*FWOOM*
Green-hued strings that looked translucent surrounded me, I didn't feel any danger emanating from them and neither did Mr.S, so I decided to just wait it out and see what comes of this. The strings grew thicker over time, gaining a physical structure in a matter of minutes.
'Um, I get that you say this won't harm me... but it doesn't really feel safe? I'm ok right?'
No orange interface appeared with an answer.
Mr.S has been acting strange since my evolution, ignoring my questions and even giving me some sass whenever I asked a question with a simple answer; maybe the system underwent it's own form of evolution?
'Congratulations! Your Mr.S has evolved into Teenager S! More rebellious and less inclined to help!'
I was chatting away by myself and making quips to entertain when the thick green strings began to coalesce and combine into one object, forming itself around me. I traced my wings along strings, it felt like a smooth sponge, weird.
'Mr.S, what's happening?!'
[ You asked to transform and it's happening ]
I lightly slapped the little screen away, I wasn't in the mood to be chastised by a semi-sentient robot teenager. I took inventory of my surroundings and grew worried; I was in a cave with little to no protection in the middle of the day, even a few lizards looking for a quick snack might be able to sneak up on me now.
That's when I remembered my servan-
*Ahem*
Let's call him an intern.
'Dryad man! Come here and keep watch, destroy anything that seeks to harm me!'
The strings had gotten thicker and had enshrouded my vision, but beyond a few cracks I could see a black jacket approach me, he had come!
The fattening of the lines exponentially grew and in another minute my whole body was covered off from the outside world. I expected to be thrust into blackness, but the night-vision ability I gained from evolving allowed me to see even in the absence of light
The green lines could previously be differentiated and told apart from one another, no longer however, the lines had combined into a smooth shell that covered me, it felt oddly nostalgic.
"Ahhh... it smells nice..."
The walls emanated beautiful fragrances, I closed my eyes and felt the aromas come to life in my imagination. The fresh morning breeze tenderly carried the perfume of flowers up to me, apples that decorated lush trees had their smell wafted into my beak... I held my head up high and inhaled the oceans scent, salty sweetness full of life.
If heaven had a smell, this would be it.
I felt my consciousness slowly slipping away, I can't remember the last time I felt this level of comfort or safety...
'Yaawwwnnn... Dryad man is sitting right up there... I can... afford... to sleep ... a little....right?'
Forming thoughts grew harder and harder, my eyelids felt like they had two trucks glued to either of them, dragging them down onto my beak and keeping them there. I relaxed my shoulders and felt my knees buckle, causing my body to slump onto the shell, it felt springy and cushioned my fall; I'd take this over a bush any day of the week!
Tucking my wings under my head, I formed a makeshift pillow. Snuggling my head deeper into them; I stopped resisting the sweet allure of sleep and allowed my mind to rest.
-----
'What.... WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?!' The Dryad exclaimed in his head, his panic increasing by the second.
Eurydice had thrown the knife with such concentration that the thought of it missing would've made him laugh, yet it missed the creature entirely and imbedded itself into a tree! His world-view and confidence was shattered.
'Maybe it's a side effect of almost dying from that chicken... I need to try agai-'
Eurydice's train of thought was derailed by a strange, overpowering impulse. The Dryad felt as if all the knives he had on his person were fire-ants chewing at his flesh with a vengeance, his arms unconsciously strapped off all the knives on his person and even dislodged the one stuck in his boot. While this happened, the Dryad's consciousness had taken a back-seat and he was entirely driven by the Chick's wishes.
A neat pile of knives had been made on the ground, as the last knife touched the heap; Eurydice gained his consciousness back.
Eurydice tried to activate Mindstill and create a plan to make himself act like himself again, alas he was completely unable to control his mana. The Dryad was shaking, his previous desire for revenge towards the Chick had been replaced by a nauseating fear of what this all meant for him, had he truly gone insane?
'It's ok Eury, just... relax and breathe...' the Dryad patted his thighs lightly and started to meditate standing up, chanting his sleep mantra to quicken his path to relaxation; a stressed mind could creature hallucinations, maybe this was just that? He tried to scramble together an explanation to the weird behaviour he was exhibiting.
The Chick started stomping it's webbed feet before glaring at the Dryad, it audibly huffed out a breath of air and began to walk away.
'That thing creeps me out' Eurydice thought, 'there's no way it's a normal chi-'
'Hang on', Eurydice did a double take.
The man noticed that the rhythmic patting of his own thigh had stopped, he tried to arch his neck down and see why he was unable to move when he noticed that his entire body had stiffened up like a rock.
His chest started to hurt.
'Sh*t I can't breathe'.
The Dryad quickly noticed that along with the rest of his muscles, his nose had been frozen in place and had stopped inhaling air automatically, he tried to take hold of it and manually inhale but to no avail; the feeling was similar to when he threw away his knives, the Dryad had no control over his body.
Eurydice tried to inhale, he tried to run, he tried to grasp his neck. Nothing worked.
"HUUGHHGGGASSSPPP"
Seemingly from the blue, Eurydice had regained the ability to breathe out of his nose and mouth, he greedily gasped in air and gave his muscles and brain the oxygen that they had been craving. He attempted to wiggle his fingers yet they were still cemented in place. Minutes passed as the Eurydice statue gasped in more air and stood with his back towards where the chick had gone, half an hour or so later; his feet began to hurt.
'RUN' Eurydice had only one thought, the floor felt as if it were made of lava and was burning his foot, he activated soul power for the first time in ages and began to run towards a small cave, the Dryad's brain screaming at him that it was the only safe place for him to be.
Once the Dryad reached the cave, he saw a giant emerald green egg, it seemed to pulse and hum every few seconds. Oddly, Eurydice felt very protective of this egg, his paternal instincts had kicked in; anything that even tried to harm his lovely egg would need to be squashed like a bug.
'What am I thinking... risking my life for a strange egg? I need to get back to the base, my mind's messed up...' Eurydice thought, knitting his eyebrows in confusion at his newfound love for the egg.
However as much as he tried, he couldn't bring himself to leave, the egg was simply too great to not take care of. Eurydice sighed and sat down onto the floor, cradling his head while trying to organise his thoughts.
'It just doesn't make sense...' this thought ricocheted around his brain, almost audibly clunking as it did so.
'I might as well just rest a bit... I'm ridiculously tired... feels like I went to hell and back-' Eurydice's thoughts were getting tired of getting interrupted, but he turned his attention to the sound anyway.
"THUWMP"
The egg had begun shaking and cracking, sounds of a struggle coming from inside it, Eurydice's heart was in turmoil. Should he try and stop the whacking of his egg? No... what if maybe inside the egg lays a treasure worth caring for even more than the egg itself? Should he act or not?
The Dryad settled for sitting down beside the egg and slowly patting it, like a mother encouraging her newborn to burp, he had a weird smile on his face as he did so.
"CRAACKKAAKCCK"
Fragments of shell and an unknown liquid blasted off into the air, some of it getting on Eurydice's treasured jacket; he could care less at the moment; a small and powerful looking fist had blasted the egg wide open.
Eurydice's eyes instantly leapt up to look at the hand which had emerged from the egg, it was coloured a pale green and was covered in goop and small green fragments. Living amongst his own people for the majority of his life, he knew what Dryad's looked like and before him lay an unmistakably Dryad like hand.