It took longer than expected for rain to come again. Over that time I considered trying to tame another animal but decided it would not help. I could barely keep Sun, it would make it worse trying to make water for another. The days went by slowly as I could only practice movement and create more water. I even figured out I could use some of the mana from mana mist in my skill to make more water.
When it did rain I has saved my regenerated mana from the last day and started using it to try and mimic waters pattern as best as possible. I did this until I was left could not continue.
The rain did not last long enough for me to make a lot of progress so I decided to try something different. Not long before the rain stopped I used maneuvered as much of it into my branches as possible. I moved the little end branches so that could hold as much water as possible and did not move. Doing this allowed me to keep water for Sun and regenerate mana.
It took another couple of days for the next rain. The days between seemed more than it used to take. In that time I was able to focus on either mana attunement or water attunement.
Between practice I looked over some of the screens and saw since the last time I looked at it some of them had increased. Reflexes by 1, wisdom by 1, mental capacity by 1 and surprisingly, charisma by 1. The increases made me curious how gaining more worked but I could not find any screen explaining it. Not long after the first day I found mana attunement increase.
While I was holding the water Sun had gotten better not long after. I soon found the bird climbing my tree or running around within the mana mist. Every time I was forced to stop from low mana I saw the bird moving.
I figured out that when not climbing my body the bird would always stay within the boundaries of territory. Sun was able to fly up my tree not long after but seemed to struggle with it for some time before becoming proficient. I had come to the assumption that my companion was unable to leave before coming out to climb on me the first time.
Looking at this I wanted to see Sun moving as freely as I saw all the other birds do. I decided that as well as water practice, I would try to expand territory.
For the skill to expand I had to put a constant focus on trying to see more with it. It took all my focus to have any noticeable improvement for it and by the time my mana went from 1 to 6 I was unable to continue. I noticed that the mana mist I had also looked a lot thinner than it should have with the amount of space it could expand to. Maybe expanding territory should have used mana but I could use the mist instead? If so it made my plan to expand feasible with Sun’s water needs.
After the first attempt and success at territory expansion I found something very useful. This also had the effect of expanding the mana mist for me to use. The mist seemed to come together just as quickly as it did with less area allowing me to siphon some off to give me more mana. The mist took days to become denser but I could still use my mana to make more.
My efforts came to fruition some time after Suns screen changes to months. I saw the screens went from days to weeks to months but I could not find how this happened or why. I assumed it was after a couple of days a week passed but I could find why one week was different from the next.
As Sun aged to 4 months old I was able to make enough progress in mana to not have to use all of it training water creation. Finding this I tried something different. I tried using mana to influence other things to create something to keep the water. My attempts to use my tree failed every time I tried to guide it into any shape. Although trying it on the grass around me showed it was not me unable to influence plants.
Thinking like this I tried to move the grass to form a useful shape. This pattern was much more complicated when compared to water but I seemed to be able to understand it slightly easier. After several attempts I found I was unable to make the flimsy blades of grass keep the shape I gave it. Thinking of this I got an idea, with territory I found many rocks within my area.
I used my mana to maneuver them out of the ground so I could get to them. Once that was done I looked over the stones like I had done with water. The stone had a different pattern like I had expected but I was able to get what I needed.
Affinity gained Plant You can affect plant matter with your mana.
Affinity gained Ground You can affect stone and dirt with your mana.
I tried to form a holder for the water I had but after trying several times I learned I could not actually form the stoned with just mana. I tried several times before carefully moving my bottom trunk to see why nothing happened. The contact lead to a discovery, I had to physically move the stone instead of just using mana.
I worked on the stone until it had a large enough indentation to hold the water. While I was doing so Sun had decided to perch on my tree branch and watch, head tilting every so often, When opening my branches to let the water fall most got in the stone and the rest I figured it was better to just make with mana instead of taking it from the soil.
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Feeling excited with my accomplishment I decided after I spent time, that was not being climbed on, with Sun I would make a better water holder. I was happy with what I could make and thought of adding stone affinity to later practice. I knew I could use it to also affect mana affinity so it would not be a waist. Thinking like this I thought I should focus on territory over it though.
After Sun and I had some time to interact I started working on movement again. Doing this I found I was able to move more distance from my tree. I moved into the forest and found several of the trees seemed slightly ashen. I could not find why until I focused mana through one. I was apparently influencing these trees just my being planted near them. The trees did not seen to be wilting or anything, just changing colour.
I left that for now as unless I stopped using mana altogether the effect would not stop and they were not being harmed by it. By the time I was done looking over the trees I saw Sun was in need of more sustenance.
After taking the time for my mana which ended the next morning, I decided to make a better container for Suns water.Taking my time I made a container of stone that looked slightly bark like on the outside but as smooth as possible on the inside. It was wide but not deep so it could catch as much rain as possible.
My mana was low from molding the stone so I returned to moving. Thinking for a bit I had noticed that at after 8% it took longer to get movement to improve. I had been trying many things to try to get past 9% but nothing had happened for some time. It took giving Sun attention to get it to start improving again.
Every once in awhile Sun would move in an odd fashion which left different parts in different placements than usual. I tried this every time Sun did and found it helped some so I started doing it along with the other actions I usually did.
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It was another ‘month’ as the system said before anything in my glade changed. Within the ‘month’ I had noticed the animals that used to stay out of my glade had started wandering around the edges of it. Not all that far but still far more than staying nearly out of sight through the trees.
It was when the sun just came up over the trees that I saw something interesting. Sun was around my tree, flying through the mist. I was trying to find different ways to continue movement that would give experience. The screen started slowing again at 11% and the affinities were still low, only around 6% for mana, 3% for earth, and 4% for water. All except for plant which was at 6% as well.
Around now was when I planned to start manipulating my territory again as the screens went from centimeters to decimeters whatever that was, when something went far differently than normal. I heard some branches breaking some distance from me. Not being an odd occurrence I ignored it. It continued for awhile before I realized it was nearing my area. This was still not anything that had not happened before, even if it was not often.
I knew it was likely another of the huge animals with the thick outer bark-grass stuff, knob like back appendage, and strong big everything else. The colour was more brown like all the other ones I had seen. I had thought of trying to tame it but it was always to far for me to try. Not this time apparently.
It seemed to be right behind a pair of smaller lithe animals that had thin extremities and a long larger looking back appendage. They looked to be panting and having a hard time continuing.
For some reason they all ran right into my glade but like the rest went only around the edges. When this happened I was ecstatic, I could finally try to tame the huge animal to see what it was.
Moving swiftly but quietly from learning that non-tamed do not like noise I moved closer. They were so focused that the front pair moved right by me with only the slightest of movements. The larger one tried to do the same but I moved as much mana as I could into it as it did.
The animal made a loud noise as I did so. I was almost happy to see what this animal was before it turned quickly and fled into the forest. I was horrified that I had hurt the thing before I received a screen.
Taming failed The animal was not willing or weakened enough to tame.
It said nothing of it hurting an unwilling animal but I did not know if what I did caused the animal to be damaged. Going back to my tree I just sat and thought through what had just occurred. Were I reached out to touch it seemed fine but I could not be sure. The sound made it seem so but it stopped right after so maybe it was just a small pain?
Thinking like this made it worse for me, I had made it run from being hurt. I was not trying to do so but it seemed to happen. Sitting under my tree I saw the same water from before was coming from my top branch again. I still had no idea what would make such a thing occur and it made me feel worse from remembering what Sun had to go through when tamed.
I was so unfocused I did not feel Sun until the bird started to rub on my face. Looking now the bird seemed to not care too much about then which made me happy. Taking some time to calm I thought a little more and came to a small conclusion. Sun made the same type of loud noise when startled, usually from me moving after mana training which usually had me as still as possible to focus. This made my think it happened because of that, so I tried my best to assume it was just startled by what I had done.
It did not take long after Sun arrived for me to notice that the two smaller animals that had been running had tried to hide themselves in the grass not far from my tree. They had even taken the time to move some of the dirt to hide in.
Looking at them like this made me thing of the times when Sun usually went under my leaves when it rained. Whenever this happened the bird would only come down for feeding. It made me feel good seeing this.
Walking closer as slowly and quietly as I could they did not even notice me until I was on the ground near them. I reached forward with my branch only for it to try and retreat. Seeing this I moved it back and just sat there. Leaving for now I went back to what I was doing.
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It took until I made more water before either left the hole, it took a quick drink before it ran back the other following a little after.
By the next day they seemed better. One seemed to notice when I fed Sun and was constantly looking at me or Sun afterwards. It was strange seeing this but I had just ignored it mostly and continued what I was doing.
When the sun started going down both wondered out of the hole. Seeing this I stopped what I was doing and watched. Both walked around the glade for some time looking my way every once in awhile.
The two soon after walked near me and I heard a pitiful sound coming from it. Seeing this I was confused. I was wondering what either would want before trying to make a couple drops of water able to do so from the water making being more efficient. They both looked but did nothing else.
No knowing what else I might do that they would want I hesitantly did the only other thing I could think of.
Tamed animal(s) detected. Please give identification.