The last few days had been quite interesting. Exploring the forest and its… fascinating flora was something else, making me wonder about the speed of adaption in regards to the system. It seemed to me that some of the simpler organisms had rapidly adapted and became something wholly new, as the Withering Fungus and the magic algae in the lake had done. Similarly, the carnivorous plants here in the forest weren’t something I’d have considered possible, while most animals lagged behind by quite a bit. Even for humans, the adaptions were relatively minor, with the exceptions of magical powers, though there was one major exception to that idea, namely Lia.

But she might just be an exception, as she hadn’t really been living before the change, certainly not in her current form. The Carnelia who lived now shared some memories with the Chantalle before the change but that was it, her perspective had shifted, and the lens through which she interpreted those memories was different. Furthermore, her body had been changed by a major influx of Astral Power, turning her from the Shattered she had been into something new. So, had the human Chantalle adapted? Not really, it was more that I had taken some parts of that human and built something new with them, just like the Withered Fungus had taken parts of different creatures and made its Hunters, Skulkers and Husks with them, the original creature was present but only in parts and the operating was left to the fungus.

The only real exceptions in that regard were those who had accepted a Legacy if their legacy was one of a greatly different race. For example, the difference between a human and a Firn Elf was relatively minor, to the point that a Firn Elf could pass as a human in the right lighting, or maybe with some make-up. But compared to a centaur, a naga or something equally alien, the differences were minimal.

Another unexpected aspect of the forest and its critters was that some of those critters were actively adapting to the changes in the environment. Again, evolution in action, only that it didn’t take successive generations of natural selection for large changes to emerge. It only took a few encounters with danger, maybe a couple of levels and some luck on the side of the critter for them to gain an adaption that would take dozens of generations.

Maybe the most fascinating I came across was something I dubbed a Lightning Squirrel, and if it had been yellow, or maybe white-blue, it could have easily starred in an anime during my childhood. Instead, it retained its boring brown colour, allowing it to blend in with the forest until it needed to move to evade one of the many carnivorous plants. At that moment, it used some sort of ability I assumed was similar to my own Draconic Leap to explode forward with lightning speed, leaving behind a crackling afterimage and causing a clap of thunder. I doubted there was any real offensive utility of the move, the squirrels just didn’t have enough mass for their impact to count, but it was most certainly impressive.

Until I managed to hit one of them with a confusion curse mid-leap. The result remained impressive, but a much more gory impression as the squirrel impressed itself so hard on the tree it had been aiming for that it… squished. Somewhat similar to the effect an egg would have if it was thrown against a rock with great force, it was messy.

After stalking the squirrels for a bit, neither Lia nor I discovered anything exceptional about them, other than their mad dashes to escape danger. It made them somewhat interesting, but it wasn’t enough for us to seriously investigate them.

Instead, we went looking for other things, something that wasn’t a murderous plant or a small rodent, something that might challenge us in the massive forest. For that was what the forest turned out to be, massive. Far bigger than it had any real right to be, and when I investigated a road that had once led into the forest I came up with nothing. The road was still there, happily going through the fields, even if the lack of maintenance and repeated earthquakes had taken a toll on it, the asphalt hadn’t gone anywhere. Until it hit the forest and within a few metres, it went from rough and in dire need of some serious work to broken until it simply vanished, as if the very forest had consumed the thing. In my search, I had started looking for any indication of where it had been, something like signs, broken cars or anything like that, but there was nothing. It was utterly bizarre, to the point that I had been running around, carefully sniffing the air to search for trace magic.

I even brought in Luna, who had a clear and incredibly pronounced dislike for the forest as it hindered her trusty canine steed, while Lia and I moved through the trees. That meant during most nights, Silva and Luna were left in our shelter, while Lia, Alex and I explored, though I took some time during the day to take care of my munchkin. if nothing else, it brought her sleeping schedule back to something adequate for a human child, hopefully helping her body and mind to develop.

Sure, I was forced to sleep fairly little, as I didn’t want to leave Luna alone until the afternoon, but I could cope. And if not, I could simply grab Luna for an afternoon nap, amusingly, that was one of her favourite things to do, let herself get carried into a tree, nestle in somewhere near the crown and still in its shade, and nap for an hour or two, cuddled up to me. While it wasn’t real sleep, it certainly was restful, even if the odd sunbeam broke through the canopy above and irritated me.

Sleeping high up in the canopy also made me think of my dear friend Lenore. Missing her was different compared to missing Sigmir, one had been a constant companion and friend but Sigmir had been so much more. Taking out the feather she had sent me via the ritual didn’t help matters much. Holding it brought me a sense of calm, even as I wondered what I might be able to do with it. The feather held her presence, maybe even part of her essence as Lenore was primarily a creature of spirit, malleable in ways a normal being just wasn’t, and it made me wonder. Could I use the feather in some way to regain a shape similar to hers, maybe some sort of shape-shifting? I’d love to fly once more, just the second-hand experience I had gotten with Lenore had been glorious, but learning to do it on my own? It would be an incredible gift.

Alas, for now, I could only look at the feather and tell Luna about my avian friend. Talking to her helped, though I had yet to breach the topic of my lost love. How could I speak to Luna, who had lost both her parents, about my lost love and my desire to bring Sigmir back into this world without tearing open those barely healed wounds? I just didn’t know.

In regards to the mystery road, Luna’s presence changed nothing. Even with her help, we didn’t manage to find any clues which started to seriously intrigue me. It wasn’t as if there was a way to get rid of the entire structure and have grass, trees and shrubs grow over it, at least not without some major magic being involved. And yet, that was what seemingly had happened, as impossible as my mind insisted that was, especially without lingering traces of magic.

I even considered going back to town and looking for an old road map so I could try following the path it had to have gone once, but given that I couldn’t even follow it with its starting point easily accessible, I discarded the idea. There was something going on with the forest, that much was certain, but I had yet to find out what.

That’s how we decided to go about things, getting a map and comparing what was here now to what used to be here before the change. However, instead of going back to town myself, I asked Lia, simply because she had better physical attributes and a greater speed.

When she got back from town, a relatively high-resolution map in hand, we started to compare and even at first glance, I could only shake my head in disbelief. While I had known that the forest had changed, the sheer scope had been outside my imagination. Instead of a stretch maybe two kilometres wide and four kilometres long, the forest now was far, far larger, possibly ten times the size, or even more. We had yet to find its boundaries and I had to wonder, just how widespread was this sort of change. What had happened to the places that used to be within the forest, the buildings and so on?

I had no idea but I wanted to find out, as this was completely outside of anything I had considered possible.