After telling Lia where Luna and I were going, causing her to sulk a little because the day was too bright for her to join us without fairly extreme protections, we made our way over to the new experimental facility, as grandiose as that title was for little more than a hole in the ground. But the extent of the facility didn’t matter as much as the contents, and, in this case, the content was a potential link between Shattered and normal living beings, something that might become a future link between the old world and what might become a new world.
The fact that somehow, Shattered had repaired their soul to some extent was incredible, with an insane number of implications and potential avenues to investigate in the future. In some way, it might be plausible to call this a miracle, with a miracle being an impossible event taking place regardless of its perceived impossibility. No divine Intervention had been needed; at least, I couldn’t perceive any traces of divine power on the Sasquatch, even when I had taken a closer look, though it was plausible that I had missed something. Hopefully, Luna, maybe with a bit of aid from Lady Hecate, would be able to determine if there were divine shenanigans afoot, as boring as that would be. I didn’t want this miracle to be one of divine intervention; I wanted it to be a natural process I could study to further my understanding of the soul. And figure out how a human with a broken soul, destroyed by the sudden influx of Astral Power, could recover and become something new. A coherent and viable, if somewhat animalistic, life form, it defied my perception of the world. If I were to shatter a rock and try to randomly fit the pieces back together, the rock wouldn’t have the same shape it had before; it would be something, well, random. Not the fairly coherent ‘form’ the Sasquatch’s soul took, nor would I expect it to create a working and functional body plan in response to the breaking. A random amalgamation should look, well, random, not symmetrical like the result produced by generations of natural selection.
My musings continued, interspersed with brief explanations for Luna regarding our newest acquisition, until we reached the door to the experimental facility. The Sasquatch was still curled into a corner of the room, her eyes, now again a blazing silvery flame, apparently focused on the door, making me think that her senses were truly extraordinary. That thought was confirmed moments later when what little movement I could detect from the Sasquatch stopped the moment I opened the outer door of the facility, making me think that, somehow, the Sasquatch had detected our presence. Truly, the thing had excellent senses, even better than my own, despite the undoubtedly vast difference in attributes we had. Though to be fair, it was more likely that the Sasquatch’s senses had a different speciality compared to my own; mine were focused on magical phenomena, not the physical world, though that thought brought up a curious question I might have to look into later. How comparative were attributes really?
For now, we had a Sasquatch to analyse and experiment with, which I should focus on. It would be such a waste to mess an experiment up because my mind had drifted elsewhere.
Out of an abundance of caution, I only opened a small slit in the door to the experimental chamber, allowing me to see inside while letting the Sasquatch get a whiff of our scent, so it had a bit of time to mentally prepare. Additionally, it gave me a better idea of whether the creature would be immediately hostile or if she would remain passive and huddled in the corner as she currently was.
There was an obvious moment of movement in which the Sasquatch looked up and at the door where our scents had originated, but other than that, she didn’t move. For a moment, I considered how dangerous she would be if I were to open the door and realised that I would be able to deal with her if she decided to attack. The difference in level was big enough to make me confident a Mind Blast, a simple application of my Mind Magic empowered by Overflow, would be enough to knock her out with nary a thought. The only thing I needed to ensure was that I wouldn’t be surprised; in other words, I had to be mentally ready to blast her if she attacked. Not too difficult, though given the vast array of magical abilities I had access to, I might be caught in a moment of decision paralysis. A drawback of my versatility, I sometimes hesitated a moment in an attempt to use the best and most efficient way to deal with a problem instead of simply using the fastest way. As the saying goes, a good plan executed immediately is often better than a perfect plan executed an hour too late.
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Readying myself, just in case, I pushed a threat of magic into the door and made it smoothly slide open. The Sasquatch, in response, twitched once again, staring at me intently, the silvery-blue flames in her eyes briefly brightening, turning just a little, well, bluer, but she didn’t attack. Didn’t even move, not even when Luna stepped into the room after me.
She, too, was studying the Sasquatch with an air of curiosity, though we both kept our distance for now. She was already driven into a corner; any approach from us would likely set her off, just like a cornered animal would strike. Given that part of our interest was to see just how intelligent the Sasquatch were, we didn’t want to push things just yet.
Shortly after we entered, the Sasquatch’s nose twitched once again before she lowered her furry face to the splints on her arm, her tongue flicking out to taste the Ice I had used to create the splint. A slightly strange action, especially as her eyes then moved back to me, staring intently, making me, once again, wonder how intelligent she was and how much she could sense.
To test a small hypothesis, namely that she might be able to discern that I had made the splint on her, maybe even that I had healed her injuries, I raised a hand and pooled a bit of Ice Astral Power into my palm, letting it slowly seep into the air and back into the Astral River. If her magical perception worked similarly to mine, based on scent and taste, she would get a full nose of my magical scent, allowing her to easily make the connection between me and the splints.
And, as I had thought, moments after I did, her nose twitched visibly, the staring intensified once again, and I thought her stance shifted just a little, muscles ready to pounce in an attempt to defend herself slackened, and she as a little less defensive. She was still far from trusting, but she didn’t look like a cornered animal about to attack anyone getting too close to her.
“She might be hungry,” Luna quietly suggested, making me consider the time and what I knew of their schedule.
“Yeah, probably,” I agreed, trying to remember if I had seen this specimen eat in the morning and, if I had, how much she took. Not that it truly mattered; I had a feeling they’d all be hungry simply because food was limited in the wild, but there was a vast difference between a little hunger and starvation.
As yet another test, I pulled out a bit of grilled meat from one of our magical bags, alongside some recently picked berries, curious what the Sasquatch would make of them. Then, with deliberate slowness, I took a step forward, causing her to tense for a moment, and placed the food on the table in the middle of the room before taking a step back, then another, pulling Luna along with me. Giving the distrustful creature space, though, to my slight disappointment, she didn’t move just yet. She only settled down, no longer tensed and ready to pounce but somewhat relaxed.
With a shrug, I decided to take the step a little further by conjuring a pitcher and filling it with water, placing it next to the door before pulling Luna back outside, making sure never to turn my back on the Sasquatch.
Then, with yet another pull of my magic, the door sealed itself again, leaving the creature inside.
Now, Luna and I could discuss what we had seen while I kept observing the creature with my scrying constructs. It would be interesting to see how she reacted and how intelligent she truly was. A stray thought went through my mind, wondering how she compared to some of the canines we had met on our travels. And how strange this changed world had become. Strange but oh-so-wonderful.
