Chapter 4

When Rex woke up, he was lying face down in his parents living room. Riasha was sitting in a chair in the corner with her long legs crossed. She looked like a parent waiting for their child to get home past curfew.

"You know, I'm conflicted. You have this drive deep, deep down that the anger brings out of you but man are you stupid." She walked over to Rex as he sat up. She flicked him in the forehead. "Listen better."

Rex rubbed his forehead, that hurt more than it should have. When he pulled his hand away, he saw it was covered in blood. "I think you hit me too hard."

"I didn't make you bleed with that little flick, you were using your head like a 3rd weapon. You're all bloodied. I am surprised it didn't knock you out with how much difficulty you have keeping your consciousness." Riasha generally gestured at his body.

Rex looked down and realized how much blood covered him. Then the soreness set in. His chest blazed with pain from the gashes and scratches. His head throbbed and his hands were sore from gripping his weapons so hard.

"I need some bandages or something." Rex winced as he tried to stand up.

"You're fine. It will take care of itself." Riasha said. She had pulled a pen and paper from somewhere and was now scribbling something down. She looked up from her work and seemed to remember something.

She reached into the bag at her hip again and pulled out the cores they had collected. "Break these down in the essence powder again like we did for the bones earlier." She went immediately back to her scribbling.

Rex grabbed one orb and tried to compress his energy around it like he did before but he instantly got nauseous.

"You over worked yourself. This is why you listen to me." Riasha said without stopping her work or looking up. "Push through it. If a little tummy ache is going to stop you then we need to rethink our partnership."

Rex nodded and doubled down on his work. An eyebrow peaked over the coverings on Riasha's face as she watched him work. He encapsulated the core in his energy again and the wave of nausea came back. He kept pushing until the orb collapsed into dust. Rex rushed to the kitchen to empty his stomach only to find out it was already empty. After dry heaving for a bit he returned to his work.

He broke down 9 more and visited the kitchen two more times before Riasha spoke up again. "Good, you have suffered enough." She walked into the kitchen and grabbed a glass and filled it with water. He was surprised to find that the plumbing was still working. She looked at the water with concern for a moment but in she end just shrugged.

"Sprinkle some of the dust in here and drink it."

Rex took the glass and did as she said. He hesitated briefly before drinking it. It seems like borderline cannibalism to do this. If the other puppets were anything like the first one he killed, they were absorbing the neighbor's essence.

"Is this wrong? Using my parents friend's essence as a sports drink." Rex asked, concerned with the path he was heading down.

"Not how it works. Once released from its owners control it's universal essence. It can be infused with the original owners power but it's no longer theirs. Taking essence from someone unwillingly is only considered taboo outside of mutual combat. Just drink it."

"You're new to this mentor thing aren't you?" Rex teased her as he sipped the concoction.

Riasha was looking at him "Yes, this is a favor to a friend."

He stopped sipping to look at Riasha. A favor to a friend. "Just how strong are you?"

Riasha smiles "Drink." She points to the glass in her hands.

He did and began to feel much better.

"That is the most basic form of a recovery potion possible. You shouldn't do it too much as it can cause damage in the long run to consume unrefined powdered essence like that. You could just eat the orbs too but at this point they would break your teeth. Try it." Riasha said with a devious smile.

"I'm ok." Rex said in response, creeped out by the smile she gave him.

She shrugged and sat back down to do her scribbling. Rex, feeling slightly restored, returned to his work, finishing up the rest of the orbs. By the end it only took him a couple seconds to break each down.

Rex waited while Riasha finished her writing. At this point she had her tongue out of one side of her mouth, in deep concentration. She held it as far away from her face as her arms would allow, made a few finishing touches, tilted her head and nodded.

"Take all the essence you made and make this sigil." She handed him the paper.

It showed a circle within a circle. Inside the band between the two lines was script Rex didn't recognize. Within the inner circle was a single character that left 4 areas of white space which were filled in with what looked like hieroglyphs from an alien civilization.

"What's this for?"

"Your parents. This will memorialize them."

Rex narrowed his eyes at Riasha. He didn't trust what she meant by memorialize.

"I didn't create this. When I was younger, I spent time in an empire far from here called the [[War Pack Alliance]]" Riasha looked into the distance with a slight smile. "They are an ancient people. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, a grand pack of beasts were in a war with monsters from a hellish realm. The beasts were beaten back to a remote world in their territory. They lost their home planet and all satellite planets."

"They were an empire of war. Every royal path was one of conflict, war and violence. When they reached this remote planet, they found a surprisingly strong but peaceful civilization of humans. They practiced nature paths with a focus on healing and growth. They helped the beasts get back on their feet and supported them in the war effort."

"With the help of these humans, the pack slaughtered the invaders, reclaiming their lands and bringing the humans into the fold officially." Riasha bowed her head. "Billions of beasts died and they needed a way to get rid of the bodies without dishonoring them. This was the outcome of that need." she gestured at the paper in Rex's hands. "It can read the life of a person and transform them into the thing they enjoyed the most. Once it made its way out of the Alliance, people realized it only applied to creatures and plants that people appreciated. Good prank if you ask me."

Rex nodded. "So, what do we do now?"

"Take the essence powder and draw what you see here to the best of your ability."

Rex looked dumbly at the powder on the floor of the room. "I wish you had told me this earlier, before I put it all over the living room floor." He stood there for a moment and tried to think of a solution.

Rex went wide eyed and ran into the kitchen. His mom liked to make pancake art so she had lots of those plastic bottles with the squirt lids on them. He grabbed one and filled it with the powder.

He tried his best to recreate the sketch as accurately as possible. When he was done he got Riasha's attention to inspect his work.

"Wow, that's way better than I thought you would do. Still bad mind you but it was never meant to be created this way. Go grab the remains and place them in this sigil."

Rex did so but when he came back downstairs he was crying. Their death was still fresh and regardless of how much had happened, it was too much for him to carry his parent's remains around their destroyed house.

He placed them gently into the circle and took a few steps back.

"Now project your energy into the sigil. If you have to touch the essence itself, that's fine. We are just trying to ignite the ritual."

Rex opted to touch the powder since his emotional state made it even harder for him to control his energy. He place his index finger gently onto the powder and willed his energy into it.

The entire thing lit a brilliant green and perfected itself. He thought he had done a good job but it turned out it was nowhere close. It basically looked the same but the feeling he got from it was completely different. It was the difference between looking at flour and a completed birthday cake.

The remains began glowing with an intense white light and disintegrating into a swirling mass of energy. Once the remains were gone, it began to form something in the middle of the sigil. It looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. From bottom to top a light in the shape of something began to emerge. The swirling moved up slowly and the thing became taller and more detailed.

The green light slowly dimmed and the ritual was done. The sigil was gone and all the essence was spent.

Standing there on the floor of the living room was a small foot high statuette. It depicted a pair of squirrels playing a tree.

Rex smiled and picked up the statuette and placed it on the mantle above the fireplace. He stood there in silence for a few minutes, just staring at it.

"You know, my mother loved squirrels." Rex said out loud, never turning to Riasha. "And that tree is an exact replica of the tree my dad grew up playing in. All I have seen in this single day of this new reality is misery and death." Rex continued "But if beauty like this comes with it then maybe I can survive it."

"Atta boy!" Riasha smiled but it quickly faded. She felt bad for Rex. She knew what is was like to be alone in a dangerous world. She sat down and left Rex to his thoughts.

___

Rex had fallen asleep on the floor at the foot of the fireplace.

Riasha woke him up the next morning at dawn.

Rex got up and rubbed his eyes. He was surprised to find his wounds from the day before had already closed up considerably and were healing nicely.

"Told ya. There are benefits to our bond." Riasha winked at Rex.

She gestured to the rest of the room, which she had cleaned up. It was surprisingly clean and looked like a real living room again. Although, the door was still barricaded.

Rex got up and went into the kitchen to find something to eat. When he opened the fridge, he finally noticed that there was no power. something in there reeked.

He checked the cupboard and found some cereal. "Dry cereal it is." Rex said to himself.

Riasha was giving him a horrified look when he went back to the living room. "What in the world is that?"

Rex looked up at her, confused. "Cereal?"

"That's not food."

Rex looked down into the box and looks back at Riasha and shrugs. "Better than nothing?"

"Doubtful. We need to get you real food."

"Right, suburbia, well known for it's wild game. Watch out, the squirrels might get you."

That comment got Riasha's attention. She slowly turned to look squarely at Rex. "Take a seat Rex. and keep snacking on your saw dust. It's time you learned what kind of world you live in now."

___

"I will not cover everything but I will cover what toddlers know who are born within initiated territories." Riasha looks at Rex and nods slowly "Understand?"

Rex nodded with his mouth full of cereal.

"Good. Lesson One: You are a baby. I mean this literally. You are both young and powerless."

Rex looked up, offended but said nothing.

"Lesson Two: You now have unlimited potential. That potential comes with...expectations."

Rex just nods dumbly.

"Now, there is only one rule in your new universe. Strength equals freedom. Now to address your ignorance and the pressing issue at hand, beasts. You need to understand that everything is affected by these changes, sapient or not."

"So, squirrels could be a real problem?" Rex asked wide eyed.

"Not become a problem, they are a problem. They are in fact quite rare in the greater universe and when they pop up, they are dominant. Fast, ruthless and no morals. You know, even when they are in the mortal stage they eat their rival's young? Imagine what happens when they get power."

"Mortal stage?"

"You. You're a mortal. Once you refine your body and gain some real insights you'll become a real person."

Rex glares at Riasha asking, "How do we do that?"

Riasha points to the weapons next to him with two of her hands and said "Get to work."