47) The Land and the king are one.

Before I could even sit up in my chair, the divine between myself and the presence that had been all around me seemed to melt away.

As if it had always been that way, I was aware of all the land I owned, and everything, everything, in it.

Every inch. The air above me for hundreds of feet, and the earth below me all the way down to a vague feeling of heat, pressure, and something pulling down at me.

All the life on it, every plant in the ground, and every living thing that made its home here. Even the eggs from all sorts of bugs that were still developing into living being.

Every one of them that I could tell would go after the blood of other living things died rather abruptly. At every state of life from their eggs to the ones lurking out in the bushed for nightfall as I thought about all the bug bites I had gotten this spring already.

The feeling of something dropping away from us left me at a loss. Not a huge one, but something was gone.

Each living thing on my land had been feeding Life essence into something that was now a part of me, but on its own at the same time. And I had just cut out a whole bunch of tiny little contributors.

Even with them gone, there were plenty more to cover their loss. And even more Life essence drifted in from beyond the bounds of my land, thin wafts of it rolling along, and every bit of it within the bounds of that which was mine stayed here, like a living thing all its own.

It had a shape to it, a presence... a mind of it own.

I felt the Heap pause in its work for a moment and the link I had to it deepened as I understood the connection I had to it on a more conscious level.

The spirits, both the coyotes and the tree looked up, and I felt them, their presence and how they too were a part of this land by living here, and their choice of caring about me.

Wylina’s loyalty and acceptance as one of her own. Blue’s love and concern. Chubby’s vague gratitude.

And Acey’s rather calculated affection, and her sincere happiness in my acceptance and warmth towards her.

“Damn, I guess she is a real girl after all.”

For a moment I felt a mild disapproval toward the green girl emerge from the land, and I began to get dizzy at the level of interplay between my own mind and the land’s, as others became involved in our link before the presence of the land pulled back from me a bit.

I could still feel it there, but to a lesser extent. I knew where everything that belonged to me or that was part of the land was at, and its condition, but that was it unless I deliberately thought about it.

I also knew where every rat, mouse, rabbit, and other creature that me and the Land considered invaders were at.

House flies and ants began to emerge into that category until I diverted the idea of their presence into things that were to be just being pushed away from what were the duller areas to the land. The houses and other structures.

The little furry things that might come in, I wanted them left alone, other than letting the coyotes know when they were around. I figured it would save the cost of dog food.

Lettering out a whosh of air, I turned my attention to the areas which were... foggy to the Land, and therefore to me as well.

My house, and the other structures… I could feel where they were, and to some extent what they were and what condition they were in. But it was more the moss growing on the roofs, the mold on the pipes, and the various bugs crawling around that showed me the shape of those spaces.

Other spots, the sewers lines, the pipes for water and gas, the power poles and the boxes mounted on them and running off to other poles… all the things that were on my land but belonged to the utility companies, they were just blank gaps to the Land and me.

And everything ended right at the edges of my property like the Land was hitting a brink wall.

“Seems like Brackets honors the city’s property lines”

I wondered how that worked with the city’s rights to tear up my sidewalk that had been buckled up by Acey’s roots. They had spray painted arrows on the slabs for replacement on at least three separate occasions over the years without ever getting around to doing anything about it.

From what my uncle had once said they wanted me to arrange for the work to be done and then pay for it out of a fear of the city having someone’s cousin doing the work at a greater cost than I would ever pay, and then billing me for it. But that had never happened, it was just fresh new spray paint every couple of years.

So, yeah. Lazyness and not giving a shit on my part for the win.

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“So, can you make yourself a body big boy?”

The Land pushed an image of everything I owned and everything that was a part of it at me.

“So... either you just can’t, or there isn’t an idea the system can adapt like a Dryad for a tree for you to work with?”

It gave me a vague sense of just doing its own thing being a self aware arrangement of Life essence bound to my land. Which I took for its version of a ‘Don’t know, don’t care.’

I could sympathize.

“Brackets? Care to share?”

[ The Land is too abstract, too closely bound to its nature, and simply too large to project a separate manifestation of itself ]

I mulled that over. “But it can do other projections?”

[ Yes. Life projections ]

Tapping my finger on the armrest of my chair, I got the suspicion I was being given the runaround.

“Which are?”

[ I will not limit your ability to use your Intuition by constantly holding your hand and always showing you the way ]

[ Its time for you to do some of the heavy lifting on your own. Elders were chosen for a reason. It’s up to you to discover and inspire those who gain power after you ]

Rolling my jaw around in frustration, I gave Brackets a double set of flipped up fingers as I spun my chair around in a circle since I wasn’t sure which direction to consider theirs. “Well screw you very much.”

There were a few surprised sounding barks as my feelings got shared across the bond I and others had with the Land. “I guess I got to watch that.”

The new hour or so got taken up by a deep internet dive into trying to find a name for my new minion.

At first, I was trying to find something using my name, like Bright Manor, but everything I came up with sounded like one of those housing communities with a random noun slapped in front of a landscaping term. You know the ones.

Then I started poking around in native american myths about coyotes, which didn’t help.

Finally, I thought about my power, Life essence, and the names for Life in other languages. Which is Bio for Greek, or Vita for Latin.

Latin is always classy, right? But Vita sounds like a girl’s name and I already got enough girls around here already, or invited, so…

“Vito, your name is Vito big guy.”

I got the same ‘Don’t know, don’t care” sensation, which I took for his compliant consent, and really what else can you ask for in a sentient hunk of land?

Of course, I had now burned up most of my day, so I wandered into the kitchen to get a start on an early dinner, having skipped over lunch and took a moment to check my list.

“I can cross three items off the Immediate list, I know where the dungeon is. I just have to figure out how to get there and get in.”

Which if I don’t want to do this alone… You know what? I do want to go alone. I get three points in all my abilities while I’m in there, so as long as I got a bat killing shotgun I can at least go in and “Grind” the closest dungeon for some Advancement Points and monster rocks.

For my short term list, I could cross out three of them, leaving me with heading out to the dungeon. Which left me with one thing on the Long Term list…

Awakening more trees.

I mean I guess I could awaken a shrub too, or maybe a fern.

As my mind drifted into considering what I had growing on my land, and I got a hesitant sense of guarded interest from Acey as Vito began tuning in my senses towards a few select trees…

There was a presence on my land.

People dropping down from something, onto the edges of my land…

Wylina rose from where she had been sprawled out on my couch. She peeked out the front window and shared with me by way of the land an impression of a large vehicle, and people. One lifted something to their shoulder, while another groomed herself.

It wasn’t like I was seeing through her eyes, but more like a set of impressions, by way of a coyote’s mind.

So I guess the they can send me information by way of Vito? I wonder if that will work at all off of the Land… and who the hell is heading for my front door?

Rushing out of the kitchen, I brought Heap to a stop as it came racing around the corner of my house from where it had been collecting fallen branches out in the alleyway. I had a vague sense of it preparing extras to replace any damage to itself.

And it had stoped to begin heading out to scare the crap out of someone coming to bother me…

Which I thought might not be a bad idea as I glanced out the front window and saw the local news station logo on the side of the van parked out in front of my house.

And the guy with the camera and the lady in a dull red pants suit stood frozen in terror on my front lawn as a towering mass of angry dried up sticks menaced them.

Great. I’ve been outed.