“Nothing for miles…”
Chimera had spent the last three hours scoping out the surrounding ocean, which was fun at first until she realized that she was very likely stranded.
Waves lapped against her island’s rock walls, pushing her around in the direction of the current she no doubt found herself on.
Which was truthfully a good thing, because it meant she might be heading towards land whether she wanted to or not.
That meant she was pretty much stuck until that happened or her friends found her, and since her earlier pings didn’t hit back in her mind palace, it was safe to say they were still up there.
She gazed at the now night sky, the other moons painting her with light.
They were pretty off, just a few dots in the distance with color that didn’t match the surrounding stars, but it was easy to spot them when she checked the distant Steros that they all orbited.
This place doesn’t make sense if I think about the astronomic aspects. Either humans just don’t understand how planets work, or Steros is an anomaly.
The moons were so far from the planet, yet they still gave off light to each other?
Chimera tried to think more on it, but the boredom of her situation didn’t help her focus any better.
Whatever, the moons are artificial anyway with Iaos story. They might have all been planets at one point and just got turned into moons by some magic bullcrap.
Either way, not my problem right now.
With a sigh in her breath Chimera walked around the island, letting her mind wander with what she should do next.
I created an island, filled it with trees and nature and life, and I can feel all of it.
It wasn’t so strange, since Chimera worked with life before. Whether it was splicing things together like the anthropomorphic rat-mice she made, repairing damaged DNA and adding her own, or just throwing away the blueprint and replacing it with her own, Chimera had essentially spat in the face of the rules of life and made it her bitch.
Can’t really help it, I was made to do just that. Take biological waste and energy and convert it into power and more energy.
She touched a fern, feeling the life within, the perpetual energy generator inside it working and converting biological refuse into food and anything else the little plant needed.
It was odd, making a self-sustaning island, but after all the energy she dumped into it, Chimera wanted to be sure it didn’t just up and die.
She needed this life raft damnit!
Though now it was more like the island was becoming a bit more than a simple landmass.
The plants fought each other for space, pushing each other out while claiming territory. Some had whole parts of the island to themselves, spreading their roots and spores into the land and holding it all together in a death grip
Yet none of them dared to strike her, some even moved to get out of her way as she walked across the various paths she made for herself.
Feels like I’m the alien plant queen here.
Chimera chuckled, as that was a completely accurate thing about this little place she made for herself.
Alien invader, planet excavator, serpent slayer~.
She sang the tune in her head, and noticed the plants around her were bobbing their flowers and stems to the beat she had in her head.
Okay that’s a little creepy.
She stopped for a second, which made the plants stop.
Holy hell.
She started singing aloud, and noticed more of the plants were bobbing and weaving to her beat, some even humming and making noise to match. Even more added their own beats to give the music some more depth.
I made singing plants… that are so synced to me that they can hear my thoughts.
She tested it some more, watching the plants move and sway to her command.
Some even did stuff she didn’t ask, like raise her up and give her some fruits, or showed off their scents. It was like walking through a perfume shop that doubled as a nature exhibit and cafe.
Once she reached the middle of the island, the plants around her created a flattened ground, each one with a single stem from the host of that plant's territory.
five in total from what she counted.
The first she spotted was a beautiful rose with petals of each color, a rainbow of shimmering dazzling beauty. Its thorns were clear though, almost see-through from what Chimera could catch.
It bowed to her as she stood in the middle of the grove.
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“Thanks, I guess.”
Another swayed and caught her attention. This one was a normal green plant that resembled the ferns she noticed earlier. Chimera knew it wasn’t though, as right underneath its leafy body was something that resembled a bundle of spines.
Oh, wait… those are poisonous.
They were similar to her own spines at the end of her tendrils, which she often laced with sleeping drugs and paralytics to take down people without killing them.
These ones though, they did not seem non-lethal at all.
Silca, and neurotoxin on the ends.
Chimera touched one to see what would happen, being careful to isolate the part of her that let the needle pierce her.
Pain, like nothing she had ever felt radiated from the place she had been pierced. The silca wouldn’t break down either, staying stuck to her flesh and just sinking deeper as the poison made her flesh swell.
With a slash she cut off that part of her flesh and let it die, the toxin eating away what was left and turning into a blueish purple wound.
Okay, that was something fucked up. Good for you strange murder fern!
It too bowed to her, careful to keep its very lethal needles hidden behind its bushy leaves.
The next one was actually two plants that were entwined with each other, each snapping at each other, but unwilling to let the other go.
Okay, what's your deal?
A tendril from her back reached out and nudged them both, hoping to get a feel for their beef with each other.
One wrapped around the tendril, and, not to be outdone by its rival, the other did as well. They both squeezed hard and started to pull at her tendril, trying to get it to their side of whatever boundary they seemed to be fighting over.
Huh, so you two are just into each other and can’t agree.
One of the two flowers, the reddish one, tinged even more red while the other pinkish blue smacked one of its leafy petals into the red flower's bloom.
This got them fighting once more as the red one tried to wrap even harder around the pinkish blue flower, who didn’t seem to be fighting back at all.
Oh… ohhhhh.
Chimera decided to leave those two alone as she turned to face the final plant of the five approaching her.
This one was shaped similar to a dryad, with two blooms for eyes. The blooms themselves were white while the center of the flower was black. No thorns were on this dryad, but her vines were thick and strange. Bark covered her like armor, white and pale, and her arms resembled an Elfari’s to an uncanny degree.
It was the vines on the dryad’s back that grabbed Chimera’s attention the most though.
They resembled muscle fibers more than plant fiber to Chimera, and the distinct shape was like her own tendrils, almost mirroring them.
Chimera watched the dryad closely as she approached, a feeling of impending something reaching into her mind.
Anticipation, and something else.
A yearning to battle, to fight.
The creature moved, slamming one of its tendrils into the soil while it pulled back a fist.
Chimera felt an instinct in her come to life as she dodged the punch while also intercepting the tendril that shot up from the ground.
“Oh, not like the others eh?”
Chimera readied herself for a fight as the dryad mirrored her, a grin slowly painting her face.
“Fight.” the strange dryad spoke, readying a stance as its tendrils grew flowers that bloomed into deadly bulbs filled with spines.
Chimera loosened up her body as she prepared, staring off at the dryad with something approaching eagerness.
She was bored after a few hours of flying around with nothing to do. Low and behold, now she had a sparring partner to help past the time.
Not only that, but after seeing that poison from earlier, Chimera had a good feeling this fight was going to give her a challenge.
Reaching into her body, she unlocked the energy of her aura, funneling the power and changing into the form that always came from that powerful life energy.
“Alright, but remember.”
She grew her own tendrils, adding a few hungry maws at the end with rows of sharp black teeth.
“You asked for this.”
Both combatants dashed at each other, Chimera with her tendrils snapping while the dryad dodged, shooting shotgun blasts of deadly spines in response.
Chimera dodged the blasts, which allowed the dryad to pummel her with those barky fists she had. Not only that, but two more arms joined the pummeling as they tried to reach her body.
Chimera answered with her own tendrils, grabbing each wrist with their teeth and yanking the dryad off the ground and into the air.
But the dryad wasn’t done. As she flew, the spines launchers all grouped together, forming a bulb that shaped into a wall.
Sensing danger, Chimera put up a wall of dirt just as she heard an explosion come from the dryad’s direction. The earth wall she made was peppered with spines, each dripping with a black ichor.
The hissing and melting stone told Chimera all she needed to know about those spines.
Moving around her wall, Chimera launched her own spines at the dryad while she sent a few tendrils into the dirt, sending up another wall of earth while she snaked her next strike under the soil.
Rather than launch another salvo of spines, the dryad closed the distance between them, fists radiating the same ichor that coated her spines.
Chimera put up a block with her arms just as they connected, summoning the tendrils below to strike the dryad from behind.
Just as she thought she might have the plant girl beat, the tendrils on the dryad launched behind her to intercept the subterranean tendrils.
Stunned by the intercept, Chimera wasn’t ready for the kick that the girl dropped on her head, spinning her and sending her careening back to the center of the grove.
She stood up quickly, her eyes narrowing as she glared at the now smirking dryad.
Oh, think you got me?
Chimera poured aura into her body, intensifying the reserves she was using to the highest level she could.
As she did this, she noticed the dryad shifting as well. Life energy from the island poured into the plant girl, filling every leafy body part with an incredible amount of power.
Chimera tilted her head, which only made the dryad smile even wider.
As she went into a stance once more, Chimera mimicked her own, her own levels of concentration spiking as she readied herself for the next bout.
The dryad laughed, the black teeth glistening in the nighttime air.
“Fight!”
With a yell, the dryad closed in, meeting Chimera head on as the two grappled once more.
…