“Timber.” The felled tree collapsed with a bang, then a thump as the long trunk bounced mildly before stilling. I shook the wood chippings off the solid white ax.
It seems the added weight was worth the excess bone.
“More than worth it.” I was staring at the bone ax, it was our latest attempt to create tools without spending anything from our limited cash reserves.
The edge was sharp, the blade flaring out from the main head, where a small round bulb connected to the opposite end, the whole head was directly connected to the handle that extended down a good couple of feet before ending in a threaded loop.
The ax was etched with a huge tree. The handle was carved like the bark of a tree, the loop on the end being roots twined together. The trunk extended into the ax blade as if it grew and tilted to the side, long branches grew out to encompass up to the edge of the blade. While the bulb on the end was a little apple growing from a single branch.
It had been nearly a month since we bought our little plot of land, December had just started and the weather was still dropping. However, having grown up in New York, the average 50 degree weather was comfortable. Although with Myc’s ability to fluctuate my body heat, it mattered little. “Well let's get this back to the house.”
If you are happy with the ax, then I will leave it as is.
“I have no complaints.” The month had gone by rather quickly, the lack of shelter or food made setting up camp an essential. I had started with a little lean-to using a few already felled trees, branches, and enough leaves to create a closed space.
That had evolved into something closely resembling an awning with short half walls. Using a small clay deposit we found by following the river, we made short walls only 3 feet high, but digging out the ground and stomping the dirt into a floor. Created a shed big enough to be a more permanent shelter till we had the money to buy actual materials. Although someone who actually knew how to build houses was also a necessity.
Most of the time was spent cleaning the forest, replanting trees, and setting up the clearing for more people. It is kind of surprising how much you can get done in a month without anything distracting you. No phone or tv to stare at, no need to deal with the humdrum of life. No waiting in lines, no unnecessary social interactions, and no commute meant the 16 hours a day I wasn’t sleeping were always with purpose.
Before we did anything major, we had to get a general layout for the main structure we would build. It had to be large enough to use effectively but not too big. If it was too big, it would take forever just to build the first few structures. This meant that anything that was made had to be expandable or temporary.
While expandable would be easier in the long run, it depended on what material we could get in large enough quantities to build with. So we started with a nice general size, using hand made rope and stakes we sectioned off areas and pathways. Flatter areas were used for housing, fertile areas would be farms or orchards, and finally the less usable land would be put aside for future expansion or miscellaneous storage. So with the general lay out done and mapped out we needed to clear the area, to start on any real project.
We had started cleaning the forest, creating large compost heaps to clear the leaves on the ground that would eventually be used as mulch for farming. Most trees were unworthy of being kept in Myc’s eyes, so anything too big was cut down and used for building, fire wood, or simple furniture. The smaller ones were moved out into areas that weren’t too crowded.
While moving further out into the forest we found a couple native species of food trees. A small chestnut sapling, a couple of plum trees and an apple tree were moved closer to base camp. The plums and apple trees would have to be altered or at the very least selectively bred to get anything that actually tasted sweet.
While the rest of the time was spent advancing our understanding of Myc’s abilities. After a few failed tries to allow Myc to connect to the little oak sapling, it was starting to get a little frustrated.
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I do not understand why, it should be simple, shouldn’t I know how to propagate my species. Animals and plants do it on instinct but a being with intelligence greater than half the planet, I can’t seem to figure it out.
We had tried creating flowers that spread spores, growing actual seeds to plant them in the ground, and even smearing some of Myc’s moss all over the tree. Nothing seemed to work, everything that got disconnected from him simply shriveled and died. “There has got to be another way, right.”
Well, there is one way we haven’t tried.
“Are you out of your mind? I am not getting some girl pregnant to test your sick theory.”
It would most likely work, I could incorporate myself into the growth process of the fetus when it is just a few cells. It couldn’t reject me because it does not have an immune system nor a brain. It would be as if it and I were always connected, rejection would be out of the question. While I would be able to feed off the mother’s nutrients until the child was grown fully.
“That doesn’t mean that I am going to test it for you.”
This is just your social anxiety talking again, you have never had a girlfriend before it is alright to be nervous. Although I don’t understand why, humans are pack animals and prolific breeders for their size.
“Stop talking.” I was never a social kid in school, I liked to read when I was young. My family moved a couple of times because of their jobs, so by high school I didn’t have any long term friends. Then when I started living on my own, I was working the night shifts so my social life was dead.
I never really felt the need to talk to people, although perhaps that was just because I talked to myself so much. I wouldn’t say I was happy, I suppose I just never developed good social skills. I found most people boring or tedious to talk to, they wanted to know about how my day was or some new show they watched.
I was more interested in new articles I was reading, scientific advancements and new technologies. Most people found that tedious or they didn’t understand it, so they focused on celebrities or other nonsense. I know that people who are interested in that stuff were out there, but I never bothered to look, so I never really had any relationships of any kind.
Well, if we cannot find another method for propagating my species then we will have to try. Even if I have to take control to do so.
“Go fuck yourself Myc.” I grabbed a log from the pile heading inside and hung up my self-made ax on the same hook on my belt as always. Putting the log into a little pit in the center of my shelter, I grabbed some kindling from a small pile I had. Pushing some underneath the leaning wood and looked to my fingers. Waiting for the small and familiar lens to form in my hand. Adjusting my hand to a familiar angle, I lit the little fire to warm and light my woodland home. “So got anything else you want to test, before it gets too dark out.
Nothing that would result in major changes or testing.
“Alright.” Looking into the flames I thought back to all the advancements we had made over the last month.
We had found a little work around, to the whole using my limited nutritional reserves to make large tools. It was fairly obvious in retrospect, instead of using my own matter for materials we used other animals as nutrients.
Walking through the woods, we found a relatively new deer carcass that had been picked mostly clean. So grabbing the excess bones and washing them, Myc would extend moss over the bones, eating away any excess and using that new nutrients to create the needed tool. Although some flesh and energy was still consumed in the process, it allowed us to create large tools without draining either of us dry.
The only downside was that like everything else living we tried to create, if it was disconnected from my body it crumbled to dust. The structure would slowly lose cohesion without Myc telling the cells what to do. The work around for this was creating a small strand of cells to connect to the tool. This would allow Myc to keep the structure steady and not lose the excess materials. The downside being that I needed to keep it close to my person at all times.
We were still trying to figure out how to store more material without having to keep large bone tools around at all times. Myc suggested a possible fix for now, instead of trying to make energy dense cells, we just make more cells.
While the excess material of small bone tools was relatively minimal. If we needed to absorb something much bigger, instead of expanding outwards, we could expand upwards. This was so I didn’t look like a walking tub of lard, I was still conscious of my own body image, for now at least.
Myc suggested that minor adjustments to my height worked nearly as well as increasing my waist length. Although the avoidance of height was because Myc apparently hated the human spine. It was a terrible design for beings that walked on two legs, something to work on in the future.
Myc had also finally decided on a ratio to make my skin tough but flexible, and still strangely soft to the touch. Apparently the final result wasn’t up to the usual standard. However, unwilling to waste massive amounts of nutrients on more tests or generally thicker skin, we took what we could get.
The other major breakthrough that we discovered was the many abilities Myc could use that most Earthbound fungi and plants possessed. Creating enzymes to break down most toxins to use as food and even reusing the carbon dioxide from my own respiration to create oxygen. This allowed me to both drink from the little pond without worrying about parasites or bacteria. It also lengthened my ability to hold my breath, if Myc was willing to burn excess fat for energy and carbon I could essentially hold my breath indefinitely.
The other cool energy saving method we developed was filling my cells with dyed chlorophyll. While chlorophyll was naturally green, it could technically be any color you wanted it to be. Plants naturally evolved the green color due to preferring a steady input to compliment the steady output. Green has the smallest change in light absorbed compared to the more prominent colors of blue and red.
However, since Myc and I weren’t really worried about the input changes throughout the course of the day. We could keep the chlorophyll matching my skin color, I would still need to eat. Especially since the input would change radially throughout the day, however any excess Myc could easily turn into fat or flesh to burn another time.
So, about the whole attempted propagation with another human thing…