Ch. 97 - Calm

Calm

Alice’s madly-pumping chest only slowed after a good ten minutes spent resting down on the shivering grass that grew over the massive carapace of the Rhinoceros Beetle.

As she rested, the huge crystalline spike she had just extracted from the titan’s flesh, and that was lying on the ground just a couple of meters away from her, slowly began sliding a bit further down its sloped shell with every one of its twitches and shifts, the creature still reeling from the harsh surgical operation she had just conducted.

In the meanwhile, Alice herself also began feeling the results of her incredible exertion, the adrenaline coursing through her veins finally dispersing and leaving her with a body that cried out in protest, her regeneration working far too slowly to prevent her from fully experiencing the sensation of multiple torn muscles and ligaments, the strain of the last push having been too much even for her enhanced body.

Groaning a bit upon first moving it, she still raised one hand to her nose and quickly picked out the congealed blood blocking her nostrils, the trickle having thankfully stopped pretty quickly after she had dropped down on the ground to recover.

After making sure that she would be able to breathe normally, Alice began checking her body and repairing the more serious injuries she could find, taking a small sigh of relief when she confirmed that the lightheadedness she had experienced had only been due to the momentary lack of oxygen to her brain and not caused by some kind of strain-induced stroke.

As soon as she was certain that she wouldn’t be dying in the following minutes, her task became the relatively simple matter of patching up the worst of the tears, with her biceps and thighs having taken the worst of the damage upon releasing the incredible energy that their ever-coiled fibers normally kept hidden, damaging them in the process.

“The skill’s description was pretty accurate, next time I’ll try a less outright approach,” she managed to spit out as her healing muscles twitched horrifically under her skin, the hitching so unbearable that it took her a moment to realize that her ears where still plugged up, her voice sounding warped and strange inside her head.

As she worked to equalize the pressure by repeatedly swallowing her saliva, Alice turned her head to the side and observed a very calm Basil gently slithering towards her from its previous spot; its small, pointed head rising until their eyes were at the same height, a protracted hiss reaching her ears just as a soft pop echoed in her ear canal and the sound suddenly reverted to their normal state.

“That’s a lot better,” she stated with a huff before letting her body continue its work, only wincing a bit throughout the lengthy and unpleasant process.

Then, just as she was attempting to get up, the huge crystalline fragment finally reached its tipping point and truly began sliding down the steep cliff, gaining more and more speed until it finally sailed over the edge and slammed against the ground, exploding into a shower of splinters that clinked harmlessly against the insect’s armored legs and underbelly while deeply embedding themselves into the soft wood of the trees surrounding the creature.

As a response, the monster under her feet finally stilled, as if surprised by the event, and then lowered itself on the ground once again, a loud rumble shaking the trees while the roiling energy flooding the area gradually slowed down, allowing the now-overgrown forest to ultimately still and rest.

Using that moment of respite to her advantage, Alice picked up the few things she had brought with her and unsteadily begun making her way down the slope, walking slowly to prevent her feet from sliding over the slippery grass, its green blades wet from the droplets of condensation that had formed all over the crystal cupola while she worked and that even now rained down on ground floor, a sparse drizzle that felt incredibly cold on her pale skin despite the bright sun shining on the translucent dome, causing her pet to quickly flee inside of her dress in search of a drier and warmer spot.

“W-hat a litt-le m-oocher,” she stuttered out between goosebumps and shivers as she carefully jumped down on one of the thick legs supporting the exoskeleton, nearly slipping on the hard petrified wood of the shell but ultimately using it as a stepping stone to avoid straining herself any further.

When she finally reached the ground, Alice limped as quickly as she could to the spot where she had left all her belongings, swearing under her breath when she discovered the mess of leaves and plants that had completely covered them, forcing her to literally rip away the undergrowth to retrieve them.

Despite the inconvenience, it didn’t take her long to recover all her stuff, a small smile of satisfaction even appearing on her face when, for the first time since creating it, she wore her new fur cloak, finding it warm and quite dry despite having been left on the ground for some time, the hide perfectly able to protect her from most of the water droplets falling on her.

I should have added a hood, she thought as she squeezed the water out of her hair, content despite the cold.

It was only when she went to pick up her still-incomplete rope that Alice’s satisfaction melted like snow in the sun, an expression of complete dismay on her face as she stared at the state of the threads she had spent so long braiding together, the vegetal fibers having been partially consumed by the magical decomposition effect surrounding the beetle, most of the rope already covered in molds and tiny fungi that were busily breaking it down into nutrients.

“Fuck me,” she finally uttered after a few moments, letting her ruined work drop uselessly to the ground, too demoralized to even be angry.

I guess I’ll have to just do it again, she thought as she was preparing to leave, It’s not like I don’t have some more work to do before attempting to move away… I still need food after all. Oh well.

Hoisting her silken bag on her shoulder, she picked up her silvery spear and then took the first couple of steps, the hair on her neck standing up when, suddenly, her enhanced ears caught a barely audible noise coming from under the soil behind her, her eyes widening when a wooden tendril shot out of the ground less than a meter away, sending dirt and dead leaves spraying everywhere.

Despite still being weakened by the strain, her body reacted instinctually, allowing her to jump away from the attack just in time, the muscles of her legs already tightening to push her as far away as possible.

It was only after she had already sprinted through the first line of trees that she found the courage to take a quick glance at her back, her mad escape faltering when she spotted the strange event that was taking place a few meters away.

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Still ready to bolt at a moment’s notice, Alice nonetheless stopped to observe the incredibly long root that was currently growing out of the ground, right under the huge compound eye of the beetle, neither the vegetal tendril nor its inscrutable creator showing a sign to be coming for her, the root seemingly piling up in a messy heap right where she had left her old rope.

Uncertain of the titan’s intentions and remembering the bindings that had restrained her until just a few hours before, Alice did not approach right away, instead stopping where she was and staring as the event took place, the wooden cord eventually stopping after a few minutes of quick and continuous growth.

“Is this some kind of gift?” she shouted from her spot, once again receiving no response from the creature who, for its part, remained silent and immobile, drawing another exasperated groan out of her while, at the same time, somewhat easing her fears.

“Dammit, things would be so much easier if we could have a fricking conversation,” she muttered, walking in circles around the spot as she decided if she wanted to risk it.

In the end, she chose to trust the creature and, her heart hammering in her chest, she slowly moved back towards the rope, ready to chuck her spear right into the monster’s massive eye if it became clear that it was some kind of trap.

The moment she was close enough to touch the heap, she gave it a quick kick and jumped back, her fears slowly melting when the root didn’t react in any way, only flopping around like any inanimate object would have.

Finding a bit more courage, she went and gingerly touched it with a hand, the tentative prodding soon becoming a complete inspection when she discovered the finger-wide root to be a lot closer to rope than she would have thought, the material being sturdy but also quite flexible at the same time.

Wrapping it around a particularly thick branch of a nearby tree, she was also pleasantly surprised to discover that it could even support her own weight without many issues, even if the shorter silken rope gifted to her by Chillushrith remained on a completely different level, probably able to hold a truck without many difficulties.

After a bit of pondering, Alice finally stopped her testing and stared straight into the mirrored eye, “Thank you, I appreciate it,” she said before extracting her knife and cutting the end of the root with only a bit of difficulty, soon beginning to coil it as tightly as she could while also trying to roughly measure its actual length.

This must be more than 200 hundred meters! She exclaimed in her mind as she finished wrapping it up, the coiled bundle she was carrying in her hands probably weighing close to twenty kilograms all in all while also remaining no larger than the rucksack she was carrying around.

“Not bad at all,” she finally muttered under her breath, thinking of all the times the rope would have been useful during her journey through the caves, from the first exploration of the dark expanse to the descent from the ruined vertical city.

Busy reminiscing the past, Alice once again flinched in frightful surprise when she felt something brush against her legs, only in that moment noticing the sudden change in the magical energy coursing all around her.

Fear filled her mind once again as she frantically looked around, noticing dozens of leafy plants suddenly growing all around her, her anxious expression turning into one of befuddlement when their large leaves began opening up, revealing their wide fenestrations and a ‘heart’ shape that, along with the single white lily already growing in their center, she instantly recognized.

“Are you trying to give me food?” she asked in disbelief after watching the flowers get pollinated and begin slowly turning into large, thick-skinned fruits, the magical energy somehow only affecting those plants while leaving the rest in their normal state.

All in all, it took the fruits close to an hour to ripen but, by that time, Alice had finally decided to trust the creature, going as far as using its carapace as a backrest while she sat on the ground, her hands busy playing with the sinuous body of Basil, the tiny snake having poked out of its hidden spot when the rain had finally stopped, the enclosed weather gradually returning to its normality.

“Since you have been so nice, I guess you must be feeling quite a lot better,” she shouted conversationally to the immobile gigantic insect, waiting a few seconds, and then chuckling when it didn’t reply, “Yup, I’m glad,” she continued, “even though you should definitely learn to avoid faux-pas like binding people that want to help you. That would have definitely made things simpler for the both of us,” she added as she peeled the first fruit, slurping down its soft flesh before cleaning herself of the sticky juices with her Lumen, her rumbling belly finally appeased by the food.

After cleaning herself, Alice let the gentle warmth that was creeping from her stomach slowly envelop the entirety of her body, soothing the pains of her muscles while also enhancing the feeling of tiredness from the day’s effort, her breath growing slower as she wrapped herself up in her thick cloak, her eyelids gradually growing heavier as the gentle heartbeat of her pet accompanied her own in a restful slumber.

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You have reached Level 32 in the Biomancer of Symbiosis Class.

You have reached Level 33 in the Biomancer of Symbiosis Class.

Defenses aren’t always visible. You have obtained the Silken Hidescale skill. Along with your muscles, the keratin mesh under your skin will automatically tighten when struck, temporarily enhancing your defenses at the cost of the tactile perception in that area.

Alice stared at the new words that had appeared on the physical monolith hovering in the center of her mind room, a sense of satisfaction radiating from her immaterial shape while she scanned the rest of the lines in search of any difference, sighing when she found none.

That’s a good addition to the upgrade, she added, her inner voice echoing loudly in the space like it usually did, I wonder if the skills are literally based on what I’m expecting or if they are picked by The Mother herself…

One day I’ll manage to actually speak with that thing and ask it, I’m sure of it.

As she spoke, Alice kept floating around, enjoying the sensation of weightlessness while she could, using that free time to relax without having to really worry of her physical state and its pains.

At the same time, however, the separation from the body meant that every other sensation was much more significant, undiluted by other, baser, feelings or needs. Happiness and sadness were easy to rouse and, along with anger and boredom, switched with a single thought, sometimes causing her to meander uselessly in her own emotions while time passed quickly.

It was also why the constant prodding was much more difficult to ignore at night; the sensation that had helped her and directed her while escaping the massive eel from the underground complex having found a safe spot in her mind afterwards, much weaker than it had been initially but still present and constantly trying to direct her in the direction it wanted her to go.

Very annoying, she sighed for what felt like the hundredth time, It’s not even like I have any other option aside from going through the damn door! Mommy dearest has already told me that I’m not ready for what’s under the hatch and it’s not like I can tear it open myself. I just wish it would fricking understand and leave me be for a single night!

Instead, the sensation continued relentlessly, forcing her to concentrate on anything else in order to temporarily push it away from her consciousness, the hours in the mind room being spent in constant research and pondering over one thing or the other, be those future plans or past memories.

At the very least I’ve finally got a rope, and a good one too! The beetle is clearly a clever guy, not sure how clever but it’s probably more intelligent than Basil and that’s saying a lot.

If I don’t get squished as I’m sleeping I think I’ll keep it company until I’m ready to move out. It’s definitely the baddest guy here and I bet that there isn’t a lot that would try to fight it.

I wonder who would win between it and Maath… she suddenly wondered, a bit of sadness filling the void like an invisible mist, I quite miss them… even if here is so much better than the damned caves, even if I’m close to getting out. I just wish it had all ended in a different way… even if it was my actions that made it happen.

I just hope they are doing all right, Skitter and Maath most of all.

As she reminisced, the night went on.

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The following days passed in a flurry of activities for Alice, the previous night’s rest having allowed her to think clearly of what she wanted to do and complete before finally braving the unknown once again.

The first day, she took it a bit easier, mainly due to the fact that she could barely walk because of the muscle pains.

Slowly crawling on the ground while also swearing a lot under her breath, she made an effort to cut long and thin branches of green wood from the surrounding trees and, using some of the Mild Nettle fibers she had used for the previous iteration of her rope, created a long trellis upon which she placed long chunks of the sweet fruits that had not yet completed maturation.

As soon as the trellis was completely covered in the pinkish slices of fruit, she quickly placed a bed of hot coals underneath, making sure that the heat would be low enough to at least partially-dehydrate the food for prolonged storage while also counting on the small breeze moving through the trees to remove some of the humidity.

While that happened, she also began harvesting more nettles and similar plants from her surroundings while Basil hunted and ate the increasingly numerous bugs coming for her sweat, blood and other juices.

With the fibers she obtained from those weeds, she carefully began weaving a kind of uneven blanket that was a mix between wicker and cloth, her work proceeding slowly and with a ton of curses whenever a thread broke or she had to add more material to the mass.

Nonetheless, by the end of the day, that ugly and misshapen blanket had began taking the form of an ugly and misshapen bag, her eyes already twinkling at the idea she had had.

Instead of sleeping, a chipper Alice continued her work through the night, the makeshift dehydrator still working at full regime beside her.

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The dawn of the second day saw Alice creeping through the underbrush of the forest a fair ways away from her temporary camp and its massive protector, her body covered in mud and leaves to mask her scent and to camouflage her in the surroundings, the silver spear in her hands equally covered in grime to mask its sheen from any prying eye.

Her senses enhanced to the maximum degree, she only breathed every few minutes as she followed the sounds of her prey, avoiding any debris that could alert them of her presence.

After more than half an hour of silent pursuit, Alice stopped near a large bush at the edges of a small clearing, staring at the plump land birds she had seen the first time she had entered the forest, the large group of females still being courted by a bigger and definitely horny male.

Her spear clutched in her left hand, she hastily retrieved an apricot sized rock she had gotten for the occasion and drew back her arm while aiming for one of the furthest females, locking it in place while, already moving down her thigh and onto the ground, Basil silently began approaching a second bird a few meters away from the main group.

Then, just as the snake suddenly lashed out at the hapless creature’s thigh, she let go of the pebble with a loud grunt of exertion, her coiled muscle releasing with an explosive strength that sent the rock hurtling through the air and straight through the lower part of the neck of the bird she had aimed for, the rock continuing on its path until it slammed against the chest of a second one just a couple of paces away.

The noise of the animal’s shattered ribs accompanied the shuffling of the leaves under her feet as her legs pushed her body towards the rest of the surprised creatures before they could react, her now-empty right hand clasping the upper portion of the spear’s shaft and sending it plunging into yet another bird, deftly avoiding the larger male who, along with the rest of the flock, stood frozen in fear, its beak still half-open and emitting a strangled cry that, after a few heartbeats, caused her to chuckle, finally breaking the spell and sending the survivors through the underbrush in a panicked escape while she hastily picked up her trophies with a proud smile.

“Well done Basil,” she said as she picked up the last paralyzed creature, using her power to kill it quickly and humanely before clutching its neck, along with the other three’s, in her left hand, the surprisingly-heavy birds swaying nervelessly in the air as she quickly trekked back to the camp.

Upon reaching it, she shouted a greeting to the insectile titan and, after a thorough cleanup of herself, she began preparing the fowl, stripping them of their heads, feet, feathers and down before slicing open their bellies and removing the organs inside, only keeping their livers while consuming the rest with her glimmers.

Noticing that Basil was still observing everything from her shoulder with its head propped behind her ear like a scaled pencil, she finally relented and gave it its percentage of the hunt, chuckling when it gulped down the chunk and then went to sleep around her neck.

The splitting having been done, she proceeded to butcher the animals, keeping the fattiest parts of the birds for the fresh meals while setting the leaner ones on the dehydrator, hoping they would lose more water and last longer in the following days.

The dried fruit from the previous day, in the meanwhile, were already wrapped up in a thick bundle made from the large leaves of their mother plant, resting on another trellis that kept most of the bugs away.

I just wish I had access to some damned salt, she muttered a few minutes later as she ate bland, white meat, the only flavor coming from the fatty tissues of the animals and the squeezed fruit juice she was using to create a caramelized crust with various degrees of success.

But since I’m crying about salt it shows how far I’ve gone from eating raw bat meat, she added as an afterthought, the flavor quickly improving after the horrid reminder.

As soon as she was done with her meal, she tackled the task that excited her the most, quickly sitting down on her fur surrounded by a confusing heap of different feathers from the various birds she had prepared.

As she had done just a few days before in the ruined city, Alice quickly accessed her magical reservoir and began controlling the Lumen, using the now-numerous particles that she carried wherever she went to clean and sort the materials in front of her, ultimately finding herself in front of two bundles, one with the long and hard flight feathers that she didn’t know how to use, and the other with the content of her dreams, her eyes filled with unrestrained lust as she pressed her palms on the soft down.

I just wish I had access to Ozren, I could have had the best pillow in the entire fricking world in a matter of minutes.

A bit sad at the thought, she momentarily left the pile of fluffiness and went for the ugly lining she had created the previous night and, upon thinking of it, for her own silken bag, picking it up and hastily emptying on the ground the mess of yellow feathers, jewels, bones and moss that still remained inside of it, a small ball of compacted moss suddenly rolling out of the mess and, after bouncing around a bit, landing right in front of the beetle’s massive eye, unseen by an Alice too focused on her bedroom improvements.

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As the loud creature began preparing and stuffing her new creation with the fluffy bark of the flying animals she had hunted, she didn’t notice the short antenna of the beetle slowly move towards the small and forgotten ball of moss, its contents having repeatedly sprouted, reproduced and died after the effect of its magic, seemingly important enough to the small one to carry around but also not enough to be always in her too-fast mind.

The lymph coursed through its healing body as thoughts gently bloomed in its brain, pollinating themselves until a fruit was born and grown.

She had finished stuffing the pillow when it understood.

The ball of moss was clearly some kind of fake seed to contain the tiny life, it was important for the stubborn thing that had helped it.

The lymph kept flowing, its wood slowly hardening once again on its back, regrowing the bark it had lost. The fruit rotted and sunk into the ground, sprouting into something new.

It could pay her back.

The squishy one was buzzing around, sometimes using one of her upper limbs to hit the creation which had broke open when she had pushed too much fluffy objects into it, in a flash she had run around and used the life around it to create more material, almost instantly beginning to repair the creation.

The titan began improving on the terrible work of the strange thing. Quick and good as she was, she didn’t know anything of life.

Gently, much more controlled than normally, its other lymph flowed into the barely-there ball, changing it but not the things inside, making it a true fake-seed that would keep everything healthy, feed it and preserve it.

The moss turned into something else just as the two legs erupted in more noises, jumping up and down with the creation over her head, shouting something while looking at it.

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Alice only stopped her wild cheering after at least five minutes and only because she had thought she had seen a movement from the huge insect beside her.

“My imagination I guess,” she said with a huff, only now noticing the small ball of moss on the ground a few steps away from her, “Hey! what the heck are you doing there?” she asked, quickly picking it up and tossing it into the bag once again, the strange sensation on her fingers quickly forgotten when she once again laid her eyes on the rough but incredibly springy pillow she had created. Nothing was more important at the moment.

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The beetle rested as its bark hardened by the minute. It was almost time. It had had time to ponder a new forest. It would be ready this one.

It would be Free.