Novels2Search

chapter 2

POV: Ezekiel

Location: unknown

NA/01/01

I still can't see very much, only about a foot around the little Crystal. I should probably focus on growing my view range..

Sweet my range is large enough to see that I am in a hole or maybe a Den. Unfortunately I can't see outside yet but it looks like I'm in the back of a den. Now that my view range is big enough I can see the roof and walls of the den. and there has been a change in how my view range is expanding. My view range is still expanding at the same rate but it is following the tunnel. In other news I can still read what I wrote on the floor at least for now. I'm going to have to keep an eye on that to make sure I can still write and read, in case it is a memory thing so test two is still ongoing. Now I need to find a way to kill time. Maybe art, could I shape the dirt into something interesting.. Maybe I'll try making a little figurine but how would I do that? I can move dirt, can I compact it? The imagery would have to be different than an avalanche, maybe one of those hydraulic press kind of ideas putting the dirt under pressure to Compact it into a small form.

Now that I have an idea of how to modify dirt into a material I can use what shape should I make it, maybe a sphere to start with. No, that would be a bad idea what if it rolls away. A cube would probably be best, then I can chip away at it to make my figurine. To make a dirt cube step one will be making a dirt Mound, easy enough and done. Next up is compressing the dirt into a cube, attempt number one failure. okay what went wrong in that one it looked as if the dirt was pushed away kind of like if you stuck your finger in a pile of sand. Wait I was using the image of a hydraulic press which would be similar to that. so I need to imagine the dirt within a chamber compressing from all sides that would probably fix the issue attempt number two success. Okay now I have a small dirt block not really enough to do anything with. Maybe I should make a larger one before I try and chip away at this one.

Okay now that I have a larger block what should my imagery be for chipping away at something. Given how fragile the material is, maybe I shouldn't imagine chipping away at it but instead imagine it returning to loose dirt and falling away, yeah that sounds about right… And now I have a pile of dirt. Damn it I have to make a new block.. Now that I have my block back maybe I should use the chipping method instead of imagining it essentially disintegrating. Fuck another failure Maybe I should practice on smaller blocks or bigger. No wait, that would just be the definition of insanity. If I don't change how I manipulate the material then I might as well be doing the same thing over and over again. I wonder if I picture something similar to my first attempt at moving dirt. yeah that sounds right I'm having the opposite problem of when I was moving dirt. I'm using too much force, or whatever it is I'm using to manipulate the dirt but that's a question for later, for now art.

Finally I did it, behold an egg on a pedestal. At least that's what's under the pile of dirt. Weird that I can sense through it but not the ground around me so weird. Now how to get the dirt off of it without damaging it, since it is very delicate. can I create a light Breeze to below the dirt off. Given my track record, I should probably not test that on my art. okay new pile of dirt and how do I create a breeze fan imagine the breeze from a fan. Success, I got a bit of dirt to move. Wait, why didn't I just use my other methods of moving dirt. Damn it I am I stupid, did I get Dumber. Probably not. Still if I did get Dumber that could be a point for coma ,after all brain damage comes in many forms. Okay now what should I do? Maybe I should focus on expanding my vision outside this little Den.

Hey an animal just entered the den i had only just reached an intersection within the den, when it entered my view range. It looks kind of like a fox mixed with a cat of some sort. It has the head and tail of a fox but the body of a large cat. It's kind of like if you shrunk down a panther. Its tail is really long, at least it looks that way. I wonder if this is its home or it's looking for its next meal. It just entered the back of the den where the crystal is. It seems alarmed at the presence of my sculpture so maybe this is it's house. After sniffing at my sculpture and knocking it over the sculpture broke. I definitely need to find stronger materials to make sculptures out of if I want to keep them intact. The fox/cast thing has now completely destroyed my poor sculpture. fuck it destroyed my writing in the process of destroying my sculpture. Actually looking at it’s actions it looks like it was trying to use my sculpture as a toy kind of like a ball. It's now looking at the remaining pieces, kind of sad like when a dog looks at a toy it destroyed accidentally. It has started looking around the cave and sniffing at everything and seems to have settled down. It has begun settling in kind of like a cat, it’s doing that weird circle thing where they're patting the ground it has laid down with its tail on top of the crystal. It looks like it's getting ready to go to bed so this must be its home. I wonder how many of these creatures live in this one hole.

The answer to the question of how many live here apparently it's five; they all seem to be adults based on size. I wonder how they hunt. They didn't all enter at the same time so maybe they hunt individually but sleep in groups. In other news I can also see inside them a bit. The longer they stay within my view range the more I can see it makes me wonder how I'm actually seeing these things. In other news my view range has slowed down its growth rate and I'm only just exiting the den. I decided to kill time by watching the fox-like creatures. I think I'll just call Them foxes until I can think of a better name.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

----------------------------------------

NA/02/01

In the morning I watch as the foxes leave and go in different directions. They seem to have gotten larger overnight and changed color slightly. Their coat is now brighter and less of a brown closer to red in coloration just not as bright as a red fox. I decided to spend my day creating more art, and maybe even expanding the den while I wait on them to return. I start by trying to pull Dirt away from the wall in order to expand the den. Using my previous techniques, I am able to expand the den slightly. However, I ran into a problem. I cannot expand Beyond what I could see. I have to wait for my view range to expand into the wall before I can remove material. While I wait on my view range to expand I instead focus on compressing dirt into blocks. Since I don't have a storage area to place the blocks I leave them near the walls of the den. focusing on a single block I try to create a miniature of the foxes. The Miniatures of the foxes are very fragile, but still pretty even though they look like a child's drawing. Now that fun is done I should probably focus on compressing the dirt even more to make it harder to destroy. Maybe I'll even make the foxes a ball or something to play with.

I now have a ball of extremely compacted dirt. I was able to compact down a ~5” high pile of dirt into a ~1” sphere. Maybe I should make it larger, so they don't accidentally swallow it. 2” around should be big enough to ensure they don't accidentally swallow part of it. Now what should I do, expanding is taking forever. Wait shit structural integrity could become an issue if the den grows too big, or if I decided to make a labyrinth. So how do I ensure that the den does not collapse? If I had some Stone I could use it to reinforce the den. But I don't have that resource available to me, I guess for now I'll have to use compacted dirt. Dirt isn't exactly the best material especially when it starts raining how will I deal with the drainage? I guess I'll have to dig down somewhere and create a reservoir. For now I guess I have to watch out for erosion and make my walls extra thick and Compressed.

Using my blocks of compressed dirt I was able to create a rib structure, unfortunately I did not have enough to create a wall as thick as I wanted, so I chose to use the rib structure with thin walls in between. I kept the floor as loose dirt for the comfort of the foxes. I have only dug out about 2 ft in every direction except down and the den is now approximately 5’ wide and 3’ tall. The entrance tunnel is still the same size, only about a foot in diameter. Hopefully my changes don't scare off the foxes. In other news I also inscribed a short sentence saying “is this a dream” High up on the wall to resume test two. I think this killed most of the day but I can't really tell although I can see outside now I can't see the sky, sun or anything Beyond my view range. The edge of my view range is kind of fuzzy. If there is anything beyond my view range I can't see it. When Looking outside my view range it's as if I'm looking through fogged glass.

I need to find a better way to expand my view range or at least better control its expansion. Everything I have done so far is based on ideas or concepts I know. Maybe I need to focus my efforts around determining what determines the direction of expansion. This could also help improve my digging rate. I think the first thing I need to figure out is what exactly I'm breathing in or at least gather more information on that specifically. This would be a lot easier if I had an actual body. If I actually had a body it would it be within my view range? Now that I think about it, the only things I could see within my view range in the beginning were that gem and dirt. I haven't really messed with the gemstone, could that be my body? Now that I think about it, one of the foxes laid on top of it and it slowed the growth of my view range. So I should focus on the gemstone and what goes on around it, at least that narrows down the area I have to search to determine what exactly I'm breathing in and exhaling. Focusing on the gemstone I noticed very slight variations in color around it, almost like an aura. It's still very hard to tell if I'm actually seeing these or if it's just my imagination. I'll have to come up with some tests to see if the state of this gemstone affects my view range .

To test whether or not the gemstone affects my view range I'm going to try enclosing it in a layer of compacted dirt and monitor my expansion rate. After creating a dome over the gemstone my view range completely halted its expansion. The next thing I tried was determining how big of an opening I need to breathe effectively. I started by poking a small hole in the top of the Dome. After creating the opening I watched my view range to see if it would expand. It took a while but I could see it very slowly expanding. I decided to take a better look at the Dome and noticed the same aura-like effect. This time I could better make out the colors and they seem to be flowing towards the hole. I think I figured out what I'm breathing in at least. My next questions aer what exactly am I breathing out and what exactly the aura is. I should probably still determine how large a hole is needed to resume normal growth. The current hole would best be described as a pinhole. After some testing I found that the hole must be the same size as the gemstone. The next thing I tested was whether or not it had to be a single hole or could I use multiple. After I finished that round of testing I found that it could be multiple holes, and the distance between the holes had no noticeable effect on expansion rate.

After I finished testing I removed the Dome and not long after one of the foxes returned. When it entered the den the first thing it did was begin thoroughly inspecting the changes to the den. It walked the outer edge of the den and sniffed at everything it even batted the ball around a little. After one particularly hard hit the ball hit the gemstone and everything went fuzzy for a moment. Given the evidence provided by this interaction I think that maybe my body. I'm going to stick with this assumption as it will allow me to better protect myself. I do not want to learn what happens if the gemstone is destroyed. I'll probably move myself off the ground so that they don't lay on top of me. I should probably do that once the foxes are out of the din. Another Fox just arrived and it's now playing with the first one. I should probably give these guys names I just can't come up with any right now.

Once all the foxes were back in the den I decided it would be best to focus on controlled expansion of my view range. to start with i stopped breathing out and instead focused on the idea of expanding my view range vertically. Unfortunately it didn't work so I instead tried to focus on the idea of breathing out and pushing the air upwards. success, my view range is now expanding only vertically, however it is not isolated to a small section. I'll need to work on that in the future. For now I should probably take a break and maybe watch the cute foxes chase things in their sleep.