The spriggan ran as fast as it could while carrying the little Fae.

A shrill roar sounded some distance behind them and the spriggan was forced to stop. It turned to look a scant few seconds until it decided to let go of the little Fae.

It raised its hand to conjure a glowing green ball and threw it towards the direction it was running.

Trees and plants twisted and tangled as if creating a path with the green ball of energy as the locus. The spriggan then turned towards the little Fae and nodded.

Suddenly turning around and extending wooden blades from its palms as it crouched low, it gave the little Fae one last look before it ran towards the source of the roar.

The little Fae was now left alone along with the little white ball with wings. A faint blue glow within the eyeholes of its wooden face dripping light blue droplets.

Beckoning the little white ball, it cradled it in its hand as it brought it to its forehead while the blue glow in its eyeholes dimmed.

Faint green energy glowed where they made contact and suddenly the little white ball became a little glowing green ball.

The lights of the little Fae’s eyes returning, it released the little glowing ball with wings. It shuddered for a few seconds when suddenly the tiny flying Fae flashed through the trees like lightning, disappearing into the woods.

The little green Fae waved at its tiny friend until it heard another shrill roar, this time much closer.

In a panic, the little Fae ran to the path made by the spriggan.

With the little Fae entering the path, the green ball of energy began moving forward.

As it led the little Fae along, the path behind them appeared to close and became tangled by the trees and growth.

The little Fae kept running as fast as its little legs could take it, but after an unknown amount of time, the light of day was slowly dimming and the green sphere of energy appeared to be slowly fading as well.

Soon, night fell across the forest and bioluminescence brought life to the dark.

When the strange exotic lights began to glow across the woods, the green ball finally faded away.

Now, the little Fae felt truly alone.

The magic of the Faelands had its own unique glow, but the lands surrounding it had a more primal and alien kind of light.

That was why Fae rarely venture out of their wood during the night, but now the little Fae had to find its own way home.

It slowly moved forward, keeping itself closer to the undergrowth.

It stopped when it noticed a strange red glow coming from the trunk of a large tree. At first glance, it didn’t seem out of place among the luminance of the exotic plants, but white vapors seemed to waft around it.

Not wanting to get closer due to an ominous feeling, the little Fae ran in the opposite direction.

Sensing movement, limbs unfolded around the red glow as the creature came out of its camouflage. Its bark-like skin hid it well in the night while the crystal on its back matched the forest’s luminescence.

However, shards of ensorcelled wood stuck to its body, releasing vapor as its blood tried to melt it away. A reminder of its recent battle.

Stalking its new prey, the creature let out another shriek as it charged after the little Fae.

The little Fae panted hard as its little legs shook with each step; it couldn’t run any further.

Seeing the darkness before it and a vast land below a cliff, it understood that it must have reached the edge of the land surrounding the Faelands.

Nowhere to run, the Fae had to make a choice.

With the last of its strength, it jumped towards the dark unknown. However, not before a sudden a streak of red flew and gouged its side.

Injured and losing consciousness, the last thing the little Fae saw was the creature standing at the edge of the cliff raising its head with its arms outstretched and roaring at the darkness with a shrill cry.

***

Although it planned to scout the region around it, the little changeling wasn’t sure where to begin.

The zone with the large lake is too dangerous due to the herd of titanic beasts close to its waters. It could find a distant location to observe the creatures, but it needed to be extra careful with the two wolf pups tagging along.

It wanted to let them thrive in the field, not put them in direct line of danger.

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Another region seemed to be dominated by cliffs and multitudes of overhanging rocks. Filled mostly with aerial behemoths, it too wasn’t a good place to start due to the lack of accessible ground and a lack for a means to fly.

It had mainly two choices. One a vast plain where massive herds of different beasts go to graze and also the main hunting ground of the wargscales.

The second was a large swathe of woodland that lined a long cliff face that seemed to rise high into the sky, disappearing into a layer mist that hid what was beyond.

It was incredibly curious at what was at the top of the cliffs since for the past few nights it observed an array of faint multi-colored glowing lights barely hidden by the mist.

The forest region also seemed the safest since the trees made it difficult for the large creatures to move around. The entire region they’re currently in was apparently filled with generally large beasts, so areas like the woodlands were exceptions where creatures of smaller size mostly lived in.

If it wanted to start somewhere, then these woodlands seem to be the best choice for the moment. Once the pups get a little older and hopefully bigger, the other areas should become less of a risk.

As they traveled, it observed the wolf siblings as they combed the land for prey.

The black one, the male, was quite good at hiding and stalking. Its form seemed to meld into the shadows when it moved, and only at the last moment when it would strike at its prey did it reveal itself. It was also quite strong as it was able to take down a deer-like creature that was almost twice its size when it wrestled it.

The white one, the female, was nimble and swift. Where the black sibling was good at hiding and fighting head on, the white one was adept at locating and striking the vital areas of its target’s body. It also seemed more capable at manipulating mana as the changeling noticed the wind moving with the white pup’s body whenever it passed.

It studied the way they utilized the mana on their bodies, but other than the movement of the energy, it still couldn’t understand the process of conversion.

It tried thinking back to what it knew about tapping into mana through emotion.

Anger was the first emotion it ever experienced, even before it obtained its gene anchor and the locks on its psyche were released.

Giving it thought, it believed that anger was inherent in most creatures as part of the nature in protecting their young or defending themselves. This it believed was the reason why the programming involving psychological restraints wasn’t able to completely seal it.

Other emotions, such as happiness, are present in creatures as well but based on its understanding, such emotions aren’t a necessity when it came to fulfilling the fundamental needs of survival. Hence, they were sealed.

However, it did bring about a question regarding the sealed emotions and one involving one of the most important when it came to survival.

Fear.

One of the most primal of instincts necessary for survival and present in most creatures seem to be absent from it.

Whenever it fought, it always tried to think of a way to survive while fighting back, but almost never did it think about running away.

Even with the odds stacked against it and instinctually knowing there were some fights it couldn’t win, it instead tried to find a method to kill and survive; choosing to run only as a last resort and only if its calculated chance of survival was almost nonexistent.

Normally, this would be detrimental if the goal is simply to survive, but knowing its purpose was to grow and assimilate new genomes, it believed that perhaps its creators intended for it to be aggressive in its undertaking.

Mulling over its thoughts on a tree overlooking the pups below, its thoughts were broken when one of the pups called for it with its barks.

Looking over to where the white one was, it seemed to have found something on a small island in the middle of a large pond.

It hopped on over to it with the black pup following to see what got the white pup excited.

Landing on the small island, it saw the white pup nuzzling a small green humanoid creature.

Or at least… it should be a creature?

No matter how the little changeling looked at it, this thing appeared to be a plant.

It looked like a small bundle of grass with larger leaves sprouting here and there given short stubby arms and legs. The head seemed to be a mass of vines where a piece of wood shaped like a spade with two holes at the top were attached to form some sort of face.

It was honestly confused… and quite curious.

If it didn’t come to possess the ability to see and detect mana, then it would have easily dismissed this as a strange object given a peculiar shape, but looking at it clearly, it could see the faint pulsing emanations of mana coming from this… creature.

It lifted the little thing by its armpits and looked at it closer and all around its body.

From top to bottom, it discovered that the being seemed to be almost entirely filled with mana. This must be why the white pup discovered it, since it was more sensitive to mana that its black sibling.

It poked and prodded at the little green creature finding no skin and only grass matter within it. It even absorbed a little bit of the leaves, but no matter what analysis it did, the creature was apparently made entirely of plants.

Not being able to utilize most of the genetic material of plants other than toxins and some shared traits of animals, it deduced that it was currently pointless to absorb the creature.

This mysterious creature was something new entirely. The slimes it absorbed before possessed a core that generated mana that acted similarly to blood. This entity, however, was entirely made of plants and based on the flow of mana it was seeing, it seemed to be able to move because of the mana.

From what it understood, the creatures here generally possessed a core crystal in their body that generated mana. Plants on the other hand seemed to be able to conduct mana through their bodies.

Despite the mana flowing in its body, it could find no core within it, so for now it dismissed it from being an animal bioform.

During its assessment, it noticed that the creature appeared injured with gashes on its side that flared orange as if the leaves were burning.

It didn’t know if it got burned in some way, but it applied some of its slime adhesives onto the wound. It wasn’t sure an antibacterial and rejuvenating cocktail would work on such a creature, but it was better than exposing its injuries.

Due to its obsession of mana, its plan was now to take the creature back and study it, hoping it awakens. If memory serves it right, most creatures with a humanoid form have a certain degree of intelligence and seeing its body practically running on mana, it hopes to gain a clue on its use from this little creature.

Wrapping the little green creature snugly on its back with its tendrils, the changeling decided to head home and ordered the wolf pups to return.

***

After the three of them left, the small island on the pond stirred.

The water rumbled as the earth from beneath tore free and the “island” stood up.

Four massive trunk-like legs carried a gigantic shelled body as it shook off the mud and debris from its body.

Slowly turning around, the creature looked towards the direction where the changeling and the two wolves left.

Staring with ten sets of compound eyes, the earth shook as it followed the scent of its next meal.

***