The Games We Play

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryugii. This has been pulled from his Spacebattle publishment. Anyway on with the show...errr read.

Pets

My mom pinched the bridge of her nose.

"You named it after the Tiangou?" She asked, looking down at the tiny dog that now panted up at her happily. It sneezed, the act shaking its entire body, and then looked around in confusion—which seemed to simultaneous fill my mom with disapproval and nearly make her laugh. When I'd brought him home, she'd greeted him with a poke, apparently trying to confirm what she was seeing, and had received a now nearly customary bite in response. She'd watched it nibble on her finger for a moment and then flicked him hard enough to send him sliding across the floor. She'd picked him up after he'd lain there for a moment and had watched him careful, both of them having apparently accepting that she was the boss with that gesture.

"He'll grow into it," I said, thinking of his namesake. A legend in Vacuo—though after Ziz, who was I to say whether it had or hadn't been real—the Tiangou had terrorized the lands and skies of the West long ago, possible even before the days of Zhao Zheng. Descriptions varied and may or may not have been exaggerated, but…well, it had been one of the monsters that had gone down in myth alongside the Ziz, and had left a legacy of countless tales behind it. A beast who'd sundered the land and darkened the skies, it was one of the most famous and fearsome monsters of Western legend.

In comparison, the puppy I'd named after it could be lifted comfortably with one hand and found its attempts at aggression met with amused laughter.

I'd chosen the name for several reasons, most of them pretty simple. I thought it was a cool name, for one thing; I mean, given that we were all still alive, the Tiangou probably hadn't actually blotted out, much less eaten, the Sun, but it made for a neat tale and a funny name to give to a tiny puppy. I'd considered naming it after a famous hunting dog, of course, such as the legendary Laelaps or the loyal Argos, some of the most famous hounds in Mistral's history—but it was shocking difficult to find one that hadn't died horribly or tragically. Then again, it was hard to find legendary Hunters that didn't end up dying horribly or tragically in the line of duty, pretty much for the same reason.

Still, while naming it after something that died in an awful manner may have been respectful of their sacrifice, I had luck enough that I didn't want to risk it. The Tiangou had supposedly been driven off, but it was one of the few dog like creatures who'd walked away from everything thrown at it. Yeah, it may have been a horrifically destructive monster, but that was no reason not to think positively about the situation.

And…well, it was stupid, but perhaps a name from the West just seemed fitting, for something weak looking to become strong. After all, I…

"You can just call him Gou, though," I continued. "That's what I call him, isn't that right, Gou?"

He barked, looking at me upside-down with a panting, puppy dog grin. My Mom just shook her head.

"You do realize that Gou means dog, right?" She asked.

"Yeah, so?" I asked, wondering what her point was.

My mom rolled her eyes and checked the dog's teeth, ears, and fur, even as it panted happily in her arms.

"You'll take care of him, feed him, and train him yourself," She said almost absently. It wasn't a question, but I answered it regardless.

"I intended to," I replied. "I already awakened his Aura and I got an animal training skill out of it, too. I'll train him up in no time."

"Good," She said, a little more sternly. "It doesn't matter if he does it to us, but if he persists in biting anyone who comes close, someone will get hurt—especially with an Aura. Make sure that doesn't happen."

I nodded.

"He won't interfere with your training, either," She stated in the same tone. "We missed today—and that's my fault more than yours, but we did and we will make up for it. We have a long way to go still, especially with your new friends in the mix."

"No problem," I said. "I was going to get back to work anyway. The flowers are fine, too?"

She frowned again, looking me over carefully. Even after spending hours in solid metal, the flowers remained vibrant and continued to grow. The traits from the two flowers that had been a part of it had begun mixing more and more as the day went on, whether as a result of time or the plants continued growth.

Either way, I couldn't deny that the possibilities intrigued me. In the midst of everything that happened, there hadn't been time to check precisely how the process worked, but if it could merge with other plants, draw them in to the create a greater whole…

It was just a flower now and there were probably limiting factors, but it wasn't impossible to imagine a living, sentient forest.

There was no way of knowing how the specifics worked without testing it, of course—so I would. Before long, I'd add some new plants to the amalgam—maybe some lilies or lotuses at first, simple and beautiful things. I'd need to define the precise limits and carefully control its growth, keep it from running out of control, but the idea of it all…I wanted to see it grow. After all, it was…

"Be careful, Jaune," My mother said, echoing my earlier thoughts. "You said it gained Intelligence and Dexterity as it leveled…I trust you Jaune and I know you're smart, but however fascinating this might be, you have to be careful with this. In a way, you've created life, Jaune. You've crafted a mind that can live and grow who knows how far—and you have to be responsible for it. I'm not…"

She frowned, seeming to search for the words.

"I'm not telling you to stop it," She said slowly. "Or even to limit it, necessarily. But the creation and care of another life is something that needs to be done with wisdom and understanding—and you have those, but…Jaune, whatever you do with the life you now hold will shape its future. The choices you make for it, how you raise it…it's not easy to tend to another and it's not a role you can put on and then discard. Even beyond that, you may have started something huge and if anything were to go wrong…You need to be smart about this."

"I know," I said, immediately becoming serious. I had to admit, this really wasn't a conversation I'd expected to have with my mother for…a long, long time and it was weird as hell, but I gave it the attention it deserved. "I will. I mean, I want to make it grow, but…that's because I want it to grow and I want to watch what it grow into. I get that I've made something new—not just a new life but a new form or life—and that there are obligations that go with that, even beyond making sure it doesn't grow up to eat people. I need to keep it safe and…I get it. I do. And I will, because…wow, it's…it's amazing, isn't it?"

She looked at my face for a long moment, possibly wondering about the series of life choices that had resulted in her becoming the sort of grandmother to a sort of plant baby, but then nodded.

"It's different from a normal child," She warned. "That'll make things both easier and harder for you. I'm sure it will grow fast under your care, but make sure it does so properly."

"Also," My Dad said, wandering back in after raiding the fridge for a sandwich and a drink. "Remember that 'I am your creator!' is not an effective argument or defense with babies, nor does it make them obey. Speaking from experience."

My Mom turned and gave him a look that could have melted the skin off a lesser man.

"Jack," She all but growled. "This is serious."

"So am I," He said, glancing around at the non-humans in the room. "Sup, dog. Sup, flowers."

Gou panted happily, mouth dropping open in an ever wider grin as he came over to pet it and then pat the flowers.

"Anyway, we talked about what we'd do if he ended up making an AI or something," He shrugged. "This is kind of like that. I'll go buy you some of the classics so you know what not to do. And don't worry, I'll swear of mowing the lawn and stuff."

My mom closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. From how long she remained that way, I thought she might have been counting to ten.

"Anyway, are you gonna keep carrying her around like that?" My dad nodded at my armor. "From what you told me, she might be getting pretty big. You'll need to figure something out for that."

I reached up to touch the blossoms on my chest and nodded.

"Yeah, I've been thinking about that, too," I said. "But I'd like to keep her close, too. I've been thinking about what could be done if she merged with trees and such, but…"

"It can be hard, watching them grow up," Dad shook his head before pausing. "I mean, granted, she's growing a bit faster than your sisters, but…"

"Jaune," Mom said at last, staring a hole in the back of my dad's head. "Start training."

I nodded and rose from my seat.

"Come on, Gou," I said, moving to the door. "Let's go get some exercise."

Gou barked and ran after me when my mom put him down. As I opened the door, my mom stopped me again.

"Wait, Jaune…" She said, pausing for a moment before asking her question. "What's her name?"

I was silent for a moment, tilting my head to the side. Coming up with a name for Gou had been easy enough, since there were plenty of good examples to draw from. I didn't want to give either of them stupid or silly names; I wanted them to mean something, even if they didn't understand what they meant. It was something that mattered, like how I'd been named after my mother's teacher, the Hatchet. For Gou, a tiny dog I'd found near death, it was at once something to strive for and a promise. But…

Well, there were a lot more famous dogs then there were famous plants—or maybe I just had more knowledge about the former. It was just as well, I supposed; I wanted to think about them, to show that I'd given it serious thought instead of granting them dismissively. I didn't want to say the same thing for the flowers as I had with Gou, either, but…

Left blooming alone, I thought, looking down at the petals of the flowers and their many brilliant shades. Out of season, a rose born to be beautiful and then die—but it hadn't. Then, if it had survived the Summer…

"How about Autumn?" I said, smiling as the question mark faded from the sign above the rose.

With my business done and my parent's filled in, I threw myself back into my training, redoubling my efforts to improve myself. Though I called Margaret periodically to check up on her as I'd promised, I largely fell back into the routine of my schedule, training both my body and my mind. Sometimes, it almost felt as if nothing had changed, that the break had never occurred—but that was just the repetitiveness of my days talking. This stage of my training was all about honing my fundamentals, creating something to build upon through repeated effort. Training my stats was a lot harder than training my skills, but they tied into everything and even a slight boost to strength could be multiplied many times over when I called upon my powers.

So I ran and I lifted and I studied the days away. It was kind of funny in its own way, how whatever happened, I always seemed to come back to this. What was that old saying? Before Enlightenment: Chop wood, carry water. After Enlightenment: Chop wood, carry water. Even when I could scarcely believe how much some things had changed, I was amazed by how other things just hadn't. Hell, sometimes I imagined myself ten or twenty years from now, training for months to get one more level or grinding some new skill.

Granted, my new companions necessitated a bit of a shift—but even they didn't really change things. With Autumn and Gou in my party and my power thus extended to cover them, I mainly just went about my days with them at my side, keeping an eye on them and helping them improve where I could with my new abilities. The skill I'd gotten while awakening Gou—Beast Tamer—facilitated attempts to train animals in a way similar to Green Thumb…except not really?

Beast Tamer (Active & Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00% MP: 100

The power to hasten the training and growth of an animal through a resonance of souls. Only possible for those attuned to both animals and nature.

Increase the effectiveness of training on enhanced Animals by 100%.

Increase the HP and SP regeneration of enhanced animals by 100%.

Increased closeness with animals.

Additional 50 MP used per minute.

Enhanced animals cannot be trained beyond the abilities of the user.

As usual, my power wasn't very clear, but…essentially, it allowed animals to improve their abilities—that is, what my ability translated as stats, skills, and possibly even levels—more quickly under my care. I'm never quite sure when it came to stuff like experience and levels and other things that really only applied to me, but I'm pretty sure it amounted to gaining double experience.

Whether it was or not, though, Gou trained beside me all the time, running with me day and night. When he got tired, I restored his stamina with a quick heal, gave him some food and water, and we got back to work. Most days we'd run around Vale a few times in the mornings and evenings and he'd spend the rest of the day by my side, either sitting near my feet or playing around like the puppy he was, though I trained him in other things during what free time I had—mainly just basic dog stuff I'd looked up on my Scroll. He was still a puppy and a long way from being a hunting dog, but I kept a close eye on him and watched him grow both larger and stronger as time went on.

Someday, when he was ready, I'd take him out to hunt Grimm and improve his level as well as his stats. I was nervous about allowing a level one dog fight monsters—but I also knew well that there were more to fights than what my power interpreted as levels. He was growing quickly, physical stats rising as he trained beside me, and eventually…I was worried about putting him in danger, but I knew that by the time I did, he'd be more than up to facing it.

As for my 'daughter'…In many ways, Autumn was the opposite of Gou, growing fairly quickly in level but very slowly in stats. Because of the amount of MP I burnt in a day, she'd quickly fulfilled my claim and surpassed Tukson, growing until she could no longer easily be carried by me. She grew in twisted loops and thorny vines, sustained more by my Aura than any other form of sustenance and growing to reflect that as she grew further and further from a normal plant. A tad sadly, I'd finally crafted the armor and some other spare metal into something between a baby carriage and a rickshaw and begun to pull her along behind me—I tried to think of it as just another form of strength training, but it still left me feeling oddly disappointed.

But I didn't stop her from growing, even when it made it harder to keep her close; I assisted it, at least where I felt right doing so. Though her Vitality had improved a fair bit as she'd gotten bigger, things like her Dexterity and Intelligence improved much more slowly. Though she'd built up a number of points through leveling as a member of my party, without true sapience and mobility she had no way of spending them. It was possible I could have found a way around that, somehow, perhaps spent the points for her. I hadn't found anything when I checked, but that didn't mean there wasn't one. Perhaps I could control her somehow, call up her screen, and make her increase the appropriate stats—

And yet, I waited patiently instead, allowing her to grow on her own. Because for all I wanted to speed the process, that was just my own impatience at work—I knew that she'd gain Intelligence in time, knew that she was becoming slowly more mobile, and so I didn't want to interfere. Because each of those points…I knew well their value and as much as I wanted to spend them for her, it was nothing compared to how much I wanted her to be able to spend them for herself, to choose how she'd grow and develop. Regardless of what I wanted or suspected or desired, I wanted it to be her own choices that defined her, so the points were a…birthday present of sorts, for the life I had created.

Which isn't to say I did nothing. I helped her grow in every way I could, shedding massive amounts of Aura when I had some to spare and—though she didn't truly need them—I nonetheless made sure she had water, nutrients, and light. I even researched some studies on plants and music and followed them.

And, of course, I brought her other plants. I didn't force her in that regard, either, but I didn't have to; in the same way that the Rose and the Zinnia had melded without my input, Autumn naturally sought to reach out to other plants. I simply assisted her by awakening more flowers and leaving them for her to meld with—for with each plant that joined the Amalgam, she grew. Her flowers blossomed in increasingly varied shapes and colors, roots and branches shifting in both shape and function as they did. She took in lotuses and lilies, sunflowers and hydrangea, irises and carnations and more until, in time, she seemed more an cloak of petals then a coil of thorns. And with each, she grew a tiny bit stronger, a tiny bit smarter. Hundreds of flowers came together and then some to create a being that was still more than the sum of its parts.

And yet…

I sighed as I rose from my meditative state, knowing it was time. I'd felt it, seen it for weeks now, and I knew what I had to do.

"I guess you can't grow much more that way, can you, girl?" I said, Gou's ears perking up as I finally rose, brushing a hand through the flowers in the rickshaw. I'd gotten more than a few strange looks around town for running with it and my dog, but that didn't matter to me, compared to this. I'd kept her close to my side for nearly a month and a half now, letting her gaining experience with each point of MP I spent—and I spent a lot of MP. Every day, I burnt tens of thousands of MP, shedding it and swiftly refueling in a trance. In this relatively short time, I must have spent several million MP; probably not even enough to raise me up a single level anymore, but for Autumn…

Who Would Inhabit This Bleak World Alone?

LV 19

Autumn Rose

I felt the blossoms and branches shift slightly at my touch, a definite reaction to contact, to my presence. She'd come a long way, such that even with the addition of many flowers a day, she couldn't grow very quickly anymore. Each flower gave her power, mass, experience, but at this point it was a negligible addition. She needed something larger now, so it was time to try something bigger again.

Slowly, carefully, I lifted the thorny length of a branch, Levant assisting with a buoying winds to support more and more of her. I'd needed to reinforce and enlarge the rickshaw several times as Autumn had grown and all told, she was at least a thousand kilograms of plant. Even with the modifications I'd made, the rickshaw was only able to hold up because of Crocea Mors' assistance, and pulling her around had become my main form of strength training of late.

And I wound the totality of that slowly around the large tree I'd been resting under, curling it around the branches and trunk. It looked, more than anything, like a many-limbed creature was trying to devoured the tree, with dozens of impossibly long and flexible branches rising out of Autumn's main body on the ground—a tiny little thing, compared to the branches and roots that grew so unbelievably. Then, when I was done, I laid a hand on the ash tree's trunk and took a breath, leaning my forehead against it as I closed my eyes.

By now, the ritual was long since routine to me. My soul flowed into the Ash, starting at the roots and rising up towards the sky through the trunk and the branches. All but leafless in the fall, the barren branches grasped at the sky and I felt them as I could feel my own limbs. The light within the tree was concealed by the muck of material existence, but that concealing detritus cracked in a moment under my touch and it shed its restraints as easily as it had its leaves.

I exhaled slowly and stepped away from the tree's murky green light, kneeling beside Ash and Autumn. When the light faded, nothing had changed—it was still an ash tree decorated in Autumn's coils. Not surprising, honestly; this wasn't the first time Autumn had sought to meld with a tree and failed. The difference in size and relative power between her and a tree interfered with her Green Binder and no amount of slow struggling on her seemed enough to change that. Eventually, she'd give up and I'd return her to her carriage.

But today, things were different. My training was nearing its end, with less than a week until Mistral. My physical stats now lingered near seventy, close enough to rectify before the tournament—but my Intelligence…

Having started nearly ten levels higher, it went without saying that it was the first to reach the benchmark. It had taken just a little over five weeks of training, in fact, with the rest spent trying to improve it yet further in the time that remained. Yet…with it now over seventy and my physical stats still trailing a bit behind, I'd spoken to my mother and she'd agreed; I'd be spending the remaining days focuses on my body instead of my mind. Even just taking into account the time it had taken to reach seventy-one…it wasn't worth it, comparatively.

Especially when I could do this instead.

I brought my status screen up and made my changes, inhaling deeply as I did.

By raising INT above 100, you have gained a random ability related to your brain functions.

The skill 'Clairvoyance' was created.

By raising INT above 100, you have gained the passive skill 'Medium Mana.'

By raising INT above 100, you have gained the passive skill 'Mana Regeneration.'

I smiled, looking down at my hand as I flexed my fingers.

"Let's try this again, dear," I said, touching her roots. "Green Thumb."

Even more flowers bloomed across Autumn's limbs until the Ash was all but hidden beneath their bulk, but it wasn't enough.

Not yet.

"It's fine," I murmured. "I can do this all night."