Tuning out those strong energy signatures from Levin, Rolwen, and my mother seemed a little difficult at first, but when I really stopped to think about it this is more or less like what I always did back on Earth when using this ability. Just as Tia had told us, the ambient energy around Earth was just horrendously strong. For this reason, any use of this spirit sense would always turn up just a general fuzziness in your brain. It took effort to get used to feeling your way through the sea of intense signals to pick out just one sign of a presence.

Of course, it did help that most human presences were equally horrendously strong. The interesting thing was trying to sense the presence of animals. Animals were used to hiding their presence for the sake of hunting or hiding, and much harder to detect with the spirit sense. There was probably some truth to the notion that humans had a stronger spirit than an animal, but it was not much. Just going by my own personal sense of them, a domesticated animal that had not learned to hide it’s presence had a spirit around 80% as powerful as a human.

The few times I have picked up on the spirit of a wild rabbit or a small bird it felt like it was barely there. Not even 5% of what I feel from a human. And, I have to believe the only reason I even felt that much was because it was being lax with hiding it’s presence. I only ever felt it when they were completely concealed, and I could never feel their spirit if they were visible.

I had used these small animals to train my senses at one point. It was really more a flight of fancy than anything else, but it was in an area of self-improvement I was interested in. And, right now, it gave me exactly what I needed to try to sense out what I was looking for beneath the noise put off by the intense energies of those three over there enjoying a picnic.

My mouth actually quirked up a bit when I caught my mother smiling while looking at Levin and Rolwen. I had noticed it before with the elven kids, it seems that elves somehow actually enjoy watching humans eat. They enjoy it even more if said human is eating something that they got for them themselves.

Of course, now that I’ve learned a bit more about how they view humans, I can’t help but think this pleasure is something similar to how people enjoy feeding ducks or giving treats to dogs. This was what I’d thought up until now. However, this was the only time I’d ever seen Levin and Rolwen eat while I was also using this fire sensory method. Normally, I’d only ever use it while we were training. And right now, I finally discovered the real reason why elves enjoy feeding humans so much. It seems they let off more spirit energy when they eat.

Makes sense, it’s an unguarded state. Come to think of it, Catla had always insisted to have me and Tia really close to Levin and Rolwen when they were eating. Going by this pattern, maybe if they actually received their food from an elf then the gratitude they feel toward the person who gave them the food would somehow direct the spirit energy they release.

When I viewed it this way, it made a lot of sense why elves viewed humans they way they do. There is apparently a physiological reason for the way elves dote on humans. This, in turn, would lead to a culture of always pampering humans, which in turn would lead to them infantilizing those humans. If they always treated humans like children regardless of age, or maybe something more like a pet, then of course they would start thinking about them the same way. This, in turn, would become a learned behavior that spread throughout the culture.

Seems like this behavior is going to be pretty ingrained and hard to talk them out of. Even a cultural revolution may not be enough.

No, drown out the distractions. Focus. As interesting a discovery as this is, I am never going to figure this out if I don’t focus. If anything, Levin and Rolwen letting out more energy than usual just adds another layer of difficulty. I will have to focus that much harder to cut through it.

I put my mind on the feel of the branch in my hand and trace my own energy as I allow it to run through the bush. I am having a hard time feeling anything in the air, so instead I will look for signs of resistance in my own energy flow. I am long since used to the sensation of my energy extending through the weapon I’m holding, so this is really not much different.

After a short time of circulating my energy through the plant, I finally feel it. A small, faint spirit. Although, I may be imagining it, but it actually seems to be growing stronger. No, considering what Eirlathion said about Nymph’s rapid growth from consuming our energy, this may not be my imagination at all. Should I… maybe not have done this?

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I can feel the plant spirit stir, and it immediately turns it’s attention to me. By some empathic sense, I can somewhat make out it’s emotions. It seems like it wants to know what I want it to do. In fact, it seems quite eager to have the chance to do something for me.

Alright, well… this is exactly what I was looking for, isn’t it?

Now, let’s see. Using the green word magic that is inherent to the elves, we are able to use a sort of contact telepathy with the plants. And, fortunately for me, the plants are a lot better at understanding basic intent than they are complex concepts. So, I have no need to explain what I want. I just give it the most distilled mental image of what I want to happen as I can and it seems to understand completely.

A moment later, I take a step back and the entire thicket starts to dance. Not just the plant I was touching, I had it relay my energy through the local roots and pass on the instructions to every small bush in this cluster of thick foliage in front of me.

I take a few more steps back and raise my arms like a conductor. I pick a particular location in the thicket and then spread my arms. All the plants move to the side to create a cleared path.

A grin forms on my face, but then I feel something approaching from behind. Instinct takes control, and my body turns 180 degrees in a single fluid motion as my wrist raises up and collides perfectly with the inner wrist of an adult woman in such a way as to deflect the approaching hand perfectly.

My mother recoils in surprise at the way I had reacted to her attempt to touch my shoulder. She hesitates for a bit, but appears to relax a bit when I give her a smile.

[Oh, mother! What is it?] I asked, trying my best to make light of what happened a second ago.

[Ah!] She responded. [I… Asaren… I just wanted to ask you… how are you doing that?] She said and indicated the bushes that are starting to settle down from their rapid swaying.

[What? Uhh… It’s not really me, it’s the spirits. It’s just like with “Nymph” back home.] I told her.

She made a little bit of a troubled face as she looked out over the thicket. Was this something really unusual?

[All of them at once? You didn’t even touch them.] She said.

Ok. Well, if that’s the only issue she’s having, maybe it’s not that bad.

[The roots are connected. I asked the spirit in this bush here to pass my mana along to all the others.] I told her.

[The spirit of a bush? How could it possibly understand enough for that?] She asked and eyed the bush in question. She gave me an uncertain glance and then walked past me over toward the bush and then touched it. As soon as she did she got a rather shocked look on her face.

[Well, I see… I guess that explains it.] She said and walked off in a daze. I knew something about the spirit of the bush had changed when I ran my energy through it. I guess it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise for other elves to be able to sense what I had done.

[Did you… have something to do with this, Asaren?] She asked.

[Umm… yeah, I think so.] I said.

[You just rose the spirit of some common bush to the same level as a lakira tree?] She asked in a tone that told me she wasn’t expecting an answer and then began shaking her head. She walked back over toward the boys and then sat and regarded me for a few seconds. She looked like she had something she was wanting to say, so I waited for her.

I guess it really must have been shocking to her after all. She took quite a while to come up with whatever it was she was trying to say. It took her long enough my mind began to wander back to thoughts about Tia and Eirlathion. It had been long enough now that I’m sure Tia should have been able to catch a squirrel if that was really her sole intention. I’m going to have to give that girl some form of appreciation when she comes back.

Having a sister who will readily take petty revenge on my behalf aside, mother seems to have finally made her resolve to speak her mind.

[It is probably fine because you have those two humans as birthmates, but you really should not waste the energy of the spirit like that. It could hurt you when these humans grow old and you no longer have them.] She said.

Her concerns filled me with mixed emotions. Every last thing about what she just said was wrong, but the concern was genuine. In a way, that made me happy despite the fact she was talking about Levin and Rolwen like property and had no idea about the infinite supply of energy I possess. Instead, the most prominent thing I felt was a desire to just be happy my mother showed concern for my wellbeing.

An awkward silence passed between us. It was finally broken by the sound of Eirlathion passing through the thicket once again, carrying a brightly smiling Tia under his arm. She, in turn, held a squirrel dangling by it’s tail. She held it up to show everyone with a triumphant gleam in her eye. Meanwhile, Eirlathion looked grumpy and ragged.

[Well, I hope you are happy young lady.] He grumbled at her. [See that? You missed getting to see Levin and Rolwen eat. And no, we are not preparing that catch you got for them right now. It will be saved for later. Right now, we have to get going again.]

If only he knew. What me and Tia valued was nothing like what most elves valued when it comes to those two. I guess we can let him be satisfied with the mistaken impression that he’s somehow punishing Tia like this. Meanwhile, Tia had gotten everything she actually wanted.

And with that, two adult elves both laden down with a child in each arm took off at a pace that could overtake a car on the freeway as though it was a light jog.