Magical Engineering

“Go, I’ll catch up!” Pryte yelled before I even had a chance to question the scream. I took off at a run, pushing my body as fast as I could. I figured we had walked maybe two miles into the woods, and it took me less than five minutes to get myself back to my house. I was pretty sure that meant I was pushing past the world record level there. At least that part of my body still worked. As the house came into view, I saw what had caused the scream. There was a very large moose angrily headbutting Cecile as he guarded his plants.

“Dammit, how do these animals keep getting past any kind of defenses we set up?” Cecile yelled as a loud cracking noise rang out, caused by the moose yet again smashing its head against Cecile’s. I had no idea why he thought that was the best way to handle this, but it wasn’t the first time I’d seen the man headbutt something, it just seemed like a bad idea still.

“Aw, don’t hurt him. He’s just hungry,” Maud said gently. I had a feeling she was the owner of the loud scream, as I doubted Cecile or Elicec had done it, and while Elody was no longer floating, she was only looking on with mild interest.

“Convince him of that!” Elicec yelled, sounding surprisingly angry.

“Hey, big guy, how about you show us how you keep getting in? No one wants to hurt you; we just need to know how you’re being so sneaky,” Maud said. I didn’t think sweet-talking a moose was likely to work, but I also didn’t think anyone was in any real danger. Cecile could stop the animal at any moment, and despite the anger in his voice, he was clearly just trying to be nice.

The moose vanished. One moment, it was stamping its feet at Cecile; the next, it was gone. “Uh, who did that?” I asked.

“Wasn’t me,’ Cecile said, Elicec’s head looking just as confused. No one spoke up to take any credit.

“Well, that may at least explain how it keeps getting in,” Elody said.

“Do we somehow have a magical moose?” I asked, confused about how that could even happen.

“Possibly, if it ate the right combinations of Cecile’s veggies, and with some dumb luck, yeah, it might be on the way to being the first native mana beast of Earth,” Elody said, now looking fully interested.

“Great, so I’ve already got a rogue mana beast stealing food,” Cecile said, sighing loudly.

“Pretty sure I got a new quest. Should that happen?” Maud said, interrupting Cecile’s sigh.

“What’s the quest?” Elody asked.

“Befriend Earth’s First Mana Beast,” Maud said cheerfully, while Cecile just sighed louder.

“Alright, before Cecile loses it, we are going to have to find a way to feed this guy without it impacting our crops much. Can we set up a designated feeding area and mix in normal vegetables with just a few mana ones?” I asked, hoping it would be that simple.

“It could work,” Elicec said, speaking up. It was rare to hear him be the voice of reason over his brother.

“Yes, time to feed that moose!” Maud said excitedly. Leaving them to figure out what mana plants Cecile was willing to sacrifice to the cause I went inside to grab John to see what scraps he was willing to donate.

“John, your girlfriend has decided to befriend a magical moose, any chance you’ve got some leftover vegetables we can use to help her?” I asked, trying not to laugh at his expression.

“Honestly, I think I’d have believed your statement even if this hadn’t all happened. It’s a very Maud thing to do,” he replied as he opened up a cupboard and grabbed several wilting vegetables, and the remains of earlier meals he hadn't yet brought to the compost heap. “Lead the way.”

We found Cecile having already setup up a feeding stall for the moose and Maud carefully laying out some of the plants Cecile had selected. John added his mix to it while I looked around for any sight of the returned moose. While I didn’t see it, I did see a single figure, very unmoose-like, returning from the woods.

“What did I miss?” Pryte yelled as he came jogging up several minutes later.

“Earth has its first mana beast, and Maud has a quest to befriend it. Hopefully, their idea works; it would be a shame to lose a primal beast,” Elody said.

“Oh, that’s faster than I’d have expected, huh? Wonder if it’s the cloudwood,” Pryte said, looking over at the giant tree.

“Hard to say, I’m still learning about it from Mel, but he also doesn’t know the full details of them,” Elody replied.

“Let’s all try very hard to keep the primal mana beast alive, please. That’s a huge resource I didn’t factor into my future plans, so please help Maud with it,” Pryte yelled, making sure everyone present heard it.

“You’re going to want to do more than a feeding area then. Once its sapience starts to set in, it’s going to want somewhere comfortable to live. We should work up some plans with Trolke before that happens. It will make the transition much easier on the beast,” Rabyn said, coming around the corner. I was no longer surprised he was the one urging gentle care. The man wasn’t remotely what I had initially expected him to be.

Letting Rabyn go to work with the others I instead turned to Elody and Pryte. “Since I’ve got you both here, and they are now busy with a magical moose, ready to join me for an attempt at fortifying my core?” I asked, eager to get on with this. I wanted my mana channels to work again, as time for training with the new changes was quickly running out.

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“Yeah, let’s get that over with,” Pryte said. Elody nodded in agreement. I pulled up a chat window to check on Corey and make sure he was also ready.