Mutagen

<strong>Day 21 – 2:47 PM – Unknown River</strong>

While Mark and Amihan watched the red blob fuse with the 'dead' blobs, he saw another blob floating along the middle of the river. Unfortunately, it was another 'dead' blob and it was far from what Mark could reach. Amihan would not be able to get it either since not only because the flow of the water at the deeper parts of the river strong but also because she would have no way of scooping a nearly deformed blob out of the water. The two could only watch as the other blob got washed away by the torrent.

Seeing the blob drift away, it became more apparent that the source of these blobs should be somewhere upstream and was still producing these blobs. The hardest question however was what these blobs were considering that one was actually alive.

Mark looked at the sky, it was already afternoon and the sunlight was starting to wane. It was likely that it was past two or maybe almost three.

"It's getting late."

Amihan said noticing his gaze at the sky.

The little sylph was right. Despite how much Mark wanted to know about the source of these blobs, it could be set up for tomorrow. Right now, what they should do was to return to the village and cook the next meal. Well, after he took a bath of course.

They waited for the red blob to finish before taking it off the ground. The small bowl sized blob earlier now had the size of a large bowl. It was smaller compared to the total size of the blobs combined but Mark considered it to be similar how the blood he could convert to his own was smaller compared to the original volume.

Since the blob could not fit in the plastic box anymore, Mark was forced to create a thin container using his blood once more. Due to this, he started to feel a bit of symptoms of anemia. He had been using his blood since earlier and both the basket and the container needed quite an amount. Furthermore, he had no source to replenish his blood aside from the Grebe inside the basket.

Finally, Mark made Amihan lead him to the nest of the Grebe. Inside the nest, there were seven large eggs. The Grebe in the basket tried to protest when Mark took the eggs but it could not do anything. It would soon be turned into food and blood replacement after all.

At this time, Mark decided to go home early and cook a good filling meal for dinner for the first time in a while. Due to these blobs, it seemed that honey hunting he wanted to do should be rescheduled.

"Ei, my Lord, are you really human?"

Amihan suddenly asked as Mark traced back his steps going along the smaller river.

"Lord? Just where did that come from."

Mark could not help but ask because Amihan suddenly addressed him as such.

"Uhmm…" She tapped her temple while swinging her feet. "Mother and Father said before that if I decided to accompany a human, I should call them as such. And you never told me your name. Also, please, answer my question first… please, don't dodge it again."

"My name's Mark. I'm human, probably."

Mark finally replied. When he said that he's human, he had quite an unsure tone. After all, he had no idea whether Mutators could still be called humans. Rather than humans with superhuman abilities, Mutators were basically infected people that maintained rationality and gained abilities far from what modern science could explain.

"Really? Human?" Amihan flew off from his shoulder and started flying in front of his face scrutinizing it closely along with his body. "You really look human but those tentacles… Those look similar to those of some evil spirits though…"

As it would be troublesome to prolong it, Mark started to summarize what happened to earth in the previous days and also that it could be connected to why she could not return to her home anymore.

"Waahhh… That happened? So that's why the animals and insects grew larger? Also you got those tentacles when you got infected while most humans became similar to Amalanhig right?"

"You don't seem upset that you can't go home."

"I do but… There's really nothing at home but my bed." Amihan looked rather dejected now. "I already said it before right? My parents were vagabond sylphs before they died. I don't have anywhere else to go especially now that I can't even hide from other creatures anymore and could not even enter my home."

"No wonder you came back running to me."

"Yes…"

"Even though you seemed afraid of humans when you first saw me."

"It's the fault of you humans…"

Amihan then narrated their history with humans before. According to her, Sylphs and even other nature spirits interacted with the human tribes before and even helped each races in many ways. Even the human tribes back then would offer tributes to the spirits.

Hearing up to that, Mark nodded. He also heard about such customs in folklores where native tribes before put their game and harvest to altars offering them to the spirits of nature. Even television dramas and movies pertaining such eras would show such customs.

"It's until those people with exploding weapons that shoot projectiles and those bald men wearing black robes with large metal crosses came and started capturing and killing our kind. They even went so far to persecute us as spawns of demons or evil beings."

Amihan grumbled.

It was then that their connection with humans was severed and those who still mingled with humans were labeled as outcasts by their kind due to the hatred and fear they felt from humans. Amihan's parents were the same and followed the last Datu of a certain tribe before the tribe was eliminated by the odd-looking people. When the Datu died, her parents started to wander into the mountains without a proper dwelling due to most of the mountains had already became a territory of other spirits.

Amihan only managed to stay here after her parents perished due to the fact that there was a human village nearby that most spirits try to stay away from.

She was lonely all this while with nowhere to go aside from that tree of hers.

"You want to come with me from now on?"

Mark asked. He completely understood her emotions.

"Really?"

Amihan's eyes lit up and the joy on her face could not be faked.

"As long as you don't become a nuisance and follow my orders."

Mark expected her to hesitate when he said the last three words. Unexpectedly, Amihan was nodding her head furiously in agreement.

"I will! I will!"

She started flying around his face in joy.

"I already said about not becoming a nuisance right?"

Mark said with his eyes half closed making Amihan freeze and lose balance in the air. She almost fell and Mark hurriedly caught her before putting her back on his shoulder.

"Sorry…"

Reaching the spring once more while talking, Mark decided to end his unfinished business.

It was to take a bath.

When Mark started to undress, Amihan had gone hysterical before flying off behind a nearby tree. He was not perturbed for some reason, or maybe, because he did not think about the little sylph as human which she was not. Still, even though she flew to hide, Mark could feel her stare despite the fact that he kept his back facing her.

This regrettable sylph was not so innocent after all.

"By the way, how old are you already."

Mark suddenly asked making the peeping sylph panic.

"Awawawa!!! I'm not telling!"

She said as she hid once more.

Mark did not ask anymore. He was just curious and wanted to know the exact number. Following her story and how she talked like she witnessed the death of the Datu her parents followed, it was likely that she was already over a hundred years old.

After taking a bath and changing into new clothes, Mark finally felt refreshed for the first time since he woke up here in the mountains. Finally, they continued their walk going home.

"Your face is red."

Mark tapped her head.

"It's your fault." She murmured in a very soft voice. "Don't you feel embarrassed at all? There's a maiden with you."

"Says the one who was peeking."

She finally fell silent.

Mark also thought about it while he was taking a bath. It should have been embarrassing normally but he felt that something was wrong. It was like that his emotions were being sucked away into nothingness. It was as if his emotions were rather weak, it would not take long for him to feel empty.

His face froze as he finally realized. Mutators, both failed and successful ones had a leading trait in their subconscious. It could be an emotion, ideal, desire or ambition as what he had observed before. Each trait could affect their personality and conduct to an extent that they behaved too differently from their past selves.

On the other hand, he could not feel any urge inside him. Rather, it felt empty. His emotions did not last too long either now unless the emotion was rather strong. If it was just a sudden thought, the emotion brought by it would likely to vanish in an instant.

"Is it possible that my subconscious is empty?"

Mark murmured as he tilted his head.

While thinking about that, he finally reached the outside of the forest into the plains with lesser time consumed compared to the time he took to find the river earlier.

However, he stopped walking the moment the village was on sight.

"Amihan, hide inside the bag."

Mark pulled the zipper of his bag open.

"Hmm? Why?"

Amihan was confused and started to look around.

"There are people in the village."

"Heh?"

Hearing what Mark said, she froze before scurrying behind him stuffing her body through the opening of his bag.

When the little sylph was totally hidden, Mark started to walk towards the village once more as he readied his katana. He then put down the bag and the basket hidden near the entrance of the village.

"Stay here."

Mark said to Amihan hiding inside the bag making her nod silently.

Using the thickets around the village and the outer houses, he stealthily circled around the village locating the intruders. His Empathic ability had not recovered yet so he felt that it was quite painstaking and troublesome that he had to blindly look for the people.

If he was not observant, it was likely that he did not know that there were intruders. He only knew it when he saw the grass outside the village toppled where the grass should not be toppled. It might just be animals but animals would surely not walk around the alarms he made around the village the other day. He was also sure that they were intruders and not the natives of the village due to the fact that they did not use the pathways into the village which was more devoid of grass and should be familiar to the natives.

Finally, he saw the intruders. They were actually gathered around the house he was using.

Seeing them however, veins immediately popped up his temple. He did not care how much exhausted they looked like or that they have injured people with them. What he cared about was that one man was wielding the knife he made for cooking and was stabbing the body of the gorilla sized monkey he hanged there yesterday. The man looked amazed at how the knife was too sharp while testing its sharpness on the body of the monkey.

Mark was really annoyed now that his emotionless face turned cold. The hide of the monkey was ruined. He would not let these people go unscathed.