“Hello there, um, little caterpillar, if you happen to be anywhere around here…”
Rosslyn spoke in a slightly raised voice, feeling extremely foolish. What would anyone think if they saw the Crown Princess of Claustria lurking about the Royal Gardens, talking to an insect that she could not even see? Perhaps that she had gone mad.
She felt a little crazy, standing around speaking to the air, clutching a napkin with an apple and an ear of corn wrapped up inside it.
She looked around a bit, hoping that if that spiny caterpillar from before was anywhere nearby, she would see it and feel even a modicum less ridiculous. But the early morning found the garden just as still and quiet as it usually was. She saw nothing that caught her eye.
She swallowed. This was embarrassing, but when she gave her word, she tried to always keep it. That was what her father had taught her from a young age. Always honor your promises. Even when that promise was made to a bug that probably did not understand a word she said in the first place.
“Right. Well, I saw that you successfully defeated the young ladybug that I, um, accidentally forced you into fighting.” She put a palm to her face. Come on, Rosslyn. Just say what you need to say and get out of here.
“Anyway, I promised that I would bring you something good to eat if you managed to win the fight, and I was very impressed to see that you did,” she said. “I am a woman of my word, so I spoke to Cook. I was informed that your species enjoys fruits and vegetables, so I brought you two pieces that do not grow in our garden.”
She crouched and set the pieces of food down on the ground beside the plant where the remains of the juvenile ladybug had been. This was the plant where the caterpillar had been. She had no way of knowing whether it would ever come back, but this was the closest it had to a home address where she could deliver her small gifts.
“I suppose you will probably not bother ever coming back here,” she said quietly to herself. “Not much prey to fight on this plant. And since you defeated the young ladybug, I imagine you must be a bit of a warrior bug.”
She smiled as the image of a caterpillar clad in battle armor sprang into her mind unbidden. It was silly, but she knew that nature could be quite brutal. Perhaps the caterpillar was becoming quite the accomplished warrior out here. Yes. Reliance on its fighting power would be the only way to survive.
“An ideal that many of us humans have lost touch with,” Rosslyn said. “Despite the fact that war prowess is the only thing that has kept our country safe for hundreds of years, we have failed to make it a requirement even for young men who want to court a princess.” She shook her head, and the smile slowly faded from her lips.
She thought of the suitor she would be entertaining later. Probably another callow boy who had never swung a sword in a real fight.
Then her eyes widened. She had an idea. A wild idea. Perhaps a foolish idea. But equally, maybe a necessary idea. She needed to select a husband for the kingdom’s sake. There was an obvious preference for someone strong. In fact, if the person chosen was not stronger than her, she would not benefit the kingdom at all by marrying.
Lord Baranack has been completely disregarding that requirement, she thought. Finding whoever he could find, without worrying about that most important of qualifications.
Rosslyn’s lips curled again in a triumphant smile. This visit to the garden had been far more productive than she had expected. She no longer felt bad about leaving food to be eaten by a wild creature. Even if the caterpillar never came back, this had not been a waste of time.
She rose, dusted off the hem of her nightgown, and began striding away with her usual long, graceful steps.
Suddenly, she stopped. Whirled. Turned around and looked everywhere she could, high and low.
What was that sound? she thought.
It sounded like two words, but she couldn’t see anyone who might have spoken. It would be quite a feat for any human to hide from her senses. And there was another thing.
It almost felt like the voice came from inside of my own mind.
The words it had spoken did not feel appropriate for the moment, though. And it had not been her own voice speaking.
Thank. You. It was an oddly stilted pronunciation, though the voice was pleasantly deep and rich.
As if the speaker could not join words together, but had to send them as individual sentences. Or was short of breath.
She took one last look around, vexed at the inexplicable, strange voice. But there was still no sign of motion around her. She did not even see any insect life, barring a few flies fluttering around in the dawning light.
Had it just been an intrusive thought?
She shook her head. That had to be it. There was no other rational explanation. Telepathy was an extremely rare power for any living thing to possess. If something living in the Royal Garden had a power like that…
But it was implausible.
Besides, if something living here could use that, it would not just use it to say ‘Thank you.’ It would be spying or asking for more food or something that would get my attention. Right? It certainly would not stay hidden and silent while I actively look for it. Not right after it called out to me…
She gave up. No matter how suspicious she felt about the strange voice in her head, she couldn’t afford to search the garden for things that might only exist inside her head. And the idea that there was a creature here with this ability made no sense.
Claustria killed off all our mystic beasts a long time ago, didn’t we?
It would have been better for them if they had not, but wishes could not change reality by themselves.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
I must go back and prepare for the afternoon, she thought finally. I will not tell anyone that I have begun hearing voices. Not unless the phenomenon recurs.
With a single suspicious glance back at the garden, Rosslyn turned and walked away.
—
I did it! I spoke to something—someone—who could answer back to me! Yesssssssss!
He rejoiced despite the sledgehammer blow of agony that last use of Telepathy I had inflicted inside of his head. As he had these thoughts, Adon was collapsed on the ground, curled in a painful ball, immobilized by pain. Almost paralyzed.
He’d had some idea that using Telepathy I again might have some consequences for him, considering that he had a near migraine even before he ran toward the golden figure. But he hadn’t realized that the consequences of overuse would be so crippling. It felt to him like he had endured a serious brain injury.
Still, he thought it was worth it, even as he lay immobile and in pain. He’d finally spoken to someone who responded verbally to what he said, though he only heard snatches of her thoughts through the haze of pain and the fuzzy reception of his relatively low level Adaptation.
But definitely worth it. It was even a girl, he added when he could think more clearly without pain. A princess! So now I’m basically royalty adjacent. Maybe already was. Growing up in their garden counts as being a member of the royal household, right?
He rose slowly, shakily to his feet. The princess was long gone, but he saw the food she’d left was still there under the plant. Untouched.
Thank the Goddess. That would probably help him get over this headache.
He spent a good while devouring the princess’s gifts. Corn and an apple. Items that would have seemed so uninteresting to Adon in his last life, when he had a preference for junk food. In this life, they were precious flavor opportunities.
Not as filling as meat, but it seemed fruits and vegetables had a brilliant natural sweetness. Bursts of juice filled his mouth as he ate both items.
Adon consumed the apple first. It was red and crisp. In his old life, on the rare occasion that he ate apple, he preferred green apples or applesauce to red apples. He’d thought red apples had a boring taste. In this life, he just felt grateful for the gift of fresh fruit. An apple had a texture that he had never fully appreciated as a human. With the slight crunch as he chopped through the skin with his mandibles, it even emitted a pleasant sound.
If anything, the corn was even better. As a vegetable, it was sweeter than it had any right to be. Every kernel felt like an individual fruit popping in Adon’s mouth. When those were gone, he even ate the corn cob. Nothing went to waste.
I’ll have to ask for more food the next time I see her, he thought.
For now, he wanted to see how much the evening had benefited him in material terms. He climbed up his old plant, and what had once seemed a long trek was now a very short walk. It was amazing that he’d ever thought it was significant to jump or fall from this height, he recognized. He felt a slight surge of pride. This was a marker of how much he had already grown. There was a great benefit to being on this plant, though. Lots of leaves to hide under. Adon used silk to secure himself to the stem under a particularly thick bunch of leaves. Hopefully those would conceal him in case the bluebird flew by while he was here.
And he opened his Status again.
User: Unnamed Spiny Butterfly Larva
Age: 2 days
Sex: Male
Status
Health: 26/30(!)
Mana: 5/215
Strength: 24(!)
Agility: 27(!)
Perception: 28(!)
Dexterity: 25(!)
Constitution: 31(!)
Intelligence: 105(!)
Will: 110(!)
Charisma: 21(!)
Skills: Identify, Impeccable Memory, Mana Manipulation I, Past Life Connection, Shed Skin, Spine Shot I, Spiritual Sight
Evolution Points: 371
Biomass: 45/45
There are a few changes I hadn’t seen before, Adon thought. He had not noticed that he now had a Mana meter, and he wondered when that had appeared. Was it when I bought Mana Manipulation I, when I got Magic Perception I, or what? And when did I use up almost all of my Mana? It was down to 5 out of 215 somehow. It was a long night, but not sure I remember casting any magic…
Maybe Telepathy I used Mana, though. That would explain why he’d been simultaneously very low on Mana and also suffering from a literally crippling migraine when he pushed himself too far using it.
The other changes were smaller. His new Skills were on display, but he already knew about them. And it seemed the princess’s gifts had boosted his Evolution Points by 50.
He was pretty sure he already knew what the exclamation marks by his Status numbers meant, though he focused on one of them for a moment just to read it once more and make it go away.
(!): This symbol indicates that a noteworthy development occurred relating to the Status feature in question. In this specific case, these Stats were enhanced by the user. The user successfully consumed the recently living flesh of a species that was substantially above the user in the natural hierarchy. As a result, the impacted attributes were permanently increased.
Yep, just like I thought, they increased again based on my consuming the bat. I could get used to that.
And now to decide what to do with all those Evolution Points! It was more than he’d ever had at one time.
He thought it would be good to purchase Telepathy II and III at once this time, because he had certainly wished he had the stronger version of that Adaptation in the last few hours.
Need to practice my communication. He wanted to grin, if only his face was more expressive. I’m going to make friends! I’ve got what it takes. That confidence might recede later, but for now, he was riding high on the back of small successive social triumphs.
But before he locked in any purchase, he reminded himself that he should go and see if he could read the description for Specialized Chrysalis Evolution. He’d be kicking himself later if he could have read it now but didn’t bother.
Insufficient Evolution Points saved.
Ah. Nope. Never mind, maybe later.
He made a mental note that he needed at least 400 Evolution Points. Maybe 500? 600? 1000? Hopefully nothing crazier than those numbers.
Whatever. I’m not going to worry about that now. I’ve been alive for a couple of days, and in that time, I’ve been stacking these points up like crazy. This isn’t going to be that hard, especially not if I keep improving my power and abilities.
He began considering what other new purchases to invest in.