You know what, I feel really stupid right now! Til’s totally right! If what he said is true, and I don’t want to eat him because he’s a part of the forest, then obviously the animals I’ve been eating since the beginning must not be a part of the forest too! I guess I just kind of always associated them with the forest, since you know… Where do animals live, right? I mean there’s a whole ecosystem, and a bunch of stuff going on, and-

 

Well, it’s my fault for applying earth rules to a fantasy world I guess.

 

=Okay, so if they’re not part of the forest like us, then what are they? Are they intruders too?=

 

Til stared at me like he was trying to figure out why I was asking this, but eventually he nodded like he understood (which I can only assume was him finally remembering that I’m freaking new here) and continued talking.

 

“No. Only entities created by a Spirit have any allegiance to one, unless they pledge themselves; Most non-elemental beings don’t belong to any Spirit at all.”

 

Well that’s certainly different from what I was thinking. It’s good to learn though! So that means if I see anything that’s clearly got an element to it, I can tell what Spirit it’s working for. Cool!

 

=Alright neat, then what’s the way to tell if something’s elemental or not?=

 

“...You’d look for the element’s characteristics. Everything from the Spirit of the Forest is either a plant or has something vibrant green about them, those from the Spirit of the Fire are understandably on fire or have something red about them, the Spirit of the Water's ilk live in the water or have something blue about them, and the Spirit of the Wind's servants can either fly to some extent or are all some form of pale yellow.”

 

Oh. You know what, that’s pretty straight forward. Thanks, Spirits, for keeping everything on the simple side for me!

 

=So since I’m a plant, I belong to the Forest Spirit, and… What, since you have-=

 

I scanned Til over, looking for whatever it was that was supposed to be green on him for a moment until I spotted it.

 

=-green eyes? That makes you part of the forest? But that’s so hard to see though…=

 

Til stiffened again, like how he did the last time when I asked him something that he didn’t like.

Uh oh, did I screw up and say something wrong again?

But what the heck, it’s a fact that he has green eyes, though…

 

“...Yes. My eyes are green, as are my nails, so I still count.”

 

Huh? Oh, I guess he’s right; I never noticed it before, but I guess his nails are colored or something. I just figured that was some kind of elven fashion statement or whatever. But uh… Am I missing something? Is this another one of those elven complexes that I stumbled onto again or what? Why is he speaking through gritted teeth? Uh Til, if you keep squeezing the wolf’s leg like that, you’re gonna snap it…

 

Eh, whatever, if even someone’s eye and nail color is something that I’m gonna have to look out for, then I suppose I’ll have to keep my own non-existent eyes peeled for it, too.

 

~~~

 

I ate all of that bear just in that one sitting, and now we were back to roaming along.

 

Really, my appetite has grown far too much. I know it’s only doing that for the sake of me growing and getting stronger, but it really bothers me imagining how I’m going to keep up with all the food I’m going to need to chug down in the future. Like, I know that if I don’t focus on growing that I won’t run through my nutrients so fast, but what if some kind of situation happens that forces me to use a bunch of my magic? Like for instance, what if I have a really difficult fight? What if I see a capybara in danger? Or what if Kale gets hurt really badly again? Heck, if the other elves that I meet look anything like Til, then I might just get upset seeing them hurt too, since it would make me think of him being hurt, so what about that?

 

Ah, but that’s doubtful though, judging from the elf bodies I saw before.

I mean, those just looked like wimpy little wispy planks.

They were nothing at all like my burly manly Til!

I don’t have anything against feminine looks at all mind you, and they were very pretty for being all dead like that, but…

Yeah, Til wins out against them for sure!

 

So yeah anyways, that’s something I worry about sometimes. But you know what else is worrying me? Those bumps that are growing on my head are getting really itchy! And you know what it’s made me realize? I don’t have a single thing to scratch it with! My tentacles don’t have nails, and although the points of them can totally be used to pierce through things, they aren’t really particularly sharp or able to be used to scratch anything. Without any force behind them they just kinda… bend against my head. I’ve considered rubbing my head against a tree or a rock or something, but then I’d have to worry about my ‘hair’ and flowers getting all messed up or maybe cut up, so I don’t wanna do anything like that.

 

I asked Til to try scratching the itchy spots once, but he just pulled a face at me like I was some kind of a pervert, so I guess that’s not going to happen either.

 

It’s gotten to the point where I just sometimes start tappy-tapping and lightly rubbing at the spots with a few of my tentacles to try and soothe the feeling, but it’s not particularly helping. I won’t lie, it’s driving me up the walls a bit. And ever since we got here, to this mushroom forest place with all of its spores, it kind of feels like the itchy feeling has gotten even worse? But if I rub too hard with my tentacles, then it feels like I’m going to break my skin (petals?) open a little and maybe hurt myself, so I’m trying my best not to do it.

 

Why don’t I just do it and heal myself afterwards to get it over with, you ask?

I’ve thought of that myself many times, but the problem is that I get itchy so often here that I’d run through a ton of nutrients if I was constantly doing that!

If I have to put up with some irritation in exchange for getting to keep all my nutrients, you’d better believe that I will!

Still really sucks, though...

It’s bothering me so much; It feels like something’s trying to break through the bumps on my head!

So itchyyyyy~!

 

I was finally getting fed up enough that I was debating on asking to borrow Til’s sword so I could try and scratch myself with the hilt of it, when suddenly something came falling down from the sky. I wrapped a tendril around the small blade-like thing that had embedded itself in the ground and pulled it up, looking it over and realizing a moment later that it was a sword.

 

Huh. Did Til give me his sword? Did I ask without realizing it or something? But this thing looks kind of ratty and chipped like it’s super old, and it’s small and not nearly as curved as Til’s blade is…

 

Did the forest feel bad for me and bring me something to scratch with?

 

“L’Lan’e’frea-!”

 

I started to turn my head towards Til, but before I could manage to do it, my vision detected something hurtling towards me from the mushroom above me. Ohhh, so this was where the sword came from! I guess when dropping something sharp on me didn’t work, it decided to drop its whole body on me this time. How fun!

 

I easily caught the small falling mushroom-covered goblin in my tendrils and immediately stuffed it into my mouth.

 

Ohhh, how lucky~!

I haven’t gotten to feel anything squirming for its life inside of my stomach in a long time!

I really missed this~!

 

Because of the mushrooms screwing with its brain, the goblin fought inside of me until it absolutely couldn’t fight any more, not letting any of its pain deter it. How wonderful! I wonder if it would be like this if I directly ate something enchanted by my camellia flower, too? I’m definitely going to have to try that sometime and see how much fun I can have with it!

 

“L’Lan’e’frea, there’s more!”

 

Hmm? Was there? But I can’t really tell so well; My vision does have a range to it after all. Anything past that range just basically doesn’t exist to it, so I can’t see it at all. But maybe if I plant my roots, then I might be able to-

 

Oh look, there really are some more goblins coming my way! Lucky~!

 

A small trail of mushroomed goblins came running my way, each wielding its own crude weapons, and even some makeshift ones, and I made sure that every single one of them wound up inside of my tummy, one after the other! Sure, I had to play with some of them for a bit while I let the last ones I’d eaten melt down, but it didn’t take all that long since my digestive enzymes are spooky strong, and I had a bunch of tentacles to keep them busy with so it was super easy. And thanks to the mushrooms infecting their brains, none of them even tried to run away when they saw how one-sided the fight was! They just kept comin’!

 

Yup, I got to enjoy them splashing around in my stomach juices like a kid in an inflatable pool for a niiice little while~!

 

All good things come to an end eventually though, and it seemed like I’d ran through all of my little self delivering snacks after about the seventh one. As I sat there trying to probe with my vision to see if I could spot any more in the distance, Til, who’d gone mysteriously missing while I was busy playing- I mean eating, suddenly showed back up.

 

“I scouted ahead. There seems to be a few hobgoblins and a group of orcs a small bit away. We should probably try to find a way to skirt around them if we want to hur-”

 

=ORCS?!=

 

Ohhh, he said the magic word! I would have already been interested in taking on and eating the hobgoblins just because I’ve never seen one before and they sound interesting, but now that I know there are more orcs over there…

 

Yup, I could definitely go for some pork and vengeance right about now!