The celebration had become raucous in the hour since i arrived in the village. Eline had retired to her home again to rest with Ray, she was rightly exhausted after her ordeal. The elderly man, Elines' father, had sat next to me at one of the many large wooden tables that had been arranged in the clearing and adorned with drink and food and villagers of all ages.
After first introducing himself as Edvar, we sat in silence for a moment and watched over the villagers. They all smiled and laughed, drank and ate and partied as if their worries had all disappeared. I too was smiling at this point, glad to be around people, and with a mug of ale in hand, decided that it wouldn't hurt to spend at least one night here before moving on.
"Thank you again for saving my daughter and grandchild Selwyn. This small village of Surn is in your debt."
"Think nothing of it Edvar."
"Forgive my asking, but where did you come from? I've never seen anyone quite like you in all my life."
The voice suddenly spoke again. By this time i had figured out that i was the only one capable of hearing it talk. An anomaly of their design. They had watched this world for thousands of years without ever communicating with the people, outside of the words shown by The System, to those capable of seeing them.
Remember Selwyn, it is best not to discuss your true nature too much here. Earth is set in this period by decree of powers far greater than us.
"Yes, yes, i know."
Edvar looked confusedly at my answer. Realising that i was essentially talking to myself from his perspective i quickly adjusted and gave a very abridged answer.
"I was a plant up until today. Though i don't remember it, i apparently killed someone as a plant, and gained enough of that light energy stuff to become who or what i am now. I have some memories from the past, but for the most part I'm clueless about this world."
"I see, i have never heard of a plant becoming... well... human. It must have been a truly powerful man you killed."
We sat in silence once more and listened to the reverie around us ebb and flow. It was me who broke the pause this time, as I downed what was left in my mug and placed it back on the table.
"Why did you all call me Lord of Trees?"
"It simply seemed to fit. Though you are likely unable to tell yourself, you have a very tree-like appearance."
I had to concede this point. From what i could see of myself, the bark and branch like appearance of my torso and limbs did make me look like a walking talking plant man.
"And the lord part?" I continued, as a plump lady with dimples and flushed cheeks filled my mug again. She slapped my back with a firm hand and a slightly slurred Thank you. Then danced away again, back to the small crowd who had begun to play some merry rhythms on a couple of timber instruments that resembled guitars but also had a flute like extrusion creating a woodwind instrument with strings.
"The lord part is what we refer to as the strong. Lords are those who have killed and gathered light for a long time and possess skills and strength above us common folk. There are lords of many species out there, Human, dwarf, demon, elf, even wolves and snakes that I've heard tale of."
"Dwarfs? Elfs?"
"Indeed"
Edvar seemed not to pick up on my confusion on these words. Thankfully the Voice chimed in before i had to pursue the matter further.
As we mentioned earlier. There are many species variants here on earth now. Some were mutations from science and experimentation, some were naturally occurring evolution, all of them however started out as Human. Time has simply allowed the genetic tree to branch off in new ways. Pun intended.
Concentrating on the light inside of me once more, the writing appeared before me again. Now that i knew the feeling and nature of the system, i could call upon the skills and information far quicker. While focusing on the light, i also began to talk in my mind, hoping to direct my thoughts outward.
{Can you hear me?}
Ohh, very well done. you figured out trans-conscious communication without any help from us.
{I figured i can't keep talking out loud to myself forever, and if you can do it and you're human, then i must be able to as well}
A sound leap in logic, "Lord of Trees."
{Yes, ha ha. I don't exactly care for the name either. Also, you still haven't explained how I, Selwyn, am here}
It would seem that when you were a flower, you obtained enough energy through The System to become conscious, however, no plant has had a consciousness before nor the framework to host one. You are simply the lucky anomaly of chance. The first piece of information belonging to a conscious creature in the immediate surrounds of the cliff top, for as far back as fifty thousand years that the System could assimilate. Quite a feat of computing on our part if i do say so myself.
{This science fiction stuff is way too confusing for me.}
It would be best not to think on it to heavily. You are here now; you aren't Selwyn of fifty thousand years ago. You are Selwyn of this age. Even in this era, the past is impossible to reach. All we can do is view it from the present.
I took the words spoken by the voice to heart and considered it sound advice. It was right, i had very few memories that i could call upon from my previous life. I was a soldier, i died in hospital, i was Selwyn. That essentially summed up my past. perhaps it would be best to simply move on in this crazy world of sci-fi and fantasy.
I downed the contents of my mug once more (apparently i liked drinking at least) and asked one more question of the voice.
"So, this system. If I kill something or... someone. I absorb their life and gain strength and even their skills. And there are Lords out there who have killed a lot and are really strong?"
Edvar considered me for a moment before venturing to answer, perhaps wondering how much he should teach an unknown with the strength to kill.
"Quite incredible isn't it. Simply Killing someone can heal you if they were strong enough, you can even learn skills that they themselves had learnt. My son Edgar has a skill of his own from killing enough boar."
"So killing animals counts?"
"Taking any life counts in some manner. Though, perhaps not so much that we can percieve."
I looked again at my skills and focussed now on the Cyanide. I want more information on this i thought to myself, and immediately The System added a paragraph description under the skill.
[Cyanide – low
Can apply low doses of cyanide to your body or produce a small quantity in liquid form from your fingers.]
I followed up on my other skills in the same manner to see what i was capable of while i had this down time.
[Healing Herbs
A moderate strength healing liquid capable of fixing small surface area wounds and moderate illness and disease]
[Body Control
Control your limbs and body. Size is limited to energy and mass; shape is limited by imagination and concentration.]
[Photosynthesis
Photosynthesise]
Photosynthesis was fairly self-explanatory, I guess i don't actually have to eat and drink and breathe in the same way as a human. in fact, as I thought on it, I realised that i didn't need to breathe at all. I had lungs of some sort, but the act of breathing was more to do with habit or drawing in air so that I could speak out loud. I stopped breathing in, and after a minute with no change to how I felt, my hypothesis was confirmed. This could come in real handy.
Next i tried out my body control again. Although i had used it instinctively earlier that evening, i realised quickly that creating a form took quite a lot of focus. I may need to come up with words and names for shapes i want to use. This was an association trick that is had learnt somewhere at some place and fortunately had stuck with me now. Saying the word "mug" over and over again while attempting to shape and un-shape my hand into a replica of the wooden mug i held in the other soon led to forming positive association with the word and even imprinted it on my skill list under body control.
"Mug"
my hand snapped into the shape of the mug in an instant and i smiled at it, quite pleased by my progress.
"Up for two, Mr Tree lord!"
The drunken lady had returned, this time with a pitcher of wine, and began filling both of my cups while humming along with the tune of the musicians.
"I'm actually a daffodil apparently" i said nonchalantly, more as a joke than anything.
"Well i dare say we better call you somethin' else then, i reckon Flower Lord is more accurate." She laughed and danced away once more and i couldn't help but laugh out loud as well.
"Flower Lord, hey?"
As i reached my newly formed mug hand to my mouth, i was snapped to attention suddenly. Edvar who was all but asleep next to me gave a start and jolted awake.
"What's wrong Selwyn?"
Six people had entered the range of detection for my senses. They were approaching at a walk from further down the hill and would be at the village in a matter of minutes. What's more, I could tell one of them was strong.
"There are six men approaching the village. We've got company"