Devouring the Neverglades: (Beta Version) Chapter 12

Suzies birthday ended up taking all day, as I helped with cooking the Turkey in the kitchens, and just enjoying the company of my family extended or otherwise.

Yet, the next day wasn’t any better for my experiments, as I was pulled into helping repair some chains that had been damaged, reinforcing them with mana to give them even more strength, which was saying something since I’d already done that, and they’d still been broken.

That took all day, as chains were tedious, and it was like that for a while. Wake up, do my normal chores and get pulled into some task or another. 

And then as time passed I was in the middle of feeding Bitey when I heard it.

The sound of a vehicle coming down the road. Since I was on the 2nd floor porch the sound was a little easier to see, but I still couldn’t see over the walls of the compound.

“I heard a vehicle!” I called out below, and that got everyone's attention, and soon we had the front gate opening and Old Man William standing out there, as a truck, almost identical to our own pulling up.

I stayed up on the porch with Bitey who was enjoying a meal of more Crawdad’s as I watched two men step out, and Greet Old William with a firm handshake. They quickly huddled together and began speaking and I could tell right away a deal of some sort was being done.

Idly watching the whole thing, I realized something was up when Old William looked up and caught my eye, and then waved me down.

Aw, shit. This was going to be more work huh?

I sighed and made sure Bitey was secure and happy and then headed downstairs. Climbed down the concrete steps along the outside of the building that led to the second floor apartment, and then out into the common area, and I jogged over to Old Man William.

“You asked for me.”

“I did.” He said dropping a heavy hand onto my head earning a smile as he looked at the two. 

“This is Victoria Ferrous, our little Mage.” He introduced me, and I noticed the way both men sort of flinched at the last word.

We stared at each other for a second, so I decided to enact cute kid #3.

“Hi! Just call me Vicky. What’s going on?” I asked Old Man William tugging at his pants a bit.

“This is Alan, and Robert from One-Sixteen, they’re coming to ask about a trade for some infusion work.” William introduced the two and I nodded. That made sense.

“Oh… Nice to meet you.” I greeted the older men, who still seemed a little uncomfortable but responded. 

“To you as well, girl.” Alan the front man offered, and I nodded looking at William. 

“We’re willing to accept the deal. Vicky would be happy to handle it.” I didn’t say anything, I was still just a kid, and Old Man Williams hand on my head suddenly had me nod along which had me giggle despite myself as I reached up and put my hands on top of his. 

“What needs to be infused?” I asked, looking between the men.

William nodded at them asking them to answer, and they responded.

“Mostly Harpoons, we got a new set after we lost a boat. One-Seventeen’s got the best method for it. Everyone knows it now.”

“How many?”

“Twelve?”

“Not too bad.” I looked at Old Man William. “Do you want me to provide the fuel, or are we using our reserves?”

“Reserves. We don’t want to hold the Harpoons for weeks. Can you do them all today?”

“Ye.” I uttered cutely looking behind them to the truck. “That’s them?”

“It is.”

I hummed as I broke away and went to check. 

Twelve Harpoons wrapped and shiny. These were fresh, probably bought right from the forges in the city. I single finger as I climbed up to check confirmed not a hint of mana.

“Okay! I’ll get started! Can you move them to the tables?” I called out as I climbed down and raced off. They were obviously uncomfortable with the whole mage thing. 

Had either of them ever met a Frontier Mage like me?

I hadn’t heard of any other mages coming out of the compound.

So it was probably a first.

I had access to the Mana Fuel storage room now, and I quickly grabbed a bucket, and started filling it up. Watching the glowing blue water flow out of the tank was always interesting. 

Taking it carefully I headed back where the men were placing the harpoons on the table and under their curious if a bit fearful eye, I got started.

Over the months of doing this for everything and anything I’d come up with a few tricks to make sure I wasn’t wasting any. 

Instead of pouring the mana on the object, I usually dunked it into the bucket. Raising it right after while it still had the glowing water I closed my eyes and dragged up the mana through the fuel into the metal. Slowly. 

It was hard. It was still like trying to stick water in your hands and then coat something completely. It took many many attempts before I was satisfied and I placed the first harpoon to the side, and sighed stretching a bit.

“Done.”

“Good job Vicky.” Old Man William offered. The three men had taken a seat around the table I was working on while I was distracted and mostly just talked. 

I’d caught snippets of their conversation, mostly about hunting and monsters surges, or new species taking over from old ones.

Compound #116 was the closest to us, but it was still like ten miles down the river, and it was rare that any of them had much contact with us compound folk. The actual hunters sometimes met up and worked together though. 

“So… Just that?” Alan asked, looking from the Harpoon to Old Man William.

“Just that. She’s got the magic to drag the mana into the steel. No more reforging it just to hopefully get a bit more durability and sharpness out of it.”

“Mana likes to flow into things, but the harder the object the more it struggles to do so… At least that’s what I’ve noticed. It’s like giving it a little push until it seeps in.” I added. The second Harpoon in hand I settled back on the seat in the most comfortable position I could and got back to work.

“She seems… Normal.” I very faintly heard whispered.

“She is.” Old Man William said back just as quiet, although I knew he was more playing along than anything. “Nothing odd about her.” He spoke back.

Were mages Odd? Or considered different?

Considering how everyone seemed afraid of mages? Yeah that made sense. Kind of sad though. Oh well. I wasn’t going to live making everyone treat me differently. That sounded very tiresome. 

While the three men made small talk I kept working, drawing mana from the bucket, until it was completely out. Just left over water in the bottom.

“Need to swap out the bucket.” I told them as I set the harpoon I’d been working on to the side and went off to empty the bucket and get some more mana fuel.

It was a monotonous task, but it was kinda interesting to be doing it for someone outside the compound. 

—--

I didn’t finish before dinner, and so the whole compound welcomed our neighbors for a meal, as I stuffed myself quickly so I could get back to finishing the task before it got too late to drive back.

“You're more dedicated at that, than my own girl. Can’t get her to actually stay focused on a task.” Robert, said, the first thing he said to me, as I was once more at the empty table working on the last harpoon.

“Thanks! I do like magic, but this gets boring too. I think any task no matter how interesting gets like that after a while.”

“Yeah you’re likely right… Thanks Girl.”

“Oh no problem. You’re trading something with us for it. So it’s not like I’m doing it for free.”

“Might as well be. The cost to this ourselves would be weeks of effort, and our forges running. You’re doing it in a day.”

“Only because I’ve gotten so much practice.” I assured him, and he just nodded. 

“There you are, Monster.” Papa said settling in next to me, and I sent him a brilliant smile. 

“Papa! How was your day? Catch anything good? I’ve been busy with this.”

“Just a small croc. It was a peaceful day. How's that coming?”

“Almost done!” I assured him as I focused back on finishing up. Robert and Papa spoke to each other above my head obviously familiar with each other. 

Then I pulled the Harpoon up and waved it a bit to let the mana fuel that still remained on it back into the bucket and plopped it down.

“Done. Ugh!” I said sighing and flopping back into Papa. “I’m finally done.”

“Good job Vicky.” Papa said, pulling me into a side hug. I just wiggled in and let myself enjoy the affection. 

We’d had minor orders from the other compounds before, but this was the first big one.

When this got around? And it likely would. Then I had a feeling I’d be doing this all over again. 

I shrugged off the concern. If it happened, it happened, but either way, this was a big help for my family as well. 

I didn’t hear the exact amount, but some of the next month's harvest from our neighbors would go to us in payment. 

Basically a long term low interest loan for the work. Benefiting everyone. They’d have better tools, and spend less resources trying to improve them, and we’d have more too.

Win win.

Of course as I was resting after a long day's work, I knew the next day I’d be spending most of it refilling the Mana Fuel Storage. 

Oh well. The experiments could wait a bit longer, and it gave Bitey more chance to grow before I had to do something about him.

—--

“Finally free!” I cheered flopping into the porch besides Biteys enclosure. Things had in fact gotten busy. Very busy. It hadn’t even been a few days before we got another request, for some infused chains, and then more and more work had flown through our little compound.

I’d seen men all the way from compound One-fifty! Although that was mostly because they’d been visiting St. Coleson and had come to us for a visit.

Apparently the rumor of a Frontier Mage had spread, and it had been quite a surprise for them to see little old me.

But things were changing. I had less and less time for other things, but thankfully no one had forced me to send Bitey away just yet, even if I was pretty sure I’d gotten all I could out of him.

I looked over at his Enclosure, and I could feel him just happily gathering mana. Mouth open and enjoying the sun. 

He was getting bigger, not exceptionally so, he seemed to mostly be storing the mana for later use.

But he was able to gather mana pretty quickly now. Noticeably more than he could when he had first started. 

I’d have to let him go soon. 

I leaned up and looked over the Enclosure, and his slitted eye tracked me as I peeked over. He still tried to bite me. Still wanted to eat me, just as much as anything else, but…

“You’re cute.” I told him smiling as I watched his derpy little mouth hung open breathing in the mana in the air. 

Pets were not allowed though. 

I tapped on the edge of the enclosure as I thought. I hadn’t tried his element transformation spell… If that’s even what it did. It could just be a rock transformation spell for all I knew. I’d been…

Scared.

I’ll admit it. The black goo Mana was seriously scary, because I just didn’t know if it was normal. Or what a spell that would turn me into a rock would do to me.

Like… I wasn’t a monster. Did spells even work normally on humans?

Was I completely missing something?

So… I’d been happy to put it off. Just do normal stuff. Let time flow past me.

“Am I being a scaredy cat, Bitey?” I asked my baby Croc and he shifted to look at me a bit, his mouth still open as he sucked in Mana. 

I wish I could do that. He was taking in more mana in ten minutes, than I could get in an hour.

I sighed. It was probably time to release him. Maybe all the extra mana he had gathered safely would be all he needed to stay alive.

To stay alive, in a dangerous world filled with monsters ready to kill me.

“You’re right. Being safe is nice, but nothing is really safe. We could all die from a freak Monster attack tomorrow… The only way to be safe is to get stronger. Is that what you’re telling me Bitey? That I should use my safety to make myself stronger?”

I nodded along as Bitey just sat there sucking in Mana.

“Yeah, you’re right. Even if it goes bad, I should try it. It didn’t… Hurt me. It didn’t really feel bad. I just got scared.” I admitted, looking at my hand. The same hand I’d stuck into the goo Mana.

I could live a normal quiet life. As quiet as I could get anyways. I was useful. Valued. I was a girl, didn’t need to go hunting. I could just live a cushy life infusing whatever the Compound needed. Continue to sell it to other compounds. Heck. I could probably travel too. Visit the other compounds as a guest, for a while at a time, fix things up, make sure they have mana fuel. 

It would be peaceful.

Safe.

I looked at Bitey, who was safe right now, and yet… He was desperately trying to make himself stronger. He knew the truth. There was no safety. If Papa died hunting. Would I just shrug my shoulders and say that was okay and continue to live my life peacefully? 

Or would I demand blood?

It’s a silly question. Papa wasn’t going to die. Obviously, but more importantly. If I didn’t have any strength the question was rhetorical. I’d sit here in the compound and not be able to do anything.

I wanted to do something. This world had magic, and I wanted to explore it. I wanted to travel into the Neverglades. I wanted…

I wanted to live. 

Even if I had to take some risks to do so. I’d been gathering Mana fuel for days. I went down to the storage and took a bucket. 

I’d replenish it later. With that I headed back up to the porch and settled the bucket of mana fuel down. 

Just because I was avoiding this didn’t mean I hadn’t done some preparation.

James had made a block for the Transformation circle Bitey had done. So it was all ready for… Whatever was going to come next.

I gathered everything up, and then hesitated, I got back up making sure Bitey couldn’t get out of the enclosure and then checked for Old Man William.

“Old William?”

“Hmm? What is it?” He asked, looking up from making some sort of records when I found him downstairs.

“I’m going to be casting a spell. A new one. I don’t know what’s going to happen exactly. So uh… Yeah. It turned Bitey into a Rock when he used it. So if I come down the stairs and I’m a rock blob, it’s just me.”

He blinked at my words for a second. “Are-Is that?” He stopped himself and breathed. “A rock blob?”

“Well Bitey turned into a Rock, but was still able to move. I’m going to test it, but… My Mana is the… Dark stuff. I don’t know what’ll happen. So I’m just warning you.”

“I see. Aye, You’re using the porch?”

“Yeah. I figure it’s safer than doing it down here.”

“Hmm. Alright. I’ll come with you. I’ll be in my rooms. If you need anything, just tell me.” He ordered and I nodded, and led him back up to the porch.

He watched from inside as I headed out and settled in the space. 

Bitey had waggled his way over to the side of the enclosure.

He could definitely sense the mana bucket.

“Not for you… Even if your advice was very useful.” I told him, and then pulled out my spell circle blocks of wood.

Attune the mana first.

I put the bucket on top of the circle, but found it a bit unwieldy. Instead it went half way on top of the circle, so I could still touch it, and I held the bucket up with my feet.

Then I started breathing. Activating the circle with the flow of mana from the bucket.

And instantly I felt it once more.

That infinitely dark space. Yet… It never scared me. No matter how many times I was reminded of this place I never felt any fear. I’d been there. I’d traveled through it. 

It was a part of me. But the idea of transforming myself? Kinda scary.

Shaking that off I let the sense of that space fill me as I attuned the mana in the bucket. And then when I felt the spell circle end. I opened my eyes to a bucket of darkness.

I could feel it. As the bucket slowly absorbed mana in the air.

I heard some shuffling, and looked up then looked over. Bitey had shifted away from the side of the enclosure to the opposite side, and he wasn’t seemingly trying to absorb mana anymore. His mouth was shut. He scuffled over and slipped into the water, and dunked down.

Huh.

Was it the feel of the mana? Or maybe he just reacted to any attuned mana like that? I’d have to… Well I can't, I realized. I don’t have any other way to attune mana to something besides my inky goo. So I couldn’t really test it.

Instead I got back to my experiment. 

I placed the bucket back on the ground and reached for the other block.

The transformation spell.

It looked so simple. I felt my heart beating fast. So I closed my eyes and tried to calm down. 

It was okay. 

I’d be okay.

I reached out and scooped up a bit of the black goo on a hand and then bright my palm down to the block.

Pressing down firmly, I felt the mana oozing, as I pushed, and the dark mana began almost too eagerly to move through the circle. Slowly then picking up speed, and I felt it.

A shift in that rippling sensation of the dark mana, as it went from inactive to active. As it found a way to express itself, and I gasped as something cold slid up my hand, wrapping up and over my skin, and leaving a cold, almost numb sensation. 

I opened my eyes to see my fingers were gone. Instead in their place was nothing but almost bubbling goo. 

I bit back the reaction to flinch to pull away. The mana was already slowing, but it felt okay.

I felt okay. It was terrible to look at, but as I willed my fingers to move, the goo sort of twitched in the right away.

This wasn’t right though.

Why was it so… Goopy?

Finally the mana on the block ended, and it was… Done.

I raised my hand, and despite what it felt like it should do, the goo lifted, and I saw my fingers retained their shape. 

I wasn’t dying.

My body wasn’t exploding or anything. I was… Okay?

But why goo? I looked at my sort of wet digits, there was definitely flesh underneath, but it was so coated in goop I couldn’t really see them… I shivered as I felt kinda weird. My hand held up… I’d caught a bit of mana in the air, and it actually felt weird.

Super weird.

I shook it off. Okay experiment one. 

Can I turn it off? 

The spell was held together by a circle, no longer needing the block to help me guide it, I felt it inside my fingers. So I plucked at it. Trying to disrupt the spell.

It was hard. At first I couldn’t even tell if I was doing it, and then it fought me, the spell wanted to continue, the mana was there keeping it going, and then finally I plucked and the spell ended, with a weird shiver.

My fingers were revealed. No longer whatever gunk it had been transformed into, but I was still coated with some of the goo. Had it been generated by whatever my fingers had been? I guess… I guess if I transformed into water, I’d leave whatever I moved over wet, or if I transformed into fire, it would burn things right?

Same thing. Slime was totally normal, and not at all utterly disgusting. The slime felt super cool though, considering just how hot everything was. It left my fingers feeling kinda icy as I looked around. What was I supposed to do with this!?

I needed… A towel. “Old William?” I called out trying to stay calm, and not freak out. A few moments later the balcony door opened and he looked out hesitating before relaxing at seeing me normal.

“Everything okay?”

“Mostly. I got all slimy when I tested the transformation… Can you get me a rag? I don’t want to wipe this on anything.” I said, showing my inky oozy fingers. That seemed to unfortunately make him a bit startled as he jerked back. 

“Ah… Yes, I can do that for you. Is it?”

“It’s okay… I think? It’s not doing anything to me, but I don’t want to just leave it.”

“Right.” He disappeared and I faced a bit of confusion. Why was I an ooze transformation!? I didn’t want to be ooze! Even a tentacle monster would be better! At least then I’d have limbs!

Ugh.

Should I try again?

I should. 

Okay. Let’s try this again. I don’t know what goop fingers were good for, but… I should still try it and see.

Ugh. I thought Eldritch stuff was supposed to be tentacles and Cthulhu?

I closed my eyes. Gathering another dollop of goo mana and then casting the transformation again. 

It felt… Soothing. How cool I felt. The heat of the sun beating down on me, felt so far away when I finished opening my eyes and then looking down.

Then slapping a hand over the other.

“Okay don’t freak out. Don’t freak out. It’s okay. Don’t freak out.” My fingers were very gone. Instead a sort of wiggling… Thing was sticking out from where my finger should be.

A tentacle. 

Had I insulted Cthulhu!? I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it!

“Vicky? I got the rag.” I jerked up realizing that Old Man William was about to walk onto the porch and I slapped my tentacle which felt very weird and hid it behind the bucket, even as it seemed to keep wanting to wiggle around almost outside of my control.

I think I could move it, but the feelings were all a bit off.

He peeked around and I needed him to go away quickly.

“Thanks! I’m good here. Give me a bit.” I said still fighting my tentacle as he seemed startled at my words but he nodded and tossed me the rag which I grabbed with my still hand shaped hand and then threw it down to hide my tentacle.

“Alright… I’ll be here.”

“Thank you!” I only relaxed long after the door closed, breathing out a very uncomfortable breath as I realized he wasn’t going to peak.

“What the fuck?” I whispered as quietly as I could as I looked at the transformed… Limb… Thing. It wasn’t even… Solid? It looked.. Malformed. Like a kid drawing a tentacle from memory. Considering I’d just seen an Octopus recently, the weird malformed… Formless sludge tentacle was weird.

Why a Tentacle?

Why had it shifted like that? I hadn’t done anything besides think abou-

“It… Can’t be that simple… Right?”

Considering I had a minute, I once more canceled the spell. Relieved at the return of my fingers and the slime. At least I had fingers this time.

Then… I should try it once more. I needed fingers. Claws. Not formless goop. Would that do it? I had fingers. I needed fingers. Thumbs were bitching.

I thought about it hard. Trying to picture it, and sort of just stuck not sure.

A dark clawed hand. That’s what I wanted.

I grabbed the Goo mana, and cast it again. Noticing the poor block was getting a bit worn from the mana eating at it.

But I cast quickly.

Fingers.

I needed fingers… And firmness. No goo. Strong fingers.

And the spell was cast. That eldritch sense of the between filled me, and this time I tried to shape what I wanted.

Then the mana ran through, eager and active once more and I opened my eyes.

Five fingers. Dark as pitch black, each of them segmented and inhuman, connected to my normal flesh right around my palm, a bridge between dark and normal flesh.

I curled my hand, and there was no lack of control, no tentacleness. No goo dripping.

Right. It was me that had thought my mana looked like goo. Was it my fault it had done that? But… As I looked at my fingers, I couldn’t help but flash back to what memory my subconscious had pulled for these particular digits. 

The hiss was still audible in my ear. Having seen that particular movie probably far too young, it had stuck with me throughout my life. 

A Xenomorph. An Alien.

A monster.

“Heh.” I opened and closed my hand, watching those eerie evil looking fingers shift. 

This… This was kinda… cool.