Colors were the first to return, as rough, starchy blobs. They stretched and warbled about in strange shapes. Slowly the colors began to condense and rework themselves into more recognizable shapes. Form and order returning to the world. The early morning sun was just beginning to bake the circular dirt patch. As the light lit up the stone brick, they seemed to catch fire. ‘Well, isn’t that pretty.’
Idly I noted that both Photosynthesis and Absorption were still running. ‘The headache seems to be gone at least. That’s nice, especially if Photosynthesis was running all night. I would have expected a big one considering my first attempt. Maybe because I seemed to have actually slept? Damn, I miss being able to stretch first thing in the morning.’ My focus swept over the ground around me, and I spotted the ant from the night before. Correction. Ants. There were more of them now. Fifteen more to be exact.
As my leaves began to twitch in morning light and its warmth started to flow through me, the eldritch ants seemed to take notice. In near perfect unison, they seemed to swing about from their… whatever they were doing and march over towards me. Hesitantly I kept my mental finger poised over the STFA button. They halted about half a foot away. One of them walked forward a few more inches. As far as I could tell, it was the same one was before.
Just as the night before, it released a small plume of pheromones into the air around it. Just as the night before, all I understood was a pheromone salad. ‘Oh! I wonder if I do this, would it work?’ I bent my mind towards the Pheromone skill and hesitated only a moment before activating it. This time, however, instead of trying to speak or use either STFA or Nymph’s Call, I just turned it on. I called up my Stamina to keep an eye on how this would affect things. Almost instantly the pheromones the ant put out started to make some sense.
There wasn’t instant and clear translation of what the ant was trying to communicate. Instead, it came across as telling a story with pictures. Only, instead of pictures, it was feelings. A pheromone finger painting replaced the salad. My Stamina was draining at a rate of roughly one every ten seconds, give or take.
‘Something, something, apologies. Something, something regretful. About… me being injured? Aw, that’s sweet. All night. All day? All NIGHT?! I’ve been out a day and a half!?’ A little of my panic must have leaked out as a pheromone as my Stamina dropped another an additional two points and the ant scuttled back. I barely noticed that the strength of the small slip was small, and didn’t extend out nearly as far as STFA or Nymph’s Call did when I used them.
As evenly as possible, I reigned back my emotions. I already used fourteen Stamina and it been barely two minutes-ish. If I wanted to understand and respond, ‘Oh boy, this is going to take a while. At least I got two Stamina back from Photosynthesis running. That buys me some time.’ The ant didn’t seem to waste time. It waited for only a moment after I drew back my panic before it started ‘speaking’ again.
This is where the conversation seemed to get more complicated, at least too complicated for my low level of Pheromones to understand. What I could gather was that the ants seemed to want something and were willing to offer something in exchange. I let out some confusion and the ant tried again. This happened a few more times before I managed to get some vague understanding. ‘Okay, so you want me to help you move house? In return you will, I can’t tell if you are saying you will help me grow or herd cattle. Well, I can’t move so I don’t know if I can help you. Not to mention I don’t quite get what you offer.’ At the moments I hoped would help get my point across, I put the words to pheromones. By the time I had finished, I was down to ten Stamina.
The ant looked back to the others for a moment. Together they released different little clouds. "Move… colony… here. Current… location… bad. Dangerous… plants… animals… heat… too strong. Help… you… grow. Tend… soil… herd ants… for… food. Thank… not… eat… me."
The pheromones the ants released flooded my mind with its information. A slight pain rippled through me. A quick check of my Health showed it had taken a hit. ‘Well, that was… well.’ I watched my Stamina slowly tick down as I thought. 10… 9… It might not be a bad idea, right? 7… 6… 5… It couldn’t hurt? 3… 2… “Agreed.”
My Stamina hit zero and I cut off my Pheromone skill. The ant seemed to say something more, but I could no longer understand it. Instead, I watched it at the edge of my perception and turned to my sheet.
Name: Cy
Species: Wisteria, Seedling
Experience: 6.1/100
Class: N/A
Profession: N/A
Health: 10/14
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Stamina: 0/51
Mana: 25/25
I did a double take.
Name: Cy
Species: Wisteria, Seedling
Experience: 6.1/100
Class: N/A
Profession: N/A
Health: 10/14
Stamina: 0/51
Mana: 25/25
‘Si-six point one! That’s almost double what I had!’ My focus immediately zoomed in on the ants. They were almost to the edge of the bricks. Each of them froze as the intensity of my focus fell upon them. ‘I don’t know what you did! But yes! You can stay here! No problems! You need anything, just spray the word!’
Most of my focus went back to my sheet as I marveled at it, barely noticing as the ants seemed to quickly shuffle off out of my perception. ‘This is amazing. If this is what those ants can offer as help, I can’t wait for them to move in.’ My leaves turned ever so slightly to catch the most sun and I relinquished to the Photosynthesis. ‘This is going to be a good day!’
By the time my Stamina had refilled, the sun had begun its daily journey in earnest, and I began mine. Cycling back and forth between Growth and Photosynthesis. The glass ants that had filled my honey pot were firmly digested by the end of the first cycle and put my Health back up to twelve. ‘Gonna have to nab some more of them this evening. Aren’t I?’
The rest had been nice, I mean my brain hasn’t shut off in a few weeks since waking up here, but in a way it felt wrong. I’ve gone a little dormant sometimes at night, but nothing that would be considered being asleep. Even then I’ve been constantly aware of what has been going on around me.
Speaking of almost dormant. Running through my routine and cycles could almost be called automated. Not so much like in a video game, but more like breathing. When I sat back to cycle through Growth and Photosynthesis, I did not need to think about them as much. Just a minor little shift in thought to switch one off and turn on the other. It was nice. It was almost peaceful, like those rare moments of laying out in a field. Sun and clouds passing by overhead. ‘Heh, I guess plants get to do that all the time, eh?’
I had just finished my eighth cycle, Growth having drained me down to one Stamina remaining, when something bolted over the brick and charged me. Startled, I tried to trigger STFA and felt the burn as my Stamina hit zero. Thankfully a small amount rolled out from me, causing the charging creature to slow for a moment
‘Goldie! I knew you were aggressive, but don’t you think this is a bit much?!’ Zero Stamina and Health that has already taken a hit. That leaves me with… Illusions.
Health: 12/14
Stamina: 0/51
Mana: 25/25
Goldie pawed at the ground like a bull getting ready to charge, her antennae waving wildly. ‘I guess we are doing this.’ I focused my thoughts on a spot about halfway between Goldie and myself. Stepping one thick leg after another, and another, and another, was a large, fat, hairy spider. It’s hair was short and course, a ruddy red that almost blended in with the dirt around it.
‘Now that really made you pause, didn’t it? Couldn’t you just go away? We don’t have to do this.’ Goldie shuffled sideways, as if to circle around. I let her move a few inches before shuffling the spider around to match her. I grimaced inwardly at the janky and rough movements of the spider. ‘Gonna have to work on that. It’s like a laggy video game character.’ Thankfully, Goldie didn’t seem to notice. Or if she did, she didn’t understand. What she did seem to understand was that she was facing a predator. Something dangerous. Something that wanted to eat her just as much as she wanted to eat me.
‘Now if only I can keep her believing it.’ Ten Mana per ten minutes of use. Already down ten. Softly, I turned on my Photosynthesis. ‘I am going to need to either chase her off or draw this out. Just five minutes and I can use a full blast of STFA. Five minutes, that’s all I need.’
For the first minute it seemed that was going to be easy. For the first minute I made a huge mistake. I did nothing to try and chase Goldie off, instead just sitting there to prevent her from coming any closer. That seemed to galvanizer her as she ran forward, straight at my spider! ‘Spider things! Spider things! Uh! Oh!’ The spider reared back, four of its legs stabilizing itself as the other for reached out in the air. It looked massive, reaching up a little past half my height.
Goldie stayed strong, running right up to the spider. Suddenly her heels dug into the ground, and she skidded to a stop. Her abdomen flicked up over her body. The golden glass patterns on it began to swirl and glow. ‘Uh-oh…’ A green liquid, tinged with a golden sheen shot out. I watched as it passed through my spider. Most of it passed me by, but a few drops splattered against my stem. An angry hiss came from any surface the liquid touched, like bacon frying in a pan.
‘GAAH!’ I cried out as it burned through my stem, my health going down with each drop that hit. Hastily, I tried to simulate the liquid having hit the spider and it reacting. ‘Shit!’ My Mana dropped another ten, halving my available time for the illusions.
The spider dropped down towards Goldie, but she scuttled backwards, and it just missed her. It’s mandibles were clicking angrily at her. One leg hefted up and swiped at her, making her dance even further backwards. ‘Ah-ha! Yes!’ Just a short distance behind Goldie was my honey pot. ‘Charge!’ The spider bounded forward, more like a dog than an arachnid, and forced Goldie backwards.
‘Yes! Yes! Get in there! NOO!’ At the last moment, Goldie dodged to the side and rushed forward, passing by the spider. The spider spun about, almost drifting and gave chase. ‘Heyheyhey! Stay away please!’ My spider leaped, launching itself right over Goldie. It nearly crashed into me, instead landing right at my base and using my stem to flip itself about. The ant skidded to a stop and the standoff began again.