Elder Cultivator

As Anton journeyed with Bear Hug, he also monitored another local friend. Liberty didn’t move much, but after breaking free from the rock that Liberty had grown into the fir never again remained in a single position for more than a week. Though it might have perhaps been better for its physical growth, being confined clearly wasn’t acceptable for the tree.

It was unclear if Liberty would get along with Bear Hug, but that was only a theoretical possibility as they were quite some distance apart, nearly a quarter of a planet distant with a sea in the way. Not something either of them could feasibly travel, and it would be more meaningful if they did it themselves instead of just being carried around by Anton.

Lacking any sort of central structure, Bear Hug clearly found it difficult to move, but still happily came along with Anton. At the same time, Bear Hug remained in their pond. There was no connection between the two, but the energies shared the same signature.

Anton could almost certainly discern the full nature of the connection if he was willing to probe deeper into his companion’s cultivation, but that would be a bit much. Observing what was displayed externally was one thing, but there was a limit to what made sense. Furthermore, Anton was uncertain if he might cause damage unknowingly. He would be fully confident with a human or even one of the cultivators of Akrys, but with the core of cultivation diverging so far from what he was used to he was cautious about interacting that deeply even aside from privacy concerns.

As far as Anton could tell, Bear Hug did not sleep. He had attempted to ask, but the concept was conflated with rest and cultivation. In short, either Bear Hug could cultivate while sleeping, or simply did not seem to sleep. Obviously Bear Hug was more active during the day when they could photosynthesize, but inactivity at other times wasn’t necessarily the same.

Though Anton had warned of dangers, they were rarely attacked. Anton didn’t completely erase his own presence, as it seemed unfair to anything acting on its instincts if something they picked as prey was suddenly strong. If they were just trying to eat, he couldn’t blame them- though he might have to defend himself.

Some things were willing to attempt to pick off Bear Hug, which likely seemed like a great boon. After all, most things wouldn’t expect even plants with higher natural energy to defend themselves. Algae might seem out of place walking around, but such oddities could be overlooked by those looking for a potential meal.

As they entered a clearing, a meter high creature with a sharp horn on its head charged into Bear Hug. Anton very much wanted to defend his friend, but his experience had told him that Bear Hug could defend themself from such things. And his reactions were fast enough to affect the situation even if it got bad.

Bear Hug turned towards the incoming enemy, but did nothing more. The algae might seem to be standing in shock, but it was simply that moving was a waste of energy. The horn pierced right through their center of mass, and the algae flopped loosely over the beast that impaled them as water splashed everywhere.

Then strands twisted around the head and neck of the creature that seemed to be in between a boar and rhinoceros. The beast had some level of natural energy that it instinctively used in defense, but such instincts could only go so far against intelligent control. Algae simply pushed its way into the creature's head, breaking past the defenses with concentrated energy and driving into its brain.

It stumbled and crashed into a tree, half uprooting it. Bear Hug disentangled themself, completely unfazed by the encounter. The hole in their center of mass was hardly a greater concern than if something parted some strands of Anton’s hair. No doubt the beast had expected something moving around to have a more defined anatomy. The loss of most of their carried water was likely worse than any actual damage.

“What do we do with this?” Bear Hug asked. Speaking with energy, they had to pause to nudge the beast away from the base of the tree before shoving the tree back into approximately the right position. Once done with that exertion, Bear Hug continued. “Do I cook and ‘eat’ it? I don’t think I eat.”

“Since it is dead, it’s reasonable to try to consume it,” Anton said. “But given that you don’t live in soil and don’t have a stomach, I’m not sure what you can do. If you can absorb its natural energy directly, that might be all you can manage.”

“Let us find a lake with fish.” Bear Hug scaled a tree, extending their energy senses as far as they went- which was around a hundred meters. The algae was fairly strong, something near Essence Collection, but was not trained for distance sensing. “Anton. Why do you mount a tree to find things far away?”

“Because I have sight,” he explained. “If there is nothing but air or water in a direct line between myself and what I want to see, I can sense it. Like the sun,” Anton pointed.

Bear Hug seemed confused. “Even at night when it is far away?”

“... The sun doesn’t actually go away. It’s just blocked by the planet.”

“The planet is big, isn’t it? That means the sun is very far at night. But during the day it is right here.”

Anton took the time to explain to Bear Hug that the sunlight and the sun were not really the same thing. Or at least, not as humans tended to speak about them. In the case of Maheg, Anton thought of the sunlight it radiated as like his own energy, but he supposed that until it reached a certain point it might actually be part of the star. Cultivator’s energy wasn’t an intrinsic part of them in the same way, though losing it would be just as bad as losing a limb, if not far worse. Thus, it couldn’t really be considered as something separate.

Bear Hug actually moved much more smoothly with a smaller complement of water, though clearly Anton’s algae based friend was eager to get back to greater quantities of water. Anton himself was carrying the beast, because Bear Hug couldn’t manage that while at the same time effectively puppeteering their own body. Lev could probably help with that, though he did have a rigid structure to work with.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Anton wondered what response plant cultivators would have to the other sort of plant cultivators. They could feel threatened, perhaps. It would also be interesting to see what another grasping willow would develop into. Lev had more trees. Would it become sapient? Clearly different species had independently ended up that way, though exactly why was still unclear. Abundant natural energy wasn’t sufficient, so the system must have some subtle properties that influenced things in that direction.

Eventually, Anton splashed the beast into a decent sized lake. A rotting corpse could pollute water, but at the same time lake creatures and plants could feed off of the nutrients. Rot was disgusting, but perfectly natural and part of an important process. Though it might be less efficient on a large corpse, so Anton was considering chopping up the creature so that none of the more problematic consequences of decay would easily develop.

Bear Hug flopped into the water, then wrapped themself vaguely around the corpse. Rather than leeching natural energy from the body, they took it from the water as it slowly diffused out. It was an interesting process, but quite slow.

-----

In the morning, Anton ended up scattering most of it around the area, some in the lake and some in the woods for scavengers. Bear Hug wouldn’t be able to get much more use unless they waited around for days or weeks.

After seeing he was up, Bear Hug came up to Anton and wrapped around him in greeting. “Happy morning! Enjoy the sun!”

Just the previous day, Anton had seen Bear Hug move in much the same way before killing the attacking beast, but he was not afraid. After all, if he feared hugs from everyone that could kill such a thing then almost everyone he knew would qualify. He was no more afraid of his new friend hurting him than most humans. Especially not as he became more in tune with his friend’s emotions.

They were muted in some ways, but no less real. Curiosity, fear, happiness, anger. Positive and negative depending on the situation. With no face or actual body, such emotions were expressed mainly through control of energy- but small fluctuations in said energy also gave things away subconsciously, just like humans.

As they walked along over the next few days, the conversations between Anton were mostly him trying to explain what humans lived like. The concept of family, having others around that could think and feel, seemed to be quite attractive to Bear Hug.

“There,” Bear Hug said. “A new friend.”

Anton extended his senses in the direction Bear Hug indicated. “Are you certain?” He could certainly see how the tree might give off the signature of active cultivation instead of just being full of natural energy.

“You don’t feel it?”

Anton shrugged, then relayed the expression through energy. “I’m just as new to this as you are.”

“I’m going to say hello,” Bear Hug said. They walked closer to the tree. “Hello. I know you don’t speak yet, but my name is Bear Hug.”

Though the tree certainly wouldn’t know the language, the whole point was that any sort of energy cultivator should at least be able to tell something intentional was happening. It was made not with sounds, but with movements of energy. It involved a whole lot of pointing.

“You appear to be stuck,” Bear Hug continued. “Do you require assistance?”

At that point, Anton noticed that Bear Hug was actually speaking to ivy growing on the tree. “It’s supposed to be like that,” Anton said, indicating the aerial roots sticking onto the tree. Anton had to admit that the flow of energy in the ivy was a bit more lively, but he still hadn’t felt a proper reaction.

“Oh, you’re supposed to be like that,” Bear Hug said. “Do you want more sunlight?” Bear Hug mimed slicing through branches on nearby trees, though it was only tiny threads of energy with no real power instead of actual cutting. “This one doesn’t talk much.”

Anton was actually willing to bet that it simply wasn’t sapient. But with how sure Bear Hug had been, he wasn’t going to declare that for certain. “What did you notice that made you think this one is what we’re looking for?”

“Active energy intake.”

It didn’t feel the same for Anton as what Bear Hug did, but perhaps he shouldn’t expect it to. “Did it stop?”

“Yes. Do you think we feel threatening?”

“It’s quite possible,” Anton said. “Let us give some space.”

Bear Hug dejectedly slunk away. Perhaps they had been expecting all others to react precisely as they did, curious about the moving thing clearly intentionally trying to interact. But sometimes people wanted to be left alone.

As for determining whether Bear Hug was right or not, they set up vaguely nearby. Not so close as to be problematic, but Bear Hug gave up the comfort of a proper pond overnight and instead continued to hold themself together with their bubble of water during that time. The slow expenditure of energy seemed to be balanced by an equally slow absorption of the water and the natural energy within it. As long as there was no active movement, Bear Hug maintained a pretty decent equilibrium.

Anton decided not to sleep, keeping an eye on his friend and the ivy. It was quite boring, just sitting in the woods for a number of hours and not even cultivating, but he was rewarded for his patience when morning came.

It was subtle, but he both saw and felt the ivy shift as the sun crested the horizon. Plants were known to adjust themselves to the sunlight, but it was usually a very slow process. This involved a very small nudge of active natural energy, almost as if trying to avoid notice. But Anton noticed, and Bear Hug did too.

The algae jumped up. “Good morning! Happy sunlight!” They hugged Anton, then rather daringly approached the ivy, extending a tendril of drooping material.

The ivy jerked away. That more than anything else was a clear sign. Anton knew that it wasn’t an attack, but Bear Hug’s movements were necessarily imbued with natural energy and the ivy certainly might not know.

There were a few tense moments, before Bear Hug demonstrated by shaking together their own limbs, making vague representations of leaf shapes with energy to show one of them should be the ivy.

The ivy slowly extended, just barely letting Bear Hug touch it. Then it yanked away, ripping a few strands of Bear Hug with it- seemingly unintentionally

“Wow, that’s an aggressive handshake!” Bear Hug commented. “You’re not very good at that. Let’s try again.”

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