The birds chirped, the river flowed, the wind rustled the maple leaves.

The sound of it all brought a smile to my lips as I woke up and stood to stretch.

Taking a deep breath, I knew today would be special.

Opening my eyes to look at my surroundings I was stunned into silence.

I wasn’t at my lumbering cottage!

I was out in a forest, a miniature forest!

The tallest tree was as big as my index finger! 

Everything is releasing motes of light, the river with motes of blue, the trees with motes of green, the ground with motes of gray and brown, the sky with motes of white and many others.

Gasping in surprise I watched as many of the motes were sucked into me, they did not leave when I exhaled.

Somehow I understood that I had 88 green, 67 grays, 78 brown, and 41 blue.

Ohhh this is properly another one of my wired ass dreams, well all I need to do is check my body.

You see the common thread around all my dreams is that my body, weirdly enough, becomes absolutely perfect.

And I am not talking Hollywood perfect or beach perfect.

I am talking about the greek god level of perfection.

And taking off my button-up shirt I find a perfectly chiseled body with some muscles that I didn’t even know existed before.

I mean god damn, I look good!

.

Looking around me I find my camping bag fallen behind me. With my trusty woodcutting ax tied to it with paracord.

Taking my bag I begin walking around while taking deep breaths and absorbing more and more moats of light, why? because it feels very good

I found a great lake, enough for me to see the reflection of my face, and surprisingly it too changed. Normally my face remains the same but this is a strange dream.

My new face was sharp, my normal golly cheeks were nowhere, instead, I had a sharp and defined jaw, my beard had become lush and smooth, and my eyes shone with an unnatural glow. I looked more solid.

God, I would have married myself if I was any more narcissistic.

I sat down on a nearby hill, enjoying the air and the motes of light.

Each breath brought me harmony and peace,

I felt the thurst that was building up within me quenched as more and more motes of light from the lake were absorbed into me.

I lost myself In the sensation until a particularly spicy smell reached my nose. The new sensation made me open my eyes. The smell was not unpleasant by any means but it was a wholly new scent. 

What greeted me was a small whisper of red motes coming at me from behind the trees.

When I focused I was able to see some light smoke rising from the same direction 

Hoping it isn’t a forest fire I stood and went to investigate.

Looming far above the forest, two steps were enough for me to reach the source. Careful not to step on too many trees along the way I stopped and kneed to look more closely at something truly bizarre.

Humanoid beings, tiny and small humanoid beings, their skin was in many different colors. Some were as brown as the dirt under their feet making them hard to see without them moving and screaming.

Others were completely white, incidentally,  they were running and screaming the fastest,

What they had in common was how ugly they were. Covered in filth and dressed in rags, with thin arms and legs yet fat stomachs and disgustingly large heads! Their body proportions were simply wrong in all ways imaginable just like what you would get for looking up homunculus on google!

I was content with simply letting them live their disgusting lives away from me until I saw something strange.

They breathed in the motes around them only to exhale  them out dirtied and polluted.

UNCLEAN IMPURE WRONG DIRTY FILTHY DISGUSTING!

“DIE!” I found myself declaring as I now held my ax, it glowed with the black motes of death and decay that I had gathered in my short stay in the forest, not caring how it suddenly appeared in my hands or how the dark motes seemed to be dancing with fury,i swung it down at the awaiting heathens.

The ax struck the earth crushing trees and abominations, what followed was a wave of angry black light that devoured all that stood around the area of the attack and further than that, leaving nothing but high-quality dirt full of nutrients for the forest.

I looked thoroughly around making sure none escaped, what I saw was nothing but damage done to the forest that will take more than a hundred years to heal fully.

Only this sight broke me out of my frenzy.

“Why in the hell did I do that?!”

Thinking back to that moment  I could only see red but had no idea why.

Freaky, lets hope it doesn't happen again..

But how do I fix what I did?   What did i even do

Looking down at my ax i think back to how the black motes ,the ones from dead animals and fungi, had surrounded the ax head and somehow enhanced my attack.

Can i do the same with the green motes?

As soon as i thought it i knew the answer was a resounding yes

It was as simple as breathing, all I did was will green motes into my hand filling it with a bright green light.

Very gently I kneeled and carefully run my hand over the forest floor, where the light touched trees rose, healthy and bright, stronger and more beautiful than what was there before.

Frankly impressed, I stood watching the beauty of the forest I healed.

How many motes did this take?

Two….only two, HOW?

One of the back and one of the green but the lights were far larger than what a single mote can possibly produce

I just don't get it, well no use worrying about it

Walking back to the lake I sit down on the hill and begin to think.

What else can I do? For now I am sure green is life and black is death? Or something along those lines

What else can I do with the other colors?

Only testing can tell me I guess.

Pulling on a mote of gray to my hand I brush a part of the earth with its light quickly using it up.

The result was a large rock appearing where I brushed.

Taking the rock I found it surprisingly easy to shape and form. Like I was holding putty in my hand, when I shaped it into a slab of rock and wanted it to stay as such it stopped being so easy to form.

Hmm gray is rock and stone. I can shape the stone as I want and set its shape as I want.

Cool!! Can I actually make a chair my size!?

The hill is too small and uncomfortable.

Getting up I got to work shaping a ginormous chair for my ass to sit on. Made of solid rock it ended up looking like a throne. But not like that will be a problem.

Right?…..right.

Sitting on the chair I felt oddly tired.

Closing my eyes I fell into a deep sleep.

*****

I ran next to the wagons. Closer and closer to the heart of the forest where father Alito says we will be safe.

I can only hope that me and mine can find safety from the horrors of the dragon empire.

Of the original five thousand only two thousand survived the journey. Thankfully my family is lucky enough not to have lost anyone. Defying our expectations the deeper we went into the forest the less dangerous it became.

I can only hope it is because this place is blessed and not that a king has claimed the area 

********