When Adam woke up, he felt cold. But, unlike before, this chill did not originate from within him, but instead, from something right beside him. Opening his tired, dry eyes, Adam could just barely make out the frozen-stiff form of the Rattice he had killed. If he’d been of sounder mind, he would have felt worse about taking a life. All his life, he’d been about as opposed to needless violence and cruelty as a human possibly could be, believing that it was nobody’s place to govern over the lives of others, and yet… here he was. Staring at the lifeless, terrified form of a creature he killed.

His emotions felt as distant as Earth. His body felt empty. Too empty, and all he could think of, all he wanted to do, was to fill that emptiness. His weak limbs, the few that were left, stretched out, the paper-thin dry skin on them tearing and revealing the soft flesh underneath. He didn’t know how to, but, somehow, he would consume this thing. It was all he could do. He had no choice other than that.

One of his bleeding, trembling, soft little dendrites landed upon the frozen surface of the Rattice, and the moment it did so, it froze solid as well. A burning, icy hot sensation travelled from the appendage and into Adam’s main body, where it distributed a biting, harsh coldness Adam could barely handle. But he had to continue. He didn’t have a mouth to chew and swallow and scream with, all he had was this useless little body, but somehow, he would make do.

Another tentacle fell upon the form of the carcass, and then another, and finally, all three of Adam’s remaining arms and legs were frozen stuck to the dead creature before him. Adam had never wanted to scream more than he did at this very moment. To grit his teeth, to chew upon his own flesh and suppress a gasp… anything would have been better than this apathetic silence.

But he had to focus.

Reluctantly, he closed his eyes, and focused his entire being on the sensation coming from his tentacles, from the dead creature that lay before him. The pain was almost unbearable. If Adam had tried to move his appendages, they would surely have broken off, leaving him to bleed out. But, beneath that searing pain, the cold fire that scorched and froze him at the same time, the whiteness that threatened to consume him, he could feel it. Small trickles of that thing that used to be inside him. And, more than just that, he could feel warmer, more lukewarm stuff, that must have been what was once inside the Rattice.

The lukewarm, normal Magick, as it was, flowed easily into Adam, and along the way, it eased the pain, allowing the cool fire to melt into mere freezing pain. It was better, but it was still a pain far beyond anything he could recall having ever experienced. Slowly, slowly, the Magick entered him, lukewarm and freezing cold merging to form a slight coolness that Adam wasn’t quite comfortable with.

This left only the body of the Rattice left to be dealt with. It would be a waste to simply leave it, and, as it was, he didn’t have any use for the flesh or fur of the creature. Had he been a tad more clever, he could have sharpened the bones to use as spears, but Adam was not a clever man. Slug. Thing.

But, he couldn’t eat it either, since he did not possess a mouth. However, if he could absorb the Magick, perhaps the physical body wasn’t that far off?... So, following this strange logic, he once more placed his tentacles upon the corpse, and focused. There was no Magick left to absorb, but if he just… converted the body into Magick?... He felt like some sort of scientist, imagining what might or could be, uncertain of everything, but curious enough to try. At first, he was unable to do anything. In the meantime, the Magick within him had cooled down to the usual sub-zero temperatures, and his body had started growing rounder, with tentacles already regenerating like lost lizard-tails.

And then, finally, he had an idea. He could probably melt it down, but, he would need a catalyst. So, the problem here was that he somehow needed to release pure Magick in a form that would surround the body so he could digest it. But… how? Sure, he’d been able to release his Magick earlier by focusing it in a dendrite and then overflowing the Rattice with his cold Magick, but that wouldn’t work here. He needed the body to be surrounded by the Magick, not filled with it. Plus, freezing it again didn’t seem like too good of a solution.

But, focusing his Magick in one dendrite seemed like a good place to begin. His front right tentacle quickly filled up with the ice-cold freezing Magick, and although it hurt suitably, it was a start. The Magick soon concentrated and became bildning in pain and power. Now, to put this Magick out into the world… Perhaps?...

Uncertain, a bit scared but determined, he slowly moved his tentacle in a circle, faint traces of Magick flowing out, creating what he believed to be a portal of sorts. A Magick circle. And then, as a final movement, he placed his tentacle at the very middle, and allowed the Magick to flow out. And, surprisingly… it obeyed him. Like a rope and net, it covered the Rattice, and by using this Magick as a catalyst, Adam was able to transform the body into Magick, which he then absorbed. This was the very first use of the spell “Ingest”.

Power flowed into Adam, and for the first time in years, he felt hope about the future. Using this, by using this power, this thing within his soul, he could survive. No, he could live, and he could thrive.

With a newfound will to life(something I personally have yet to possess), Adam crawled out of the hole, leaving nothing behind. The sun was blinding, all-encompassing and omnipresent. And yet, compared to the freezing pain he had experienced down there, it was nothing. It scorched his eyes, but nothing changed his mind. In a way, he was lucky it was day and not night. At night, he would have been vulnerable, with his bright body and slow movements. But in the light of the day, he had a fighting chance.

The following days were hard. During the day, he would scavenge the land, defeating beasts smaller than him by either overpowering and strangling them or by casting spells he didn’t quite understand and freezing them solid. This way, he slowly grew stronger and more confident. He taught himself two new spells, which was Freeze and Cool Spear. Perhaps he might have given the Cool Spear ability a more fitting name that wasn’t quite as childish, however, some remnants of the young, extroverted teen still remained in him. Plus, it really was a cool spear.

During the nights, he would hide in the hole, focusing on himself and what was inside him, the flow of his Magick, how he could use it, his situation… he became devout in his meditation. But, he was unable to face his trauma. Sure, he told himself, each and every night, that if he wanted to, he could obviously defeat that oversized green cat it with four arms behind his back! And, yet… there he was. Safe, sound, isolated.

And so, ten years passed.

Adam taught himself new spells, learned how to utilize his body in better ways, and, eventually, became powerful enough to no longer fear the night. In his body, he stored the Magick of tens of thousands of souls, and he had become a slayer of beasts. The dread he felt at the murder of a fellow living being was entirely extinguished, leaving him somewhat empty. He killed because, if he didn’t, he might end up like before: unable to move, awaiting only death.

He dreaded that fate.

And, so, it was only natural that he would meet that puma again. In fact, he had seen it after only 4 years or so. It was only a passing glance, but it was enough to resurface the trauma from so many years past. Thankfully, he hadn’t been forced to fight it, but now…

There he stood. Tall, proud, and scared out of his wits. He had already risen two hands in preparation for the ensuing battle. The old, battle-honed wildcat stood lurched in front of him, curious, amused. Adam knew it was the very same cat the moment he saw it. Even before the battle had begun, before that humongous beast had pounced, Adam had rose two of his tentacles in preparation for the ensuing battle. At this point, Adam had easily mastered several dozen spells Lutum had never seen before, and his ability to create more than one spell circle at a time was admirable. Of course, using all his tentacles was still a far-off dream, but he knew it was possible. Somehow.

The beast pounced. Eyes flaring, claws stretched wide, fangs bared. Adam was frozen stiff. A split-second stretched out into years, and Adam was forced to come to a decision. He could not become a toy, not again! But, fighting… to defeat this nightmare-inducing monstrosity… no, he couldn't afford thought! He didn’t have time to ponder some unimportant question, all he could do was fight! If not for his own gratification, then for his LIFE!

Without any conscious thought, he activated two spell circles, creating a long, frozen shard of ice, as well as a small, freezing cloud that chilled one to the very bone. Both of these spells shot out like homing missiles at the greenish puma. The icicle easily embedded itself into the green puma’s right shoulder, causing the beast to roar in pain, while the other spell exploded into a cloud of white mist that felt freezing to touch. This acted as a cover, but, unlike Adam’s previous intentions, he did not run. That roar of pain… it gave him hope.

It made him arrogant.

With newfound confidence, he drew up two new Magick circles, one for Freeze and one for Condense. Had he had a mouth, he would have been grinning. But, before he could cast them, a low, vengeful growl emanated from the whitish earthbound cloud before him, and before Adam could feel any form of fear, the angered, bleeding blood-frozen puma lunged from within the cloud, and Adam, slow as he was, was unable to dodge. The long, razor-sharp claws dug deep into his body, and that familiar pain struck him once more. But he was no longer young. He was ten years older, and if the pain of the thousands of bites and scratches and disembodiments he had received before was unable to break him, not to mention the freezing pain from the Magick within him, this wouldn’t do anything.

At seeing the apathy at being impaled by ten needle-like claws at once, the Puma gave a confused roar, and, taking advantage of this pause, Adam cast his spells. Freeze made a cloud of freezing cold shoot out, freezing the water in the air and making it into razor sharp snowflakes which floated gracefully in the air. All of this happened in an instant, and the second this spell was finished, Adam cast the other one, Condense, which took all the frozen Magick and ice that was already swimming in the air around him and the puma, and condensed it all around the Puma, the ice forming bigger, sharp lumps as it drew closer, end, eventually, all of this had created hundreds of ice needles and icicles that shot at the Puma at speeds too quick to dodge. They embedded themselves much like the Cool Spear had before, except all over its body.

The puma roared in pain once more. It’s flesh grew stiff and the blood froze before it could splatter to the ground. The puma whimpered, stumbled, and fell to the ground. It wasn’t dead, but each bone, vein and limb it had was frozen, frigid and immovable. Adam slowly dragged his body over to it’s head. It stared at him, afraid, despairing, desperate. Adam’s eyes grinned. He didn’t need it dead to ingest it. With a familiar wave of the hand, he cast the Ingest spell, and with a final whimper, a dying, agonized groan, he consumed it.

This did something very peculiar. The sudden influx of powerful Magick, the compressed wills of thousands of souls that the puma had consumed, joined the myriads of souls Adam had consumed, and together… it seemed to be almost too much. The Magick within the puma felt alive. Most of the Magick he had consumed until this day had been lukewarm and tasteless like dry porridge, but this was something different. It felt coloured. Like how his was a cool, light blue and white, this Magick was green and bright and living.

The two Magicks within him battered and clashed, forming a maelstrom of pure power, but, as in the physical world, his chilling Magick won. But, even with this, it wasn’t over. A vortex had formed within him, sucking in all the Magick within him, condensing it and forming it into something beyond his understanding. It was a crystal core of some sort, like a gem within him.

It was an Evolutionary Core.

Now, at this time, he did not know what this was. But his instincts were screaming at him, telling him to find shelter, or else he would be ended. He was vulnerable at this time, weaker than he had ever been. Slowly, slower than he had ever been, he impatiently dragged his sore body back to that dark hole where this had all started. The only difference was that he had drawn up the various Magickal circles he had created, along with the titles of the spells along the earthy walls. But he didn’t care about that. In a haste, he almost stumbled down the various passages, until he finally found the most remote, inaccessible spot, and there, his very first evolution commenced.

He didn’t know why he did it or really how, but he formed a thin, white silk and wrapped himself in it like some sort of cocoon. And in that little cocoon, he lost consciousness and fell onto a deep coma.

When he woke up, it was dark and tight and close. He felt claustrophobic, despite never having feared that particular situation, and with frantic movements befitting of a man who had just been reformed from nothing, he dug himself out, completely ignoring the tiny tunnel system in his way. He was too big for those tiny little tunnels, and the fact that he used to be small enough for them was a fact that completely eluded him.

When he emerged from the ground, the sun had yet to rise, and the bright white moon grinned down at him to greet him. In his confusion, he wondered where he was. Why the moon was white. Why the trees looked so strange, and, most of all… why he couldn’t breathe.

Looking down at his body, he realized his folly. But, along with it, he also realized something very strange. He was very different compared to his usual body and size. He was about half the size of the puma, and he was much longer if compared to his original proportions. To make up for his new length, he now possessed about six pairs of legs, two of which were off the ground in front of him like a pair of arms. They did not, however, posses any fingers or anything like that. But, beyond this, he also had three pairs of tentacles of varying sizes around his neck, two longer ones at the end of his tail, and another two smaller ones where his shoulders would have been. In total, he now possessed 26 tentacles spread across his body. Some were smaller or thinner and other were longer, but it was an impressive amount nonetheless.

Adam had no idea why this happened. He could vaguely remember cocooning himself after forming some sort of Magick core, but now… his body was way different. He felt stronger, more powerful.

Turning to a tree, Adam decided to test out his new strength. Wrapping two of his tentacles around the base of it, he twisted around as hard as he possibly could, and, sure enough, the tree quaked and groaned and was crushed under his strength, falling over with a bang. He was strong, wasn’t he? Stronger than he had ever been, human or otherwise.

But, sadly enough, he was still very slow. His only solace lay in the fact that he could now use his strength to keep his main body off the ground by walking on five of his pairs of legs. It was a new form of freedom, but it was of a meek kind. And, strangely enough, he actually felt sort of happy. Just a little bit. Sure, he still longed for his days as a carefree human, he missed his dad and Jessica and Pete and Chad and Hendry and all of them. But, with this, he may just be one step closer to finding his way back home.

But, at the moment, that was but a faraway dream.

And so, as the new lord of the forest, he spent 47 years defeating everything in his path, designing spells, and becoming a force to be reckoned with.

That it, until a subjugation team was sent out to deal with him.