At this point, Jack was on his knees.
"WHAT HAVE I DONE!"
Whilst James simply laughed at his misfortune.
"Alright, you bumbling fools! Let us not linger without more offerings." Foster proceeded to lift Jack and guide the duo away from the greedy skeleton.
"Just wait until the others hear of this! No, what if we charge them to come here or as escorts? We'll be rich in days!" James seemed to be excited.
"No, no no. We must be careful. I'm sure your aware those rats will run to the church the second they see something they don't understand." Foster immediately shot them down.
"It's a demon, it must be. Only a demon would be so cruel to do this to me."
"Right, so we just need to keep them from spilling it. Or use this to our advantage. If we get stronger, money will come to use." James fell down a rabbit hole of thought.
With that, they left the 'sacred' grounds.
___________________________________
'Thank the lord they left' 'SHRINK? What was that!'
"I panicked! I didn't expect all of them to give us something. And I couldn't just keep saying heal otherwise the plan wouldn't be very effective."
'I thought the plan was to have them give us stuff and heal their injured?' 'dark' 'Hmm. Oh, but then they would only come when they were injured?'
"Exactly, I thought of a better plan. If we make our blessings seem random, we'll instill into them the gambling spirit!"
'Then they'll keep trying their luck!'
"CORRECT Ha Ha haaa. Now then before we get to our hard-earned goods, let's finish our flesh research"
'Yes, that does seem more pressing.' 'We're briggands aren't we' 'Aye, such is a wise choice.' 'Perhaps, we should create a workspace instead of the literal forest floor.' 'Aye, even wiser choice!'
And so the skeleton set its new toys down and made its way to a tree.
~hmm mMm mm mm mmmmm~
The chorus began to hum and sing, molding the wood outward.
Soon a hole was made from about waist to head height. All the excess wood was repurposed to create a flat surface, resembling a table extending out of the tree.
"Ahh, perfect."
Once finished the skeleton walked to the discarded carcus and lifted it.
When it believed itself stable with the added weight, it moved the corpse to the new table.
Once the creature was secure the testing began.
Slicing off a leg using its bone blade, the skeleton lifted the chicken leg and spoke: {BURN}.
At first nothing.
Then sizzling.
Finally, with a poof, it burst into flames.
'Anyone up for some chicken?'
_______________________________
'Time'
[33:10:12]
"It looks to be about noon? That's all the ideas I have to mess with it, without playing god."
On one side of a clearing, there were multiple withered constructs. They were placed randomly upon the ground or against trees. Many looked like dried meat.
And others were burned, stretched, liquidated, ect.
Then there were the strange ornaments on the trees.
They were made of feathers and abnormally shaped talons. Some looked like dream catchers, while others resembled albino plants.
In front of the tree/table stood a flower-laden skeleton.
On said table was a menagerie of clean bones, pushed off to the side for space. In the middle was a chicken head.
Or was a chicken head.
Now it bore more resemblance to a squid than anything else. Its feathers were nowhere to be seen and its flesh was withered and slimy.
Strange, tendril-like growths were sticking out of random areas.
"It seems unlike bones, the ambient energy in the air isn't enough to support our commands. At least for alterations of this scale on such complex things?"
'Then why did the commands work on the men?' 'They are alive?' 'HELP ME!' 'They have their own energy?'
"Right, they have so much energy already. They can support much more in terms of alterations!"
Following this train of thought the skeleton looked to the air.
The energy flowing through the air now looked less like streams. It seemed chaotic, and broken. Most likely a result of all the experiments.
'Perhaps we should fix that?' 'What?' 'Stabilize and gather energy. Then more commands.' 'How would we do that?' 'Magic?' 'Tell it to gather or follow?'
"Let's try that, {GATHER}"
Having the congregations focus on it, the energy pulled to the center of the clearing for a couple of seconds.
But dispersed quickly after.
"Mmm, {FOLLOW}"
With that, the energy congregated towards the skeleton.
Lifting its hand, the skeleton watched as the energy followed in a stream-like form.
However, it stopped soon after.
"This is gonna be a bit difficult."
'What other words are there?' 'WAIT, what if you make new streams!' 'Like have it follow into new paths? That doesn't solve the energy issue.'
'Then redirect the streams somewhere like uhh' 'THE TREES, the men can have that much energy so why not the trees!' 'Right, it even worked on the flowers so this should work!'
"Sounds like a reasonable plan, let's see if it works. {Follow}"
So the tests began once again.
Now leading the energy by the hand, the skeleton began walking from the edge of the clearing.
As if drawing a stream midair, the skeleton waves its hand making a line from one end of the clearing to a tree.
Physically, nothing happened.
However, before the eyes of the skeleton. It was clear.
The stream worked near perfectly, flowing directly into the tree.
Excitedly, the skeleton began weaving rivers through the air using both its hand and blade. Creating a web-like tapestry, leading all the strands to surrounding trees.
This would have only lasted a minute, had the skeleton not been unsatisfied with the unstable energy outside the clearing.
As if some remnants of the living disease that is OCD overtook it, the skeleton began to dance, weaving new streams to other streams or ending them on trees.
For hours it simply weaved its unnecessarily complex tapestry, like an old grandmother on crack.
_______
'Time'
[26:04:08]
"Finally done!"
For seven hours the skeleton drew its little masterpiece.
'Pretty' 'This was such a waste' 'This is amazing!' 'Why did we do this again?'
The skeleton stood in the middle of a clearing. All around it were trees currently seven feet in diameter.
Two feet more than seven hours ago.
Now all the trees in the area looked healthy and strong. Each rich in leaves.
More notable than the trees were the streams in the air.
Not only were they twice as thick as natural, but they each twisted around each other in all three dimensions of space. All rivers bearing clear purpose and trajectory leading in and around other streams, always ending at a tree.
However, the most impressive aspect wasn't the complexity, or scale, or density. But rather the sheer size of the energy system.
As far as one could see, the energy followed this pattern.
From an areal point of view one would see that this tapestry has around a full village's diameter before it begins linking up with natural streams.
Linking is a bit of a weak word.
It would be more apt to say 'sucking in' the natural streams of energy.
As a result of the influx, all the vegetation was thriving. They were noticeably bigger In a matter of hours.
Unfortunately, there are consequences to this.
As a result of all the energy constantly rushing past, most couldn't absorb as much of it as usual. While the plants didn't wither, it was obvious that they weren't nearly as vibrant.
Losing their radiance.
"Now, so long as we don't destabilize the currents we can do as many experiments as we want!"
'This feels like using a generator to power a flashlight.' 'Future investment?' 'It's better to always overachieve than underachieve!' 'I suppose?'
"The sun is low, should be about the same time the men came before. Wonder if we'll see them?"