-Break-
Location: Base of the great tree Anucroí
Φ As we walk with Cultúir through a corridor someone runs up to her and says, “Madam.”
“Madam?” She says giving the girl walking over to her.
The woman then corrects herself and says, “Deirfiúr na gréine.” Which is a term in more classical heroes song, a version of the song that no one in the village or outside the village tends to use.
The term means sister of the sun. With a bright smile, Cultúir asks, “Yes what is it.”
“The pipes understand, Ronald's bakery has burst which has caused flooding, and it seems Moris had used the Uisslí plants for his own recreational use so we have none to make any pipes.
This has caused a big stir as his bread was recently going to be used as a prize for the upcoming Gaelic tournament, and now those who usually eat his bread are fighting with those who want to save it for the sports tournament, this has caused some to even start fighting.
But the worst part is some of the kids participating in the tournament are children of the red branch so they have started crying to their parents which has caused even more stirs.”
Cultúir pats the young girl on the head and says, “Don’t be so worked up, we will deal with this easily. First, I keep Uisslí plants in a safe within my home, because I realized that Moris was playing a prank.
Next ask to inform the members of the crowd that the bread will be restored, and that I personally will use some of my collection of food as a stand-in, in case the bread isn’t finished in time.
Then I would like you to head over and with some of my red branch guards give those who came to blows a physical warning, we may share the powers of beasts but we are above that.
You can also leave the issues with the other red branch families to me, I am sure I can restrain them. What you need to do right now I calm down and sort out the issues one by one.”
“Right,” The girl says inspired to move.
Sighing, Cultúir says, “Sorry for that unsightly show of my people.”
“No don’t be, if anything I am impressed. But should you be showing us around when there are other important matters to address?”
“My subordinates are capable, and besides it is no bother. At the end of the day, all of those people are far more similar than they are different they all have a hard time believing that others truly would wish them harm, this fight was simply caused by miscommunication and hastiness. But if those people didn’t see themselves as similar then that is when true hell begins. Ahh, it seems we are here.”
We walk through another set of their grand doors, and we come to a place where we are greeted with beastkin all in robes covered with different types of plants, and each of those beastkin have horns seemingly made of trees.
But the most noticeable thing is the ridiculous amount of wonderbeasts running around, there are so many different types and they are all so varied that I can feel Willow's soul slip out of his body.
I grab him so he doesn’t die from excitement, and say, “You have a wife, you can’t die!”
Cultúir giggles and says, “I knew you would both like this. You see this is the eternal garden of Medb which is where we keep all of the wonderbeasts in our lands. It is split up into many different ecosystems for all the different wonderbeasts which you can see as you go up the great tree of Anucroí.”
Some people walk up to us, and bow, then Cultúir says, “These are the druids the ones in charge of keeping the wonderbeasts and the flora in prime condition, and over the research of them and their inner workings. They are also our chefs.”
Both me and Willow run up and grab their hands.
Shaking it, I say, “The food was truly heavenly a mark of god, a song to existence, a dream made real, you should be proud and hold your head up high for the rest of your wonderful existence.”
Willow does the same and says, “Your work truly is wonderful, you angels should hold your head up high for the rest of your wonderful existence. I love you all very much, and I would also love if you were to tell me about all these great beasts.”
The druid looks taken aback, and then Cultúir says, “I think you should take them up on their requests.”
The druid says, “Ok then follow me.”
After walking for a little bit, he points at a wonderbeasts; the dear-like one that was ridden by the beastkin that attacked us.
The druid says, “That’s the apex deer, a wonderbeast known for its speed and manoeuvrability, it is great for archers because of this. They also are rather great companions, and will put their lives on the line of their riders.”
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“What about the exploding fruits on their heads? Those caused us quite a bit of pain.”
“Oh, those are not naturally part of the wonderbeast. You see they are from a parasitic plant that once infected our apex deer, but through our help, the deers were able to adapt to it and have now made them a part of their arsenal. The archers can use them to make their arrows explode which only furthers their arsenal.”
“Amazing,” I say touching the deer.
“That’s not all we have, over there are the bursting bears,” he says pointing at a blackbird with markings all over it.
“They have incredibly well-insulated fur, and during the winter when the cold from Fimbulwinter gets much worse we can use them to keep ourselves warm.”
“I see, how amazing!” Willow says.
Feeling Willow's excitement, it seems the druids are moved, and another one says, “Over there is the sántacht elephant, they have the ability to suck in air and completely purify it, so we can reuse all the air that has been trapped in this area again and again.”
“Wonderful tell me more!”
“Those ones of there are colheita, they are a species of wonderbeasts that allow you to plant seed on their back and if you give them enough time they will grow the plants, allowing you to get different types of plants that wouldn’t be able to have been grown in this.”
“That is amazing, I need to hear more.”
“Then how about this one, the yígantísoma. It is a wonderbeast that has many different uses, but we mainly use it for medicinal purposes.”
Another druid says, “It is capable of creating medicine for anything as long as it ingests the diseases. For more complex diseases it will take quite a few generations to make a cure, but as long as you make sure they stay alive, it will eventually find a cure and become immune to it.”
“That’s amazing!”
As Willow freaks out, I see another yígantísoma that looks very different from the one they are looking at and I ask, “What’s that?”
“Oh, it is also a yígantísoma, but a cursed one, or a nightmare as some would call them.”
A nightmare, like Iancu. “Wait how can a wonderbeast be cursed?”
“Anything with a soul and a physical body can be cursed, and these wonderbeasts are one of the unlucky few. When a wonderbeast or animal is cursed they tend to lose their ability to deal with their ecosystem and die while destroying their ecosystem at the same time.”
“But it isn’t all bad, they can find other places where they belong and still be of great use. This yígantísoma has the ability to create water, so by carefully breeding the one that used to have this curse, we were able to get a near-infinite source of water down here. Though a large portion of our yearly yield has to go into feeding the cursed yígantísoma.”
Rubbing its back, I say, “That’s good, I hope you have a good home here.”
Suddenly I hear something incredibly strong stomp its way towards me, looking in the direction the sound is coming from, I see it is the Tiritrex that Ganthrú rode when he attacked us.
As it hurls its strong body toward us, me and Willow start to panic, but then it stops right before it rams into us, and from its mouth, it drops something.
“Flowers,” I say looking at the floor. I look up at the Tiritrex, but then I get shy and hide its face, “Is it a little girl?”
Cultúir giggles and says, “This girl is rather sensitive, and doesn’t like to be this liked.”
Walking up to the Tiritrex, I say, “Thank you for apologizing it means a lot, so how about we become friends?”
The Tiritrex using its large tongue starts to lick my body however it likes, so I say, “Since you are so clingy, I will name you Suzuka the 2nd.”
In that moment, all the Druids and Cultúir had the same thought; Did you just name our wonderbeast?
Willow behind me, says, “You guys must truly love wonderbeasts.”
Cultúir replies, “Of course, we do, since they decided so much of our personal existence.”
“Is it because you are part animal as well?”
Cultúir looks confused for a moment, then says, “Of course you wouldn’t know. You see whenever a member of the Tuatha Dé Dannan consumes an animal or wonderbeast, that creature's genes get locked into our genes.
So if we have offspring they can become beastkin of any creature locked into our genes, they can take all the aspects of one or multiple aspects of many different creatures. These creatures determine everything about us and our offspring so of course they all hold great amounts of meaning to us.”
Hearing her words I am completely pushed to silence. Isn’t that a massive thing to reveal to us, we are outsiders and if they kept that information to themselves, it would only benefit them. How am I supposed to feel about her?
Willow says, “That's freaking amazing, I didn’t even know it was possible for wonderbeasts to mix genes like that.”
One of the druids says, “Most Wonderbeasts can mate with other wonderbeasts of different species.”
“That shouldn’t be possible.”
“Researching wonderbeasts shows you that the impossible can be possible. Still after fusing four different wonderbeasts through mating the offspring will eventually go infertile, while also developing a lot of other negative attributes. Though every once in a while there is a breakthrough, we actually keep records on this if you want to see.”
Excited Willow calms himself down and says, “No, not really.”
Seeing how he is holding himself back for me, I say, “Go ahead.”
“Really!?”
“Yes, isn’t this your dream?”
He kisses me on my face, and says, “You’re the best wife ever!”
As he leaves Cultúir says, “Would you please follow me, I would like to show you something.”
Slightly weary, I say, “Ok then.” And then I follow her whole will preparing to protect my heart from whatever she might try next.
Name: Yígantísoma
Height: 242 cm
Type: Wonderbeast, omnivore
Description: A quadrupedal wonderbeast, with a rotund body. They are covered in fur and have a faces that are rather fierce for how their bodies look. They have a strong internal defence so any harmful substance they ingest won’t kill them, instead after generations they will grow branch like horns through their rotund body which contains medicine for whatever they have ingested.
Fact: They have no hunting capabilities, so they simply join packs of other animals and use their abilities to create medicine for the others. They are often referred to as the first doctors.
Name: Cursed Yígantísoma
Height: 242 cm
Type: Wonderbeast, omnivore
Description: A quadrupedal wonderbeast, with a rotund body that has been cursed. They are covered in fur and their skin is flowy like water, to those who see them from afar they would wonder if they are capable of even touching these wonderbeasts. They can create water from their body by using the large amounts of fat within themselves, though sadly the curse has reduced their previous capabilities.
Fact: Due to the newfound ability to create water, it is often seen as prey instead of a companion.