“Ssnoo peas pet.”
Well this is a revelation. Snow the not so little kangaroo rat starts learning to speak!
“Of course, Snow is a good girl and deserves all the pets she wants.”
I indulge in scratching her neck and back. It is incredible how far she has come. Her brain must have evolved too. As she often hears us talk, she must start to understand our language. Maybe she already understands most of it from before and just now starts to imitate it with her vocal cords?
For the time I will keep her company and try to see how good she can understand me. While I am at it I create some toys for her. There are logical puzzles for children and might help her growing in the right direction.
The first is well the standard shape in hole, then there is a small puzzle maybe with a cute picture of a white rat on it, the ring game where I forgot the name and a labyrinth board, where you have to find the way to the other side with the wooden peg.
As I said, first the shapes and holes.
…
“Lord, a new letter arrived.”
Yes I noticed, but it is better she does not know I see everything right now.
“Is it that time already? Or was it send urgent?”
“It is that time already. I already read it as it is from Petal. They pressure her right now into harsh circumstances, as the political climate got cold.”
Yeah, if your chess piece does not walk like you want you discard it. Although they would not just kill her, but giving her harsh work does the work.
“How about calling her to us on an official trip? It would give her time to relax while being here. Although it is not the Forest and maybe uncomfortable, but it should give her some kind of rest.”
The Idea resonates a bit with her, before shaking her head.
“It should only be used, if we have something, we want to discuss. If she goes back without something urgent or important, she would only get the worst of it.”
You make it hard Leafy… Well something important…
“Can you make some kind of flask with your techniques? Something your people would deign to touch? My flasks would be rock or dead wood, so that is a no for my crafting.”
“Of course, Lord. What should it contain?”
“Oh, just some water. Maybe try to make it more Mana resistant.”
…
A few days passed and I wander in Avas body right up the paved road with Leafy and Snow in tow.
“What do you want to do, Lord?”
“Well as you know, there is this mill, which pumps water right out of the earth. The mill itself is the center of a rather large mana concentration. I created an alcove to see the effect of it on long exposure to water.”
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Any truth seeker around? ...good, because that was a bold lie. The alcove just got forgotten by me while drilling. Some water has accumulated and starts to show strange signs. I do not know what to do with it, but the Root want Mana in the Forest. So a transportable source should be nice. Afterwards I create some more alcoves and look at the effects myself.
“And for what do you need this, Lord?”
“I do not need it, but Petal can use it as a reason to get to us. This water is so thoroughly fused with Mana, it might be a great ingredient for herbal remedies, a portable mana source for something or maybe a way to bring Mana to where it is needed in the Forest urgently.”
“…”
Well she is silent right now, it should be a good sign, as she did not refute the possibility of this being some kind of tonic.
…
Visiting the mill is strenuous with a body. Right now I am inside and the Mana needs to be blocked by my presence. I want to see the effects of Mana burn, but not on Ava. I need him functioning.
Taking the Miasma out of the small dent in the digging chamber I float it right into the flask. I have to be very careful, as the water is even more infused than the air and touching it should do something bad. Man I wish Ava would be a Mage. I need a new body stat.
Putting it in the flask, the water should only be a few milliliter but it is enough as sample. I need to quickly leave that place, or I need to disinfect Ava.
“This is the water I mentioned.”
Taking the flask Leafy seems to notice the massive Mana inside that flask. This should help her to bring her friend over in a ‘formal meeting’.
“And… you are giving me this, just to invite Petal over for a bit of free time? What do you want for this water?”
Huh, what do I want… What to bargain for… I should have thought about that before now, dammit!
“I… let me think… Your wares are useless for me… Money you do not have and herbs I can harvest already… Right now I need humans, but that would be impossible… Farm Animals are impossible to…”
Rummaging through my memory of what I need, I get blank after blank.
“For now I have no Idea, I will find a list of things that may be possible for Root to give, while waiting for a reply. The thing right now is to give Petal a way out. You could insert code if you want to make clear to her, she can stay a few days as ‘heavy discussion’. I will think on the way back to the Mansion for some kind of excuse that would stick.”
“...Thank you, Lord.”
And with hard thinking we go back. Snow wants pets and she gets pets on the way. It would be so nice if she could give me an idea for something though.”
…
“You want morning dew and tree sap from the Forest, Lord?”
“Yeah, maybe. It can be a nice ingredient for Potion study, but I rather think it would be nice for you to have the taste of home once in a while. Albeit it seems no problem for you to eat and drink produce from here, it might be detrimental for you to be denied your true diet. At least it will help you mentally to not grow too far apart from your home.”
“I… I don’t know what to say, Lord.”
“Sorry about not coming up with a better solution, of what I want. Maybe later I find a better Idea for tradable goods.”
“That is not what I meant, Lord.”
“Well, whatever. You can write the letter for Petal and give a sample with. I call it Mana dew. Maybe Mana jelly would be better, but dew might be okay. ...Do the first slimes come from this jelly, while corrupted by Miasma, or…”
An amorphous creature, spawning out of too thick Mana water should be impossible, as there is no frame for it, but the frame is out of Mana anyways and there is way too much Mana for it. Maybe slimes are a colony of single celled organism? Fungi? I need to find a slime and dissect it, when I have the time. Well only if the World even has slimes to begin with.
…
With the sending of the sample I start creating alcoves to see if I can manufacture that stuff effectively. Further I check the properties, as it is rather curious in its own way. It has way too much Mana inside. The Mana does not know if it should manifest itself or stay ethereal, for why it is kind of jelly like. Taking a small drop I ram Miasma with water affinity inside and… Now I have more water. Much, much more water. So it conjures water with the internal Mana and creates about a cubic meter of it out of the drop. Maybe a bit more, as it still swells a bit. The Water is formed from Mana, so it is not fully stable, but starts to manifest into real water rather quickly.
This shows, Mana can become other things. I just have to know how it works and how to use it. Is it something like how my home World suspects Mass being made out of condensed energy? Nah, this would mean a fraction of Mana would have enough energy to melt the planet. That can not be right.
It is more like ‘I think, therefore I am.’ The Mana thinks it is water so it is water. The reverse should be true too then. If things think they are Mana, they are Mana, and behave like that. This would still not explain spirit bodies, as they think they are bodies, but need body parts to be bodies.
ARGH! Forget it, I run in circles, I am no scientist, so this will be put on the back burner!
…
Right now I create a digging site where it is the most scary in this Crater. Right down the middle under the portal. While still learning about how it works I try to find the source of the presence, but the deeper I get the harder I have it to dig. My Presence versus that presence. It is a nice workout, as it should solidify my grip on space.
While working on mining out whatever there is down there I look more into the webbing and weaving of Miasma. Unlike me that thing down there can work with all Miasma at the same time on such a minute level, it is fascinating! What I have in raw strength and range, it has in detail and focus. So, what is scarier, sledgehammer or scalpel? Well it comes to how to use it, and I am scared of this things latent creativity.