Baiyu awoke panting and in pain. He felt hot, as though someone had lit a match in his guts. The energy within him boiled and it felt like a hole had been burned into his gut. The hole was greedily sucking up the energy within his body and the energy burned and raged as it tried to escape its inexorable pull. Baiyu did not know what he was happening but he felt the heat within him lessen as each mote of energy fell to the darkness within his stomach. Eager to be relieved of his torment he did his best to push the energy into that hole and inch by inch he succeeded and the pain lessened.
Yet once the last of the energy had been absorbed the hole did not rest. Nay, it tore into the very fiber of his being in an all consuming ravenous hunger. The pain multiplied and Baiyu squeaked in pain. Then it multiplied again and his body seized up as he fell to the ground. Then, just when the pain was about to be too much, the hole stopped tearing at him and for a single tense moment that orb of qi and the very essence of Baiyu hung within him.
Then it burst and with it came change. A change that was complete and irreversible Baiyu fell unconscious as his everything that was him was changed to be more.
_
Baiyu awoke expecting pain, but he did not feel any. Rather, he felt as though he had been placed into a new body. He felt strange and alien. His body was more solid than it had been before, more real. His mind felt as though there had been a thick layer of fog over and only now was the sun shining through. He felt more in tune with the world around him, as though he could feel everything just that bit more vividly than before.
Looking down Baiyu found that his body seemed no different than it had been before, yet every other sense told him otherwise. He had changed, even if he wasn't quite sure how.
Baiyu thought of the burning hole that had been inside of him and found in its stead a small clear orb the size of a a pebble that was slowly filling with some sort of clear liquid. Yet Baiyu found more than just this new strange core within him. Some energy had apparently been leftover from the trials he had endured in making the core. There was still some of the cool refreshing qi that he now recognized as water. Another energy was also present, one which Baiyu had missed among the more lively energies that had occupied his minds eye.
It was much thicker and denser than the water qi, but far less fluid. Where the water was ever moving this qi moved like sludge and gave off a very unsettling vibe. Baiyu suspected the only reason it moved at all was because the water qi constantly pushed it around as it flowed around his body. With how inactive and boring the strange qi was Baiyu was unsurprised he had missed it.
Baiyu was pleasantly surprised by how easily he was able to control the qi within him now. Playing with the water qi was an enjoyable and distracting activity for the young rabbit. In the course of his playing however, he did notice that he was able to somehow integrate little bits of the water qi into his body itself.
The sludge-like qi was much more hesitant to leap to Baiyu's command but it did so regardless. Curious, Baiyu tried to see if he could integrate just a little bit of the qi into his body and was quickly and violently forced to realize just how big of a mistake that was. The sludge-like qi seeped into Baiyu's body, inciting a feeling of weakness and pain. The little rabbit sneeze and little specks of blood peppered the ground. Baiyu felt as weak as he had before the ball of fire. He felt like he was dying, so he decided to call it that.
He stumbled out of the cave, eyes bleary and went to eat more of the tasty plant. There had to be some reason it was alive with the death qi inside of it. More of the blood qi and water qi flowed into Baiyu. A pleasant feeling, though it helped little against the menacing death qi. Of which more came into Baiyu's body with the other qi's, but without integrating it into Baiyu's body it wasn't much of an issue.
Baiyu nervously tried to bit into the stem of the plant again and as before found it tough, but something about his awakening had changed him. With all of his might behind it, he managed to break the stalk and an overpowering scent washed over him as he eagerly dug into it. A torrent of energy came with it and Baiyu felt empowered. His stores of blood and water qi nearly tripled, but more than that, he had gained more of the death qi and one new kind that felt abound with energy. Merely having it in his system helped him feel rejuvenated. Where the death qi felt unsettling, this energy made him feel more alive and it warded off the feeling the feebleness that the death qi had bestowed.
Baiyu crept back to his home, suddenly aware and thankful that the great beast had not been home to punish his lapse of judgement. He watched the various kinds of qi roam in hypnotic patterns within his body and fell smoothly slipped into slumber.
_
When he awoke it was once more with one of those inky shadows attempting to feed on him. It was trying to pull something out of Baiyu and in a panic the little bunny leapt at the shadow - and passed right through it. He quietly promised himself that he'd get the shadow back one day. For now he still had things he wanted to accomplish.
After all he still needed to figure out what he could do with all the qi that was inside of him. Now that he was well rested the rabbit realized that the energetic energy must have been life qi. The death qi chased the life qi around inside of him with a dogged persistence as the life qi merrily danced around it.
Once he was done observing the qi Baiyu began to engrave some of the blood and water qi into his body. As he did he felt some sort of threshold approaching. As though the qi he had integrated was waiting for something. Baiyu kept pushing the limit until he felt the energies inside him approach that invisible threshold. Then Baiyu turned his attention to the life qi and began to meld it with his body. As he did he felt the last whispers of the fatigue that had come from integrating death qi go away.
With a little bit more boldness than might be wise Baiyu decided to integrate more death qi in conjunction with life qi. Thankfully, it seemed to be the correct strategy and Baiyu felt no worse for it. Once that was done Baiyu decided to see what that threshold was for the energy he integrated into himself. He chose to use water to push over the line because the energy had a pleasant feel to it.
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As it was pushed over the edge Baiyu felt the water qi in his body vibrate in unison. For a moment he was concerned and confused, but then he hears something almost audible from the plants closest to himself. It felt as though it were halfway between a sound and a feeling. As though he could feel the water qi in the plants around him. Curious, he tried to see if he could do it again and the strange resonance happened again. It felt a little bit like humming to Baiyu. The range was quite small, but it was useful for identifying water qi in his food.
Baiyu still had much qi inside of them that he had not engraved however, and it seemed more important to figure out what he could do with it over getting more just for the sake of having more. Instead Baiyu was curious as to what the strange clear orb was in his center and what it could do. He was afraid of the pain that its birth had caused but, at the same time, the feeling of being more in every sense of the word was simply intoxicating to the young rabbit.
The strange core had filled up with the clear liquid that it had been generating and Baiyu found that he could not command it like he had other things. For all intents and purposes he could not command the small core to do anything. Being left with such few options Baiyu decided to see if he could put other types of qi inside it. He gingerly pushed some water qi into it and was surprised when the core seemed to absorb it and grow ever so slightly bigger as it is dissolved inside of it. Curious Baiyu fed the the clear sphere with all of the water qi he had, which had been quite a bit, and the core swelled to be nearly three times larger than it had been before. Despite this Baiyu did not feel physically different at all.
Baiyu decided then to feed it some death qi, since he didn't like it very much. For a moment he was worried as the qi slipped inside of his core and didn't immediately dissolve, but it merely took a bit more effort for the core to eat than the water. Maybe because the death qi was thicker? Regardless, when the core finally consumed the energy it seemed to shudder for a moment before releasing a wave of clear qi that spread throughout Baiyu's body. Wherever the wave went Baiyu felt the alien strangeness of his body subside along with an itching feeling as his very body grew denser and more powerful.
Baiyu was glad to feel at home in his own body once again and he was even more happy to feel strong. The wave hadn't effected his mind or in more tune with the world around him, but feeling strong was still a very pleasant feeling.
Maybe he was strong enough to get revenge on the blue girl in the pool? The great beast was still gone so there would probably be no better time to do it. He gingerly approached the pool and, after a short drink, began to splash at the water. There was no response. Maybe she was gone?
Curious about how the pool smelled Baiyu decided to resonate his water qi again. He felt a response from deeper within the pool. Maybe the tasties were near the bottom?
The blue girls head popped out of the pool and looked at Baiyu like he had asked her a question. Baiyu splashed her with water. The blue girl grinned and spit water at his face. Baiyu tried to dodge it, but was defeated by vile trick as it curved in mid air to strike him in the side of the head. Resolute, he continued to wage a very wet war as he kept trying to splash her. He didn't want to lose, but if there were points he would be. But, there weren't points and so Baiyu's pride staying intact... mostly.
Then she retreated into the pool. For a moment Baiyu felt proud of beating her with his stubbornness. Then she resurfaced carrying something, but Baiyu was much more distracted by her body. Her face was the same as it had always been, delicate with hypnotic black and red eyes. The rest of her was covered in pretty light blue skin that shined in the light. . . wherever her bones weren't showing. Her body was covered in spots where it looked as though her flesh had been eaten away, leaving nothing left but gleaming white bone surrounded by decaying and putrid flesh. In her hands was a tiny skull. She pointed from it to Baiyu and laughed.
It was the skull of a rabbit that had been younger than Baiyu, than even his once furless siblings.
Baiyu let out a squeak and began to scramble away.
Then a voice rose in a beautiful and scratchy melody and Baiyu stumbled to a stop. His mind stuttered. What had he been worried about? She was beautiful and her voice made him feel so calm. He shambled towards him and she put and warm hand on his head as she lead him into the water. His eyes fixed on hers as she crooned to him. He felt safe as her sweet song filled his ears.
An animal scream of pain cut through the haze in Baiyu's mind. The scary girl huffed in annoyance before he face suddenly lit up in joy and she shooed Baiyu away with a laugh and a pat on the head. He was all too eager to oblige.
The young rabbit was barely back into his hole when the great beast entered the cavern dragging a whimpering and yowling wolf into the cave. The beast dragged it into the middle of the flowers as the thing kicked and yowled in desperate attempts to escape. Then the scary girl flew out towards them and began to sing. The thrashing intensified, before slowing and ultimately falling silent. Something seemed to pass between the scary girl and the great beast before it lifted up a single claw.
That horrid claw shrouded itself in qi that made Baiyu sick to even look at it. He pressed it into the still body of the wolf and Baiyu could take no more. He retreated into his hole.
When he returned after a fitful sleep he could hear the great beast sleeping in its room. He tried to look for the scary girl or the wolf and he could find neither. There was nothing but plants and the now ominous pool that reflected the midday sun. Then Baiyu saw it, the living shadows were gathered around a small patch of flowers, feasting on something. Terror welled up within Baiyu as he realized that the lumpy mound those flowers were growing on was moving. slowly, in time with his breath, they rose and fell. Up and down.
Up.
And.
Down.