I woke up in a small cage that was built out of sticks. I was in one of the mud huts with the little girl. By the time I woke up she was already awake. She was rummaging around in some box in the corner before pulling out a small piece of what I thought was leather till I noticed it was green. I was wondering what she was about to do, till she started polishing her tusks with it. I started gnawing at the weakest part of the cage to escape while she was distracted. Sadly, soon as I was almost through one of the weakest part of the cage I accidentally bit too hard. A loud crunch sounded out destroying any hope I would’ve had of escaping unnoticed, so I did the only thing I could. I turned away from the part of the cage I was chewing on, curled into a tiny ball and looked at her with the best puppy eyes I could muster. When she heard the noise, she turned to look at me and smiled when she saw me. I thought my puppy dog act worked, until she continued to polish her teeth while watching me. She seemed to live in this hut by herself, I only saw one bed of furs on the ground and I could only detect her smell in here. Although I was captive at the moment, there was some good news. All that food I was fed yesterday helped me grow a little. I didn’t get much biomass though, maybe I get more from live creatures?

I would have to test this at some point. But for now I must bide my time, till I can escape.

* Half an hour later –

She was still Polishing her tusks. I’m so bored! She stopped for about five minutes to do something but then started polishing her tusks again.

This is getting ridiculous, I’ve even started spinning in my cage out of boredom to try and get some reaction out of her. Feels like it took forever for her to let me out of that damn cage. For a little bit I thought she just thought I was amusing and would leave me in here forever. As soon as she let me out I ran outside and managed to get about ten feet before one of the bigger orcs grabbed me and handed me back to the young female orc like I was a run away puppy.

‘I don’t wanna be a pet!’

I struggled as much as I could to try and escape her grip but she held on to me easily somehow. I thought I was getting close to getting her losing her grip, I even started changing my form slightly to try and get her to drop me. But she did something I wasn’t exactly expecting. Despite the tusks sticking out of her mouth she frowned at me, grumbled something and brought forth another piece of that herb she tricked me with last night and shoved it right in front of my nose. I was surprised and forgot to stop breathing again. So I got a lung full of the scent of that plant and it was almost twice as strong as it was yesterday. Causing the dreaded window to pop up again, marking a long period of time I cant remember.

WARNING – WARNING – WARNING

You have been drugged

WARNING – WARNING - WARNING

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Victoria had finished her research into the missing potential employees and was now trying to figure out who took them when she heard a soft *ping* on her laptop. She sat down at her desk and opened the notifications. She smiled when she saw she got a message from one of her people on the other worlds. Smiling when she saw the name she typed in a quick reply.

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Heron: Mother? It has been a while, how are you?

Victoria: I told you before that I’m not your mother and I am well. How far have you progressed?

Heron: To me, you will always be mother. I am progressing well, I have managed to raise a small army of strong individuals. We have already managed to take down some of the groups that the commander has been sending into this world for training.

Victoria: Good work! I’m proud of you Heron, but as you know a simple army wont be enough to take down the organization the commander works for. We must have the strength and wisdom to destroy an opponent like them.

Heron: I know mother, I will not fail you.

Victoria: I know you wont, how is your implant working by the way? I know I gave you one of the models we tested but we don’t know how they will fare with such extensive use.

Heron: It is fine mother, I have made sure to keep it undamaged. I would hate to lose my only way of contacting you after all. I must go mother, my underlings require my attention.

Victoria: Very well, keep me updated on your progress and as always. Don’t get caught.

Heron has left…

Victoria stood and stretched her back. These updates are the only news she gets from the other worlds where she sent the others of her kind. Her eyes wandered her office as she thought back to all the people she had ‘replaced’ over the years as she hid in this organization, trying to save her people as soon as she found out what she had become. At least she was able to make sure her people had the implants before they left. With those she could monitor them and provide power boosts over time. The only problem was that she had to activate the power boost manually, when she was sure that they had enough biomass to handle the amount of power.

She pulled out a hidden drawer from underneath her desk and pulled out the file she had been hiding for years. One that explains how the organization had begun to purify and amplify mana. What she had was the original formula. Over the years they had changed something about it and now the amplified mana came out black. She had no idea what they were using that stuff for, once it becomes black like that it can no longer be used for magic. She hadn’t been allowed to take part in the experiments for it but she was sure it was bad news. Every day these scientists brought back something or created something that added to the power of the people she needed to kill. Now that the commander is hunting for her kind again she needed to go back into hiding for a while. Causing a small accident and destroying a lab, pretending to die in the blast was her usual strategy. However, there was a scientist who she worked with that was a little grabby with almost any female he came across. She considered framing him for her murder and disappearing for a bit before coming back and replacing someone else. She smiled as she planned it out in her head.

“That could work” She said to herself as she left her office.

______________________

It has been three days since I found myself at the mercy of the drug dealer orc girl. I found out that that plant she found is rare and she is the one that found out its properties. To the orcs it seemed to relax them. On animals it made them docile, although it seemed to just get me really high. The girl seemed to prepare them somehow to give them a stronger effect. She always put me outside when she processed them though. No matter how many times I tried to escape, one of the orcs caught me every single time. Then I would get the drug treatment from the girl. I think she was trying to get me addicted to it. The problem with it was if I stopped breathing when she tried to drug me, she would find a different way to make me take it. She would put it in my food or grind it into a powder that she would mix into my water. Luckily, I don’t feel any addiction to it, I don’t even know if I can get addicted to things. Though she seemed determined to try and find out. But with every meal I gained a little more biomass, soon I would be able to escape and they wont be able to stop me. I think some of them are getting curious as to why I don’t poop and I don’t want them to start wanting to find out.