Chương 26: Megafauna Problems

Being big changed everything... well except the things that mattered. Andy discovered this on his first evening as a full-sized magical horse. He attempted to enter the lean-to shelter and got his head and shoulders inside before his hips informed him that the rest of him was not invited. He attempted to back out, but had become wedged in place.

"I am stuck." Andy thought (psychically) aloud. His front half was inside the lean-to and his rear half was outside of it. His emerald glow illuminated the inside of the shelter he would no longer be able to use. His fox, who had followed him into the lean-to through the generous gap between his belly and the ground, sent an impression of such concentrated, silent amusement that her tail vibrated.

"I have Winnie the Pooh'd" Auri fell on the ground in fits of amusement. Over the next twenty minutes Andy extracted himself. (A process that made more noise and destroyed more structural integrity of the lean-to that he'd care to admit.) He stood in the clearing, the sun had already set. He was a horse that did not fit in his own house. A crash and a puff of sawdust sent Auri into fits again. Andy winced and didn't turn around.

"My house fell down didn't it?"" Affirmative," sent Gustave. He was a horse that did not fit into his former house. Evening passed and dawn came relatively quietly. Andy stood in the treeline dozing on his feet. Auri curled up at his feet. Gustave didn't have to move as his branch still fit, and hadn't fallen down which he reminded Andy twice before they'd all settled back down for sleep. In the morning Andy began the process of learning how to be big.

Big meant his hooves left deep craters that Gustave assured him any tracker would and could follow without effort. Subtlety had never been Andy's strong point. (If you need reminding please see… every previous chapter) Being large also meant that Andy's speed trials were different. The ones he'd run previously no longer registered as speed trials and he actually had to begin the process of looking for new ones. Along with that his perfect gallop proficiency had now reduced drastically.

It sat now at forty-one percent. When Andy complained about it the System took the opportunity to shut him down. [YOUR BODY HAS TRIPLED IN SIZE. COORDINATION ADJUSTMENTS ARE EXPECTED.]"Come on, System. But to go from One hundred to forty-one is insulting." [YOU TRIPPED OVER YOUR OWN FEET BEFORE YOU EVEN LEFT THE THICKET]"You're holding that against me?" [THE SYSTEM HOLDS NOTHING. YOU DETERMINE YOUR OWN CAPABILITIES]"What does that even mean?" [WHAT DO YOU WANT IT TO MEAN?] This time it was Andy's turn not to answer the System. Let's see how it liked the silent treatment. The System did not seem to have any opinion on Andy's silent treatment, which only seemed to irritate him further. Forty-one percent. Back to basics. It meant falling over and figuring out how to operate legs, although falling down at this size was bound to be far more of a dramatic event than it had been as the size of a small dog.

[SPEED TRIAL DETECTED: WINDING RIVER] [COMPLETE IN UNDER 120 SECONDS FOR XP BONUS] [BEGIN? Y/N] The new trial was a winding path that took him next to the river, past Barnacle, down and around several briar bushes and back up a rocky trail that did not appear to have been used in some time. Andy did not get the bonus experience the first time he ran the trial. In fact, he did not earn that bonus experience his first day at all. Gustave shouted directions from the air. Auri led him through the trial.

The cacophony of external stimuli along with trying to figure out how to make his legs stop getting in the way of his other legs was too much. Andy lost track of the number of times he fell. Skid marks and crushed foliage though were pretty good markers of the impacts that he'd made. On four separate occasions Auri recommended that they stop for the day. The fourth such occasion was on the climb toward the end of the trial. Andy was running up the rocky trail when some loose gravel gave way and he lost his footing.

Andy scrambled to find purchase but the more he panicked trying not to fall the more off balance he became. He fell hard with a thud and skidded back down the gravel path several embarrassing body lengths. It took about an hour of passive healing before he could walk without limping. He finished the speed trial but dismissed the notification without even checking the time and decided that Auri was right. It was time for a break. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

With the size adjustment came another unforeseen consequence. The deer-like creatures who mostly ignored him when he was smaller than them now treated him with deference. When he encountered them they yielded their space. Other creatures showed changes to his new evolution. Predators gave his territory a wider berth. [TERRITORIAL INFLUENCE: EXPANDING] [YOUR MAGICAL SIGNATURE IS CREATING A ZONE OF ENHANCED LIFE MAGIC WITHIN YOUR TERRITORY. FLORA GROWTH: ACCELERATED. FAUNA HEALTH: IMPROVED. AMBIENT CORRUPTION RESISTANCE: MODERATE.] Small creatures began flocking to Andy's area of influence which was improving just by him existing in it. The grass in the clearing was greener, trees were taller, and there were flowers now, small, white and luminous growing in a ring around where he slept each night. They opened at moonrise facing his horn as if they were sunflowers and he was the sun. He was terraforming the forest. Not deliberately.

He was existing in a space that was responding to his presence by becoming more fertile.

"I'm a sleep-gardener," Andy thought, surveying his ring of luminous flowers that had grown while he rested.

"Some people walk in their sleep, some talk, some even eat. But me, apparently I garden."" Oh, you talk too." Auri sent from atop her rock as she sunbathed.

"I do? What do I say?"" My eyes are down here. I've been told my horn is intimidating at first but most women warm up to it. This is a perfectly normal sized horn for a horse my size. It's not the size of the horn but–" Andy cut her off.

"Okay okay okay. Enough." Andy stared at Auri for a long time who had now rolled onto her back and was giving off rolling amused signals. [NEW ABILITY: TRUTH SENSE] [YOUR HORN CAN DETECT DECEPTION IN THE EMOTIONAL SIGNATURES OF NEARBY ORGANISMS. RANGE: 10M. ACCURACY: MODERATE. NOTE: THIS ABILITY FUNCTIONS THROUGH LIFE MAGIC RESONANCE AND IS NOT TELEPATHY.] Much to his utter embarrassment, he learned in that moment that Auri was not lying.

He filed this information under "things I did not need to know because now I can't un-know them." Andy and The Department of Unnatural Consequences (Auri and Gustave still refused to acknowledge this as a viable party name) took the journey to Andy's grove once he'd become accustomed to his new size. The closer Andy got the deeper the pit in his stomach grew. He felt no life magic from this place that he attributed to one of the largest pieces of himself.

The grove was like his permanent home the way your parents house still feels like home when you go back to visit years later. This was like going back to your parents home years later and finding the house had burnt down. The lack of life magic was apparent well before they broke through the treeline into the grove. Imagining what it had become and seeing it were two very different experiences. Nothing he'd imagined could prepare him for what he stepped into.

The glowing green and golden trees were grey, lifeless and crumbling. Purplish-black corruption glowed around the edges like embers. The remains of the wildlife for whom this grove had been home laid exactly where they'd fallen. Birds, rodents and even a pair of deer-like creatures were visible from the edge of the grove. The foul, unnatural odor of lingering corruption mixed with rotting vegetation and carcasses.

The world tilted and a loud high-pitched buzzing rang out in Andy's ears and underneath of that, far away Andy could hear someone screaming. Sobbing. Then he felt Auri pressed up against his side. Her warmth brought him back to reality. It was he, who had been screaming and sobbing. The absence of life had been too much for Andy, who found himself down on the ground. Agony clawed at his mind and he pushed it away. He allowed himself to lean on Auri as he stood on his feet." Status update?"

sent Gustave trying to keep the worry out of his projection.

"I'm… I'm okay." Andy responded taking a deep breath to center himself.

"I think, I think I know what to do." Andy activated [LIFE MAGIC: PURIFY]. An emerald green circle of life magic began to spread out from the apex of Andy's horn. Light, flickering and becoming more saturated as his confidence in his decision grew. The circumference expanded slowly. What barely covered Andy and Auri doubled and then doubled again. The emerald life magic deepened. As it touched the purple corrupted embers a white sizzling light reacted from the combination.

When the last trace of corruption had burned away Andy released his ability. The grove was still. Trees, bodies, plants all returned to the Earth. And new life had begun to sprout from the ashes. Andy looked around, the sun had begun to set. They'd been here all day. He felt it immediately, the exhaustion, the ache in every muscle of his body. [ABILITY ENHANCED: LIFE MAGIC: PURIFY(MINOR) ->PURIFY(MODERATE)] [LIFE MAGIC EXPENDED: SIGNIFICANT. HORN RESERVES: 3%] [XP: +1000 (LARGE RANGE PURIFICATION)] [XP: 1483/?] Words weren't needed for the three companions as they made their way back to the clearing. Andy had performed a minor miracle and he was too exhausted to think let alone speak. Auri gently guided him if he'd stumble keeping him upright and Gustave took the liberty of clearing out evening predators that were adventurous enough or stupid enough to attempt to take on a tier 6, even at low strength. Wherever the chimera had come from, the source had not been this forest. All three of them could agree on that.

When they returned to the clearing the next mission was unclear, Andy did not know what a catalyst event was, but what was clear in this moment was that they were going in the right direction. Forward, horn first, toward whatever came next.

[SPECIES: HORSE (MAGICAL BEAST)] [PURITY AFFINITY: ACTIVE] [VIRGINAL STATUS: MAINTAINED] [CONTRIBUTING FACTOR WEIGHT: 23%] [PARTY MEMBERS: 4] [HERD BOND: COMPANION (VULPINE ADEPT)] [HERD BOND: COMPANION (RAPTOR ADEPT)] [HERD BOND: COMPANION (SESSILE)] [SOCIAL BOND: BONDED (HUMANOID, RANGER-TYPE)] [GALLOP EFFICIENCY: 58%] [NEXT MILESTONE: TIER 7 EVOLUTION] [HORN (MEGAFAUNA): TIER 6 OF 6. TRAIT CHAIN: UNPRECEDENTED. SPIRALING. LIFE LUMINESCENCE. SINGING. GROWING.] [MYTHIC CREATURE PREREQUISITES: HORN MORPHOLOGY (MET), LIFE MAGIC AFFINITY (MET), EQUINE BASE FORM (MET), MEGAFAUNA CLASS (MET). REMAINING: CATALYST EVENT (SEE TIER 7 REQUIREMENTS).]