CHAP 2: Companionship

I was broken out of my stupor when Bea licked my face. Who I am doesn't matter now, Bea needs me, and I currently have the chance to make the most meaningful discovery for biology and medicine of all human nature. So I got up, dusted myself off, and realized that there was a combination of moving pressures on the village, heading in the direction of the barrier, which then dropped something on the ground near the barrier. I enveloped the pressure with the mycelium, then brought it over to the middle of the forest. I put Bea on my shoulders, then started heading in the direction I had made the offering go to.

The outline of the body seemed humanoid, but small. I changed my vision into one of Bea's eyes.

When I reached the place where the "offering" was, I made the hyphae return to the ground, revealing who the village had sent me. My guesses were correct.

They sent me a kid.

A fucking kid. And they fucking tied it up.

"I can't fucking believe it. I should've specified more what I wanted for them to send."

The kid looked confused, probably because I was speaking a different language. I didn't really care about it right now, so I started pacing around the little human.

"Maybe I could use it as a test subject. No, it wouldn't be right. Losing all your morals make you nothing more than a monster. But what should I do then? Give it back to the village and request another offering? Possibly, but it would be very strange for a mythical creature to care about the age of an offering. Maybe I should say it wouldn't sate my appetite? If I did that, it wouldn't make sense to give it back to them."

I turned to the kid. Then unmade the ties. The kid was shivering, so I made a pelt from the mycelium and then threw it over it.

"Are you smart?"

The kid looked confused, but mostly scared.

"I don't know."

I stopped pacing around, then crouched to look it into its eyes.

"How old are you?"

"9 years old."

"Do you know the alphabet?"

"Yes."

"Joseph has 10 apples, and John has no apples. Out of kindness, Joseph gives half his apples to John. How many apples does John have now?"

"None."

"Why?"

"Kindness is a myth."

An interesting, however incorrect line of thought. I did realize that its expression of fear had disappeared, replaced by boredom. Did they send me a diamond in the rough?

"In the world of Joseph and John, kindness is real. How many apples does John have?"

"Five."

"Two plus two?"

"Four."

"Multiply the number of apples John has with your last response."

"Twenty."

Good enough.

"Do you know how to hunt?"

"I can get by."

"What's your name?"

"Don't have one."

"Invent one, then."

"Why?"

"Because I told you to."

"I lost my name a long time ago, why would I need a new one?"

"Because everyone needs a name, and if you want me to not take the pelt I gave you and leave you here to freeze, you should do what I'm telling you to do."

"You wouldn't."

"Want to bet your life on it?"

The kid stopped for a little, putting their finger on their chin. I let them think.

"I don't know. Why don't you give it a try?"

"Gender?"

The kid looked almost offended. Gender isn't exactly obvious when people look like they haven't eaten in 3 months.

"Female."

"Alice."

"Alice? Strange name."

I got up and signaled her to follow me.

"Well, better start getting used to it, Alice."

"So what's your name, then? Loki, Lempo, Tapio, Belphegor?"

I turned my head at her.

"You can drop the act. I'm not a demon, nor a god."

"It's not an act, I literally saw you make this pelt out of nothing."

"Fair point. Let's just say that I have some abilities, but they aren't magical in nature, I think."

"You think?"

"I'm a scientist, and science is full of unknowns."

"Right. So what is your name?"

"Don't have one."

She paused, something I saw because Bea was looking at her. She started walking fastly, catching up to me.

"So you can have no name, but I can't!?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I am no one. And unless you want me to refer to you as "little girl" or "kid", you're going to need a name."

"And how should I refer to you then?"

"Don't know. Refer to me as you see fit."

"Alright then, old guy."

I raised one of my eyebrows.

"Aren't kids supposed to be more creative?"

"Didn't you just say 'refer to me as you see fit'?"

"I never said I wouldn't judge it."

"Alright then. What about Mister No One or something?"

"Definitely better, but doesn't really roll off the tongue."

"Agreed. Old fox?"

"Hmmm, I like it."

"Talking about foxes, what about the little guy on your shoulder, what's his name?"

"It's a girl, and her name is Bea."

"Bea?"

"Short for Beatrix."

"Why?"

"Even if I told you, you wouldn't know who I'm talking about. What year is it?"

"1887."

So I am in the past, didn't expect it to be so much in the past though.

"Day and month?"

"October 16th. Are we getting closer to wherever we're going?"

"No. Hold on tight."

I picked her up, then started gliding. Alice started screaming, I guess we are going faster than she has ever gone. We reached the village in 10 minutes. I let Alice down, waiting for her to recollect her bearings.

"Why are we here?"

"Because I need a test subject, and I'm not hurting a kid."

"What?"

"Wait here."

I entered the dome, then started manipulating the fungus to make what seemed like a bunch of luminous eyes on the sky and making a slit on the "moon". I then started going to the center of the village, making sure to tap the ground especially hard. When I reached the center, I created a platform and elevated myself. The villagers started gathering around, some fearful and some defiant.

"You dare mock me, mortals? Sending me a child? Do you think such a small being is going to satisfy the hunger of the woods?"

"And do you dare to go back on your words, demon? You said if we gave you an offering you would return us our freedom!"

"And I said that I wanted a worthy offering, not a starved child. I told you that if you dared to disrespect me once again I would become the demon you think of me. I consider the offering, if I can even call it that, you gave me, to be the biggest disrespect you could ever give me."

Some of the people seemed to get angrier, while others started getting even more scared.

"And ho-how could we appease you, sir?"

"Two of your men, capable of working, not ill or starved. Immediately."

"As expected from a demon, he only wants more."

I snared the man who lashed out with the hyphae, shutting him up. One of the women cried out.

"This one will be part of the offering."

"You demon! Do you think we're going to allow your tyranny!"

"It seems you misunderstand your current situation. I'm not asking anymore. You have one last chance at your freedom, offer another of your men, or I'm going to simply consider the whole village wants to be the offering."

"Hateful! Do not think we are so weak-min-"

"Wait, please, I beg of you-"

The woman who had cried out when I snared that unpolite man was interrupted by the cries of one of the men, who was currently being tied up by the ones who were scared, being led by the one who had asked how to appease me.

"Aatos! What do you think you're doing?"

"Saving our lives, Anna! He took the goddamned sun from us, do you think we can go against such a being."

"You're a coward and a traitor!"

They threw both the man they had tied up, and the man I had trapped with the mycelium, in front of me, then kneeled down.

"Please accept our offering, and our apologies, lord of the forest."

I smiled at them, then made the mycelium move my newly acquired test subjects away.

"I'm going to accept your offering and forgive this slight."

I started heading out of the village.

"What about our freedom?!"

"You'll be free, in time."

I passed through the dome. The test subjects were already on their way to the lab, so I looked at Alice.

"I believe those men that I just saw being carried by that black slime were your 'test subjects'. So, where are we going now?"

"Home."

I picked her up and started gliding back to the mountain, this time Alice didn't scream. 30 minutes in, we reached home, I opened the door, created a bed for her, then put her on it.

"You go to sleep or something, I'm going to my lab. Don't destroy anything, Bea will be keeping an eye on you."

I signaled for Bea to come down from my shoulders, to which she whined a little, but relented. I made the wall move and then entered the laboratory, the two test subjects were in the corner. I connected to the heart and made an "arm" that picked up the one who had lashed out before, creating a table and throwing him on it. I bound his arms and legs to the table, then unmade the casing around him.

"You dem-"

I shut him up with a piece of fungus before he could start whining. I disconnected from the heart, then picked up some of the tools I had made before. I infected him with the fungus, then put my left hand over his head, making the fungus move to his brain, replacing it. I ungagged him, he didn't even close his mouth.

"Where are we?"

"Karelia."

"What's the closest city?"

"Lappeenranta."

"How far?"

"2 days on foot, Northwest of the village."

"Does anyone from the city come to the village?"

"Not during this time of the year."

"When are they coming next?"

"Around February."

Four months, then. Hm, plenty of time for the fungus to reach there, if I make it grow in that direction. I connected to the heart, then made some replicas of the man's brain. I disconnected, then started analyzing the replicas.

It took some time, but I managed to make a completely new brain, which I put in a replica of the man's body. The body was functional and functioned as an extension of the fungus in human form. It did not have a consciousness, but it could follow orders and move autonomously. A biological robot.

I did the same with other animals, and after some tries, I made one for each of the species I had found. This allowed me to get a bigger understanding of how to make more complex structures with the fungus, and the fungus learned how to maintain basic biological functions for more complex organisms. I believed this would help me make the fuse mine and the fungus's cell. I had an idea for a procedure, but I needed to make some tests before I could go through with it, and my other test subject would help me with that.

Alice had been sleeping during all this time, when I'm finished here I need to go cook something up for her, or she'll die of malnutrition. I picked up a syringe, then approached the test subject. I bound his arm tightly with a rope, traced for his vein, then took a blood sample. I dropped part of that sample in a Petri dish with crystallized fungus, then dropped the rest in one that had nothing on it, proceeding to connect with the heart. I manipulated the infected blood, replicating the blood, but stopping the apoptosis of the cell. I made the cells made from fungus self-destroy, disconnected from the heart, then put the infected blood on the same dish as the clean one.

Connecting to the heart, I made the infected blood destroy itself, now, the clean blood would use the infected proteins as nutrients. I waited for a bit, then saw fungal traces on that blood. I took that sample, then injected the test subject with it. The next part would take time, so I made the wall move and came out of the laboratory. Bea was sleeping together with Alice, so I went to the kitchen, put my stick on one of the supports I had made, and opened my freezer, which was a box I had made with an insulated version of the fungus which I had filled with ice then put some smaller boxes inside. I took out a piece of reindeer meat, some greens, and berries.

I cut the reindeer meat into thin steaks, started a fire, put some fat on the pan, then started cooking the meat. After three minutes, I flipped the four steaks and threw the greens in, four more minutes, and the meat was done. I divided them into three plates, putting on one steak and greens for me and Alice, and two steaks for Bea, putting the berries into little bowls.

"Dinner's ready, at least I think it's dinner? Must be."

I looked back and saw that Bea was still sleeping, I started heading their way but almost jumped when someone touched my side.

"Alice, you're up."

"You are really not a god, considering you're blind."

"Don't need to throw it into my face, and, just so you know, there are a bunch of blind gods."

"Are you admitting to being one, then?"

"I already told you I'm a scientist."

"Just so you know, there are a bunch of scientist gods."

"Checkmate."

"It's very strange, you didn't seem blind before."

"I can feel things around me."

"So why didn't you feel me?"

"Because you're very light, and Bea isn't here to be my eyes, or rather, one of my eyes."

"Light? Do you see weight? Don't you think you should try keeping some secrets about your weaknesses? You don't know me, maybe the village offered me to you because I killed someone."

"I don't think a scrawny 9-year-old like you could kill someone."

"Anyone can kill if they have weapons."

"That's a fair point, but I don't understand why you're saying that. Are you trying to incriminate yourself or something?"

"I'm just trying to understand why are you doing this?"

"Taking care of you? I just felt like it, maybe you could prove useful, and I don't hurt children,"

"You don't hurt children, but seem to have no qualms about taking the freedom from a whole village, nor conducting questionable "tests" on innocent men."

"You would be surprised at how common that is. But if you want a motif for my actions, it's just that I believe that children have nothing to die for yet, and hurting people like those is simply an act of monstrosity."

"Don't you find that contradictory, though? I would simply say that you're a monster that doesn't have an appetite for a certain kind of prey."

"You can see it that way. I believe you must want to eat, right?"

I put the plates and bowls on the table, and went over to Bea, waking her up, she bit my hand playfully, then climbed to my shoulder using my arm as a platform. I went back to the table, seeing that Alice was eating ravenously, I put Bea in front of her plate, then sat down.

"If you want more food, just ask."

"I'm fine."

"If you're worried about eating too much, don't worry, i have food for months, and can always go hunting."

"I don't need it. Talking about hunting, I saw your bow, how exactly do you aim if you're blind?"

"I already told you that I can feel things around me."

I put my hand over Bea.

"And my little vixen can help me. I'm going to make you some more food."

I got up and then took out some more food from my freezer.

"I already told you I'm fine."

"You're clearly malnourished, and I need you to be in optimal condition before our lessons start."

I started frying the steaks and boiling some water.

"Lessons? On what?"

"Science, math, languages, history, hunting. The usual, really."

"Why would I need that?"

"Why else? I'm giving you food and a home, and as you said, kindness is a myth. You're going to be my assistant. Let that be your first lesson, the human world is based on bargaining, and there's nothing free out there."

"I see."

"Add another subject to our list, the art of living in society."

"Does someone who lives in these frozen woods know something about that?"

"I didn't always live here, you know?"

"Where did you live before?"

"That's a story for later. Here you go."

I passed over the plate and a cup of water to her. She started digging in immediately. Bea finished her plate and climbed over to me, putting her tail around my neck, I booped her nose, then started scratching her behind her ear.

"I've never seen someone get so friendly with a fox."

Bea looked over at Alice, she had finished both plates.

"Bea's a good girl. I need her, and she needs me."

"So you give her food and she gives you company?"

"I give her ears and she gives me eyes."

"She's deaf? You must really like weirdos."

"Rude. But if that's the case, what is your weirdness?"

"Why don't you tell me?"

"You were clearly an outcast in your village, considering they didn't hesitate to offer you to what they thought was a demon. You said you 'lost your name', so this means that you either killed your parents directly, which is unlikely, or you think you're the one responsible for their death. I'm tending more to the second case because the village would definitely just have let you die or directly killed you if you killed your parents. A cliché case of the 'cursed child', which is the definition of ignorance. The only thing I'm not clear on is what was the standing of your parents because I'm pretty sure they must've been special in some way for you to not have been burned at the stake or whatever people do with children they think are cursed these days."

"My father was the best hunter, and my mother was the physician."

"Pretty big standing, then. Your mother studied biology?"

"She had some books but never went to university. Most of the things she learned came from my grandparents."

"Did she teach you anything?"

She started crying. Fuck. Forgot I was talking to a nine-year-old.

"Insensitive question, I'm sorry."

"I-It's o-okay."

I went over to her, kneeled, then hugged her.

"It really isn't. Cry until you have no more tears."

"Y-yo-ou lo-lost your parents too, didn't you?"

"It isn't time to worry about others, little one. But if it eases your mind, I could tell you a little story. A story about someone who never had their parents."

"And h-how did this s-someone deal wi-with it?"

"The way It dealt with it is the worst way possible. Very bad advice, really."

She cried harder.

"Pl-pl-please, tell me."

"It became a monster. A spider."

"Wh-what did the spider do?"

"Killed a whole lot of people, created a big web, then burned it to the ground."

"Wh-why?"

"Mostly because It could."

She wiped her tears but was still sniffling.

"Wh-what did it achieve?"

"A pretty amazing view."

"Who are you, really?"

"I already told you, I'm no one. Just a rambling old man with a deaf fox."

"What about the spider?"

"It is dead and buried."

"Are you sure the spider is dead?"

"Very sure, I saw it die with my own eyes."

I gave her a piece of cloth, which she used to clean her face. She then looked at me and smiled. I lifted one of the corners of my mouth.

"Thanks."

"Thanks for what? I was the one who made you cry."

"Thanks for telling me about you."

"That story wasn't mine."

"Sure. I guess that's why I never heard anything about this spider."

"Why would you? You live in the world of humans, it lived in the world of spiders."

"And what world do you live in?"

"I'm not sure."

"I think you must live in the world of foxes."

"Oh, why?"

"It fits you. You're gray, live in the forest, and is friends with a fox. That definitely sounds like a fox to me."

"I guess you're right. I live in the world of foxes, then. Happy?"

"Very happy. I wish you lived in my world, though."

"Foxes can be friends with humans."

"Can foxes be parents to humans?"

"I guess so. Doubt they'll be good at it though."

"That's okay, humans don't care."

I stayed there, hugging her. This is who I am, then, a fox. The fox. It sure sounds nice.