“There’s a lot that's been going on, but I decided to make sure you were safe first. The best way to do that was to fortify the cave you were placed in.”
Sitting on a soft, moss carpet with a leafy canopy for a ceiling, after waking up as an adult and having a green wisp speak to me, was a very surreal experience. There was a lot to unpack about everything that had been said before, but I felt like I needed to be told the rest of what was going on, too. That way, I could accurately begin to deal with it all. At least try to.
“There was a LOT of energy given to us from our parents, so I was able to set up a lot in this cave. It’s basically a giant cocoon of foliage that is connected to a giant grove aboveground. I used some of the seeds we had in pouches we brought with us to grow the foundation. Since we’re in such a mana-low environment and had the energy to grow them properly, they thrived well. I made sure they didn’t go too crazy, though, and disrupt the natural environment.”
Looking at the moss, I did notice that it was originally from the dirty bedding I had used before, and it was now a giant, comfy floor. The rest of the structure I could now recognize as a slumber shell, a giant natural plant with multiple pods that would lure in prey with its unique ability. It would use mana to create a hypnotic scent that would make creatures travel to it, rest within, and then be digested over time. By making them willingly go in without a fight, their prey would waste less mana than if they were to fight it, leaving more for the slumber shell to consume.
My people had found them long ago and bred them over generations to serve as specialized sleeping cells to heal those in physical and mental pain. The only downside was that the longer one stayed in after they were healed, the more addicted they would get to it, and eventually would get horrible withdrawals. It did go away after a while, but it was not a pleasant experience. However, I had never gone through it myself. We were a few generations away from eliminating that side effect before we had to leave the village. I had obviously been in here for years, so whatever Root did definitely got rid of that effect, as I didn’t feel tired or sick at all.
“How did I not get addicted to being in there for so long?”
“Well, that's the interesting thing, I realized that the reason we could never really get rid of the addiction effect was that it affects the soul directly instead of the mind or body. Since I’m mostly made up of soul mana, I wasn’t affected, as it was too weak, and your soul got a lot more powerful, so you were good. It does still have ways of affecting the body and mind, which is what our tribesmen focused on getting rid of through breeding, but we were missing that piece.”
That did make a lot more sense. I didn’t know any Forest Trolls besides my grandfather, who understood the soul that well. Even with his knowledge, he admitted that the subject was extremely broad and not his focus. Also, the effect seemed similar enough to that of other plants that we never expected it to touch the soul. There were plenty of plants and fungi that had strange abilities we had tried to uncover, so maybe some of them did the same without us realizing it.
“So…I guess I’m primarily focused on elevating my soul now since I absorbed that core, right?”
“Yeah, I know we wanted to focus on the mind and then body, but it looks like that has to change. I have no idea how one would begin to reset their Origin of Self.”
“A soul practitioner, huh.”
I contemplated my predicament, sitting within this slumber shell, and as I did, memories of my grandfather’s teachings began to resurface. I remembered sitting on the roof, staring at the stars above his giant acorn hut. He always said he had used it throughout his travels around the world, and it had gathered a special mana that helped with contemplation. So we would sit on it and speak, especially after a hard day or one where I got mad at him for messing with me way too much.
He was a shorter troll with tea-green skin and a bald head, with darker green tattoos of fauna that changed depending on what he was around. He had all manner of multi-colored gemstone piercings on his pointed ears, eyebrows, lips, and nose, practically covering all available space on his face in them. Often, he would groom his long white beard, braided with gold and silver, and meticulously polish his tusks, which seemed to bear carvings of the entire world. His nails were meticulously trimmed and painted in the imagery of mountain peaks, crested with snow, made to match the natural pointed shape of forest troll nails.
He wore robes the color of rich soil, beautifully embroidered with all manner of imagery that shifted with the seasons. In this memory, it held reds, yellows, and oranges of autumn leaves that glowed with the starlight. He would sit with one of his legs at his chest and his elbow on his knee as he used his finger to tap on his tusk.
Tap - Tap - Tap
His tapping stopped, and he looked down at me, the barely eight-year-old little troll with tiny tusks and dirt still in his hair, eyes glued to the glowing starry expanse above. He opened his mouth to speak, and like always, he immediately got to the point.
“What Origin of Self do you wish to focus on primarily? You’ve been learning about it more in your classes, haven’t you? The body like your mother? The mind like your father? Or maybe the soul?”
“Why do you have to ask questions like that so randomly, Tugsove?" I said disgruntledly as I tried to ignore him, calling him by his first name to rile him up.
He didn’t bite and instead smiled as he spoke again, unintentionally having a glimmer of starlight bounce off his polished tusk in my direction.
“Just humor me, and I’ll sneak you some of your mother’s lychee honey, I know you’ve been eyeing.”
I looked over, not fully trusting him, but decided to answer anyway. The honey was really good.
“I want to do all three!” I said excitedly, my imagination running wild at the possibilities.
My grandfather went from anticipation to disappointment almost immediately. Letting out a sigh, he spoke to me in a lecturing tone with his finger pointing at me.
“Harvoth, you know it's not realistic to do all three. Even if you could, you would never get far. You have to choose a primary one to focus on first; eventually, you will have a secondary and a tertiary. I’ve told you about this!” He said exasperatedly, his jewelry clinking as it hit against each other.
“Ughh…I know! I have to start gathering energy in my primary Origin of Self and keep pushing it so I can store more and more until I transform or something. You’ve said it before.”
“Then what’s so hard about saying it honestly the first time I ask?! Also, it's the transformation ORDEAL, not transform or something.”
“It's payback for tripping me into a pile of mud earlier today.”
“Oh, c’mon, that was practically a freebie! You were gloating so much that I had to teach you a lesson.”
“Only you would pick a fight with a kid, that’s why everyone says you’ve never grown up!”
“Ah, low blow there, you brat! You can kiss the lychee honey goodbye!”
“Don’t act like you were going to fulfill your promise anyway! You were probably going to lead me to where it was and get me in trouble with mom!”
“Just because that's what I was going to do doesn’t mean you should disrespect me so much! I’ll teach you an important lesson not to mess with an old troll in a jungle!”
With that, we both continued to bicker with each other, and when I went off to tell my mom, he had some vines to wrap me up, proceeding to dangle me from a tree. While I had been giggling at the time, I definitely wasn’t happy with the old man, but looking back, they were good memories. Grandpa definitely wasn’t the most responsible adult, but I could recognize that he tried in his own way.
Rubbing a stray piece of moss in my hand as I tapped my tusk with the other, I wondered if Grandpa was alright. I knew he probably was, but the fact that he hadn’t found us yet was concerning. He was powerful, much more than I think I truly could understand, so I trusted I would meet with him someday.
Thinking back to that old lesson, I realized my primary Origin of Self was now my soul, which I really had no idea about how to use. Before my coma, I had begun to gather mana in my mind, but now it's totally changed. I looked over at Root, who was still hovering nearby, deciding to ask him, as being made out of soul mana and connected to mine would make him the best to ask.
“Root, how do I examine my soul? You said it was green, so you’ve definitely seen it. If you can, then there should be a way for me to see it too.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen it a bunch of times! I’m not sure how you yourself would do it, but since I’ve been there before, I could try and help.”
“How would you do that?”
“I guess I could enter your soul and try talking to you from there to give you an idea of where it is. That could be a start.”
I nodded as he spoke, realizing his unique identity and perspective were really helpful. It felt weird that he had been in my soul when I was sleeping, but that was on the lower end of strangeness and worry for today.
“Sure, let's do that then.”
“Great, I’ll go now!”
With that, he approached my chest, and without any preparation, he went inside, disappearing without a trace. I didn’t feel any physical sensation as he did, but the connection I had felt between us seemed to become fuzzy, and I couldn’t immediately trace where it went.
“Over here! Can you sense me?”
Suddenly, I heard Root’s voice directly in my mind, and the connection grew stronger, yet still lacked the completeness it had before. An idea came to me as I thought about the fact that he was made of soul mana and probably blended into my soul. Speaking out loud, but also in my head, I told Root my idea.
“Root, can you try to send some mana through the link we have or find a way to glow brighter?”
“Yes, I can try! Also, can you speak out loud or in your head, please? Speaking in your mind is quieter, but better than both at once. I hear two of you.”
“Ok, well…test, test, does this work?” I said, speaking out loud at first, but then switching to speaking in my mind.
“Yes, still quiet but much better, thank you! I think I have a way to glow brighter. I’ll draw in some mana from your soul temporarily.”
He finished speaking, and nothing happened for the next thirty seconds, which worried me. As I began to wonder whether I should try speaking with him again, I felt a faint warmth build somewhere in my awareness. It wasn’t within my chest where he entered, but somewhere I could only describe as deeper within my very being. As it grew, I felt the link grow closer, and eventually I could feel my own awareness pick up on a thin thread of soul mana. It seemed to exist extremely close, but so far away too, and without doubting myself, I “grabbed” onto it and felt myself being pulled in.
In an instant, I found my awareness had become super fuzzy, and as I adjusted, a sense of warmth washed over me. Opening my “eyes”, which I guess weren't my actual eyes, though it felt like it, I immediately saw the massive green light encompassing my vision. The rays of light it gave off faded into a vast blackness beyond, but my attention stayed on the star. It wasn’t like I was staring at the sun and burning my eyes, but instead a gentle green campfire that wasn’t blowing smoke in my direction. When I could finally see after my awareness adjusted, I gasped as my soul was revealed.
A giant, burning green star appeared in front of me, encompassing my entire point of view as the ripples of mana pulsed on its surface. It was the purest form of mana I had ever seen, and while it took the image of a star, I felt no fire affinity coming from it. Instead, the most beautiful energy seemed to fill up my entire being, and I could even begin to feel the soul and nature mana present within. There were some other affinities mixed in, too, but I lacked the comprehension to understand them. I felt like I was standing on a tall mountain peak, finally seeing the sun as it washed away my exhaustion and the cold from within me.
This was…my soul.
Slumber shells are loosely based on pitcher pods and the idea of advanced VR game capsules or medical capsules.
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