You know, now that it’s been brought up again, I think Til first mentioned that there was a prophecy around the time that he explained to me what ‘L’Lan’e’frea’ meant. As I recall, he said it was something to do with my kind and becoming ‘land freers’, right? But past that, I guess I don’t really know much else about it, huh?

 

“The prophecy… It foretold the future of your kind. Specifically it told of the 'L’Lan’e’frea', the one who would free the land and save the forest from the aggressions of the fire and wind. It foretold the arrival of a special L’Lan’e’frea, who would rise above all. You can understand why elves who serve the Spirit of the Forest would be sensitive to such a thing, no?”

 

Yeah I can totally see why all the elves in the room got super jumpy.

 

=So because I said I wanted the entire forest, they think it’s because of the prophecy or whatever?=

 

“You are, after all, very different from all the other L’Lan’e’freas we’ve come across so far; Different enough that you might just do what they’ve never been capable of. It’s no wonder the Elders weren’t able to write off your claims.”

 

Wow. That’s a lot more pressure than I expected from just a couple of spontaneously spoken words. I honestly don’t think I like having such high expectations put on me. Ugh, just imagine how they’re going to look at me after this… Especially if I can’t manage to pull it off in the end…

 

Til squeezed my tentacles gently, bringing my focus back towards him.

 

“...Did finding out about the prophecy make you want to change your mind? It’s okay if that’s the case. No one would blame you for it.”

 

Well does it? It’d be a lie if I said it didn’t feel like too much to handle for the current me… And yet somehow I still don’t think I want to change my mind. I don’t know, maybe I just don’t like to back down? Guess I always was a sore loser.

 

I softly wrapped my tentacles over Til’s squeezing hands, squeezing him a little back. If I could have smiled, I would have given him the cheekiest one that I could muster up.

 

=Nah. What’s the point in backing down now, right? They say to dream big, so why don’t I try and fulfill a silly old prophecy too while I’m at it?=

 

Til gave me a lopsided smile that seemed to say he expected as much from me.

 

“Are you sure? It’ll be incredibly dangerous. You saw the Avatar of the Wind with your own eyes. I hate to say it, but I’m sure that thing could easily eat you for dinner.”

 

=Hah, yup, you’re totally right!=

 

I moved myself away from Til, swirling my tentacles into arms and putting my ‘hands’ on my hips, striking a superman pose.

 

=But I’ve got something on my side that that thing doesn’t!=

 

Til looked me up and down playfully while he crossed his arms.

 

“...I hope you don’t say it’s that ‘personality’ of yours that you somehow unfortunately received.”

 

It was rare to see Til joking with me like this. Really, maybe I should learn how to make the mouth on my face a bit more real so that I can show how much fun I’m having around Til.

 

=Nooo, it’s not that at all! It’s… Mmm okay, how old do you think that the Wind Avatar or whatever is?=

 

“Hmm...? Why would you…? I… think there’s records of it from around 200 years ago? But I can’t be sure.”

 

Yeah, I figured something that crazy big and oozing with power would have been pretty old. At the very least I would have expected him to say it was a few decades old, but hearing that answer just gives me more fuel for my point!

 

=Well I’m only a little under a year old, but I’ve already been able to take down that trea- Um, that other corpse plant that was keeping that fire lizard thing that you had to kill in check. Just imagine how strong I can get if you give me some more time to catch up!=

 

Yup, the number one thing on my side is that I grow like a weed! I constantly change and adapt! If you give me long enough, I’m sure there’s nothing I won’t be able to stand up to!

 

Til’s face turned serious as he thought over what I was saying, and one of his hands came up to stroke at his jaw.

 

“You’re right, that’s quite true… But that’s only an advantage if you’re given the time. It’s completely possible that you end up running into the Avatar of Wind or Envoy of Fire before you’re ready and are killed before then, however.”

 

=Ah, but that’s only if I go near their borders, right?=

 

“Well yes, I suppose that’s true. But if your growth depends on the mana-richness of the things that you eat, then few things would give you more than magical beings created by a Spirit. Would it not be best for you to confront and consume as many of those as you could? That’s only possible if you were to keep yourself by the borderlands.”

 

Mhmm, what he’s saying is tooootally valid!

 

=You’re right, you’re right! But there’s another way, you know?=

 

Til tilted his head in confusion as he tried to understand what my words might have meant, but after a moment he pulled away from me and gave me an apprehensive glare.

 

“...You’re not talking about elven blood again, are you?”

 

Mmm yup, I thought we’d gotten closer, but I see that he still has a little bit of distrust in me, huh? Well, I can’t say I don’t understand why he’d be like that, though. Pretty sure with this whole ‘prophecy’ deal, there’s a possible world where I’m able to convince a bunch of the elves to feed me their blood and help me grow stronger more quickly. I could probably swindle ‘em out of lots of it if I tried hard enough! Heck, maybe I could even get ‘em to consider giving me more than just blood to power me, if you catch my drift. I could live the life of a succubus/vampire queen here!

 

But yeah, no, I don’t think I’d really like that very much.

 

It’s true that my mom scrambled a bunch of the natural instincts that I’m supposed to have, but it’s still completely true that I don’t really want to eat the elves. And, on top of that, maybe because of the conscience that I inherited from mom, or maybe due to the fact that I’ve only ever tasted Til’s blood before, but the thought of getting any blood or anything else from the other elves is kinda… gross. Well I say that, but it’s honestly most likely because I just like Til. Going to the other elves for all that stuff would be cheating, right? And besides, those wood elves don’t appeal to me at all! If I'm gonna drink something, it’d rather be from a nice looking cup than a dull one, right?

 

Those fire elves though… Now those sound like they might be appealing…

 

“L’Lan’e’frea.”

 

Til’s judging and unhappy voice snapped me out of my impure and bloodthirsty thoughts. I almost felt like I’d gotten caught doing something very bad, so I hurried up and stopped beating around the bush, to cover it up.

 

=Oh, umm no! No it’s got nothing to do with blood so don’t worry! You don’t have to look at me like that! Honest! No, it’s um… There’s these rocks! There’s these blue, special rocks with a little mark on them!=

 

I hurried and stuck the tip of one of my tentacles into the ground, drawing from memory the rock and its symbol as best as I could.

 

=This rock has loads of magical energy in it, enough to power me for a loooong long time! I tried looking for them before, but no matter how long I searched I couldn’t find any but the one I ate. I’m sure if I could just find a few more of these, then I could probably get a lot stronger in a small amount of time, so…=

 

“Yes, I see… You’re right, it would definitely work. However, it’s not surprising that you weren’t able to find them in the forest.”

 

=What? But the one I found was in the forest! It was in a mine, mind you, but-=

 

“Would this mine of yours happen to be to the south-east of here? Quite a long ways away?”

 

Um… Now that he was mentioning it, I guess it kind of was? I did come a long damn way north, after all, and we’d been mostly moving west to get to where Til lived…

 

=Mmm yeah? I think so?=

 

Til nodded, seeming sure of what he was thinking now that he’d heard me confirm.

 

“This blue rock you speak of, it’s what’s left behind when certain types of magical beings born from the Spirit of the Water die. The mark you drew is the symbol of the Spirit of the Water that resides in all of its creations.”

 

…Huh? No wonder I wasn’t able to find more of them no matter how hard I looked, then! If it’s a Spirit of the Water sorta deal, then it’d be quite the rare item in the Forest Spirit’s territory, now wouldn’t it?

 

Ummm… Wait a minute , but how did that end up in the middle of a mountain…?

 

_____