from his memory.

They had landed on the northern cliffs and climbed up. It was an approach that showed several things. One, they knew something was here and believed it would be watching the more accessible shorelines. Two, they had a familiarity with the island, to be able to make the climb up those sheer walls.

My senses extended through the island’s leylines but grew much more impressionistic with distance. I couldn’t directly see the invaders, but I could feel the interruption to the natural mana that foreign bodies brought.

They were moving through the jungle, searching.

I sighed…

Had the empire found me? Or was this some other force who had felt the disturbance in the weave of mana?

I had to find out.

“Mele. Kahula. Fly out and observe the visitors– they should be something like large, hairless apes. Be careful, and don’t reveal anything special about your nature.”

They nodded and departed into the air. I studied my mana reserves– a little over three hundred. I quickly scoured the environment for the recently dead and the offerings my serpents had piled up in their little shrine, padding my stores.

Three megasloths were born from spiraling light. They would make good guardians– their regeneration and size would let them shrug off arrows and small blades, anything short of decapitation or dismemberment…

I raised bamboo around the fenceline once more. This time, I interwove the stalks with hidden mushrooms, packing the inner layer with a padding of swollen fungal flesh ready to explode. I gave the glowbelly fungi a new trait as well– the Paralytic Poison of the wasps. While the outer layer was an innocuous cluster of bamboo shoots, the inner layers had been hybridized with Armored Scales, causing them to grow in the glossy black-brown color of flint. They were as stern and resilient as iron.

My fortress– my home– would stand this time. No desperate struggle, no last minute inventions. The hives stood ready, each small mind bristling with eagerness to spend their life in defense of the colony.

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And we waited…

The sun sank slowly through the sky above. I focused myself on the threads between me and my messengers, reassuring myself every moment with the fact they were still alive.

Mele and Kahula returned as the wind turned cool with the sunset. They landed on the fenceline, chirping.

“All is good!” Kahula declared.

“Oh yes, Kahula made friends.” Mele said, venomously. “They lured him down with food and he danced for them.”

I groaned. Of course they had. My poor creation was as innocent as a lamb to the slaughter– and lucky not to be in the cookpot now.

“No no, I haven’t erred! Sister is overly cautious. They’re friendly!” Kahula puffed up his chest defensively, protesting. “They are soft and weak and unthreatening. They look silly! No feathers, no fur! All soft and tall like someone stretched them out!”

“Those.” I said bluntly. “Are humans. The most dangerous predators you will ever meet. And humans have killed more animals– erased entire species from the face of the world– than you will ever know.”

Kahula sank down, beak still open. “W-well…” He said nervously, sensing my severe disapproval. “They… They didn’t kill me…”

“Perhaps they really are friendly.” I admitted. “But you took a risk I told you to avoid– and no doubt your sister told you just the same. Next time, listen to us.”

I turned to Mele. At least one my children was sensible.

“Mele. Did any of them carry strange wooden instruments? A long stick with a sharp claw at the end? A bent stick like a crescent with a string between its ends? A metal stick, flat and sharp?”

She paused for a moment, and shook her head definitively. “They carried bowls made by binding reeds together. Full of fruits and other things I do not know.”

Unarmed. That eased my worries– humans needed tools or magic to be any threat to me.

And carrying baskets of fruit? Was it possible these humans were friendly? I could accept at face value that they were not here to fight. But humans were tricky and mercurial creatures. I couldn’t guarantee they weren’t scouts, visiting under the cover of gifts and smiles but planning to report back to the empire immediately…

Damn.

Damn damn damn.

On the other hand human allies were precious. They had greater intelligence than any of my creations, the use of opposable thumbs, and most valuable of all, knowledge about the outside world. They knew the ways of craft and tool-making, magic, and fire.

What could I do?

If I had the ability to connect to my servants or manifest beyond my domain, I could easily communicate with these humans without giving my own position away, and measure their intent for good or evil towards me.

But that was beyond me as of yet.

I could send Mele and Kahula out to speak for me, yes– but they would have to return between each communication. It would be obvious they spoke for someone else, if the humans were the least bit clever.

No there was only one solution. A ruthless solution.

“Bring the humans here.” I order Mele and Kahula. “Do not reveal yourself a second time, but call to them from the canopy. Tell them the spirit of the island will speak to them.”

And turning to one of my newly created sloths, I ordered him–

“Go around the island. Swim out and destroy their ship.”

— — —

It was the matter of an hour before the humans arrived. Three men and two women. They marched through the jungle, following the birdsong that led them towards my home. They carried baskets of fruit, alongside carved rings of whalebone inscribed with runes, fishhooks, beads, ingots of metal, and other gifts. Their skin was covered in intricate tattoos, protecting them against sickness, disease, and the vicious storms of the sea.

They wore their culture on their skin. There was much I could see from the magic woven into those tattoos; they worshiped a turtle-god as their chief deity, fished in the deep ocean, and had to protect themselves against bloodsucking mosquitoes lest they sicken and die.

I allowed them to enter the forest, and approach the hilltop. But before they reached the fenceline I called out through the voices of Mele and Kahula–

“STOP!”

One by one, they sank to a knee, lay down their baskets of gifts, and clapped a fist against their chin. Not a full bow– but a show of respect.

“Spirit of the island, if you have a name you would tell us, we would call you a friend.” Their leader spoke. He was a handsome specimen of humanity with his hair drawn back into braided locks, but his right leg was crippled, and he walked with the aid of a driftwood staff. “It has been too long since a worthy god inhabited Maukleu.”

“I have no name.” I admitted. Each of my words was sung out in unison by Mele and Kahula. “But you may call me friend if you wish. None of you will be harmed, so long as you obey the laws I set down.”

They were uneasy at that. A dull mind might hear my promise not to hurt them– but they saw I had promised just the opposite, should they disobey.

“What laws do you lay upon this land?” The leader asked carefully.

“None of you shall approach me further than you have already. So long as you remain here, you will be fed on fish and fruit, given everything you might need, and allowed to live peacefully. But should any of you cross the line I draw with bamboo shoots…”

Behind them, the jungle was closing up. Tall stalks of armored bamboo grew to block their paths.

“I will kill you.”

Kahula’s voice broke and stuttered, while Mele sung true.

“You would imprison us?” One of the woman spoke out in rage, standing abruptly. The leader tried to send her signals with his hand behind his back– but she ignored him. “We have brought you gifts and good faith. You have no cause to do such things! We are innocent of any crime!”

“If you have indeed brought good faith, and not the intent to deceive me, you will be let go.” I said sternly. “But so long as there is a chance you belong to the empire and have come on their behalf, I will not allow you to leave and perhaps betray me to them.”

The man at the leader’s side– a huge specimen with bulging smooth muscles layered over with fat– twitched slightly, and the leader’s hand was suddenly on his shoulder, stopping him from doing something foolish. I appreciated that…

I truly meant them no harm. But I had to protect myself.

“You will be treated well. And if you are sincere, you will be repaid for your gifts ten times over. I will give you new ships and blessings of health.” I promised.

The leader simply bowed his head, although I no longer heard excitement or friendship in his voice. “If what you fear is the empire, you will soon see that we are not enemies, but allies.” He turned to his friends. “Come. Let’s find a place to stay.”

Had I made the right choice?

It was hard to say. Only time would tell.