Mentally exhausted, I finally emerged from the creek closest to the volcano. I ended up spending nearly two days flooding Ferra with water magic before leaving her to her own devices. She should continue to heal just fine on her own after that.
I might even have overdone it a little.
Throughout the whole process, she remained quiet and moved very little. Most of the time she just lay there with her eyes closed, in the floodplain of the river I had helped her drag herself to.
At first, I thought she was just focusing on what I did. That I may be teaching her a little bit of Energy Absorption, but even when I took a break she didn’t move or look at me.
The only times she showed even a bit of activity were when I caught us a meal. She absolutely devoured everything I brought her with abandon. I honestly had no idea where she put it all. She must have eaten more than her body weight in fish and bugs by the time I left. It was plainly baffling.
All the crayfish I found I kept for myself, of course. I might have forgiven her and didn’t want her to die, but I didn’t like her that much.
I had panicked a little when I checked the small bundle of my spawn at the end of day two, though. The little specks had grown way faster than I had anticipated. Previous me had no clue about how fast amphibian eggs developed. I still expected it would probably be a matter of weeks rather than months. But moons and days here were both shorter than in my first life. So I simply assumed I’d have a bit of wiggle room.
My uneasiness must have been obvious because Ferra suddenly decided to finally stop her brooding and nudged me away from her. She got up on her legs and looked down at me for a moment with a contemplative look in her eyes. Then she lowered her head and nuzzled against mine while turning around to leave by herself. Her touch was there and gone in an instant as if she tried to make it appear like an accident.
I watched her hobble away for a bit. Her three-legged limp was not quite the same as my own. I had been missing a hind leg while she was missing part of an arm after all. It still made me sympathetic enough to genuinely consider staying for a little while longer.
On the other hand… Ferra was a big girl. She made her decision. I wasn’t her mother. I would be a mother soon though. If I didn’t hurry, my children might end up with just a speck of affinity. And my own ‘traces’ of earth affinity proved how gloriously useless that would turn out.
So I’d better hurry on my way back to the volcano.
It had taken me four days with little rest. But in the end, I managed to cut a whole day off the return journey. I was about ready to collapse though. As soon as I found those two trouble makers.
I had noticed the freshly burned vegetation a while ago. Some of it was still smouldering. So I was sure at least Trigger was back and since it surely wouldn’t have made it without Vigil…
The sound of exploding rocks echoed from further ahead on the path of destruction I had followed so far.
It seemed I didn’t have to search for them after all. Small favours.
Of course, it was Vigil who noticed my approach first. The basalt grey scalamander elemental immediately abandoned its bout with Trigger and rushed over to me, producing pictograms out of its head even before it was close enough for me to identify them.
‘[Sweetie] [back] [?] - [where?] [babies]’ It read. Yes, I know. It wasn’t a very sophisticated language yet and I largely stuck to concepts the elementals could understand.
‘[back] - [tired] - [babies] [here]’ I replied with water, producing the small bubble containing my spawn from under my neck frill. ‘[Trigger] [behave] [?]’
Pronouns were one of the things they just couldn’t wrap their heads around. I didn’t know why. It should be a pretty straight forward concept, but the possibility to use the same word for different entities depending on the situation confused them to no end. For now, I had simply assigned one symbol to everyone we had any regular contact with as a name.
‘[amusement] - [Trigger] [trouble] [always]’ Vigil came closer, nearly touching the water bubble. ‘[tiny]’ It commented.
I instantly pulled my offspring-to-be back a little. ‘[Vigil] [careful] [must] - [babies] [weak] - [babies] [burn] [easy]’
It recoiled at that and confirmed with a hastily formed ‘[Careful]’.
It was starting to form another sentence, when Trigger strolled into the scene, singeing everything around itself with every sizzling step as usual.
It formed words of its own, but I only recognized my name, [miss] and [fun]. There were a whole lot of unrecognizable symbols as well. I couldn’t tell if it tried to form the correct ones and just didn’t remember right, or if it forgot them completely and just made up new symbols instead.
I was too tired right now to try to decipher that and just turned to Vigil. ‘[what?] [Trigger] [say]’
They rapidly exchanged a blur of their own symbols, too fast for me to follow. During their conversation Trigger eyed my spawn bubble for a moment and slowly increased the distance between us afterwards. Eventually, Vigil turned to face me again.
‘[Trigger] [happy] [Sweetie] [back] - [Sweetie] [miss] [big] [tree] [burn] - [fire] [much] [fun]’
Yeah, ‘Trigger-happy’ sounds about right. I laugh-huffed.
‘[amusement]’, the basalt scalamander agreed.
Trigger, now standing a very safe distance away, showed us a [?], probably confused.
I caught my breath. ‘[happy] [see] [Trigger] [again]’ I explained more or less truthfully. That seemed to satisfy it.
How to proceed now? Vigil already had agreed to help me with the affinity for my kids. I didn’t really think Trigger's presence would be very beneficial in the process. I trusted Vigil’s curiosity and dedication, but Trigger easily got bored and was prone to distract its sibling when it needed attention.
‘[how?] [Dancer] - [Trigger] [visit] [?]’, I wrote finally. ‘[Vigil] [help] [Sweetie] [and] [babies] - [babies] [very] [boring] [now]’
Trigger focused on my script for quite some time. It really wasn’t the most diligent student. After finally getting a bit of help from Vigil, it just produced one symbol. ‘[how long? time]’
That was a good question actually.
‘[uncertain] - [one] [moon-cycle] - [maybe]’
Trigger deflated a bit. I could understand its reluctance. There wouldn’t be any storms for the next few moons. Scalamander mating season fell on the beginning of the ‘dry’ period after all. So he couldn’t even play war with storm spirits now and then up there. And between the three volcano spirits Dancer was the odd one out in its relative indifference for violent fun.
Vigil consoled its sibling for a while. Finally, Trigger said its goodbyes and left towards the mountaintop.
‘[when] [caldera] [boring] [Trigger] [go] [back] [forest] - [burn] [fun] [fire]’ Vigil told me in confidence.
I huff-groaned.
‘[amusement]’ It added, flaring the glowing molten cracks in its basalt skin periodically.
Sometimes I was wondering if it was just messing with me on purpose.
‘[now] [babies]’ the spirit wrote eagerly.
Yeah. That was a fantastic idea. And afterwards rest. I felt like I could fall asleep on the spot.
Before I went to sleep, Vigil helped me to build a very shallow puddle. The volcano elemental dug up a nice hole that looked suspiciously like a miniature version of the caldera. It even had three dents at the bottom where the lava pools would be. Afterwards, I filled it with water and absorbed as much energy from it as I could in a short time to make it easier for Vigil’s own magic to spread. I wasn’t sure if that step was necessary, but I already drenched the eggs in water magic for the last 6 days. It was more important to get them accustomed to fire as soon as possible.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
That of course made the water heat up, but we predicted that. I didn’t even have to remind the spirit to just control the temperature on a bearable level slightly above normal. Amazingly, it remembered by itself.
The embryos would probably be able to develop far more fire affinity if we did that next to one of the lava pools on top of the mountain, but I didn’t want to risk too much with this first clutch. If Vigil didn’t focus for a bit down here, the eggs would just end up with a little bit less saturation for a while. If it lost focus in the volcano crater, there soon wouldn’t be much water left for them to survive in. Of course, by then they’d be cooked to death regardless.
No. I’d be completely satisfied if they had a weak affinity and lived. If this whole thing was successful, they’d have generations upon generations to experiment up top on the mountain with their own spawn.
When I woke up, Vigil was still intently watching the little bundle of translucent eggs. If I didn’t know the elemental better, I’d probably call it creepy.
‘[what?] [Vigil] [find] [interesting]’ I asked instead.
It didn’t reply until I nudged it with a water tentacle, producing fizzling steam in the process.
‘[babies] [grow] - [can] [see] - [exciting]’ It formed distractedly on the ground between us.
Was it serious? I knew they’d grow fast, but being able to see it happening in real-time seemed a bit of a stretch. Unless Vigil had an even better perception than I so far could infer from our interactions.
Well, since it was happy squatting there, watching my spawn, I’d catch myself some quick breakfast. I glanced up at the sun glaring down on me. Make that ‘lunch’, I guess.
While I was foraging around, I had another problem to consider. I decided long ago that I wanted to actually raise my children. Now with the reality of 36 fertilized eggs in front of me, it seemed nearly impossible to care for each of them individually and equally. In the end, I sadly had not much of a choice but to eventually pick out those who were smart enough to be taught anything. I’d have to leave the rest to their own devices as soon as they finished metamorphosis.
But how would I keep my kids from eating each other until then? Keeping them all separated in their own little water cells and feeding them manually, would not only be cruel but also impractical and detrimental to their mental and social development.
I was confident to supply them with all the prey they could ever eat though.
So maybe I’d only have to keep those big enough to eat the smaller ones divided from the rest. And if they all grow relatively equally, since they were all from the same clutch and should have access to all the food they'd ever be able to eat, then there might even not be a problem at all.
I still should prepare two or three different ponds though. Just in case.
So that’s what I did over the next few days. I played landscape architect. Vigil helped me with the larger excavations, after nagging it long enough to ‘convince’ it to leave the eggs alone for a moment.
I never thought about assigning the spirits a gender, but I swear, Vigil looked more like an expectant mother than me at this point. It was kind of cute. And still a bit creepy, if I thought too long about it. Maybe more than a bit when I recalled it lurking in front of the spawn puddle, pulsating its vein-like glowing cracks in excitement.
Anyways, I’d put together a nice little biotope without any carnivores larger than a tadpole inside of it. At least for now. I already scouted out where I could easily get loads more of those tiny water insects. With the rains gone for the time being the ponds and puddles were shrinking, so they even were nicely cuddled together. You could conveniently scoop them up in a water bubble and carry them back. Almost like shopping for groceries.
While I was finishing up my little nursery, Trigger returned and it was in a mood. As expected, it seemed like Dancer wasn’t able to provide its easily bored sibling with much entertainment. I was honestly surprised that the forest around us wasn’t completely on fire already when the simmering hot-head arrived at our little glade.
Astonishingly, it even remembered to stay away from the pools. I had to say, I was a bit touched by this out of character demonstration of restraint.
When Vigil wasn’t up for a little scuffle either and indicated clearly that it didn’t expect that to change in the near future, Trigger was devastated. They conversed for quite some time. I could only guess that Vigil tried to come up with something fun for the other elemental to do on its own for the rest of the dry period. It was apparent though, that they came short in the end.
Finally, they approached me and Vigil filled me in on their conclusion.
‘[Trigger] [go] [forest] [alone] - [burn] [fun] [and] [explore]’ it seemed a bit dissatisfied by that.
I didn’t understand why though. I thought that was the plan in the likely case of this exact situation.
‘[why?] [Vigil] [sad] - [Trigger] [careful] [here] - [confident] [Trigger] [no] [burn] [near] [babies]’ I assumed the only reason I could think of for Vigil to not be happy with that all of a sudden. But I was mistaken.
‘[Trigger] [no] [stay] [near] - [Trigger] [go] [far] - [long time] [uncertain] - [Trigger] [go] [journey] - [alone]’, it clarified, hanging its head low.
I saw the problem now. If Trigger just ran off alone it was unlikely that it would find its way back here anytime soon. We’d probably be more likely to run into it if we kept an eye open for forest fires.
Well, after two years of travelling through the region and getting to know the other local spirits together with us, it should actually be fine on its own. As long as it stayed away from the sea to the north. Maybe it would even learn a bit of self-restraint and develop a sense of direction if nobody was around to immediately stop it from doing something dumb or especially reckless.
But I doubted that this train of thought would land particularly well with Vigil right now. So I turned to its sibling.
‘[wish] [Trigger] [fun] - [Trigger] [careful] [no] [forget] [return] [sometime] - [will] [miss] [Trigger]’ While I wrote, Vigil simultaneously translated in their own fast, tiny and blurry language equivalent. ‘[Trigger] [no] [forget] [Dancer] [and] [Vigil] [and] [Sweetie]’, I added. ‘[when] [Trigger] [meet] [Ripple] - [Trigger] [must] [behave]’
Vigil perked up a bit at that. ‘[amusement] - [Trigger] [trouble] [always]’
That made me laugh. Trigger itself was not very amused to be the target of a joke, to say the least. It might not remember my symbols all that well but it wasn’t that dense after all.
Still, from there on the remaining farewells were a lot more light-hearted. Eventually, Trigger left us around nightfall. Only an hour later we already could see the fires in the valley below. Vigil and I shared a glance. ‘[Trigger] [fun] [always] [also]’, it let me know. Then it returned to watching the little scalamanders grow inside their eggs.
During the final days before the hatching, I kept myself busy by trying to use my Energy Absorption in reverse again as I did with Ferra. This time my targets were my children.
I really hoped the extra effort from Vigil and me would result in them having better affinities than (weak). I knew that Memory said it would suffice for a fire spirit to stay in the vicinity. But she also said that this was how I got my own affinities and they were merely (weak) water and only (traces) of earth. So I rather didn’t want to take that risk.
Finally, 17 days after my ‘private encounter’ with Pine-Green, the first of my kids ripped out of their egg membranes. They were still far too small to interact with them in any meaningful way. So I contented myself with only watching for now.
Vigil, of course, was ecstatic. It wobbled around so much that, more than a few times, I thought it would break out into a happy dance and copy its artsy sibling up in the caldera.
Any attempt to communicate with it during the whole hatching process ended in failure or annoyed rejections. Really, whose kids are these? Mine or yours?
The moment the last of my viable eggs had hatched, the sound of fireworks exploded inside my ears once more. What was it with those Creators and fireworks by the way? They surely could have used the ‘ding’ from all my other profile interactions here too, no?
There, of course, also was a line of text interposing my field of view.
[Congratulations! You fulfilled a Quest granted by your Patron. Would you like to review it now?]
Yes, yes. Yay me… and all that. Let’s see what Memory has to say.
With the much more palatable ‘ding’ a new message replaced the first.
[Divine Quest: Fire-Scalamander (completed)
Hi, Sweetie! That was quite well done all in all. But I have to ask: You couldn’t have gone for a mate that was a little hunkier by any chance? And why didn’t you let them compete even a little bit? You’re quite the dashing young lady, you know?
Well, there’s always next year, right?
Good job with the hungry little glutton by the way. I knew you had it in you. That was a nice opportunity to make connections.
Even though this Quest is completed now, I fully expect you to treat it like a repeatable, okay?
Love, Memory.]
Yeah, that was Memory alright. I groaned inwardly. A ‘hunkier mate’... did she want to see me get flattened? I chose a small one on purpose. It’s not like he was unattractive! He even stayed mostly still after I whacked him a few times!
I closed the message and it was instantly followed with a new one.
[Your Patron wishes to grant you a Quest. Would you like to view it now?]
Well, I’d expected that. There was not much sense in dragging it out. Remembering Memory’s mischievous grin though, I only hoped it wouldn’t be too bad.
[Divine Quest: Let’s make a cult!
Well, hello again!
Have you heard of your Lady and Savior Memory? Meaning, me? Of course, you have! And since you know me so well, I expect you to educate your children about me too.
At least the ones smart enough to participate in your neat little language project. I liked that by the way. Being able to write down scripture will make it far easier to sustain this new little cult of ours once you return to me, my sweet.
Meaning, if you do this right you can take longer breaks. Wouldn’t that be nice? And I could neatly snatch a few of those ‘First’-Achievements in the Religion tab. Fertility? Who’s that? Never heard of her. It’ll all be about Memory now!
I can’t wait to see her stupid face! That will be so hilarious.
Anyways, Sweetie. I’m counting on you. You got this. You’re smart. You know the drill. Don’t start to disappoint me now.
Hugs and kisses, Memory.]
My jaw hit the floor. What the hell was she thinking? And why did I have the feeling that this ‘Fertility’ wouldn’t like that particular development at all?
Is this why Memory thought there might be ‘Players’ that disliked me enough to make me ‘get lost in the cloud’ in the future if they could?
Well, since it was a game to them it was only natural to expect some competition and rivalry, I guess. It still seemed a bit reckless to me to purposely draw the ire of someone you’d have to keep meeting for the rest of eternity. In the end, I couldn’t really do anything about that though.
I had no problem at all with teaching my kids about my ‘Lady and Savior’. I even could nicely combine that with heroic retellings of my own genius and accomplishments.
But first, I’d have to keep them from eating each other.
Everything else would come later.