My Sudden Monster Convergence

“Jello to box!” The moment I shouted it, I felt my mana pour down my fingertips and into the rock. But just in that second, Grandpa walked into view with a thermist, pulling the lid open like a box and pouring what smelled like hot choco. The rock shook and wobbled for a few moments before forming into a cylinder shape. “Damn it! Where did you even pull a thermist from?!” I shouted, my frustration growing from annoyance. “This is the fourth time you pulled something outta nowhere!” I threw my finger at the other rocks, two were balls and the other one was a star.

“Ahh…Sorry! Kinda wanted to see something and I think I got what I needed.” He threw back the last of his coco and screwed the lid closed. “You’re doing the basics pretty well! You’re just not realizing it.” Grandpa wore a smirk on his face.

Puffing out some air from my nostrils, I looked away from my mistakes. “How is that helping me learn anything if you keep distracting me? And what do you mean?” I demanded.

“Well, reference magic ties your memory to key words. You see or hear something new, so to better understand it your brain ties it to something you intimately understand. So how it relates is in how it leads your mind to see a certain thing.” Grandpa explained with a strong voice of a military commander while scratching his chin.

“OK but where are you going with this? I was doing magic just fine with, ‘her’ earlier.” I pointed out.

Grandpa’s face made a tight frown. “Most textbooks and info online, you’ve read them right? The ones explaining magic?” He asked calmly.

“Yeah, most of them talk about visualizing your magic.” I slowly offered but he motioned for me to continue. “And that magic has to be relearned from the basics if you want to learn a new type of magic?” I wasn’t too sure what he wanted me to say but this was something related to what he was showing me.

“Not bad.” He nodded. “Learning the basics is just a cornerstone to come back to. It is history you can learn from.” He stepped closer to me and cupped my hands together. “History is ultimately unchained to new magic, just something to do better from.”

“I think I understand.” But I still wasn’t too happy with the screw around he gave me though. “Could you just tell me why you were messing with me then?”

Grandpa sighed as he scratched his chin. “It’s to test how well you relate one similar object to another. You easily turned the rocks into respective containers’ shapes. So in other words, your ability to visualize what you want is that of an A tier, B at worst.”

“Then….I got the basics down?” I asked as I looked up at him with wide expectant eyes.

He smiled like I was about to win a million dollars! I must’ve done even better than I thought! “Nope. you’re middle of the road at best, I’ll turn my back and you’ll probably forget half of what I just said.” He said with a teasing smirk.

“Uh.” Damn it! Of course he’s going to notice the differences between me and the other me even if we share some similarities. The only response would be to avoid the topic or get grouchy but I need to figure out magic. “Then….how, do I get better?” I slowly asked, feeling my mind sizzle at the thought of admitting it. But I ignored it, instincts were something I would control, then maybe I wouldn’t be so much of a…..feral.

Grandpa’s smirk slowly dropped from his face as he stared at me, eyes chained to mine like something he didn’t see before. I wasn’t sure why his mouth gaped into an open frown and his eyes narrowed. Was asking for help a mistake? The scales around my back felt like they were bubbling. Was he going to find out I wasn’t the original? My claws felt like a hundred ants were digging tunnels through them. Damn fucking shit down my pants! No-no-no-no-no-no-

“Ehm. I, uh, y-yeah! I’d love to teach you more. I-in fact, if you would pick up the rocks we shaped and follow me.” He quickly turned around and stiffly walked like he ran up a mountain for a work out.

Following him, we went behind the boulder and shiny topped rocks, past the clearing and back into the forest of strawberry trees. The trees back here had more vibrant color and the air smelled of roses and of sweet bell peppers? The dark chocolate streaks the pink trees had seemed to ooze warmth that made my shoulders relax, even the stress that was bubbling away, eating and growing seemed so small. He brought me further into the richer forest but the whole way grandpa didn’t say a single thing, didn’t look back to see if I was following, he hardly even seemed to breathe. The warmth seemed to just mix with his presence as if he wasn’t there.

We went deeper in only to be greeted by the soft hellos and good days that seemed to drift on the gentle breeze. And it didn’t take long to find the glowing lights of fairies drifting like sea-jellies in the ocean.

“Welcome.” “Such beauty.” “Please enjoy your stay.”

Several fairies greeted us, well it was more than just fairies that said hello. What looked like an upside down flower bloom floated up to me, it had little pink eyes and waved a petal arm at me. Dropping from the trees above were long vines with small monkey heads at the ends, they stretched down to grandpa and placed a crown of leaves, vines and flowers on his head. The crown was a circlet made of tightly twisted leaves with three larger pink leaves at the front with the middle leaf laced with light green vines in a diamond pattern. The corners where the vines met were studded with small white flowers like the buttons on a fancy couch. It didn’t end there as four short almost golden vines hanging from the circlet and each vine was dotted with what looked like three glittering gems cut into the shape of tears. 

The monkey headed vines gave a quick grunt before pulling back into the canopy above us. Fairies, pixies and tiny flower people floated around Grandpa, many of them giggling, fixing his hair with little flowers and others sliding down the ridges of his clothes. He smiled, let them shake his finger like a handshake.

He looked happy here, like the time Grandma helped personalize his door, she tried adding petals to the door only to cut into it like a grizzly. A door Grandpa spent a good two months on it in between work projects, instead of getting angry when he discovered it he had a big smile followed by a chuckle. He noticed me watching and even bribed me with a bunch of lollipops. I demanded chocolate mellows and ended up with a box of them.

……

This, this feels different.

I watched Grandpa’s muscled back as a large flower shaped like a jet drifted up to him. The other sprites that were hudling around Grandpa quickly flew in the air, keeping a wide distance from them. The flower that approached was glowing and releasing some sort of misty yellow aura with the sort of flowing intensity of a gushing geyser. It kind of reminded me of Maeve when she was going all out, only this flower wasn’t a dark silhouette within their energy, aura….mana thing. Focusing my eyes allowed me to see their small body like it was in front of me at human size. I could immediately tell it was another flower sprite by how it moved, swaying its legs side to side. Their purple petal body was folded and pressed into the shape of someone hiding their hands in the sleeves of a large flowing robe. Its robe like body was even detailed with glistening gold vine decals that lined the edges of the sleeves, chest and knees where it ended.

The sprite slowly bowed its head, holding it there for a couple seconds. At this the soft breeze flowing in suddenly stopped, allowing us to hear something. It was coming from behind the robed sprite, passing the trees, much deeper in the forest. The breeze was quickly rushing into that direction, swirling and pushing through every gap it could find. As if it were a slow breath. One tasting the air and absorbing its oxygen. 

The sprite didn’t raise their head until the sound the distant wind made faded, returning to a gentle breeze the next moment. The sprite then floated closer to Grandpa, stopping around two or so feet away.

“*&^#! >&%#~~?” It asked while staring like a statue at Grandpa.

“#%$$!~ full %$##$@!” Grandpa softly said, almost sounding like he was ten with how high his voice went. And he said that all while making a large circle with his arms. “#$~%& gift.” He moved his palm to me then pointed with three fingers at the rocks in my arms.

The sprite stared at him, almost as if it were trying to read his mind. They then shook their head while slowly tilting their head to face the ground as if it was remorseful? Regretful maybe? Even the gentle breeze slowly whistled in a low tune.

“#@~(& >/%#@!” The sprite said.

Grandpa wore a stern frown as they spoke, he moved his hands in a small arch, pointing four fingers at his throat. The sprite shook their head again. Grandpa spoke and quickly moved his hands apart in a wave shape. The breeze whistled and the sprite looked at the ground as they spoke. Grandpa pressed three fingers onto his forehead, slowly pulling them down across his face before whispering something in a higher pitch.

The sprite slowly nodded their head and the breeze turned into a gust that bellowed out from the forest depths, smelling oddly of pineapples. They then turned to look at me, it felt like they were deciding something or maybe judging me for my many scales. I just couldn’t tell with how stern the sprite looked at me and their unhuman face was hard to read.

“%G#$@?” It spoke in my direction and the aura it was releasing slowly moved towards me like an ocean’s lazy low tide waves. They tilted their head as their aura touched me, I don’t know why but my mind found nothing wrong with this. If anything I could feel the need to raise my hand as if in a handshake, it felt so easy to do this as my hand started to move upwards. Trying to pull away from the rocks in my arms, threatening to drop them. It felt like the right thing to do, I had to do this.

But, I looked at my clawed hand, the sharpened points, the obsidian daggers gleamed in the light before slowly turning red. The sound of something heavy being crushed into small bits and something wet being cut, stabbed and torn apart echoed in my ears before I slowly closed my hand. Pulling it away from the sprite and looking at the ground. I can’t just blindly obey my instincts, it’s easy, too simple to fall into that. I can’t let myself become something…….something that…………a thing….I’m not pretending to be a ……

No, I’m still here. I’m in control.

I looked at the sprite, eyed it with a serious look. I wasn’t sure what my instincts wanted but I knew what I’d do next. I stepped forward.

“Thank you for looking after my Grandfather. I hope you and all the sprites here can continue to be the greatest of friends!” I boldly said to the petal sprite, not looking away I moved the rocks in my arms forward. Trying to offer them up as a gift.

It nodded at me. The air felt cool and like a gentle cloth wiping away all the grime. It was refreshing. The sprite turned and floated deeper into the forest, disappearing behind a tree as it flew around it.

Grandpa looked at me and I gave a nervous, ‘everything’s good’ smile. He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. 

“Oliver….” He reached out and clasped my elbow. “You did good.” He gave me a big smirk. “But you still only just pass.”

I raised an eyebrow at that. “You two were testing me? But I thought you were still teaching me… so why this?”

“To see if you were ready for the next part. But You didn't fully understand what was going on.” He began.

“Then what was going on? You're…not doing anything mom or grandma wouldn't like, are you?” I cut into his explanation. 

He looked at me like I just stabbed him before slowly beginning his explanation. “The gift of Growth. Something spiritually trained sprites can offer. It sorta works like a small buff. And before you ask, it would've made learning easier, no way am I going to let it boost Something like lust.”

“That-that's a thing?!” I nearly dropped everything in my surprise. 

He tilted his head side to side. “Yeah…races with lower child rates or populations are always after that.” He took a deep breath before looking at me. “Not to change topics on you but those rocks are part of the lesson.”