With the departure of his father Gan knew his protection was also gone. He didn't know if he would ever see his father's nostalgic ghost again but for today and the foreseeable future, he was alone. The gift his father had given him, this ability to steal from the Spreading itself was what was important, his father had called it magic, and Gan knew that was no slip of the tongue. This power must be something great for his father to compare it to that wielded by men who could bring down lighting at their whims, or burn an entire tree to ash with the wave of a hand.

Gan looked around to make sure his surroundings were safe and then closed his eyes. He searched for where the power had gone, he looked with his mind's eye to find the parts of himself that were different. Minutes were spent in search, the hands of his will which he only today had learned held some kind of true power, or else how would he effect the magic of the spreading, patted his own soul and being to find the energy.

Gan found nothing but did notice he felt bigger. Not physically but in his mind. The world around him seemed to have shrunk in some indescribable way. With no other route in which to discover the use of his success in subduing the power, Gan simply reached out and grabbed again at the hate around him. The Malice again tried to flee from his will, but oddly enough that only made it easier to pull towards him. Like an animal flailing on the ground instead of facing him with its mind and strength. Gan pulled it inside his chest and felt the Spite once again attempt to choke him and attack his insides with hate. He immediately slammed it with his will, this power from the spreading wanted to destroy the world, But Gan wanted to destroy the world even more than it did. The image of slow powerless insects being crushed between two rocks entered his mind as the will and power weaker than his own wrath were both annihilated leaving nothing but a malleable and docile substance that Gan allowed into his psyche and deepest places.

The process was getting easier the longer Gan continued to do it, like a leach attached to the side of an elephant Gan devoured more and more of the substance in the air, but the hate never seemed to run dry. Eventually, Gan noticed his being was swelling and his ability to digest the energy after it was destroyed slowed. It was at this time Gan heard the moan of an Eater in the distance closer than the noises of the other beasts he could hear. He opened his eyes and stood up. "My leg!" he blurted out readily noticing the wound on his leg was gone. For a moment Gan waited there staring at the unwounded calf and testing it, but it was real. The wound was gone, and the arm which was in his makeshift cast was also unbroken. Gan pulled the rags and sticks off his arm as quickly as a child unwarping a long-awaited gift and bent it at the elbow. The arm was stiff and sore, it felt like it had been jammed through a block of wood but it was holding together and not so painful he couldn't move it.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

This revelation of healing stopped Gan from thinking straight, his mind swirled with a light-headed and giddy feeling. Never before had he felt so content as to stare at his arm and bend it without great pain. But the call of the nearby Eater had to be answered, and so Gan picked up his spear with BOTH hands and turned toward the tower to the west, where a form was just beginning to peak over the horizon of the wasteland.

Gan faced the eater coming towards him without fear. He had been through so much already and this was just another dangerous thing, there was a voice in his heart that told him he would not die here today, he would make it to the very center of the spreading. The gray fleshy blob held aloft by its four spindly legs, charged at him with its gaping trunk of a neck opening wide as it Screamed and strained to pull wide the toothy trap. Its legs kicked up the sand as it ran and Gan wondered offhandly if without any kind of fur or protection on its skin was the monster cold in this wind. Gan waited until the creature was just a few paces away from him, just like his father had taught and dove to the side as its man-sized mouth snapped shut blowing air and sand thirty paces into the distance. Gan then struck out with his spear which dug into the beast with a speed and ease Gan wasn't used to, before he knew what had happened the spearhead came out the other end of the creature's side, impaling it completely and splintering into three pieces.

Gan's eyes widened as the monster fell prone and stiff, its heart pierced through before it could even begin to open its jaws once again. In his hands, gan held the bottom of his spear that had broken from the rest and stared at it, he had broken his knife days ago so this was the last of his weapons. In this waste, and perhaps in the entire spreading if all the trees were like the ones he had passed it would be impossible to replace the spear, but it outlived its time. Facing more beasts than Gan ever thought it would last through. Gan was sad to see his most trustworthy companion leave, though it had very likely been because of his new strength and speed that it gave up on him. The feeling in Gan's arms and legs was amazing, he had moved without effort and felt like he had no weight when he moved. This had to be because of the power, just like the healing of his wounds. Gan Was amazed to see such a difference in only a few short hours. "Everything will be different now." He said to himself while leaving the monster and his broken spear behind.