Clovus’s consciousness had awoken back in the cerulean cavern. Pama didn’t appear with him, he was alone again. 

 

“You came back pretty fast.” Kandor’s voice echoed within the cavern. He appeared from a plume of smoke. 

 

Clovus turned his body to where he heard Kandor’s voice. He noticed Kandor’s body had shrunken down, he was about the size of Clovus now.

 

“What happened to your body?” Clovus questioned. 

 

*Cough* 

 

“Well, containing your manifesting ability and establishing myself within your, our, mental world took quite a bit out of my energy reserves. I have not been able to regenerate any energy since I died, so I expended a lot of my reserves.”

 

“Will you be alright with this much energy?”

 

“Bah. You do not have to worry about me. Contracting with you has -- in a way -- revived me, my energy is restoring, albeit extremely slow. But we can expedite the process by making you stronger!”

 

Clovus’s eyes shone at the prospect of getting stronger. 

 

“I know we did not finish our conversation before, but we can always get back to that later. The main thing now is to train and get strong. Now, I want you to create an essence thread for me.”

 

Clovus extended his hand, concentrating, he created a silver-verdant thread of essence. 

 

“Good, it seems you have some ability. Maybe your [Tamer] ability allows you to control your essence easier. Okay, now get a feel for the thread.”

 

Clovus tilted his head in confusion.

 

“What I mean is to feel the energy of the essence contained within the thread. How does it move? Does the energy fluctuate? With this exercise, we ultimately want to use the essence contained within the thread as an extension of your senses. Try to ‘see,’ ‘hear,’ ‘feel,’ and even ‘smell’ through the thread.”

 

Clovus nodded his head and began to move the thread of essence around.  

 

Kandor watched him do this for a couple of hours until he was satisfied. “Even though a couple hours have passed, you have gotten quite good at controlling your essence. Okay, you practice that on your own time now. I will start showing you how to establish a pattern."

 

Before Kandor could continue, Clovus interrupted. "Pattern?"

 

"Yes, a pattern."

 

"But what is a pattern?"

 

"Patterns are what make demonic beasts unique. Demonic beasts are born with unique engravings imprinted on their body, it could be located internally or externally. These engravings could be activated by imbuing essence into it. Activating these patterns allows one's inherent ability to manifest."

 

With eyes shining, Clovus asked, "Abilities?"

 

"Yes. But we'll focus on the specifics of the abilities later. Now, close your eyes and guide your thread of essence into my chest, specifically my lungs. Do not pay attention to how the pattern is structured, for now, focus on the flow of essence.”

 

Clovus did as he was asked and began to observe the flow of essence within the pattern of Kandor’s lungs.

 

***

 

Depleting one’s essence in its entirety would completely drain the Ghrim down to their bones. Since awakening from his coma, Clovus was able to move his arms around, but with the added strain from his bangles, he couldn’t move them around for too long. 

 

Clovus worked on his stamina until the third day of the week, where he was finally able to walk for two minutes. Slowly but surely, he was able to build back his stamina and strength. Since he was now able to stand, he resumed his daily exercises, even practicing with his rondel dagger. 

 

He wasn’t just focusing on his strength, he began to dig into the books about demonic beasts that Fawn left for him. If he wanted to become a true [Tamer] then he needed to learn about all kinds of demonic beasts. 

 

Clovus also picked up carving lessons from Maaru. When even reading became too much for him, he would watch Maaru carve her puppets. By the three days that Clovus had spent walking again, she had completed hundreds of pieces of carvings. By the fourth day, he watched her assemble all the pieces, one by one, threading each piece with a green thread.

 

After all the pieces were threaded and laid out, she pulled the thread and all of the pieces came together to form a snake. 

 

Clovus’s eyes widen at the completion of the snake puppet. The snake’s body was khakis colored with three indents for gemstones to be embedded into its head, one in its mouth and one in each eye.

 

Maaru had caught Clovus’s reaction and her wooden expression turned into a smile. She didn’t say anything and continued to complete the puppet. Maaru summoned her grimoire and produced a thread of essence. She laid two small gemstones to its eyes, one each. As she laid the gemstone in, she used her thread of essence to run through the engravings carved into the wood of the eye. The engravings glowed with the color of her essence and bonded onto the gemstone. She repeated the process for the other eye and finally with a medium size brown gemstone in its mouth.

 

After the gemstones were embedded, she used her thread of essence and instilled it into the brown gemstone. With the instilled thread of essence, the snake came alive. It started flexing its wooden scales and curling around Maaru’s arm. The length of the snake was about two meters, it completely covered Maaru’s arm. Maaru then produced another thread of essence, instilling that into the gemstone of its left eye. The snake's body began to lengthen and expand at a visible rate. It slithered down Maaru’s arm and started to coil around her entire body instead. Every piece of the snake puppet expanded, soon Maaru’s body was covered by the snake, stopping at around eight meters in length and each scale being about six inches in width. The snake’s head was about one meter in size, though the gemstones contained in its eyes and mouth did not change sizes along with it. 

 

At some point Maaru had produced a third thread of essence as Clovus could see it weaving its way from the middle of its coiled body into the snake’s right eye. The snake began to change once more, this time shrinking down to four meters and its entire shape changing. Its head shrank and elongated, becoming a two-inch in diameter hilt. The snake’s body tightened and became an inch in diameter. The large scales compacting to form a flexible knitted body of a whip. The snake puppet had transformed into a wooden whip. 

 

Maaru released the threads of essence within the gemstones and the snake turned back into a two meter lifeless puppet. She walked over to Clovus, whose expression was still in amazement, from her crafting corner and placed the puppet into his lap. 

 

“This is yours.”

 

***

 

Maaru explained that she technically didn’t give Clovus a gift for his Ghrim ceremony. Clovus happily accepted and listened to the details of operating the puppet.

 

The instructions weren’t too complicated. A thread of essence in each gemstone produces a different ability of the snake puppet. Activating the medium sized gemstone would allow you to control the puppet. Producing two threads of essence and instilling them into two different gemstones allows a variety of ways to utilize the puppet; she left the specific details out so that Clovus could experiment with them himself. Using all three gemstones allows the snake to turn into a whip, which you could use or, if one was talented enough, even control with your essence.

 

After her explanation, Maaru asked Clovus if he was interested in learning how to carve puppets. 

 

Clovus nodded his head vigorously.

 

***

 

The rest of the week was spent on learning the tools for wood carving. Maaru explained how each tool produces different carves, even the angle in which you hold the tool could produce a different carving. 

 

With each tool she carved an example on a wooden log and had Clovus repeat it. Learning from Maaru was different compared to learning from his other teachers, Master Resh and Fawn. Although her tone was nice, her standards were high when it came to carving. She did not hold back as she criticized each carve that Clovus made. Clovus had to repeat various carvings tens, even hundreds, of times before she approved of them.

 

After learning just the basics of carving, Maaru told Clovus that they would start on a new puppet together. 

 

Though the repeated carving was tedious, Clovus was extremely grateful, only master craftsmen resided in the village of Apis. Learning from any one of them was a privilege. 

 

As they began to work on the new puppet, Maaru expanded on her teachings and taught Clovus the basics of puppetry. She explained the differences between a Puppeteer Ghrim creating a puppet versus someone who wasn’t a Ghrim.

 

Fundamentally, the puppets were the same in creation. The main difference was that non-Ghrims needed a thread, or some type of wiring, to connect each piece of wood, as well as a gemstone for activation. 

 

“Then why do you have gemstones embedded into your puppets as well, you don’t need them for activation right,” Clovus wrote down his question. 

 

“That is correct. I do not need them for activation, but I do use them for a different purpose. Each Puppeteer Ghrim has their own way of creating their puppets, even non-Ghrims have their specific methods. My style integrates the use of gemstones at critical junctures of the puppet, enhancing the performance of the puppet by many times, of course this depends on the use.”

 

Maaru summoned her grimoire and a puppet came out. “For example, this jaguar puppet of mine. I installed two gems in the hinges of its jaw to increase its bite force. I also installed gems at each joint of its legs and one gemstone on each paw, thus allowing it to have an increase in both speed and strength.”

 

Her grimoire flashed in light as a new puppet was summoned. “This ape puppet has multiple gems within its arms, shoulders, chest and back. Though, gemstones are not the only thing important in enhancing puppets. The materials used in creating the puppet are very important as well. I used sturdier and harder wood when carving the ape puppet. The types of wood paired with the gemstones I used enhances both the defense and strength of the puppet.”

 

“So anyone can create puppets?”

 

“Essentially, yes. As long as the correct components are there, anyone can create puppets. But, only Puppeteers can control puppets like an extension of their own body.”

 

***

 

Clovus continued the routine of reading, exercising, and carving his new puppet. By the end of the week, Clovus had finally felt that his body was back to normal. Since he was finally back to his standards, he let everyone know. 

 

Clovus didn’t have to wait too long before Maverick and Lok appeared in his room.

 

“You’re feeling back to normal now,” asked Maverick.

 

“Yes Chieftain. I am not getting tired when walking anymore. I feel that my body is back to its normal standards.”

 

“That’s great!” Maverick released a huge smile. 

 

Lok added, “I also have some good news. We recently heard back from the research group that your parents are with. They are concluding their findings and should be back within a week.”

 

Clovus’s expression brightened at the thought of his parents coming back.

 

Lok continued, “They wanted me to inform you that they agree with what I mentioned before, you need to start training so that something like this doesn’t occur again.”

 

Clovus nodded his head insistently.

 

Maverick took over, “We want to hold a little examination for you to display your abilities. During this examination, we would be testing your potential. Through this, we could evaluate who has the best compatibility with your skills to teach you. We’ve decided to hold the examination towards the end of this week, when it’s closer to the date that your parents are coming back.”

 

“Why not wait until my parents are back?”

 

“I brought that up with them as well, and they said it is better for you to find potential teachers sooner rather than later.”

 

Clovus nodded at his response.

 

“Now, once we test your abilities and the prospective teachers are found, we will wait until your parents are back to finalize who will be teaching you. Until then, focus on readying both your mind and body.” Maverick paused before continuing, “Maaru also mentioned that you have taken up carving.”

 

He glanced at Maaru, “Maaru said that you’re improving every time you pick-up a tool. By her standards, your carving better than most beginners.”

 

Clovus smiled once again and looked towards Maaru and nodded. 

 

“Keep up the good work then.” Maverick smiled back and headed towards the door now, but he stopped suddenly and turned back to Clovus. “During the examination, don’t be afraid to let everything loose. Since no one is going to get hurt, don’t be afraid to go all out. Seeing the most you can do will help us judge the extent of your potential.” With that, Maverick and Lok left the room.