Despite Nathaniel's renewed purpose in his new life, his short-term goals remained unchanged. To improve his current abilities and widen how to use his spiritual senses.
From the day Nathaniel was able to delve into his mother's subconscious, he spent as much time as possible trying to improve how much he could increase his presence in her dreams. Not that he wanted his mother to dream about him, but to increase how much liberty he had as an observer.
Often, we dream as if we were going through an event by ourselves. Or we see ourselves in a third person-view, either from above or behind, but without much distance.
Nathaniel wanted to break away from those limitations and look at his mother's dream from any point he wanted. To be a free element, unseen and unrelated to her dream, who could watch whatever part he wanted. If he had to name the different stages of his abilities, it would be to go from Dream Viewing to Dream Walking, then Dream Manipulation. The first is where he only sees what his target can see; the second is where he's free to move inside her dream and be perceived as a figment of the target's imagination. And the last is where he can modify a fantasy without being part of said dream. Of course, each transition from one stage to another is more obscure.
To go from the first stage to the second took Nathaniel more than a week. Or at least for the most rudimentary form of the ability. He was still far from his goal. This form of Dream Walking didn't allow him to make many changes, the only one being whatever interaction he would have as a participant. He couldn't control where he was, what happened, or anything. He was just a dreamer visiting another's person's dream, only that he had more awareness and control of himself than someone usually would. It was also an excellent way to become fluent in the language, as practice is always better than only hearing. One disadvantage was that Nathaniel couldn't control what appearance he would have. Each time he would be another figment of Dew's imagination, very rarely the same and not always human.
Only after a couple of days did Nathaniel manage to Dream Walk. He wasn't an uninvited guess anymore but a free spirit, able to modify how he would look at his leisure. His choice was rather mundane, Nathaniel taking the form he had when he was an adult in his past life, somewhere around his thirties, so that he would look like another hunter of the tribe. There were enough people around this age who died that an unfamiliar face wouldn't disturb his mother too much. An older person was much rarer, and his mother spent too much time during the day with the children that not recognizing one of them would also be unsettling. Those dreams were a pleasant experience for Nathaniel, although slightly weird. He tried not to have too much interaction with his mother, not wanting her to search for him, yet also wishing to share her nights and be with her when she had nightmares. To be able to influence her subconscious with more liberty became a recurrent wish from this stage.
Alas, it was only after close to a month that Nathaniel saw any improvement in his ability to use his spiritual senses. The difficulty made sense considering the chasm between altering a part of the mind and what he had done until now. Ever since Nathaniel could harness the power of his soul, all he did was watch his surroundings. Or to latch onto his mother's sense to do so. Even when he managed to access her subconscious and observe her dreams, he was still a bystander. The best he could do was to let his mother know of his presence and change his appearance. What little means he had during that time to influence her dream was negligible.
Meanwhile, Nathaniel could now change what would happen in her dream in real-time. He still had to be part of said dream, but at least during those times, whatever he wanted to happen could happen.
Henceforth, his mother wouldn't have to be plagued by nightmares, nor would she forget her dreams if they contained something relevant. She would be able to learn how to improve little aspects of her life, to either eat more healthily or to take care of her body better. It was also a way for Nathaniel to grant his mother truly restful nights.
The only disadvantage of the technique was that Nathaniel had to be present for the entire length of each dream. If he lost focus, there was a chance his mother's subconscious would switch to something else. That meant Nathaniel had to keep his influence active for at least six hours, often more. It devoid him of time to observe what happened during the day, as he still had to rest for around as long as he was exerting his spiritual senses.
Following this improvement, Dew started to dream of relaxing places. Most seemed unreal to her as the savanna was the only land she had seen until now. At first, she was lying in a field of green grass extending beyond one sight, a gentle breeze caressing her skin. The sunlight was hidden now and then by spares clouds of random shapes. It was comfortably warm, the wind only making it better. Nathaniel couldn't extend this dream to her whole night, so he ensured it was what she dreamed of before waking up.
The second was similar, except she found herself atop a gentle hill instead of a meadow. Once again, the sun and the wind kept her company. Around her, other hills were covered in grass and flowers, waves forming from the blowing wind and the sun's reflection. In some iteration of this dream, Nathaniel added the children she was used to seeing during the day, rolling down the hills while laughing or running after each other. Nathaniel tried not to make those dreams last too long, as he didn't want his mother to lose herself in those moments or to find her current life too bland and unsatisfying. Monitoring her state of mind was quite helpful in that regard.
Other relaxing fantasies included mountains, the beach and the sea, forests, and many variations of each landscape drawn from Nathaniel's memories and imagination.
The following kind of dreams Dew started having were more familiar, yet just as strange. Most of the time, she was somewhere in the tribe or along its border. What was peculiar, however, was watching someone whose features she could never remember do different things, most of which were quite strange to the woman. Sometimes that person was harvesting plants, the weird part being that she didn't keep them aside but prepared a small basket filled with earth in which she re-planted the previous herb. This last part happened regularly during the dreams, the person taking their time to show how they filled the basket, sometimes mixing gravel, sand or different kinds of earth. Sometimes using all three minerals, while at other times only using the soil that could be found around her. The composition was occasionally different, depending on the plants. Most - but not all - of the plants had large roots, from a thickness of one finger up to a wrist, their length also varying from a phalanx to a hand. Some were bulbous, others lengthy or round, and some had one or many roots.
The whole thing was puzzling to the tribe's woman. What became even stranger, however, was what followed. During one of those dreams, Dew saw that person drawing on the ground a grid, the first raw containing several moons per cell, the second a sample of one or another of the previous roots. Most of them were in the column with three to five moons. The same scene happened several times, many days without using the same plants. And rarely with anything she could recognize.
Then a last type of dream followed, showing the stranger preparing those roots differently. Sometimes boiling them, sometimes not. Some of those roots were ground into powder and then mixed with water, only to be baked inside a stone box atop a fire. All were eaten, Dew able to taste some of them, her surprise at the taste convincing her she had to at least try to see if she could replicate what she witnessed. The one made with the ground root was delicious, unlike anything she had eaten. After dreaming of eating something so wonderfully tasty, Dew was determined to not only try but succeed in growing and preparing those plants so she could eat them.
When she could identify one of those herbs, she tried to look for them, paying attention to harvest or collect it as she saw during her visions. She didn't know the knowledge glimpsed would be accurate, but she'd rather not waste any of those plants. Her mate looked at her weirdly, not understanding what she was doing but not caring much. The other people in the tribe also wondered what she was doing but didn't care for most. So long as she was able to do all her tasks. The ones that did either find the idea pointless or started following Dew's project. The most awkward time was when she wanted to carry a few baskets during their migration. Each basket was small and easy to carry. Individually that is. As she had four of them, it quickly became more troublesome, not only because of the burden it represented but also because none of those plants were known to be edible or useful. Not that they never tried, but the samples they harvested were too small and sparse. It was never deemed worth it to include them in their diet.
For an entire month, Nathaniel showed his mother those dreams, improving the details and complexity of the tasks he taught her. While he always showed a bit of everything, he spent more time on the most straightforward and common plants at the beginning. Then showed only later details about the more difficult plant to grow based on where the tribe was situated. Those dreams where Dew was being taught were only partially remembered. Part of it was that the woman couldn't learn and memorize everything at once. Another reason, influenced as much by Nathaniel than by how the brain worked, was that the elements of the dream irrelevant to technical knowledge were mostly forgotten. Dew could remember learning about gardening, of going through the motions of applying this knowledge while inside her fantasies, but only a little of anything else. To her, it seemed as if she just had a series of dreams, which, over time, allowed her to get insights into how to better use the plants she saw daily.
Amidst those dreams were interceded those of before with natural landscapes. Meditative illusions. Nathaniel didn't know if spiritual senses could be awakened, but meditating often helped him be more at peace with himself. To clear one mind, not worry about stressful events and look at them differently. Improving his mother's physical health might be a complicated and lengthy issue. Her mental health, on the other hand, was more easily influenced thanks to Nathaniel's unique abilities.
The saying of a healthy mind in a healthy body could apply both ways. It didn't matter which was the first to be addressed to attain a balanced healthy state.
Letting his mother see similar dreams every few times made it easier for Nathaniel to find a way to remove himself from the scene. Thanks to the repetitive nature of the visions, he could draw from Dew's subconscious while adding a twist, allowing him to program beforehand what would happen during his mother's dreams. The only drawback was that Nathaniel had to modify her dreams internally if he wanted a scene with many new elements drawn from his memories.
Nevertheless, such an improvement allowed Nathaniel to earn some time to train himself in different ways. The possibility of monitoring his mother's mind's activity while she was dreaming was beneficial in refining his Dream Manipulation ability.
Another benefit was having more time to work on using his spiritual senses to influence his body growth. Nathaniel's current body was a massive hurdle to this, as he could tell he would need to wait a while before he could ensure any action he took regarding his own body won't harm him. A more roundabout path required to be taken, that is, to influence his mother's physique rather than his own. It was also something that needed to be done, as the more healthy his mother was, the higher his chance of getting as many nutrients as possible or even being born alive.
While Nathaniel knew he couldn't manipulate matter by using his spiritual senses, he could deduce how to develop his current abilities to do something similar. By controlling the mind, he should be able to influence the nervous system, thus giving him access to the part of the brain responsible for the body's essential functions. This would allow him to oversee and adjust the ratio of the body's many substances - hormones, proteins, vitamins - produced to regulate its well-being and growth. And also to control the nerves, muscles, and body movements. The benefit of this last part was to grant Nathaniel the possibility of accurately modifying his body -and beforehand that of his mother- to its most optimal state. Then, later, to find ways to improve his physique beyond mortal limits.
There was, however, a long way to go before achieving this. Nathaniel had already proven to himself that so long as he kept training his spiritual senses and improving the abilities he had derived from those senses, his only limits were his imagination. He didn't doubt that, albeit this strange sense of confidence puzzled him. Nathaniel knew that pondering on how easily he accepted his new reality wouldn't bring him any results. Thus he kept living in the present, delving into the many ways he could use his spiritual senses to eventually improve his life.
As such, Nathaniel had to improve his current abilities to reach the realm of Nerves Manipulation and, hopefully, Body Manipulation.
The first step toward that was to delve more into his mother's mind and extend how he could modify what she perceived. For now, he was able to shape her dreams. Yet he also had access to her surface thoughts, feelings, and senses. By order of complexity and risk, from first to last, Nathaniel was able to draw a training program on how to gradually improve his abilities.
The first exercise was to influence her surface thought. While it would cause his mother some distress, the risks were the lowest. For her to have a random unexplainable thought going over her mind would indeed be puzzling. It was, however, much simpler to ensure to push only a few ideas into her mind, or ones similar to what she was used to. It wasn't hard to control as Nathaniel already had access to her mind. Ultimately, the most challenging part was to hold back and not abuse how much he could control his mother's life by making her think something at any time.
Nathaniel had told himself since the beginning that he didn't want to rob his mother of her self-will and that reshaping her personality and behaviour wasn't something he should do. Yet, now that he had the mean to do it, it was frighteningly easy to fall into the temptation. The fact that it was only for little inconsequential things didn't matter much to Nathaniel.
Once, Dew was working with the other tribal women, and someone asked for her help. Ultimately, Dew had to spend most of the day helping others, not even having the time to do what she intended. Her mate rebuked her in the evening because of this, yet she didn't believe the other women to be at fault. Her thoughts were that it was her duty, and being scolded by her mate was expected, the reasons not mattering. It happened many days without his mother thinking anything was wrong with the other's behaviour. She kept helping and teaching others at her depends, and at this point, Nathaniel couldn't stop himself from putting in her mind the thought that she had to stand up for herself and ensure others didn't abuse her generosity.
Although he told himself it was for her good, his way of thinking was from another epoch, another world, and the tribe lived by different rules. He noticed that fact a few days later when women started berating his mother for her selfishness and lack of duty toward the tribe. When the following evening, she was scolded once more by her mate for shaming him among the other men for being a mean and rude woman, Nathaniel knew he had made a mistake. He couldn't improve all aspects of his mother's life. Ensuring she was healthy should be the goal. As for happiness, acknowledgement and pride, they were less crucial now. So long as Dew wasn't sad or having too many negative emotions plaguing her mind, there shouldn't be a reason for Nathaniel to interfere. However, respecting those new rules took more work than he liked.
This application of his ability didn't take long to master, barely a week. And while it was indeed much easier to do than Dream Manipulation, the benefits were also much lower. Nathaniel had already experienced how little help it could provide to his mother. As for his goal of gaining access to the nervous system, there was barely any relation. The only benefit was that now, instead of modifying a subconscious part of his mother's mind, he could influence her consciousness. This led to Nathaniel starting the second part of his training.
Until now, Nathaniel could understand his mother's emotions and associate those with what was happening in her dreams or life. It could be called Focused Empathy to illustrate that instead of being able to guess and read a person's emotions from their behaviour and expression, as was the case with Empathy, Nathaniel could focus on his mother's mind and get an accurate reading of her feelings. Thus the next step was to gradually manipulate those feelings. This could be called Advanced Empathy since it went beyond simple empathy, as he would not only read a person's emotions but rather hold and mould them as he wished.
Although it would be easier to do covertly, with his mother being much more susceptible to mood swings during her pregnancy, the complexity of the task was much higher. Emotions, as they are, are induced by external stimuli that trigger the brain, which is responsible for releasing different chemicals that would sustain this or that emotion. To manipulate those emotions would expect Nathaniel to control this part of the brain precisely. Otherwise, he might make some permanent change or affect his mother's well-being, nullifying his effort to improve her health. Nathaniel once more broke his goal into several parts.
The first was to monitor his mother's emotions and brain activity to determine how her feelings were affected.
The second was to observe and understand how the chemicals produced on the brain's orders were influencing emotions, to allow Nathaniel to do some damage control in case he messed up later on.
Following that, he started increasing or reducing the signals sent by the brain while his mother had a noticeable mood swing to dull or intensify her current emotions. Initially, Nathaniel took care to only intensify positive emotions and dull the negative ones, not wanting to trouble his mother. There was still some unfortunates side-effect for him, as his mother's lust increased at some point because of his shenanigans. Not an enjoyable time to be aware of what went through his mother's mind while she was being blissfully shagged senseless by her mate.
After nearly two months, Nathaniel could control as he pleased the part of the brain responsible for one's emotions. This was, for him, significant progress, as it was very close to what he intended to do. Since it wasn't the same part of the brain, the chemicals produced weren't the ones he was interested in, but the process was roughly the same. To stimulate one part of the brain to induce a substantial change in the body. The only difference was that the chemicals produced affected the emotions in one case, whereas, in the other, it was the body itself, even to the point of reshaping a person's physiology.
Nathaniel still had one last exercise to do before attempting the alteration he had in mind. That was to manipulate his mother's senses. While Nathaniel could have directly tried to control the parts of the brain dedicated to hormones and the glands responsible for other hormones' production, he knew it was safer to do this intermediary step even if the complexity was so much higher. How did he know that? One part was logic, as Nerves Manipulation preceded his end goal of Body Manipulation, and the senses were the best way for him to get more familiar with this aspect.
Moreover, this ability would be a safe guide to prevent or reduce future mishaps. Indeed, it was necessary to have both the knowledge and ability to monitor his mother's body and find a way to adjust to the changes being brought. By then, he could start modifying his mother's body and alter how her body produced the chemicals responsible for her body's balance and growth. Another reason for this decision was, once again, this undefined belief of knowing it was the best way to proceed. Confidence he couldn't explain yet couldn't bring himself to ponder about.
The first step of the process was to latch his spiritual senses onto one of his mother's sensory organs. Then, Nathaniel observed what happened attentively. The first sense to be altered was that of taste. It was the one where Nathaniel believed risks were the less likely to cause lasting issues. Sight and hearing would lead to hallucinations, and any permanent damage would greatly trouble his mother. Touch was affected by a much too large area. Smell was another possible option, but a choice had to be made. Thus, taste seemed easier to influence as most receptors are on the tongue, with the brain acting as a translator. It was also easier to get used to a change of taste as it often happened when sick or even as one grow up.
It was simpler than expected. Nathaniel only needed a few days before making progress. The smell was the next, the experience with the previous sense making the learning process just as quick. The following sense to be altered was the sight, as Nathaniel better understood how light worked than sound. Although later on, he noticed that the help it provided him for manipulating the associated sense was barely noticeable.
For both sight and hearing, a whole month went by before Nathaniel could confidently reshape the reality perceived by his mother.
By then, they had already moved camp another time. The journey prompted Nathaniel to take short and frequent rests rather than focus on one task until exhaustion. It was also an excellent way to train his current ability. While Dew wasn't clumsy in any way, for Nathaniel to sometimes highlight - not always literally- a part of her surrounding proved very useful.
Nathaniel took the same approach during each exercise, always making slight adjustments that won't be noticed. At first, by dulling or heightening her senses based on what was already happening. Then, by introducing more noticeable differences, often in a way that benefited her.
Sometimes by making more savoury aliments that benefited her health or reducing its smell if it was off-putting. Others by increasing an object's part or whole body's visibility to make it easier for Dew to notice it. Either when she worked to help see a default or a detail or when she walked to prevent her from tumbling or to allow her to see signs of danger.
It could be done by changing a shade of colour or altering her sensitivity to light, either when there was too much or not enough light, or affecting the range and span of her vision.
Sounds were less often altered in helpful ways. To make slight alterations to people's voices -either in their timbre, pitch, or tonality- was only useful in very few situations and became to Nathaniel more an exercise to ensure he could do it than something necessary.
The last sense to be affected was touch. It was to Nathaniel a very different approach, as many of the body's nerves were affected by this. Furthermore, a person's sense of touch was closely linked to their reflexes and sense of temperature. Rather than another way to manipulate senses, it was more of a transition between Sensory Manipulation and Nerves Manipulation since both could describe this power application.
It took just as much time as he spent on the four previous senses before Nathaniel could reach a semblance of mastery over this method. Even then, his training was cut short, as he could feel his birth coming close. While Nathaniel wouldn't have refused to have more time to train his spiritual senses and to improve his mother's health to ensure his body was born in the best conditions, he couldn't feel any defect in his growth either. Moreover, the possibility of having a body, moving on his own, and seeing the world by himself was very enticing. He doubted he would enjoy as much his first few months as a baby, but it was a necessary trial to go through.
It might even be the most challenging trial for many years to come.