41) That’s the spirit

I thought about trying to explain to Wilyna why I felt that turning an animal into a person wasn't something a person should do. That an animal was a living thing but couldn’t consent to being changed, and no one should have the right to change another living thing on such a level.

By then, I would be trying to explain that to a coyote.

A spirit coyote. Something that could understand more than an animal, but to understand moral qualms?

Wylina tapped her paw again while giving me a look. Then she barked.

“Yeah, yeah. I know. Get on with it. If anyone has the right to give consent, it would be his mother wouldn’t it.”

I leaned on the arm of the couch to go down on one knee. Chubby seemed to sense something as he began to warily back away from me, only to have his mother block him with her paw.

He only had time to give her a surprised look before I grabbed a hold of the top of his head.

The gray square formed, but I interrupted it before the lettering could appear. “Yeah, do it. Channel Life Essence to turn him into a Spirit Coyote.”

I saw his eyes go wide as they softly glowed, the blue tinged white light burning out the warm and innocent yellow brown of his eyes into something sharper. Something aware.

Something lost. “Sorry pup. But your mother thought you would be better this way. And she known it both ways.”

Shaking his head and sneezing, the newly awakened spirit coyote's eye fixated on the rough chunk of crystal in front of it and snatched it up in its jaws before running off to hide behind the easy chair. A moment later there were some loud chrunching sounds.

Easing myself up, I sat on the edge of the couch. What the hell did I just do?

…something that I can’t undo.

When you're going through something too big for you to think about, keep going and think about it once you're well past it. You should have some perspective by then… or at least won't care about it as much.

That might not be the best way of handling things, but it does get it handled rather than endlessly dithering in the moment.

I pour out dog food and meat in the form of diced up hot dogs. Chubby got extra which got me a questioning look from Blue. I nodded towards him. “He got his fix. Pretty soon he’s going to get as big as you and that mass has to come from somewhere. So he gets extras.”

Really, I was just guessing here. Magic, who knows how it works.

Chubby looked up from his food for a moment, and glanced up at me thoughtfully, before burying his face in processed meat. Twisting his body around as he ate as if to hide his bowl away from his sister.

I smiled a little. Awakening him hadn't taken everything away from him. He was still a hungry, distrustful little beast.

After dumping out the remaining water in their bowls and filling them up again from the tap, I went and laid down again in bed.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Now it was time for the second part.

"Show me my condition Brackets."

[ Eyesight 1 ]

[ Teeth 2 ]

[ Heart 3 ]

[ Body 4 ]

[ Pancreas 2 ]

[ Bones 1 ]

[ Libido 1 ]

[ Senility 2 ]

I sighed. At least the cancer still hadn’t come back. My heart hadn’t gotten any worse either.

And fixing it up still remained my priority. No matter how much it hurt.

“Yeah, screw that.”

I got up went to the medicine cabinet, and downed two, no, let's make that four of every painkiller on the shelves. Including the two Vicodin left over from the last time they took a tooth.

The dentist had given me a suspicious look when I had asked for the good stuff, but the fact I was only asking for eight pills made him shrug and sign off on the prescription. More than one of the things at a time had sent me for a loop the first time I tried them so I figured eight would hold me over for a few days.

It turned out I had only needed them for three days, and the last two pills had sat there in the bottle for the last five years. I had no idea if they were still any good, but at this point, why not?

I considered the box of what was left of my liquor collections up in Beryl’s old sewing room, but if the heavy duty pain pills were any good that didn’t seem like such a good idea.

Instead, I laid down on the bed to wait a while for the medicine to kick in before I did anything that was going to stop my heart for a minute or two.

At least that’s what it felt like the last time I had done this.

"So. Is it going to be better to fix up my heart condition all three points at once, or one point at a time three times over?"

[]

"Well, at least you're listening. Are the pills going to help at all?"

[ The aftereffects of the pain may be reduced ]

“Crap.” I laid there for a while. “I should be asking you more questions. But I don’t know what to ask exactly. Are we going to get through this? Humanity that is?”

[ Unless there is a deliberatly effort to let things fall apart, all expectation are that humanity will survive. How long until things stabilize remains in question. ]

“...is there anything else I should ask you. Something most people ask that I haven’t?”

[ Nothing that the answers will help you in any significant way ]

“...figured. Let’s rip off the bandaid. Three points off Heart. Do it now.”

The pain was just as bad. It felt like dying and my vision went black for a bit, until I felt the weight of concerned spirit beasts leaping on the bed and I got my act together well enough to throw up my arms to keep cold noses and damp tongues away from my face.

“I’m fine. Just give me a bit to recover. Back off.”

They settled in next to me, and when I lowered my arms I had one blue eye giving me a concerned look while the other two beasts seemed content to ignor me as they crowded me on the bed.

“Alright breckets, where am I now?”

[ Eyesight 1 ]

[ Teeth 2 ]

[ Body 4 ]

[ Pancreas 2 ]

[ Bones 1 ]

[ Libido 1 ]

[ Senility 2 ]

So. What important here? Vital even?

It would be nice to get the Panceas fixed. No more insulin. But I only had one point to work with. Would I still need a shot with one point of it fixed? No, let's wait and do both at once. I still remember how to live without diabetes. I got no clue what to do half diabetic.

Libido? Ha. What would I do with it? Senility… No. That would probably raise my insight up even more. That's the last thing I need.

I already know what I'm going to pick, but I circle around to it since I got the feeling it was going to hurt in an all new kind of pain.

My eyesight would be nice. No more reading glasses. But I could live with them for a while longer.

Teeth. Teeth would be very nice. It would really be great not to have some part or another of my mouth in pain at any random moment. To be able to chew something without being afraid of another tooth just shattering.

Would the missing teeth come back? Could all the crowns and filling just pop out as all my teeth get fixed up to healthy by actual magic? What would only fixing them halfway up do?

Body? I'm doing alright. Working with what I got is just difficult and painful. I'm used to that.

The thing I got to fear is breaking a bone.

Channeling life into a broken hip might heal it up but badly set. All crooked, and dysfunctional. It might even…

“Hey Brackets? Can I get new conditions right now? Like a badly set bone?”

[ Until all conditions are removed. New conditions will be listed ]

“Wait… So once they are all cleared up. I’m screwed once I get something else wrong with me? Am I better off keeping this going here? Like if I keep one condition I can fix myself up forever?”

[ All free points will go to Health and generate Condition points as long as there are Conditions. Once there are as many Conditions points as Conditions, all condition points will be immediately applied ]

[ The only way for you to “Game” this is to stop leveling until you gain more Conditions then gaining a level will remove ]

I started thinking that out. "Hrmph. Not a great strategy for the end of the world as we know it."

“Fine. Brackets… roll them bones.”