For the last cycle or so, they had been considering the strangely shaped Rhodonite in their grasp. And what they had done to acquire such a thing. Torn from a gembound. A prize from an enemy! Their last remnant... A reminder of our cruelty... Many divided opinions. Many ambiguous thoughts. They were not sure if they were disgusted with themselves or proud of their power. Perhaps a healthy measure of both.

A rippling through their mind brought on an idea. Perhaps they could offer another chance. Perhaps...

A surge of their life flooded outwards from the amber and traveled through the soil, around the trees, and into the crystal they had wrapped themselves around, buried deep underground. It briefly seemed to warm in their grasp and then went still.

They waited, but nothing else happened. Ah...well, they would see, then, what would come of this little experiment.

And then there were the ones that Audland had gifted them. Hmmm...They considered. There were three, but perhaps they would do one for now. Perhaps two, if they had the strength. Each had been moved to different locations to differentiate them and they picked one at random, to flood with their life as they had the rhodonite.

Magic flooded the stone - a round piece of jet, much smaller then the cattle's crystal - and they felt that same odd sensation of brief warmth and then settling. They did now know what was going to come of all of this.

For once, they weren't paying attention. Procuppied by the stone, all their attention pulled inwards to observe this, they were surprised by the stone smacking onto the ground right above their heads. Curious, they reached for it, myclial cords spreading up and out through the earth until they were wrapping around another stone.

...Odd. But curiousity took their attention. The creature had already stalked off, and had left the range of their myclia. They had gotten a whiff of them, however, the heaviness of their footfalls, the sound of their breath. Perhaps they would search for them later.

For now, however, they curled tight around the stone and did the same as the others, this new claimed child already wrapped tightly in mycelia, fruiting bodies blooming protectively around it. This...would be quite interesting.

*exit