After the feline's death, the part focused on experiencing life stopped responding to Caleb. It was still there and it was still active, but any attempts to commune were met with silence. Core Caleb knew what had happened, had known of all the emotions, felt them itself. Even with all of the data it still didn't understand why. Sure, it was a new feeling, an interesting pastime, but it wasn't something it could allow to keep it from its job.
Maybe if it had kept trying to contact it, kept it company, this wouldn't have happened.
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The hardest part of creating a new life was the new part of it. Caleb could create every plant that was originally here, but to create something new, something that would function in a way that would be seen as abnormal was difficult.
With the world changing at a rapid pace he would need to change the way he and his children interact with it. With the constant dust, they would need ways to clean themselves, and with the constant atmospheric changes, they would need to be healthy in all environments. And to keep the entirety of it all from being a futile struggle they would need a way to spread faster than it could be destroyed until an area with a tamer environment was created.
Caleb started small. He bits here and there, to create thinner leaves, to make thicker branches, even to make a plant grow upside down. Although it didn't survive, it was possible to change the way life specifically told it to grow.
Through this process, Caleb found that he could cause astounding side effects to happen over the most mundane changes. From creating a tree that would require exorbitant amounts of water that would eventually lead it to kill both itself and the surrounding wildlife once it ran out, to creating a vine that would twist into itself, creating a lump of growth, that would eventually force itself inside of itself which would create thick cord-like vines.
Such things were easy compared to creating new plants. Caleb eventually wanted to allow all plants the ability to move. Migrating forests that would never burden the land they stand on. Large bushes that shade smaller plants in extreme heatwaves, flowers that could change colors to create shimmering fields of wonder.
All of it would one day be possible, the amount of work is untold but he would surely do it one day.
Caleb had had enough of his daydreaming, it was time to go back to work. The amount of work it would take is enough to fit hundreds of lifetimes, and he would be there slowly chipping away at the world.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
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After a few centuries of hard work, and a few countries of forest created, Caleb had expanded his forest to the sea. While looking at the remains of a shipyard he began to daydream of making the entire ocean a swamp. Realistically he knew he couldn't do it as it would effectively kill most plant species but it was something that he could eventually do for fun once the entire world was forest. Until then he could probably detonate a nuclear bomb on the ground and use the crater as swampland.
With those entertaining thoughts, Caleb went back to the center of his forest. It would take time to stabilize entire countries' worth of life, unlike the short bursts that led to his initial forest.
After trudging through his forest for what may have been weeks he finally made it to the center. Caleb was unaware of how long he would need to stabilize his forest, but he didn't worry. He hadn't seen a single sign of life outside of his plants while working.
With no doubt that there were no interruptions, he leans down against his first tree and begins to stabilize it all.
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"Greta! Greta, guess what?" I ran up to my friend and couldn't help but shout in excitement. She would never believe me when I told her I had managed to keep a plant alive.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT?!?!" Greta was rarely quiet but today she was extra loud to me hahahah.
"Guess what I did, guess guess guess!" My head was darting on both sides of her head while asking her to guess.
Greta sighed and then asked, "What did you do?"
"Nooooope! You gotta guess what I did and no cheating!" It wouldn't be the first time she had cheated when I asked her to guess something I did. It ruins the whole point of guessing but it was all right. I still liked her.
Greta sighed again and then guessed, "Did you kill something again?"
"Not this time!" I had only done it a few times and yet she remembered. She was clearly in love with me to remember things from so long ago. Greta just stared me in the eyes and wouldn't guess again.
"I swear it, that's not the reason this time. Not even a little bit." My sincerity clearly got to her and she rolled her eyes.
"I guessed and I got it wrong. Can you please just tell me?"
"Nope. Telling someone something after they guessed incorrectly isn't fun at all. So I refuse to do it." It was clear Greta wasn't going to guess again so I turned around and ran back home. If she knew she would surely be very excited! The last time I had done something impossible she had cried tears of joy with a face clearly of pure happiness!
It was time to tell everyone I knew! But first I had to find where they were to tell them in person they would all be so happy!
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Greta pulled out her phone and made a call after He left.
"I need you to look into what He has been doing while away. Since he's only been back for less than a day it shouldn't have been something here. Look into where he went on vacation. I don't care if he went to the depths of hell you need to find out where he went."