In a sea of virescent grass-like clouds and smoke, I found my consciousness floating adrift the same endless but empty space I had entered during my painful meditation with the Shadowbark Orthus. Around me were the same countless clouds of different shades of green, along with sweeping bellowing winds of darkness with wisps of foggy black smoke trailing behind them.
"This... is incredible..." I said as I held my breath. As I looked around with awe at the grandiosity of this seemingly infinite space, I looked at my hands, translucent and almost ethereal. My body was the same, and I felt like a single cloud in the centre of all of them.. "How is this even possible?"
Maybe I ended up in a state of meditation like earlier. How is it possible that my consciousness feels so vivid here though?
A few distances away from me, I saw the smokey figure of the Shadowbark Orthus lounging around on one of the green clouds. Curious about what the environment I was in was, I began floating towards the Orthus to breach some sort of communication with it. In the process of floating, I became curious as to whether I could command it the same way I had during the battle with the three hounds earlier.
Attempting to tug towards its consciousness, a small translucent green beam of light began to fade into existence, connecting the Orthus and I. The green beam of light slowly faded in and out of existence, matching the beat of my heart.
It's hard to tell, but there's a good chance that the beam's a materialization of both Dominate Flora and Command Shade.
Seeing the beam of light, I made an attempt to relay a beckoning emotion to the Orthus. The Orthus, reacting to it, immediately stood up from its lounging position with its tail wagging. It propped itself and looked around for a few seconds, before finding me just a few clouds away. It then immediately began jumping from cloud to cloud towards me.
Soon enough, it jumped on top of me with its smoky body, which then began coagulating into its normal thick-hided body causing its now-solid body to collide with my ethereal form, knocking me down onto the nearest cloud below. "W-woah! Easy there!" I shouted in reaction as I felt its weight on top of me.
How is its physical form pushing me down? So... heavy... ugh..
For a moment, it looked at me as I shouted, getting off of me in reaction as it recognized the weight it was bearing on me. Both of its green-eyed heads proceeded to stare at me on a tilt, as if awaiting a command.
"Hey there." I said as I reached out towards it. One of its heads lowered itself to meet my palm, before the other head softly headbutted the one on my palm to replace it. "Woah! Ha ha! Easy there. You can get a pat too," I chuckled, placing my other hand outwards so I could pat both of the Orthus' heads. As I pat them, the two heads barked at each other for a few moments.
Left Head: (ᗒᗣᗕ)՞ | Right Head: ┐(￣ヘ￣)┌
"I didn't know Orthus had separate minds," I said out loud, before looking towards the Orthus. "Can you lead me to the small green cloud you rest in when you're in here?" I asked, curious about the characteristics of this unfamiliar space and the things within it.
The Orthus nodded its heads together as it happily wagged its tail. It turned around and leaned its back slightly, before I felt its consciousness invite me to ride on its back.
"A mount... this might be the best thing to happen to me," I said, excitedly jumping on top of the Orthus and grabbing onto its thick leaven fur. As soon as I got on top of it, the Orthus began swiftly jumping up the lower strata of clouds onto the higher stratus.
As we made our way, I came to the conclusion that the space we are in has three strata of clouds, layers in which the clouds vary and differentiate in texture.
Could this be someone's Art? Is this a Dream Eater sort of situation? The amount of Potentia someone would have to use constantly to maintain something like this... would be beyond the level of heavenly. Their Art's grade would have to be beyond A+ too...
The first strata was mostly composed of various shades of light green clouds, thinner, lighter, and wispier the lower they are situated in, and light grey fog and smoke that seem to trail along the green clouds, as if they followed the green clouds to where they went. Interestingly, the fog never rose higher than the clouds, while the smoke only rose higher than the clouds once they began to gain density and mass. As the smoke got bigger than the clouds, they would eventually rise higher to the second strata. Unsure of how safe I was down here, I didn't make any attempts to test out falling into certain places just yet. But, there was a noticeable blanket of white fog and dashes of light green at the very bottom of the dimension.
The second strata, where I first found myself in, was much more varied in colour and texture. A good amount of the clouds in it were thick enough that the materialized Orthus was able to jump on them with no problem even in its non-smoke form, while the foggier areas seemed to be much more liquid in their texture, as if they were held up by nothing but themselves. Additionally, the smokey fog in this area was much darker than the grey light fog in the first strata, some moving as if they were fish living in the green sky.
Are these... actual beasts or are they just special elements? It's unfortunate that I can't use the Metimur watch here. I wonder what the third strata has... will it be flying smoke whales? A god for the trees? A giant leaf mecha?!?! Wait, why would a giant leaf mecha be more surprising than a full god? Nevermind.
As I became lost in thought and expectation, the Orthus eventually brought me onto the highest strata. The third strata wasn't as unusual as I half-expected it to be. There weren't any mechas or Gods, at least I didn't see any. Interestingly, the flying smoke whales guess was right.
"This is insane," I said, staring at the gigantic black fog creature the size and shape of a whale hovering a few thousand feet above me. It flew silently and carelessly through what would be the third strata's airspace, making its way through the higher clouds. Beyond those clouds, was a black sky and surprisingly no sun-like object. Despite that though, it was surprisingly bright in here and I came to realize that none of the things here had any sort of shadow, beside the actual shadowy objects.
As the whale flew past the Orthus and I, a deep rumble from its cloudy body bellowed out. The rumble was so incredible that my entire body began to tremble instinctively. Despite my look of awe, I felt a sense of alertness as I realized how dangerous such a gigantic thing could be for both the Orthrus and I. But, noticing the sense of fear I had towards the whale, one of the Orthus' heads licked me as to reassure me of our safety, while its counterpart stared at the whale like a puppy looking at a bone.
Left Head: (￣▽￣)ノ | Right Head: ( ﾟｰﾟ)
"You sure it's safe here...?" I asked the left head, unconvinced as the massive whale passes by us and enters a gigantic dark green cloud. "And why are you drooling...?" I asked to the right head, with full understanding that the whale could probably evaporate us in a single blow. The two heads looked at me in disapproval in reaction to my skepticism and lack of belief, before returning to make our way towards our destination.
Left and Right Head: (¬､¬)
As we continued our travel, I noticed that the third strata held a lot more to it than I expected. The masses of clouds in here were mostly dark green, some larger than islands and some expanding much further than I expected it to be. There were clouds that completely solidified yet stayed afloat, with a variety of dark grey and black smoke that formed tree-like structures, as well as small shrubs. But, unlike the small verdant island I had seen the Orthus rest on in my previous visit here, the clouds and islands here didn't have any actual greenery. That probably meant that the glade I saw before was much more likely to be special, even in this space.
The Orthus and I didn't come across anymore fog whales as we travelled, though we did travel past flocks of bird-like smoke trails which were extremely interesting to me. There were also clouds shaped like mountains far in the horizon, but I decided that it'd probably need an expedition to even get there. i don't know how long I would stay in this meditative space, so I decided to hold off of it in seeing that there was a high chance I could return here again.
We eventually made it to a small dark green cloud-island. Though most of the island's faux-shrubbery was made of the same smoke as the ones previously, there seemed to have been an isolated and cordoned section in its centre that had what I was certain to be actual plant life. In front of us was a barrier-like wall of black smoke that appeared to cover and protect an almost-circular section of the island's black fog-forest. There were small bits of actual green leaves coming from within the barrier, confirming my previous encounter with the glade.
"Are we here?" I asked the Orthus as I patted its back, to which the Orthus reacted by howling with both of its heads. As it howled, darkness began emanating from its feet in ripples, creating a small aura of darkness that seemingly spread through the island floor its paws would step on. At the same time, the barrier of smoke began rippling like a strange portal, and the Orthus began walking towards it.
As we walked into the smoke, I felt a sense of lucidity enter me, and I realized that my body had materialized back into its physical form. "Woah... so I can become physical too?" I said in surprise, before turning to examine the surroundings I had just entered. Around the Orthus and I were the exact same trees as before, with leaves similar to the grassy hide that the Orthus had, and with tree bark made from the exact same material as the Orthus' paws. "If my assumption is correct, then these must be Shadowbark trees?" I muttered to myself, in reverence to the exciting scientific discovery I may have made.
"Hold on, let me try to use the watch now that I've become material," I said out loud. I took a look at the watch to see if it worked, only for it to state there was no signal.
That's unfortunate. It didn't hurt to check though.
I walked towards one of the trees in the glade, before looking towards the now-laying Orthus. One of its heads laid its head on its forepaws while the other kept an eye on me, as if to ensure my safety and to remain vigilant. I looked at it and asked, "Can I touch these?". It responded with a nod, and I felt its consciousness welcome me to its shadowy abode.
Right Head: (･ω･)b
"Thanks... I should probably give you guys a name," I thanked them, before suggesting. It's going to be awkward if I keep calling them by just 'Orthus', since that's not too much of an uncommon beast species.
The two Orthus heads perked up in reaction to my suggestion, their tail wagging in excitement. "I guess you guys like the idea. Should I call you two separate names or just one?" I asked them as I began to examine the leaves of the Shadowbark tree in front of me. The Orthus barked in unison in response, and I felt their combined consciousness relay a tone of single-minded assertion towards my question.
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Left and Right Head: (｡-_-｡ )/ \( ｡-_-｡)
"Just a single name then?" I asked again, to which they responded with a unified bark.
"Alright..." I said as I fell in thought. After a few moments, I eventually came to a decision. "How about Borealis? After the twinflower!" I said in excitement.
Borealis nodded both of its heads, wagging its tail in approval.
"Not too bad right?" I said to Borealis, to which it barked in delight towards me. "Borealis, it is then."
In the moment that I named Borealis, the green beam of light that tethered Borealis and I began glowing slightly, long enough to note that it did not disappear any further. Borealis barked before its entire body became enveloped with shadows. "Wait... are you transforming again?!" I exclaimed in shock, watching in excitement but also mild confusion as I saw the shadows revolve and completely encapsulate the hound.
To a slight disappointment, the enveloping shadows did not last long, revealing Borealis' same figure, only that two of its heads have begun growing crown-like spikes made of Shadowbark on each of them. The spikes were five in number, the central spike being slightly more prominent than the other four. I looked at Borealis in confusion, before asking, "Do you feel any different?"
Borealis barked in confusion and with a dumbfounded face. Both of the heads began sticking their tongues out in anticipation, an anticipation which I didn't really understand the source of.
It doesn't seem to know what happened. Maybe it's some peculiar adaptation or evolution? Or maybe it's because of this green beam. Speaking of which, this confirms that the beam has to do with my Art. I didn't think naming Borealis meant evolving it though. Or maybe it wasn't the actual naming process. I really don't know.
I finally began walking back towards Borealis, and started petting and examining the crown-like Shadowbark spikes on both of its heads. Though strange in appearance and timing, it didn't seem all that interesting. The texture itself was not unusual in terms of its feel, being the exact same as the Shadowbark trees and Borealis' paws.
"Guess we'll just have to wait and figure this out another time," I concluded, lacking any additional information."Now then, back to my previous examination."
Letting go of the crowns, I walked back towards the Shadowbark trees and knelt down to search the ground for any sort of seed that I may be able to take.
If I'm going to figure out what the deal is with this world, I should probably see if I can bring these seeds back. If I'm wearing my clothes right now, along with the Metimur watch. Then there's a small chance I can bring the seed with me if I come back to consciousness?
Thinking about my guesses, I eventually managed to find a small Shadowbark seed, a pure black seed with two dark green petals that seem to grow from an area that connects to the inside of the seed. "Great! Time to test my hypothesis out then," I said with great interest, as I placed the seed in my jacket's pocket.
If this works, I could maybe sell bonsai trees or something of the like. At the very least. these trees aren't local. It doesn't hurt to be a little bit business-minded.
I turned to look at Borealis who has since then been licking at its wooden paws and its own hide, clearly relaxed. I went towards it and rested my back on its grassy hide which seems to be as soft as the softest beds I have ever slept on. "Maybe I can go for a nap or something... I don't really know whether I've been transported into another world or something, but if I'm meditating in my sleep, then maybe I could sleep again to wake right up," I said, eager to rest and test out my guess. "But if I don't go back... what the hell should I do will be the first thing I'll figure out..." I continued, my mind slowly wandering off.
"Borealis, don't move while I rest please," I requested towards the Orthus. "This... might be the life..." I said, finally closing my eyes shortly after making myself comfortable. Borealis, seemingly understanding, made itself as comfortable to me as possible.
Laying my head, I felt my mind fade away as my consciousness waned from where I laid down.
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Beeping sounds began to blare in my ears, along with the sounds of pages being flipped through also echoing throughout the room I was in. I could feel my body laying on something soft enough to be comfortable, but also rigid enough to not provide any more comfort. My body was aching, not necessarily in pain but instead in extreme physical overexertion. "Ugh... I feel like shit..." I muttered to myself.
Opening my eyes, I found myself sitting in a propped-up clinical bed in a white room full of empty beds. To my right was a monitor that beeped rhythmically, likely one of those vital sign monitors they use in hospitals. I leaned out of my curtained section of the clinic and took a look at the end of the room where I heard the paper noises. There, I saw a rugged looking man with long messy black hair, glasses, and an extremely tired looking face. On one of his hand was the source of the sounds of rustling pages.
I leaned back for a moment and groaned as my arm began to ache again, grabbing onto it. "I can't believe it healed so quickly..." I said quietly, looking in wonder at what was my half-eaten arm looking as healthy as it did before the fight. "Today... has been a lot," I whispered quietly, processing what happened in the Academy outskirts and the other realm in what I assumed to be my consciousness.
I wonder if that was just a dream. If it was, then I probably wouldn't dream of it again. But it just felt too damn real to be a figment of my imagination.
As I meditated on the experience I had, I recalled the plan I made to verify whether I had been dreaming or not. "Oh!" I said, recollecting the seed I had placed in my pocket. I began searching for my jacket, before seeing it neatly folded on the corner of the bed. I immediately grabbed it and looked for the seed at its pocket, which, to my mild delight, was in the pocket.
Holding up the seed, I looked at it in awe as I recall the experience I had. "Wait... that must mean Borealis is also—" As I mention Borealis, I felt a slight tug in my mind, one familiar enough for me to understand that Borealis' consciousness is somewhere within me.
So I'm able to store Borealis... in my mind? Wait no, I remember him coming out of my shadow right before I passed out. Is he stored in my shadow then?
I attempted to connect to Borealis through my mind. "Borealis, where exactly are you right now?" I spoke in my consciousness, reaching out to him. As I asked the question, I noticed a small movement at the corner of my eye where my own shadow sits as the light from the window casts it. Reflexively, I looked at in alertness and noticed that my own shadow was much larger, slowly resembling the shape of Borealis himself, though much smaller.
Curiously, I attempted to shift the shape of the shadow back into my own, instinctively channelling Potentia into my shadow to my own surprise. "Woah..." I exclaimed, seeing my shadow shift back into myself. "How much Potentia am I using up just from that?" I thought, as I immediately began checking my watch, which surprisingly came out unscathed in that entire battle.
[Accessing profile!]
Name: Aster Iris
Class: Unavailable [Assessment Required] | Level: Unavailable [Assessment Required]
Portens: Unavailable [Assessment Required] | Art: Dominate Flora [E-] / Command Shade [E-]
Base Potentia: 32
Available Potentia: 31/32
Physique: Unavailable [Assessment Required]
Techna: Unavailable [Assessment Required]
Only a single point of Potentia. And I even feel like there's still some residue of that single unit of Potentia that I used up.
Then, I directed my consciousness back towards Borealis. Once I did so, the shadow behind slowly transformed into Borealis' silhouette, and slowly I watched the figure of Borealis emerge from the shadow, his leafy hide causing the sound of rustling leaves to echo in the room. Halfway into Borealis exiting, I immediately become alert as I heard the person in a white coat speak.
"Hey, what's going on down there? You finally awake, kid?" he said with a deadpan voice. I heard him stand up from his chair and lightly drop his book on his deck before his footsteps began making their way towards me.
I immediately asked Borealis to retract back into my shadow, changing my shadow's form to become just like mine again. Down where Borealis was at for a moment, a few leaves from his hide had fallen.
"Jeez kid, already injured on the first day huh? You're lucky I came in today to get overtime pay instead of going out to a blind date," he added on, almost as if he was trying to make me feel bad.
"...sorry?" I responded, shocked by how offhandedly he spoke.
"Doctor Terac, nice to meet you," he said monotonously as he flipped through papers on a clipboard on his hand. "Aster Iris, yes?" he asked as he went to undo a couple of lines that kept my vitals on the monitor. As he stepped closer to take the tubes off, I heard the crunching sound of leaves being stepped on.
"Huh... did you leave the windows open?" he said before disregarding it. "Nevermind, anyways, my question. Could you confirm your name for me?" he continued.
"That's me, yes," I responded automatically, observing his actions, then noticing my now-clean uniform.
Did they change my clothes? Shit! I left my bag at the rest pot...
"Firstly, if you're concerned about your health and safety, everything about you is fine now. We've done some healing, and you'll be as good as you need to be once you get past the process of aching," he said calmly, looking through the papers.
"Second, we didn't change your clothes," he quickly added. "We just had one of the Academy's custodians to use their Art, a simple cleaning one," he noted. "Additionally, your bag is hanging on the coat rack. It's also been mended, one of your friends brought it here saying you left it on the ground during your encounter,"
That must have been... Mori. I hope he's okay. Seeing that he's not here though, I'm guessing he is. Hold on, is the Doctor reading my mind?
"Yes, I am indeed reading your mind," he followed, causing my face to twist in shock.
Think good thoughts. Think good thoughts. Think good thoughts.
As I rapidly attempt to clear my mind of any thoughts that would incriminate me unknowingly despite having done nothing, Doctor Terac began to speak up again as he looked at my face with slight delight, "I was kidding. I just saw your eyes dart towards your clothes. Mind-reading Arts are rare, and people with them sure as hell aren't working as an Academy clinician. Ease down, kid."
"Oh... sorry," I responded, sighing in relief.
"Don't worry, if you had done something wrong, we'd have known already," he said to me with a confident but low grin before continuing to look at his list.
"...what do you mean by that?" I asked curiously and suspiciously. Is he implying that they saw the entire thing that just happened?
"Well, not 'we' per se, but the Dean would've," he said, tapping his right temple with a finger, as to gesture an eye. "I'll let him explain the rest, he wants to see you after you're done here," he continued, turning around to walk back to his desk.
The Dean wants to see me? That's a little strange. I guess if I had a student who got injured heavily, I'd want to see him too. Wait...
"Hold on, how did you guys find me? Are Mori and the girl okay?" I asked, wondering about whether the faculty could help understand what happened to my Art.
"Talk to the Dean if you want more information, kid. He'll help you figure things out," Doctor Terac responded, before sitting down and spinning in his rotating chair. "Mori Brightstar and Bai Yue are doing fine, although the three of you did miss Orientation. I'd want to play catch-up if I were you, not that there's a lot to miss," he said in a sombre manner, clearly indifferent to what that could mean for us. "Anyways, the Dean'll be needing you now, so why don't you go on and talk to him? The other two probably will have met with him as well," he added, before pulling out a cigarette and lighting it in the clinic.
"Should you be smoking in the clinic...?" I asked out of concern for the next students who end up coming in. "Should you still be here, kid?" he retorted, before getting up to shove me out, grabbing my courier bag and putting it on my hand as he pushed. "Come on, get out already..." he continued as he shoved me outside. "Wait, you didn't tell me ho—"
Standing outside the clinic with an aching body and no instructions, I finished what I was saying, "—w to get to the Dean's office."
Looking out towards a gigantic courtyard surrounded by trees, I realized how more lost I would become today. I looked at my watch to see the time, [1:00 PM].
"Guess I've fully missed Orientation," I sighed as I slumped my worn down shoulders out of exhaustion. "Now where should I go..."