Seven humanoids draped in hoods entered my range of perception one at a time I knew I should resend my energy but my hesitation prevailed and I stopped rolling.
They were heading west towards the miasma.
One of the hooded figures abruptly stopped about eighty yards away from my direction they were coming down a steep hill.
I noticed how every figure stopped without a hitch almost as if it was pre-planned for them to stop at that exact location.
The first figure swiveled his head north and I was immediately alerted.
'It's looking at me' I panicked and immediately rescinded my energy but before I could change back into my main body, I thought 'What if I could check their thoughts?'
Humanoids could think and maybe this civilization had the answer to what I was looking for.
I sent out my sense again to check the situation and found that the first figure was not too far away from me closing in at fifty miles per hour less than twenty-five yards away.
I had long since disconnected the tendril I was now just waiting for them.
I was astonished by the physical prowess that I was sensing I was sure no athlete on earth can run like that.
When it caught up to me it stopped and stared, I could sense it was astonished at what it was seeing.
Shortly after the rest of the hooded figures showed up two or three at a time a lone figure coming up behind noticeably smaller than the rest.
Gibberish was spouted out of the mouth of the lead figure pointing at the smallest one while disappointment washed over the rest of the group.
They made a camp around me and waited.
As did I.
I maintained my connection and observed not wanting to scare them away or give away anything of myself.
Maintaining my energy encompassing the maximum range in case others came.
My paranoia did not bear fruit as it was just us.
After they were done with their ritual drawing circles on the ground the human figures gathered around me.
Although I couldn't see they could not hide from my sense.
I discerned that they were humans almost identical to the ones on Earth except for one of them who had a shimmer around him and would sometimes shoot it off in waves like I do when I check the area around me.
His range was slightly larger than mine and by condensing it into a straight line in front of him and making it swivel around like a sonar he was able to encompass more range which is how I assumed he was able to discern my shimmer.
They all surrounded me, and the smallest figure came over and placed her hand on the surface of me.
I could feel her taking all of the minerals that I have collected in this body for all these years.
'Interesting' I thought.
She seems to be absorbing it to make it her own.
I decided this was the best time to act while the leader wasn't sending out his pings.
I built a shimmering arrow as fast as I could and rammed it into the small figure.
She clutched her head and dropped to the ground.
I sent out a tendril of energy and connected with her.
I started to experience her life almost instantly although the connection was feint due to not being connected to my main body.
Her life wasn't long only about fifteen years which was doable for me at this point albeit it hit me with a sharp pain I got over it quickly.
This happened all within a few seconds.
But it was enough for the leader to notice my tendril he immediately sends out a tendril of his own and I receded into my main body burying myself and my core all the way down as far as I could and prayed to whatever would listen that they don't come and look for me.
A week has passed.
I am nowhere close to losing consciousness the hundred-plus years of practice were paying off for me.
I needed to stay awake for as long as I could.
I was going over the information the human girl gave me.
In this world all of them are androgynous there is no male or female.
These people are ordered to come here and check on the situation on the miasma so that they can expand the village.
Neighboring villages have been giving them problems encroaching on the land and hunting beasts within their territory.
Shimmer or what they call it is an all-encompassing element brought in by the harmonization of all the gods.
Unlike me, they can simply breathe it in but since I am limited in my input I am limited in my growth.
I also got a brief history of a zeolite village that blames all its issues on superstitious events.
The small girl was named Kuk'Kuktako she was a sacrifice to the miasma they wanted to enrich her with shimmer so that she would be a rich sacrifice to the gods.
They were also shocked because apparently, I am not the only energy-filled rock as they make it a practice to hunt me to absorb the mass amounts of raw energy I can hold.
They were shocked as rocks don't have intelligence and cannot shape themselves let alone roll around and use energy attacks.
Another day goes by and that is when I feel it.
The draining that the little one was performing on me was being done by almost six different people.
I spread my conciseness to see that they have me surrounded and are siphoning off all my energy.