My World is a Work in Progress

For a solid second my eyes and the snake's matched, each staring at each other. Like in a staring contest, neither dared to look away. In the end it was me who broke eye contact by blinking. Through our mutual connection I could feel the snake almost snicker at me. Showing its pleasure, it slithered up my arm and around my chest, like it was giving me around. This second familiar seemed to be as nice as the first one, and the thought brought a smile to my lips as it meant they would serve their purpose beautifully.

"Your name will be Anguis, and you will be my arms, Limus you will be my legs. Together we will do great things, but no one will know our names. Sounds fun doesn't it?"

Anguis and Limus seemed to not know exactly what I meant, as Limus just jiggled a little and Angus slithered over to where he would be spending most of their time—my right stump.

Ever since I started meditating The Voice has been absent. It has been seven days since they have said anything, and while I don't miss them, I begin to worry about what exactly they were doing. Frankly, I don't trust The Voice as far as I can toss them, and as something that was immaterial that would be very difficult. The words that greeted me when I awoke still wring in my ears, The Voice clearly wanted me to destroy this world, and while I wasn't sure about the whole world, I knew that if I ever wanted to live comfortably around people again, then the One Church, the Holy Empire, and everything else needed to be brought to their knees at the least, but I was hoping to destroy them.

But my grand plans would need to wait until I became a premier existence in this world. To start out I needed to first teach these familiars how to become my limbs, then and only then could I comfortably gain any power for myself. Even once I became powerful, there would always be someone above me and as such fitting in a disappearing within a crowd will be my greatest asset.

Communicating with my familiars telepathically through our shared link was rudimentary currently. At most I could only communicate with generally ideas, mental pictures, and things of that nature. There was a lot more showing then telling in this situation. To be frank though, it was something I hadn't expected but, in a way, it made it easier. Once I had gotten their consent and they had formed into my lower body and torso and my other arm, they instinctually sought my nerves and connected with them. The experience was uncomfortable to say the least, almost like little ropes were burrowing into my body slowly digging away. But soon everything became connected and I was then able to try out my new limbs for the first time. Standing up took a lot more effort than I thought. For starters I hadn't walked in over a year now so my motor control was dubious at best, secondly while Limus was connected to my nerves and was following my commands perfectly, it still wasn't my body so it felt different and I ended up tripping and falling out of the canoe and into the bay. Luckily it was shallow and using both my arms I was able to stand up once again. Almost tripping over my own feet again, I stumbled my way up the beach and made my way to the edge of the beach. I had my familiars cancel their forms and soon I was propped up against a tree. While movement wasn't perfect now, it would still allow me to somewhat fit in if anyone shipwrecked here, and more importantly it would allow me to run away if something happened. On the other hand, Anguis fit the job of being my right hand perfectly. The strangest part about him was the weirdly familiarity he fit me. Limus felt like putting on new shoes for the first time, while Anguis felt like putting on your favorite glove for the first time in years. It was a strange feeling, but I didn't hate it.

While I had made great strides in my magic career and I had accomplished the goal of being able to leave the canoe there was still no time to rest. The voice was still missing which worried me a little bit, not for their wellbeing frankly, but more worried about what they were up and about doing. At the beginning they seemed fragile, being absolutely terrified of divinity, but now they still seemed powerful, I mean they kidnapped (and probably killed) an unknown number of children when I made my escape. But more to the point it meant that it was most likely playing me for the fool, but at this point in time outside of suicide there wasn't much I could do about it, and my will to live was as strong as ever.

Shaking my head to clear these distracting thoughts from them I manipulate my familiars back into their limb forms and push myself up, and slowly stagger my way back to the canoe. Peering over the edge of the canoe I can see the monk just laying down at the bottom of the canoe. From here it looks like he is just taking a nap in a weird position if you ignore the fact that he has been laying there for a week or two. This will be a perfect benchmark for how strong of an arm Anguis is. Grabbing onto the monk with Anguis I pull up, barely clearing the edge of the canoe and start to drag him towards his shack.

To call it a shack is somewhat of an overstatement. It didn't even have a floor, it was just a mat (supposedly to sleep on), a couple of boards stuck into the ground made up the walls, and another board nailed to the previous ones made the roof. I imagine if it were to rain this shack would manage to block maybe a buck of water before collapsing on the owner. But it was still here against all odds, so storms just don't exist here? Which would be even stranger, and it would be a good phenomenon to research.

Looking around, end to end of the interior was only about two or three meters either way. The door was simply a space in the wall covered palm leaves interwoven to create a privacy curtain. In a weird way this comforted me, seeing as though this would probably mean that animals don't make a habit of visiting, adding another lay of protection for me. Tossing the monk into the corner I laid myself down on the mat and then released my familiars. Limus got behind my and propped me up and Anguis slithered onto my chest and looked to me. It seems they were attached to me, but this was probably due to them feeling the connection between us and realizing that their existences depended on mine as much as I did them. Strangely enough I could feel a weird sense of pride coming from them, emanating through our link, but I just attested them to showing off their extreme control even though they were only a couple of minutes old.

Looking at Anguis but talking to the both I start to instruct them,

"You have very good control over the forms of your bodies and that is very promising. But you are not strong enough to guarantee mine or your existences. In other words, it would be foolish to grown complacent. You guys need to start to improve your control, eventually you are going to need to hold your forms for days on end! So while you might not be attached to me you still need to change forms and hold it. You guys are adorable but don't think that means I will go easy on you!"

Narrowing my eyes, I stare at Anguis, the poor guy, he just shivered and transformed into an arm and hand and gave me a thumbs up. It was incredibly cute, but I tried not to let it show on my face or in our mutual connection.

I can feel Limus slowly change form into my torso but using his legs and squatting the adorable little guy manages to keep my propped up. It is incredibly enduring, but I once again maintain my façade of ignorance, as there needs to be a clear pecking order here. No matter how cute these guys are.

Just because one days these guys will become strong doesn't mean I should neglect my own strength I tell myself as I begin to exercise my magical powers.

It has been a month and I haven't eaten anything in two weeks. My body can still eat and sleep, but it is now possible to refresh myself by absorbing mana into my body and meditating now. Anguis and Limus have both been training and I have begun to start teaching them basic mana control.

Six months have passed since I ran away now. My mana control has shown signs of stagnating, but my familiars have begun to become stronger and bigger, yet they somehow manage to shrink and grow depending on what they're doing. I'm pretty sure the monk has died at some point, but his body hasn't begun to rot yet, I will have to examine him once I become stronger. At some point The Voice returned without a word, our connection isn't as clear as the one between my familiars and I, But I get the distinct feeling they are sulking.

And just like that five whole years had passed with my practicing and without noticing the time passing...