Chapter 15: Developments (1)

"How you plan to develop this camp? What do you mean?" asked the leader leafling, voicing what everyone else was thinking.

"Tell me, are you satisfied with your current state of living? Are you okay with the way things are?"

"The way things are?" muttered one of the leaflings under Alpha's command. Everyone seemed confused about the question, up til now their only task in life had been to survive, they never really had to think about things any other way.

~I can't help them if they don't want to be helped,~ thought Lucius after a few moments of silence, as the seconds ticked by he grew more and more dishearted, perhaps it just wasn't meant to be. Though what could he expect, he was trying to force human concepts on what essentially was a group of animals. Before he came along they worked solely on instinct, moving away from danger and doing whatever it took to survive- which usually only amounted to hiding.

~Sigh,~ thought Lucius, about to close the meeting before it had even started.

"I'm not happy with the way things are, I am not satisfied with my current state of living." It was Alpha, he moved to stand at the center of the circle, and looked straight into Lucius's eyes.

"I'm tired of being weak, I'm tired of running and hiding. I want to be stronger, I want you to teach me- to teach us, I want to have equal right among the other creatures of this forest... I don't want to be at the bottom anymore, I want- I want to evolve," he blurted out, unable to contain the fire in his soul.

~Well done Alpha,~ thought Lucius. Where there is a will, there will always be a way. Though Lucius refrained from answering immediately and instead turned to look at the other leaflings, waiting for their reply as well.

"We want to become strong as well, teach us," repeated one of the leaflings under Alpha's command, to which the others nodded their leaves in agreement.

"I want to learn how to hide, I want to learn how to be unseen, I want to become as good as you... no better," said Ghost standing up beside Alpha.

"And I want to learn of this... photoclemisis you use, I want to evolve as well, so that I may stand on par with the Fae." An abysmal silence followed the leader leafling's words. Ghost and Alpha stared at him as if he were insane, while the other leaflings looked at him in confusion.

~The fae?~ wondered Lucius, though the thought quickly came to pass as there was much they had to discuss.

"There is much I have to learn myself, we can go into the great unknown together. But now that I know I am not alone in my dissatisfaction, let me voice my ambitions," he said, gesturing for Ghost, Alpha, and the leader leafling to sit down.

"First, I plan to have everyone in our little group evolv-" excited whispers filled the air before Lucius could even finish his sentence.

"Though it isn't even a certainty that its possible,-" as he said this the ecstatic chatter died down and was replaced by disappointed faces. "- Though the fact that photosynthesis can be shared amongst us is a good indicator, meaning that there is a chance," he finished off.

"What about the others?" asked one of the leaflings under Alpha's command.

"Hmm, you weren't here last time, were you?" replied Lucius, realizing that the leafling was one of the newest additions to Alpha's squad and had been absent the first time they had performed shared photosynthesis.

"The process is very taxing on the mind, and though adding everyone would result in better gains, I'm unsure if fatigue is the only side effect," Lucius explained.

"So you want to use us to check for side effects?" asked the leader leafling.

Lucius took a moment to inspect the leader leafling, he had never taken him for a forward-thinking individual, perhaps he had underestimated him.

"Rightly so," Lucius replied nodding his head.

"I will use this group as a test group, to check for long-term side effects and whether evolution is indeed possible for everyone else. But do you understand the implications of this?" he asked, looking directly at the leader leafling to see whether his first answer was merely a fluke.

"Ehem... 𝘪m𝘱l𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪on𝘴?" the leader leafling asked after a brief moment of thought. It would've been interesting if the leader leafling was indeed some sort of genius amongst his people, it would've helped a great deal, but reality was often disappointing.

~Of course it was a fluke, though still makes me wonder. How come he, Alpha, and Ghost seem so much more intelligent and... mature than the others? There doesn't seem to be any difference in body structure,~ he thought to himself, comparing the three of them to the others.

~I'll have to ask them later,~ he decided after confirming that they were indeed all of the same size.

"What I mean is, in the case that there are long-term side effects, then that could mean complications in your lives, with the worst case being irreversible damage... or even death."

The leaflings felt a cold chill tremor through their bodies, the oath they had made earlier replaying in their mind like a dreadful echo, reminding them that they had indeed pledged their lives.

"We understand," replied Alpha.

"Good."

"However that's not the only thing," Lucius continued.

"A few days after I was incapacitated, Alpha spotted a number of spies lurking around our camp. We assume that they are a neighboring community, whether they are hostile or friendly is still to be decided," as he said this the leaflings began whispering amongst themselves.

"However, we are to treat them as hostiles until they prove otherwise. According to the information we have- which to be honest is lacking right now- they have access to minor poison magic."

"Magic?" Though the word was repeated by several leaflings, each repetition had a different tone and hence meaning to it. Some said it as if asking a question, like they had never heard such a word before. However, others asked it in disbelief, like they had some past history with it. Apart from, the leader leafling, Ghost, Alpha, and two others, the rest were part of the former.

"How will we fight against that?" the leader leafling asked, a seriousness cloaking his eyes like never before seen.