Chương 22: Growing Pains

Andy was growing. Growing, as it turned out, was making things complicated. Socially, emotionally, spatially complicated. Apparently, there wasn't already a word for "complicated in the unique way of a proto-horse that is really a reincarnated human who is getting bigger and more magical in front of a woman he secretly has a crush on." So he decided to go with the other ones. The height difference didn't seem like much until he stood next to Teeth, who had been, a few short weeks ago, the same height as him.

He now had to kind of back up and look down at her, which she only vaguely tolerated. Ranger had started measuring him. (In his mind that was still her name. She'd started talking to him a bit more, but she still hadn't quite figured out how to properly communicate with him.) She had him stand next to the boulder and would draw a mark at the height of his shoulders. She did this daily and her eyebrows continued to elevate every time she did.

The marks were obviously climbing and the ranger was changing from fear to anticipation and now wonder. She was also tracking the growth of his horn by using a piece of string and measuring both the height from tip to base and the girth at its most wide point. Andy had begun to do his best to disassociate while she was measuring him. Otherwise the horn would sing and the rest of the day Gustave and Teeth would tease him–relentlessly. His magic was growing even faster than his body.

Life magic from his horn was deepening and developing new and exciting skills. One of his favorite new skills he used in their new group tactic.

"Guys, Tail and Horny Jail," Andy called out while they were hunting down a set of rather large (Think labrador retriever sized) tarantulas. Teeth began the process of luring the spiders. She refused to be called bait in relation to a move with the word jail in the title and since they were humoring him and his move names– he decided to respect it. Three Teeth, then six, then twelve blinked into existence. They ran this way and that until they caught a spider's attention.

The spiders were hard to lure and would only chase a single target a short way, which is why she had so many clones. Gustave circled above waiting for his queue. A spider lunged and caught the real Teeth unaware, pinning her under its legs (pedipalps). Gustave dive bombed. Using the wind to speed his descent he slashed at the spider's abdomen. This along with teeth biting the spiders leg was enough to get it to release her. She quickly redeployed her illusions to get the plan back on track.

The bitten spider, we'll call him Steve, was in a fury. It was thrashing and lunging at Gustave who continued to dive bomb and keep it off balance. Teeth darted in between the the Tarantula(steve's) legs. The second tarantula (Rebecca) lunged at a fox that vanished into mist. A second illusion caught its attention and it lunged again, that illusion shattering as well. The tarantula looked up. That was a mistake, now that Teeth had Steve's attention Gustave could focus solely on Rebecca.

The hawk folded his wings and became a feathered missile. He slammed into Rebecca with a crack of thunder and a spray of leaves. The force drove the creature to the ground sideways. Its legs scrambled for purchase as dirt exploded beneath it.

"Direct hit." Andy called from his position at the finish line. The second tarantula had had enough with the fake foxes. It turned. Too late. Andy was charging horn pointed and glowing. Vines erupted from the ground. Roots as thick as the spider's legs wrapped around its joints and abdomen. The tarantula hissed and struggled as more groth surged and pulled the tarantula tight against the ground. The first spider (Steve) rushed to Rebecca. Gustave struck again. Another thunderous dive staggered the tarantula.

The fox's illusions circled the trapped monsters. More vines flew up and caught Steve as well. He too was pulled tightly to the ground. The illusions darted through and around the vines like mocking spectres. Andy skidded to a stop in front of the entangled pair. They were unable to move and screeched and hissed in protest. Gustave finished the pair off with a wind blade abruptly ending both of their lives.

[ORGANISM DEFEATED: RADIANT TARANTULA] [XP GAINED: +71 NEW SPECIES BONUS +12] [ORGANISM DEFEATED: RADIANT TARANTULA] [XP GAINED: +69] [XP: 2437/3000] Andy puffed out his chest.

"Nice! And, that," he declared proudly, "is why we call it tail and horny jail." Teeth sat down with a huff next to Andy. She was fairly injured from the misstep.

"Oh, Teeth! Are you okay? Let me heal you."" Don't call me that." Andy began healing her, the green and gold swirled around her injuries slowly knitting the wound closed. That was another thing that had been growing noticeably. Andy's healing magic not only healed faster but healed better as well. Any scratch, scrape or bite was healed momentarily with larger injuries healing within a few hours. Even barnacle seemed shinier. Andy continued to focus.

The golden-green energy narrowed, the broad warmth contracting into a tight beam aimed at Teeth's injury. Teeth was beginning to breathe easier. Fur started regrowing in the injured fresh scar tissue. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. [ACTIVE HEALING: PRECISION IMPROVED. CURRENT RATING: MODERATE.] They'd also discovered a new speed trial.

Andy and Teeth competed to see who could finish it faster while Gustave barked orders from the air.

"Left turn wasn't sharp enough."

"Jump higher over this next log."

"Cut this corner!" Teeth finished the trial a hair faster than Andy. They both stood at the end of the trial panting. [GALLOP EFFICIENCY: 94%]"Moderate," the hawk sent, "Again." One day, Ranger cut her hand. It was an accident. A small stupid injury that happens when they're doing something they've done a million times before and slip up. She was expanding the shelter as Andy continued to grow and the original structure was no longer big enough. The blade slipped while she was carving a new joint.

A deep diagonal line across her pam that began bleeding immediately. She yelped and made a sound of pain. Andy had been nearby watching her work. He enjoyed watching her hands move. Thinking back hands might be the thing he missed most. Or french fries, it was a touch choice. She held her palm out grasping for a cloth with the other hand to try and staunch the bleeding. But Andy moved in before she could even get the cloth from her belt. He hadn't decided to move. He'd done it instinctually.

His head lowered, horn toward her palm and the life magic flowed. It was focused, targeted, the kind he'd been practicing and had recently upgraded. The life magic touched her skin. Her palm's cut closed the way a zipper closes. The edges drew together from one end of the cut to the other until the entire wound was closed. The remnants of still wet blood continued to drip from her hand, but the wound was closed. She stared at her hand, fingers spread, palm rotating. The healed skin caught the light.

She looked at the spot where the cut had been. At Andy's horn which was still aimed at and sending life magic into her hand. She lifted his chin gently and looked into his eyes. His honey brown eyes looked back at her and willed her to hear him. I'm a person. I healed you. I will always heal you. She sat on the ground. The way she had the first time she'd seen him evolve, legs giving out from underneath of her. She sat in the sawdust with her healed hand in her lap and her eyes on Andy.

Her professional composure was cracking along the lines of emotion that Andy could not name. She looked overwhelmed. She looked as though she'd spent her entire life thinking… no believing, something was real but had just witnessed the complete opposite.

"Nobody has ever looked at me like that," Andy thought and for once the comedy and self deprecation was gone from his internal monologue. This was not a comedy moment.

"She's looking at me like I'm a miracle, not like a person. She's sitting on the ground in fresh sawdust and my horn is glowing and her hand is healed, and there's no version of this that isn't going to break my heart." Because it would. He knew deep down that it would. He was still two evolutions away from what he was and what he could be. The System told him mythic creatures got bipedal forms. But would that be enough? He would never be human. Not really.

In the meantime, he was a horse who could heal and feel love but he could not speak. He could not say, I'm in here. I chose to heal you because I would choose you over anything. You don't know that yet, but when you do everything changes. She reached out. Her healed hand extended toward his horn, trembling, and moving so slowly. Her fingers touched the horn and the magic surged. Warm golden-tinged with green glow pulsed in response to her touch.

The way it always did: immediately, completely, without any thought to preserve Andy's dignity. She spoke. To the universe, or her deity, or to herself. Whoever it was that she was speaking to she spoke a single sentence, softly. Each word shaking. Andy didn't understand the words, but he felt something. Something changed and couldn't be undone. From the rock, Teeth sent something quiet, " Something happened. I can feel it." On his perch, for once, Gustave had nothing to say.

Her fingers traced the horn from base to tip. Light pulsed with her heartbeat. (Or with his, the rhythms felt as if they were aligning. His horn was in sync with her cardiac rhythm. It had done so without permission and Andy did not know what to think about that.) A woman was slowly running her fingers along the full length of his horn and his entire body was responding and the universe continued its commitment to making every meaningful moment of his life sound like innuendo.

She pulled back, stood up and looked at him with an expression he would remember for centuries. Something past wonder, past professional assessment. It was raw unguarded pure emotion. She touched his face then, both hands framing his head. She spoke something else. One word. Andy tried to tell himself it was his name, or her name for a unicorn. He didn't know. It felt different than before.

But today, today he was a not-quite-horse, and the horse-wannabe pressed his face into her hands and closed his honey eyes and let the horn's life magic flow through the contact like a promise: I am here. I am real. I am becoming. She left earlier than usual, walking quickly, clutching her book to her chest, her healed hand held out in front of her as though she could still see the light on her skin. His fox sent: she's crying. Andy's horn pulsed, its light flickering.

"I know."

"Are you okay?"" No. But I think I will be. Somehow." Above, the hawk adjusted the wind. A warm current settled over Andy like a blanket. The fox trotted over and pressed her side against his leg. Barnacle existed on his rock some two hundred body lengths away. The party was here, the woman was gone–for now.

For now, Andy, first of his name, proto-horse, magical beast, healer of cuts, collector of misfits and keeper of a woman he could not have stood among his friends and felt the XP between him and Tier 6 like a countdown that had started the moment her hand touched his horn and would not stop until her could touch her hand back.

[SPECIES: PROTO-HORSE (MAGICAL BEAST)] [PURITY AFFINITY: ACTIVE] [VIRGINAL STATUS: MAINTAINED] [CONTRIBUTING FACTOR WEIGHT: 23%] [PARTY MEMBERS: 4] [HERD BOND: COMPANION (VULPINE ADEPT)] [ACTIVE HEALING: FIRST USE ON HUMANOID SUBJECT. SUCCESSFUL.] [SOCIAL BOND: DEEPENING → SIGNIFICANT (HUMANOID, RANGER-TYPE)] [XP: 2437/3000] [GALLOP EFFICIENCY: 94%] His magical grove, where he had first absorbed ambient life magic as a frog, had been a consistent source of background warmth in the northern edge of his territory.

That night it flickered. He thought perhaps he had imagined it and pressed on. Forward. The only direction that mattered. The only direction that led to her.