Chapter 25: Misconception
Early Evening - Mid Spring : Year 10 : The Nest | Home
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Watching ripples of blue and green shift and morph around my scales with an enchanting flow, my mind grew numb to the strain for a moment.
For just a breath, I was hypnotized—like seeing the northern lights for the first time.
But, while ethereal, such an obviously visible layer defeated the whole purpose of a humanoid form, and with every passing moment it was getting harder to hold… -T..Thats.. a problem…-
Like a water bottle being forcefully filled beyond its limit, it felt like there was a pressure building up in my skull.
With every passing moment, more aura was crammed into the layer, and even with a fraction of the aura I'd normally have thanks to my half-empty reserve, my mind was already at its limit… -This isn't going to work…-
Even ignoring the most glaring issue of it being visible, that method fundamentally wasn't going to work.
-I guess I should've known it wouldn't be that simple…- *Vwoom* Finally releasing it, feeling a wave of relief rush across my brain like I had just dropped a heavy weight, I leaned back with a sigh. "Hooh…"
But Father hardly let the silence linger. "What in the world..?" Speaking with a mix of awe and confusion, his wings curiously raised. "Why weren't you venting it?"
I tensed, "Venting?"
"Releasing the pressure. You don't want to let it build up like that." Giving Mother a brief, questioning glance, his posture straightened.
-Venting the pressure while still keeping it off people..?- Truthfully, it was something well outside of my current abilities.
*Woom* But pulling in my aura once more to try anyway, I created another layer around myself before opening a small hole at the top to help vent the pressure like Father said.
However.. like a needle pricking a water balloon, the moment I tried it, the entire 'container' I held it with exploded. *Kwoooom*
Momentarily pulling herself back and bracing as the wave of aura washed over her, Mother slowly shifted. "I can't just give you the answer, but…" She paused as she looked at Father, as if debating whether to say something, before, "All I can say is 'containing it' is not the right mindset to have."
-Huh?- Suddenly releasing my frustration, I raised my eyes with a flick of my tail. -I'm not.. meant to contain it..?-
Looking back down at myself, my eyes darted, tail whipped, and wings shifted with thought before… "I don't get it…"
But looking toward Mom and Dad for help just led them to shake their heads.
For this one, I was going to have to find the solution myself.
…Though, that didn't mean I was going to keep walking in a circle I knew there was no escape from.
"Mmmh…" Sitting down with a mumbled grumble, I tried to let my mind run more wildly as we resumed dinner—toying with pockets of aura to try and figure out its properties while maintaining some idle conversation.
However, it wasn't long before my mind ran out of room for that.
With an ever-expanding web of theories, numbers, and questions, it didn't take long for me to tune out my surroundings…
I just played with my aura in my own little world, compressing, moving, and shifting tiny glowing marbles to conduct small experiments.
But while my movements seemed quite random, that couldn't have been farther from the truth.
Compressing a marble of aura around a tiny piece of fur floating through the air, I watched as the detail of the image in my mind fluctuated and bounced in direct correlation with the density of the aura.
Much like an electron microscope, the way aura reading worked seemed to be the mind interpreting where the particles of mana bumped into things, creating images of what it touched. This led to denser auras leading to more detailed images—from the big blobs I saw at the edges of my aura, to the visualizations of cells, proteins, and even individual atoms.
It was honestly quite surreal seeing cells move with such detail right before my eyes, but… -It's still a far cry from what I saw in the dream…-
As things were, my limit was viewing the general shape of an atom's nucleus, this time devoid of the 'strings' I did from the 'dream'.
-But regardless, that does give me a way to dynamically gauge how thin my aura is…- And feeling my mind split trying to merely discern what element an atom was, it gave me something to strive for—a method to gauge my progress.
Though, feeling like that was enough for the time being, I released my aura with a sigh. "Haah…"
Even if, by the time I opened my eyes, stars had already filled the sky overhead. -Geez… Just how long did I zone out?-
Quickly looking around, I found myself alone with Ilios, resting on my paw, and seemingly waking from the release of my aura. "Mmmh…"
"Sorry to wake you up, buddy…" Giving him a gentle nudge with my snout as he stretched, I turned toward the nest to focus on the steady flow of mana coming from it. -That must be from their auras…-
But while I was likely meant to go in as well, I truly didn't mind staying out there.
Turning up to the night sky, my mind, strained and exhausted from the day, simply melted.
"No matter how many times I look at them.. the stars never lose their beauty…" Finally resting my head, rocking it to the side to let my mind continue to drift, it was almost.. nostalgic to look at them.
There was once I time I yearned to explore those distant glimmers.. asking myself endlessly what could exist among them. -Yet now…- That desire was completely gone.
Looking up into them, I still appreciated their beauty, tried to find constellations, and even mapped some.. but in the end I merely wondered what tomorrow would bring.
I knew the path ahead of me would be a long one.. full of ups and downs, triumphs and failures.. but in the end, I was excited for it.
-I have a whole new world to discover…- In both what laid beyond the horizon.. and in the foreign energy that filled every gap between the particles in the air.
Every day would bring a new experience.. and every new experience would continue to shape me into a new being.
Though, there was no need to rush.
Eventually losing the ability to keep my eyes open, my mind continued to slow until I sank into a deep, comfortable sleep.
At least until…
*Liiiiick* Feeling a warm, slobbery tongue move across my snout, I woke up with a firm snap—feeling like I had only just closed my eyes for a moment—only to find my eyes laid on Ilios sat before me in the dusk before sunrise.
"Hm..?" -What are you waking me up for..?- For a breath, I was irritated, but.. something about him was different at that moment… His eyes glowed like gold beneath a light.. his tail was unusually still…
…And his pupils were.. eerily conscious...
*Tap* Gently stomping his foot, he stood and turned, beginning to walk toward the forest without giving me time to think.
But, I didn't question it for long. -Is he wanting me to follow him?- Giving the nest a glance to find the door still cracked, I paused before turning back to follow his figure. -It's probably alright to explore a little now that I have magic, right..?-
But we didn't walk far.
After just a few minutes of weaving between trees and stepping over rocks and shrubs, I finally caught up to him.. and found him silhouetted by something glowing within the dark… -A.. pond..?-
It was only a few dozen meters across and as shallow as a puddle, yet glowed with ripples of blue and green as if it were a pool of mana, decorated with gem-like flowers, mosses, and fruits, while cradling a single, isolated lily at its center…
-Woah…- The lily glowed brighter than anything else, yet unlike the mana-like hues of green, blue, and purple within the rest of the pond, it shifted with pinks and reds beneath a thin veil of fog it almost seemed to produce. -What.. is this..?-
It was impossible for my mind not to run the moment I laid eyes on it… -It almost feels.. like a trap…-
However, seemingly ignoring the fact no other animal tracks were near this place, Ilios walked out into the water without a stutter, stepping past and ignoring everything before stopping beside the lily.
It was.. puzzling… "Is this.. what you wanted to show me..?"
Seeing his tail finally start very slowly wagging as he glanced back at me, he stepped to the side as if to motion me forward, and as if reason had left me, I moved closer.
*Blub… Blub…* Sinking my paws through the bottom of that shallow pond, it only took a few steps to reach the central lily, but despite feeling like the air around me was warping with every movement, I continued…
All until I lowered my snout to it, had the intoxicating, cool scent of mana rip through my brain, and instinctively opened my maw. *Snap*
My pupils dilated in a blink. -Oh…- The taste was unreal—like an unbelievably saturated honey mixed with a refreshing, tingling chill.
However, unlike with mana cores, it hardly lasted.
The moment I swallowed, the taste faded rapidly, and the ripples of mana I expected to follow never came.
Instead.. it was something else…
*WoooOOOM* As if an ethereal fog rushed across my brain, ecstasy ripped through me—my knees buckling and consciousness fading as I suddenly found myself fighting just to remain standing. "W-Woooah…"
The next thing I knew, I was stumbling back, twitching and moving as if fighting with everything I had to stay awake.. to stay in control. *SP—LASH*
However, after what felt like both an eternity, and an instant, the sensation started to subside, and with the grace of light reaching me through the canopy, everything started to settle.
And control returned.
"HAAAH-!" The next conscious breath I drew was a violent gasp—the lactic burn filling my body scattering as I finally drew in fresh air. -What the fuck was that..?!-
The panic was deep, but even through it, it was hard to ignore the change.
Collapsed in that small pond, caught between heavy breaths, my mind was zipping around like a laser bouncing off mirrors, and my body, previously exhausted, felt oddly rejuvenated.
My thoughts were clear.. and faster than ever—only slightly but noticeably.
-What the hell just happened to me..?- Quickly focusing on my aura to check my surroundings, I found myself able to read it out to almost 9 meters at the clarity I could just a moment ago only read out to 5, with my control improving similarly—now able to at least somewhat shape my aura.
It was progress, yes, but.. it felt unnatural…
It felt fleeting…
From the moment I ate that lily, something changed.. but believing it to be temporary, I tried to ignore it.. to push past the warnings and use that fleeting moment of clarity to think and practice.
In that state, it wasn't long before Mother's advice finally clicked, and instead of trying to contain my aura entirely, I started shaping the 'container' I made to merely focus my aura upward —like forming a bucket around my body that only let the aura flow away from my surroundings.
However, while indeed a solution, with the additional issues that popped up with it, my mind ran wild.. and I quickly lost track of time…
In more ways than one…
The moment I came to, it felt like hours had passed, yet the angle of the warm morning rays shining through the canopy hadn't budged at all.
Or at least.. not by more than a few minutes of movement… -H..Huh..?-
Finally standing up, cleaning the mud off my underside with a rustle, I mobilized some aura to look more closely at the ray, to see if it was as unusually still as it appeared, only to find it.. normal… -What the…- It was moving exactly how one would expect. -It couldn't have been a full day, right?-
My biological clock said it had been several hours, but if that were the case, it'd have been well into the afternoon.
Yet the angle of that light showed… -It's still morning..?-
It was like.. my perception of time was warped…
Like.. from the moment I closed my maw on that lily, time froze…
Only to resume the moment I tried to look at it… -What.. was that..?-
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Hope you enjoyed the chapter!
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