So Its Mine Now I Think?

I thought about it for an hour before coming to a decision and magic made the most sense to me. It would provide a lot of utility and it is not something many can counter but I don't believe i'll be a cleric or wizard as cleric is tied to a deity and i don't need someone taking away my power because I messed up. Wizard has many spells but there were two reasons I wouldn't choose it, one being it was just a relatively boring class in comparison to Sorcerer's Metamagic and Druid's versatility. Warlock was out for the same reason as cleric, while Bard and Paladin I don't really consider Spellcaster's as much as I do Hybrid Classes. I would choose Sorcerer if I had anything with me already however since I do not I believe Druid to be the best class for me right now seeing as it has the most versatile best hiding abilities and is capable of giving me a sustainable future easily.

Having made my choice I say. "Klatch, my friend, I will take the Druid tome!"

"Of course, Master." Replied Klatch, spitting out a beautiful book with small vines and branches intertwined along the leaves of the book which seems to be made from a very hardy bark that shimmers. Sitting in the middle of the cover on the book is a magic circle with an engraved tree that gives off a faint impression of unimaginable size despite only being the size of a palm.

Reaching for the book I was in actual awe of such a precious looking item. Picking it up with care I, still sitting mind you, cracked open the book by which the pages then started fluttering from a wind that wasn't blowing until it settled on the first page. Once the first page was before me and i became mesmerized by the text falling into a trance, as i read, unbeknownst to me.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Forest (Klatch POV) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Klatch watched as it's master began his first dive into the magical world of druidic practices and knew it's master would be fine, since the voice told him so, and so Klatch started to look around and investigate their surroundings in case someone came to interrupt the Master. Of course Klatch may look like a Bag but as a sentient magic item he had some defenses he could deploy if desperate ranging from stowing Master in his space to unleashing a Marilith upon his foes.

Hearing a cacophony of noises starting to gather on the edge of the clearing around him and his Master, Klatch prepared to defend Master but it was unneeded as what came into the clearing were a plethora of animals ranging from bears to fox and moose to deer.

As the varying animals stepped into the clearing they began to slowly approach and find a place to lay and wait for Master to awake from his trance.

Klatch knew they would be waiting quite a while since the voice told Klatch as such. So Klatch made sure to watch the more predatory animals to make sure no harm would come to Master.

So Klatch guarding the young man hour after hour as more animals of various degrees came and filled the clearing finding their spots to wait for the man who feels so close to them.

Like that eight hours passed before the young man awoke from his trance surrounded by a collection of animals that if anyone with an impressive knowledge about wildlife would know are residential to New York State.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Forest (Eric's POV) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Looking around him he was surprised by the amount of animals around him but not by their presence, as he was reading he slowly started to sense them arriving and fueling a connection to the various aspects of the world and what surrounds it. Feeling the connection he had figured out the multiple . . Circles. . he was bound to and could learn from but for now they were out of his reach but just barely.

The Circles he felt each formed a constellation within his mind and gazing upon them he noted what they resembled: The Sun, The Stars, The Shepard, The Moon, The Land, The Dream, The Wildfire, The Spores, The Growth, The Courts, The Forgotten, The Prime Elements, The Keeper, and The Twilight.

Each one had its own niche carved out of the sky that held the stars, with the sky being Druid in its whole. Eric knew he could explore this later for now he needed to test some things and try his new spells to get used to the new knowledge he has just absorbed from this tome of ancient druidic knowledge.

As Eric stood up the engraved tree on the tome started to glow a bright green filling the clearing with a vibrant green light washing over all present. Once the glow reached its peak a flash of green happened and then standing next to the tome was a healthy tree. The tree is 60 feet tall and has a 5-foot-diameter trunk, and its branches at the top spread out in a 20-foot radius.

Looking at the tree Eric was bewildered but not as much at it appearing but at the connection he held with this tree. Reaching out Eric placed his hand against the trunk of the tree and felt he could pull on the bond between him and the tree and so he did, as he pulled on this connection the tree began to thin and uproot before coming to a stop at the size of a gnarled staff with branches and leaves atop it but shrunk to the size of a small bonzai tree.

Feeling the staff in his hand, Eric knew what he was holding a Staff of the Woodlands, a rare magical item only usable by Druids or Artificers. Eric also knew the staff could be used as a weapon much like using a quarterstaff or used to cast certain spells without using his spell slots of which he only had two first level spell slots and a couple of cantrips but, with this staff he now had access to a slew of druidic spells such as Animal Friendship, Awaken, Barkskin, Locate Animals or Plants, Speak with Animals, Speak with Plants, and Wall of thorns.

He also had the ability to use a spell called Pass without Trace without using Charges unlike he would with the rest of the spells the staff allowed him to cast. Apparently the staff turning into a tree thing is another ability of this wondrous staff as well.

Before he would use this staff he wanted to test his own inherent magic first starting with his cantrips Druidcraft and Mold Earth. Casting Druidcraft to determine the weather, since he was going to be outside for a while anyways, a small cloud appeared before him with thunder raging throughout it and turbulent winds blowing against it.

"Crap, I guess this means I might wanna find somewhere to bunker down." I said a little down I couldn't try the rest of my spells before finding shelter.

Grabbing Klatch I handed him back the Druid Tome and put him on my back, where he snuggly strapped himself to me. Looking at the animals around me I wielded my staff and channeled my will into using one of the charges in the staff to cast Speak with Animals.

"Thank you all for coming." I said as I bowed to the animals. "A storm will be headed this way so I suggest you head home to your homes and collect your young should you have them. I am looking to make a cave, so if one of you could guide me to a rock face i would appreciate your help."

Looking around at the animals it was a eastern cougar that stepped forward and said to me. "I live nearby and can guide you Grove Keeper." Hmm a curious title that i will definitely ask about later but for now.

"Thank you. Please lead the way." I said as I started to follow.

Once I had finished talking the cougar started off toward the forest leading me through a fair amount of untraveled territory at least by humans however I had no trouble keeping up due to some of the knowledge I had obtained as a druid. It was as if I had lived in the forest all my life. I had no doubt that the only reason I was keeping up was due to the cougar traveling at a leisurely pace.

It wasn't long before we had reached a rock face going up a good thirty feet or so. Now that we were here I looked around and took note of the resources this place had which were fairly unused such as a small waterfall pouring into a medium sized pool of water that streamed away from where we were. Possible fish and definitely freshwater meant this would be a good place to set up for a while until I was ready to head back into society.

Inspecting the rock face until I found the right place I turned back to the cougar and said. "Thank you for bringing me here. Have this as my thanks and if you or your kin ever need healing come to me and I will take care of it." Pulling a sprig of mistletoe from my pocket that i had harvested from a conifer tree on our way here I cast Goodberry and made ten berries appear in my hand before giving three of the berries to her for her and her two cubs.

Pocketing the other seven berries I began casting Mold Earth on the rock face carving out a cave that traveled upwards a bit before flattening to a circular dome. This process took me about an hour to carve out. When I was done I used the earth I had excavated and made a bench outside my cave as well as a raised plot of mixed dirt to plant in and finished it off by making a small embankment with an overhang so no rain or water would affect my cave.

Once i was done with making it semi-livable i started fixing it up making the inside walls smooth and the outside look more natural so as not to draw too much attention from someone looking overhead or passing by from a distance. I also made some furniture made of earth such as a base for a water bed so i could fill it with hides or moss and a couple of chairs and a table to eat at.

Now you may be thinking i did all of this with just Mold Earth and you would be wrong as Mold Earth allows me to move loose earth so i had to move it into place and then start packing it into place then adding more and packing etc. so it was not a very quick process nor was it clean. Now it was already sturdy using Mold Earth and maybe as i practice the cantrip i can do that without getting dirty but for now my knowledge is fresh and new so this will do.

'Good this will do. Now I should find some plants to put in my planter as well as seeds I can use.' I thought to myself.

*Crack* *Rumble*

"Or i can just go to sleep and wait until tomorrow." I mumbled looking at the dark clouds rolling toward me. Damn nature being all nature like and stuff.

Just as I stepped under the overhang it started to rain lightly so i went up into my Dome-icile to get some sleep, since the bed wasn't finished yet i just planted my staff in the middle of the dome and grew it into a tree i climbed up into and found a perfect little groove of branches that fit me almost perfectly.

I wonder what I'll find tomorrow or if I will run into people. Little did i know that i would run into someone and that someone had powers that only certain gifted people had.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< The Next Day >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Waking up I looked around before remembering I was in a tree that's actually a staff that only I can use. Climbing down the tree I shrunk it back into a staff and turned toward the cave entrance to leave. Curled up just outside the dome was a small red fox that was probably the most adorable thing I have ever seen in person.

Walking over toward it made it's fluffy little head pop up before it stood up seeing that it was becoming skittish. I quickly cast Speak with Animals and said. "Hey there little one no need to fear me." Seeing it wasn't bolting out of the cave I pulled out the Goodberries from yesterday and ate one with the fox watching me before holding out another for the little pup. "Do you want one they will fill your tummy up." I said as if speaking to a small child since that was what this little pup was to me.

It took about 4 minutes of just holding it out before it finally started moving toward me and then gently pulled the berry from my fingers careful not to nic me. Quickly eating the berry the pups eyes widened and next thing i know i'm on my backside with him curling up in my chest rubbing his nose against mine and giving off a smile, which apparently foxes can do, before hopping off and heading to the entrance and waiting while looking back at me.

'It would seem i have a new friend.' I smiled at the thought and started to head out to forage the forest with my new friend.

"Okay so Kurama let's go find some wild vegetables and maybe some medicinal plants and seeds." I said to the fox as we were coming out of the cave.

He tilted his head at me before wagging his tail very happily. Apparently he liked his name.

"Do you like the name? It was the name of a great big fox of great power and amazing willpower that was a savior of all kinds alongside his human brother." I told the small pup who seemed to get more excited as I talked so I began recounting tales of Kurama from Naruto to the little pup as we walked and foraged.

Having a fox with better senses than yourself really helped when foraging especially since I didn't want to waste Locate Plants and Animals looking for someone that might not be indeginous to this region. Especially since it took 2 charges per a cast.

Ah I should prolly talk about that, so you see the staff has 10 charges and the cost for the spells varies between 1 to 6 charges depending on the spell cast and the staff regains anywhere from 5 to 10 charges every dawn. Now should i ever spend all the charges the staff has a chance to become a normal quarterstaff with no magical properties so unless its a life or death situation i don't intend to use more than 9 charges.

So with knowing all of that having a fox that knows what i'm looking for and can help me is a big boon to me and well worth the berry i gave.

Not that that's all he is to me.

Anyway after foraging for a couple of hours, i think i really need a way to tell time, I got quite a lot of plants and seeds. Mostly edible plants but some medicinal as well. Luckily I had Klatch to sort and stow away all the things we collected.

The plants we got were: Wild columbine, Butterfly weed, Spotted Bee-balm, Bearberry, Wild leek, Wild ginger, Virginia creeper, some parsnip, various berries, a lot of nuts, and even a whole log of mushrooms that are edible(log included, i need somewhere to grow mushrooms).

On the way back to my Dome-icile (god I love horrible puns) i heard what sounded like fighting and yelling to my right. Turning to the pup I wondered if i should just continue so I didn't get him involved but I knew i wouldn't be able to ignore it so i picked Kurama up and headed toward the sounds of fighting after casting Pass Without A Trace using my staff.

So what Pass Without a Trace does is radiate a veil of shadows and silence from me, masking me and my companions from detection. The range is only about 30 feet of me, but both me and my companions are way stealthier than before and we can't be tracked unless by magical means. This means we leave behind no tracks or other traces of passage.

Watching my footprints disappear and plants and grass spring back up as if not trampled on was actually a bit unnerving but also pretty amazing.

Walking for about 3 minutes I came to a clearing where I saw a few teenagers and a gruff looking man with mutton chops fighting with a group of edgy looking teens with a blue woman and a wild dangerous looking man.

Seeing these people fighting each other with laser beams and floating rocks and trees i realized these are the X-men but, that devil said the world wouldn't be too far off from the MCU so these were either less powerful or just not that important to the overall story of MCU.

Obviously the one shooting laser beams from his visor was Cyclops and the woman gesturing wildly with her hands and bright red hair was Jean. The surprising ones were Nightcrawler since he looked more devil like than his movie counterpart and Rogue who was much more filled out than her movie counterpart.

In fact all of them looked fairly different from their actors and yet I could recognize each one as well.

You might be wondering why I'm not getting involved and the answer to that is i only have 1 spell slot left and i will only use it in an emergency. Now i may only have 1 spell slot left but i have 5 prepared spells i can use at 1st level.

My current spells prepared spells are: Goodberry, Cure Wounds, Ice Knife, Entangle, Wild Cunning, and Charm Person.

Now some of those are self explanatory like Goodberry, Cure Wounds, and Entangle.

The ones that are different than you might think are Ice Knife, Wild Cunning, and Charm Person.

Ice Knife forms a knife from ice like you might think but what the name doesn't imply is the fact that on creation it is flung at a creature within range and then explodes into a flurry of ice shards piercing anything within 5 feet of where it landed.

Wild Cunning is a versatile ritual spell that can do an assortment of stuff through the use of spirits of nature such as tracking, finding edible forage or clean water, finding a suitable shelter, and two of the coolest uses is to send the spirits to bring back wood and set up a campsite in the area using your supplies to the point of building a fire in a circle of stones, putting up tents, unrolling bedrolls, and putting out any rations and water for consumption. I said two uses because the other use is the opposite of the one before. The spirits can instantly break down a campsite putting everything back to how it was before they set it up.

Finally Charm Person is not just making some like you some it literally forces someone to become charmed in the magical sense to the point of making them treat you as a friend and lasts over 1 hour. This spell is one I want to use the least but will be good for when I don't truly want to fight someone or need to subtly take someone out without anyone knowing.

Because the X-men are fighting the Brotherhood I can't very will use Ice Knife without potentially killing what are for now just angsty teenagers and there is too many to Charm Person. So the best spell to use at the moment is Entangle since it can neutralize all threats and won't harm anyone either however my biggest problem and something that is pissing me off right now is the flamehead over there flings fireballs like he is a level 20 Wizard.

Watching the fight carry on for about 4 minutes I decided enough is enough. Mainly because they were wrecking MY FOREST!!

Stepping out of the tree line I shouted out. "STOP FIGHTING OR I WILL STOP YOU!!"

Who knew yelling at people to stop worked. The entire battlefield came to a stop as I came into the opening. Now that all eyes were on me I started to doubt what I was doing. Until I gazed around at the destruction wrought by these environmentally hazardous teenagers. Then my anger grew, I had never been so mad before especially for something that before coming here I had not cared about before.

"Look at what you have done to my forest! Look at the plants you have harmed and the homes you have destroyed! AND YOU!" I said pointing at the boy with a fireball still in his hands. "HOW DARE YOU SET FIRE TO MY FOREST YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE SHIT!!"

"I SHOULD SET YOUR ASS ON FIRE AND SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT!" I was yelling fairly loud by now and although the Brotherhood looked to be shrugging off the reprimand I was giving the X-men looked kind of guilty, especially Jean, Logan seemed to be as displeased as I was when he looked at the damage the fight had caused.

"I would like to see you try prissy boy!" Spoke Pyro making the fireball in his hand even bigger.

"Pyro, quiet the adults are talking." Raven said having taken a step forward toward me and putting Pyro behind her. Pyro seemed to be very angry being treated like the child he was. "I apologize Grove Keeper I was unaware we had intruded into your territory and had i known we would not have caused such harm to your forest. Perhaps we could come to an agreement for your forgiveness?"

To say I was perplexed was an understatement. Was this the Raven Darkholme who has lived for thousands of years? Why was she being so nice to me? I looked around and it was then I noticed. There were hundreds of animals behind me standing in an aggressive stance prepared to trample, bite, stab, and impale. As I gazed upon them it hit me like a lightning bolt, that's why the cougar calls me Grove Keeper! That's why i was so angry that MY forest was getting burned, because it was literally mine now, it was attached to my very being.