A Name, A Call for Help, and… What’s a Gender? Not Even in that Particular Order

The process lasted for quite a while, and only once dawn broke, was it finally over.

The orbs of energy all went back to their places in the grass, trees, etc., and it whispered again, without giving the little one time to even process all the information loaded into its head.

The mushroom wasn't dizzy from the sheer amount of knowledge thankfully, the technique was a clean approach, else the little one might've passed out.

The only reason the headache was happening in the first place was because the mushroom was trying to understand and organize the information in its head.

It took a solid couple of minutes for the little shroom to respond.

"How do I feel?"

The mushroom felt mostly the same excluding the residual dizzying feeling, however, it didn't feel as absent-minded anymore, as it knew about the world outside of its vision now, but the information is just memories, no extrapolation, just flat info.

It is like reading a book with no pictures and preconceived notions about nature, 'the worlds history, and a little bit about the sentient races, this showed its effects when it came to the information about all the stuff about the humans, and the rest of them, it was enough for the little one to have an rough idea of the traits of the separate races, but nothing about their culture, ideals, or anything else on the matter, even their looks and size is left out.

The info is heavily incomplete, so the tiny shroom needed to extrapolate from what info there is.

The whole reason the headache was there in the first place was because it was trying to form its own understanding of the information, its own interpretation.

"I feel the same, but… less preoccupied? Now that I know about the world outside of this forest… it's hard to believe all of it, billions of beings out there, full of different races, all living beings like me…."

There was a spark of curiosity just then in the little one, which prompted it to ask a question, but before it even could…

~𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫~ ~𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫~

"… a name? And… what's a gender?"

Out of the dump of information these clumps of consciousnesses gave him, the mushroom didn't have the slightest clue about what these things are, they're just too small and insignificant compared to everything else it learned, humans, beasts, life energy, the Compound Wars and the Races Signing, all this stuff about the worlds history, races, and nature is much more appealing and interesting, it didn't care to know what a 'name' or 'gender' is.

~𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫~ ~𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫~

More whispers.

"It makes things easier? Okay…"

The little one went through its new collection of intelligence and found what these two things are.

"A name is something a person goes by, a tag to distinct a person, and a gender… it's a biological difference in a living being, usually separated into 2 kinds, but they can be both or even neither, sometimes even a mix? This sounds like nothing but problems."

In its newfound pool of info, it found multiple examples of the differences and comparisons between the genders and of what names can entitle, with these memories, it came to a conclusion on one of them.

"Biologically speaking, I have no clue which one I am, but based on how I acted so far, I'm going to guess male, but as for a name…"

Surprisingly, he had a good understanding of what a name is and what encompasses it, it was easier to understand than the idea of genders and all that, so with that in mind, he thought long and hard about what a name is and what should be his name, until he came down to an answer.

"Care-I… Cari, the name sounds 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭, well, from this night onward, my name is Cari."

More whispers ensue.

"It is NOT a girl's name, just because I decided to be a male, doesn't mean I have to restrict myself to that 'role', it's still just a form of identification for all I care, also, from some of the memories you shared with me, I've even seen some females acting like males, and some males acting like females, so there shouldn't be a problem, humph!"

~𝐌𝐮𝐫𝐦𝐮𝐫𝐬~

"It's already morning?! How long did we take?"

More audible mutters.

"6 hours?! I guess that memory sharing thing was pretty time-consuming."

A slightly louder stutter.

"Oh, I'm sorry for not being prepared, I was shocked alright, you did that suddenly, try not knowing anything and then… get thrown… into… existence…"

It was then Cari realized…

He thrown the consciousnesses through the same, exact, thing, sorta, but… they handled it much better.

Cari didn't notice, but on his face, right below his eyes, there were several streaks of glowing green, almost like he was blushing…

If the hive-mind had a face, it would be giving him the "douchebag face" right now, it might've even called him a "douche" if he hadn't responded.

"Well, I, uhhh… Oh just forget about it okay! I'm sorry! I didn't even know you could do that with life energy."

That was when Cari remembered that spark of curiosity, and he was finally able to ask…

"That reminds me, what IS life energy? At most, I learned that it's an energy people gather and manipulate to gain power and longevity, but nothing on what it is exactly, mind explaining that?"

There was nothing but silence, the conglomerate of memories and energy was left speechless, the mushroom… Cari was already curious and ebbing towards learning life energy, it already had the 'spark', the urge to know as it feels the possibility of growth.

How was this group of life energy orbs going to explain, quite literally, 'itself'?

The group of consciousness decided something right there and then, it decided to share its own wisdom, its own understanding of what it is through its time of temporarily gained sentience and perception of itself.

It was a huge deal to understand life energy, as one's own understanding can either curb or enhance one's control over it.

If you had amazing control of Life Energy but barely understood what it was, most of your potential went under the rug, down the drain, but if say, a person with a small gift greatly understood Life Energy, their ability to govern their own life energy would skyrocket!

Many would KILL to gain the slightest bit more understanding of life energy as the smallest increase of understanding can increase their power EXPONENTIALLY.

This doesn't mean a person with a low-gift with a high understanding could match up with a highly-gifted person with low understanding, there is still room for variables to change things up.

Anyhow, for the next hour or two, the gathered consciousnesses explained what they are, what they do, and all the philosophical stuff in-between to Cari, and he listened and questioned attentively like a good student to a good teacher.

He was caught by how captivating life energy was, on a metaphysical sense, as for why it felt that way for him, Cari had no clue.

Once the talk was over and he was fully able to grasp what Life Energy was, he felt something... disturbing.

"What is that feeling? It feels… wrong, nasty."

It was a sickening feeling, it felt like it was in his body, but he had a strange understanding that this wasn't in his body, it was his body reacting to something outside, whatever that something is, it feels like its… calling for him, calling for help.

The consciousness heard that, and it noticed the change in the little one, so it spoke with a clear voice for once.

"Focus on that feeling, and you'll find your answer"

Cari did as he was told, all of his solutions to the experiences he faced so far was to follow the feeling, that was how he met this hive-mind after all, so after focusing on it, something strange happened, the current area started to stretch towards the east.

He saw many more trees, roots, and more filled with little orbs of life energy, and as it stretched, the feelings incremented, it was starting to feel unpleasant, but he pushed on nonetheless.

He didn't notice it at first, but Cari realized soon after the zone had already extended outside of his vision, he was still able to see.

"How in the…?"

"You can see Life Energy."

The consciousness spoke once again, in a clear, united, unobstructed voice, it felt weird hearing it talk clearly as Cari got used to its almost incoherent and frayed mumbles and whispers, but he didn't interrupt as he looked up as they continued.

"You can see, feel, and sense the natural presence of life energy, any person who uses life energy out there can feel it, they can only feel their own energy and the energy they use to specifically feel outside of their body, this is usually called "Marking".

You see, all living beings can control and manipulate life energy, but only the energy they make their own, when someone, anyone living, takes in life energy, their body naturally changes it to suit their body, this change is usually small, but can be larger, this depends on the persons 'uniqueness', but you… as the very energy people take in, I can feel your energy is unchanged, it is in its purest form, and you can still use it, this is why I think you can connect with me, why this is even possible.

The thing that caught my eye the most was the energy in you, it has absolutely NO memories, all life energy was born long, long, 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 ago and still exists to this day, yet the life energy in your body has no memories, I can't understand how it's possible, I can't tell if the energy is old or even if it's new.

It feels like the life energy is even coming out of you, yet, that's the strangest part, you are not leaking any life energy; all living things leak life energy, fast or slow, but you're not leaking any, the energy in your body is increasing without any intake from the environment, it's as if you're a very source of life energy, it's mind boggling, no energy is leaking, yet, somehow, you are spreading life to your surroundings at an extreme rate, even the grass around you acknowledges it."

Cari upon hearing the last part instinctively paid attention to his immediate surroundings, and just as he said, the grass around him was growing at a conceivable rate, already past his eyes and hiding his body, he didn't notice nor realize, but his roots were out again.

"Try and focus the life energy in you, so it doesn't… radiate? Think about some kind of example you can relate to, when you visualize your actions, it can be easier, more swift, even more powerful, try finding something that 'connects' with you keeping yourself to 'you', if that makes sense."

As the consciousnesses spoke, he already had an idea, Cari thought about that beautiful scenery when he first woke up, the lush trees, the ashen-gray trees with tealish-green leaves, blowing in the wind, with sunlight gracing all of it…

"The sunlight! That's it!"

He thought of himself as the sun on that wondrous day, radiating warmth to all, but this time, he focused on consolidating those rays of warmth and light back into the sun, and keeping them there.

And just like that, the grass surrounding him stopped growing at that fast pace, and it resumed to its regular pace, fully unadulterated by his presence.

"Good job", the hive-mind commented.

"Thanks", Cari replied.

The nice, warm feeling lingered for a second, but it was interrupted.

The stretching field of figures finally stopped, ending with the source of the unpleasant feeling.

The collected consciousnesses muttered…

"A…