POV: Altair Oberon Lyrius

After I woke up I had started to feel a slight tingle on my right arm and noticed faint markings appearing. Elvia had told me to wait and wait I did, after all, I was now supposed to be her good and obedient son. An hour had passed when the markings fully took form. They reminded me a little of the tattoos some of the gang members had, thorn tendrils, wrapped around my arm, just without the roses and occasional skull.

"Well then, my child. Let us see," Elvia said as she grabbed my right arm, ripping off my shirt with ease.

As Elvia grabbed my arm I noticed how strong she was, even without trying she would easily be able to break it, hell, she might breathe on it wrong and break it. I felt like some fragile glass figure in the hands of a little child that was about to play.

"Quite interesting indeed. I haven't given magic to many people but this one is still... new," she said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

She instantly gave me a stern look, her emerald green eyes piercing through me.

"What do you mean, mother?" she said, sounding far more serious than just seconds ago.

I swallowed.

"Y-Yes, of course. What do you mean, mother?" I repeated.

Her stern look turned into one of joy in an instant. The frown turned into a smile that emanated a warm aura.

"Well then, if you'd like we can try it out now," Elvia suggested.

"Yes, of course," I said excitedly. Before her look could turn stern again I quickly added "mother" to it.

She smiled at me and led me towards a more open area of her grove, moving trees out of her way by simply looking at them so we could pass through to the next area, shrinking bushes so it would be easier for me to get to the other side of them by simply being in their presence.

The power of a dryad is amazing.

Told you.

The trees in her grove were a little taller than those in the rest of the forest, the orbs hanging from them had a golden glow in the middle that grew more and more into light blue on the outside, no matter from which angle one would look, they always looked sort of two dimensional. When I concentrated on it too much it began hurting my eyes a little.

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After a fairly short walk during which Elvia moved many, many plants to let us pass we arrived in a sort of glade, a large tree, just like the one I had once climbed up to escape Terror, standing in the middle, surrounded by clear blue water. It towered above the rest like a mountain, casting a shadow over a large portion of the glade.

"Now then, we shall begin, my child. I want you to activate the new magic mark," Elvia said.

I nodded and stepped into a spot in the sunlight. The magic mark spread across my body, covering me in dark lines with spikes emerging from them. Suddenly I felt strange as if I was connected to the ground somehow as if it was pulling me to it with a force, so faint that I barely felt it. The same was true for the trees and any other surface I could see around us.

"How do you feel?" Elvia asked me.

"I... As if I was connected to the ground..." I responded, a little unsure if that was actually what it felt like.

Elvia smiled as she stepped behind me and put both of her hands on my back. Her shadow, which was cast over me, made me realize how tall she actually was compared to me... I felt so... small compared to her, who was at least three metres tall.

"Concentrate on that connection, feel it fully," she said in a very soothing tone.

I closed my eyes, feeling her hands firmly but softly press against my back, feeling some rays of the sun tickling my skin and I also felt the connection. It felt surreal in some way, as if I was part of the ground, or as if it were part of me, but at the same time, I felt disconnected from it.

"Now, I want you to channel mana into the mark, can you do that for me?" she asked, almost making it sound like this was the first time I had done this despite her clearly being aware of the fact that I had other magic marks, she could clearly see the runic mark, which now served as a sort of bridge for the active one, on my back, she was touching it after all. Despite her condescending tone, I did what she told me to do, after all, I was to play her obedient sweet little child. Just thinking that made me... I really still had no idea how to feel about this whole situation.

As soon as I channelled mana into the mark I could feel the connection strengthening to the extent where my skin began to tingle and I felt as if there were parts of the ground tingling as well. I also felt some sense of... control, I had no idea where it came from but it was there, maybe I could do something with it? But what?

"Now, tell me, what do you feel?" Elvia asked.

I could feel her fingers digging into my back a little.

"A... tingle and, and a sense of... control?" I asked more than said but she didn't seem to notice that.

"Perfect! You're doing so well my child," she said.

When she said: my child, I felt weird, it somehow felt wrong to hear that from her. I swallowed and just kept concentrating on this strange connection.

"Now I want you to try and imagine something growing out of the ground," she said.

Something growing out of the ground...

I did what she told me to do, I imagined flowers, sprouting from the grass in multiple locations around me. At that moment I could hear a strange sound I couldn't quite describe. I heard a gasp from Elvia and immediately opened my eyes. Around us were probably a dozen, metre long thorn tendrils, growing up straight into the air. They were thin and looked frail, swaying in the wind almost as easily as feathers. The thorns growing from the green tendrils looked almost dull as well. It was fascinating but also sort of disappointing to look at.

"Oh my, they turned out like this on your first try? How marvellous. I think we can achieve a lot together, over the next few years until my cute little boy grows into an adult," Elvia said as she suddenly hugged me from behind and pulled me in closer.

She was so tall that her breasts basically rested on my head.

"I hope we do... mother," I responded.