I studied the seven as in the ter of my paw. They were identical in appearand texture, and their smell wasn't that distinct. Yet, that couldn't be further from the truth.

  Two were duds. Three were too weak to germinate, and even if they did, the seedlings would die quickly without special care. The st two, however, were different—they were full of potential and vitality. And in those two, one was above. That was what I felt from them.

  Saving the good ones, I threw the duds in my wide-open maws and began to mun them. The hard shells were no maty jaws ah, and the taste was quite pleasant. My sense of taste wasirely different from before, but it had dramatically ged, so as like this were good snacks.

  Gulping my food, I turo my teacher, a rge furbolg with whitening cws as the most noticeable signs of his advanced age, his bck fur only a few shades lighter than my charcoal-toned one, Elder Shaman Oakpaw. He was the same shaman who calmed me down four months ago.

  It had been nearly three months since he officially took me as a disciple, marked by a of wooden beads attached to my feather neckce. Until now, it had mostly been a passionate reting of history and our culture. It was arang retelling of legends. It was iing, but my worries were deep, making what was told sedary.

  I still listetentively, and there were many fasating points, like our a in dating to the first beings of flesh and blood.

  Our aors were known as the jalgar, a far rger, stronger, ferocious, and savage version of us, so much so they were more or less an enormous, slightly humanoid species of sapient bears. They were more feral in appearance as well, and furbolg were closer to bear than anything humanoid, even if we didn't have the signature nubby tail of Ursidae.

  The tale at the forefront was the one where our aors' fate ged when Ursoc the Mighty–the one our lineage apparently inated from–asked his twin brother Ursol the Wise for assistance, and then together, they helped us in our time of need. It ged us forever.

  They blessed us with enlighte, bance, and stability to ward our ever-warring state but also saved us from the extin orchestrated by tiny iron men and women before they nearly succeeded in killing us all after they gained a sudden upper hand in the form of riding scaled flying elemental breathis at the brink of our aors' victory turning it into a snowballing of defeat to extin.

  The tial people were titan-fed, likely iron vrykul–tiny because we were far bigger in the past–while the flyis appeared to be protons, as described in the lore. Essentially they just stopped pushing an immovable object–the jalgars–and flew above instead, taming protons. They adapted, and we didn't, so we lost.

  It was also how, with other points, I kneere one of the oldest races of Azeroth, older than night elves and around as old if not older than trolls if we ted the jalgars. If what was said was somewhat accurate, not that I doubted the hoy of what was, but hoy ay rarely, if ever, align. It didn't mean what I learned was false, either.

  Despite findiain points fasating, I didn't share his burning passion for those subjects. I mean, I was ied but less than if I was ignorant of this world and was an actual cub in mind instead of a weird mix. I aowledged the importance of the past, but what truly mattered was the present and future. There was no reason to be a bratty asshole, certainly not with Elder Shaman Oakpaw.

  Also, ag like that would have me punished by my parents and have other unpleasant sequences, so I didn't pin even if I wao focus on the exg and crucial part of my survival. Which ells, runes, alchemy, and biology in general, but I needed a bit of patience before that.

  Luckily, today was the day it paid off, and we passed on the less historical aspey teag. Notably, my first proper exercise was given to me half a minute ago and finished in around five seds.

  'What do I do now?' I wondered, looking at the two as. Oakpaw was currently meditating, and as such, it was an awkward moment. I was sure he didn't predict I would have finished in seds, and snapping him to the real world didn't seem particurly wise.

  Then I got an idea. I did a lot of experimentation with my mana and how it ied with the world, generally the living world. My mana was uniterally ined toward the wilds like all furbolgs from as far as I had seen, but mine was more… It was denser, purer, for ck of better terms.

  Why, I couldn't be certain, but my rebirth didn't seem to be a bystander in that affair. Dying and ing back to life were reted in some ways to the loose ws that this world abides by since Life ah weren't just nebulous cepts aaphors.

  It seemed to fuel and optimize the development and regeion of biological matter—or, more precisely, anything with life force. And si passively flowed through me, my body shared some of its effects. Mana was inseparable from biology, and in fact, I was ready to bet a part of it.

  I experimented, but I didn't dare to do anything to–for now, I have so many ideas and theories–beyond helping grow pnts in the vilge and heal wounds myself and others when possible.

  I still gathered information aplenty, such as the knowledge that what you were doing for the desired result mattered a lot and that my mana was an indiscriminate force doing what it did to all that lives; unwanted anisms like pathogens ted. But exceptional, for now, hypothetical cases aside, the boost to the host's metabolism was suffit for it to kill said undesired guests.

  It came to evidehat nothing I did was a secret. It would be stupid and undoable to try and keep all my oddness hidden, in addition to severely limiting what I could do.

  I wasn't going to sneak out at night to be discreet and be questioned why my smell ces it shouldn't be. We all had a sense of smell around that of a bear, and they beat the average dog several hundredfold. There wasn't hiding shit with that, and I didn't want to lie. And we were cathemeral, meaning the night wasn't a good time to sneak out either, as it meant we were both active at night and during the day, depending on the individuals.

  And since I kept it at that, none had a problem. Well, I was told not to try anything recklessly dumb. If it was fiden me or é, I wasn't sure. Indeed, it was not the brightest thing to say if I was a regur child, though.

  What I had in mind was airely differe from my usual. It was nothing mind-boggling, but it's a big step forward pared to what I did until now. I wao grow the seed into a tree. If worse came to worse, my teacher was here, and the other shamans were not far off.

  It wasn't a risk with a safety ihe a wasn't going to set Ashenvale on fire or turn into a parasitister.

  'Let's see.' I grinned, sitting cross-legged as I pced one of the as on the ground, the other in my pouch to avoid losing it. My palms were wide open, putting in evidence my long cws. I focused, and from them, both vibrant green misty tendrils came iend enveloped the a.

  Visualizing what I wanted, I put it into motion, guiding my mana and borrowing that of the surrounding life to assist. I carefully and minutely fed and promoted the right stimulus on my target life force, causing it to steer and shake. Then it stopped, and the shell from the bottom split open, and it, green and white, came, respectively, the beginning of the shoot and root systems.

  In the following sed, both of those parts greatly developed, the roots multiplied many times ging by my will into the soil to anchor the thiing stem, rapidly turning into a thi bonafide trunk of solid bark. At the same time, from branches, tless vibrant green leaves burgeoned.

  I was eted by the result; doing magi any way, shape, or form without fault led to that feeling. It was hard to put into words, but the sensation of trol by affeg the world would be a suitable equivalent. It wasn't so much the power but the ever-expanding array of possibilities and the feeling of tangible progress I never experienced in such a direct way.

  It was my magiowledge, power, and effort. It was the produy effort that was made ma.

  I could, and I wanted more, and taking from the enviro would not help. It to me to supply the energy, though a nap would easily restore it.

  Maniputing the tendril of mana, I approached the sapling, pg both paws on the fresh bark. Then, the budding life force of the tree took a sudden shift. The flicker of ruby red mixing with the overp emerald green of my mana was greedily sucked into the tree.

  However, I didn't fail. It wasn't dying, the exact opposite, but if I stopped the flow of my mana, I felt there was a ce it would. And so I didn't stop eling.

  I did this on the spur of the moment. I didn't know what I was doing. Well, I did begin to uand when the small oak began to morph, pag in and on itself. The root system went back up, turning into three nubby legless feet, while above, a rudimentary pair of arms from the rgest root came. Finally, the rest of the leafy followed, and a head with a rge wood eyebrow and lips adorned by two glowing green eyes came into being.

  A treant, a spirit of nature, and I made it… Well, I didn't expect that.

  I was baffled aed in equal measure as the creature no taller than my waist looked around curiously until its beady green eyes locked on me, and it began to babble nonsense like a newborn cub would.

  "Does it make me its mother or father…?" I mumbled aloud between heavy pants as I sat on my rump. This life-giving fit was far too taxing for my liking. Mana fatigue wasn't just mental or physical; it was a mix of both, yet not really. It was more profound, and it wasn't a pleasant experie all, no matter how many times I had experie. More sht now, as I used a rge quantity in such a short time.

  The treant answer was intelligible, if an a all, as it looked around to study its enviro, its head spinning to an awakened and befuddled Oakpaw whose wide eyes of shock shifted from me to the walking tree-like either was going to vanish in a puff of smoke.

  "I expin-" I didn't finish when my teacher stood up and spoke, a voice void of anger or disapproval of any kind. There wasn't pride; it was more of aed surprise.

  "By the spirits of the aors… Incredible. So young, a you do so much." He said with marvel and genuine joy, but his tone ged toward the end to a serious one, "I now see with crity why impatience seeps into our lesson. Though for a cub, that might not be the correct word… Fiery passion and eagerness would be, however."

  Huh, so he noticed. Or the spirits told him.

  "I also see the error in my judgment. Treating you as a regur cub... is unfit for one such as you. I should have foreseen this." He finished pensively, cws pying with the tips of his braided beard.

  "Teacher, I will not disappoint," I promised. The implications of his words poio interaining, but those were problems for future me. I was genuinely wanting to learn and progress both out of the joy I found in it and also for survival. There wasn't aer bination to promote growth than the existential fear of death and a hundred fate worse than that. It was something I never had before.

  "You shall not young Ohto, you shall not. But I do not deserve this vow. It is to the wild, Bear Lords, and the aors. I'm but the voice of the trees and spirits teag their a stories of wisdom." He said sagely, and I iffly, the rapidly building responsibilities stantly hammering the perilous nature of my life.

  Again, if I weren't gifted with an alien life worth of memory and experiehe mental impact would not be pretty; so much pressure and expectations never ended well for anyone. And at present, I wouldn't sider myself fiher. It was just a different fvor of unpleasantness. At least here, I uood what the greater whole was about—a curse and blessing on its own.

  And there was always the 'it could be worse, it could be far, far worse' such as being a human in Stormwind. nome. Or an orc.

  Then, high-pitched yet rough chuckles broke the peaceful atmosphere. It wasn't me nor any furbolg. It was the young treant currently doing a strange dan the remainder of my mana. I couldn't help but coo at its adorableness.

  "Hhis little one of nature is on your shoulders. As have sequences, and you must take responsibility. A name for this sproutling spirit is a good beginning. What would it be, young Otho?" Oakpaw said, hung over to the treant, studying it, while I pondered for a short sed.

  The name came as a self-evideo me.

  "Groot," I said as if it was the most natural thing to say. The fact that the reference was lost on him or anyone in that universe was of no importao me. The dand general theme fitted to my memories, and so Groot it was. The irony that I was essentially a bipedal talking animal, too, was not fotten by me, even if I was a magical bear instead of a space ra.

  And the little guy seemed to love it if the rapid aitive babble of its name were any indication—a tree-shaped maion of adorableness.

  "An iing choice." He closed his eyes as if listening to an unheard voice, "Your energy is low, so it seems there will be no more practical for today, but an eboration on the ret happening is wise for you to uand."

  After that, a lesson on what Groot began. It spanned from the legends of ages past to what these creatures meant, their behavior, and more. Evidently, it was a general expnation, nothing ih or teical, but he did point out the exceptionality of my feet ily through it.

  It wasn't something someone my age did, ever.

  Well, it was my mana and nothing else that did the tricks, really. All I did ump energy into the seed. It was unusual that much was clear pared to Oakpaw or any shamans. Nature mana was on to every furbolg, even if in too small amount to be of great use.

  For me, it was Nature and Life, emerald green and ruby red, both very simir yet distinct. Or so I guessed. If I were to put it simply, the first was oion, and the sed was on manipution, both fog on biological anisms. It was super vague and subjective, but I based it on the dragonflights, not that it was a hundred pert parallel to the lore; it seemed close enough.

  There lenty of other stuff like Spirit for elementals, which was more of a unique way to use mana by imprinting your 'being' onto it–from what I saw, though I wasn't good at replig it, at all—while Anima and simir forces were total bnks to me.

  But I o uand. It was a matter of survival, not that I wasn't thirsting for it. It was awesome! It was magic!

  The_Bip_Boop2003