Chapter 14 - But What The Hell

Days passed and the caravan followed the same, there was no other incident after the battle. Pan was still in the food wagon and focused on the sunflower, there were only four days left to get to Order and even though he had the advantage of being instructed by a crusader he just couldn't carry out the cure.

 'This isn't working, maybe I should try another way.' Thought Pan.

 He was grateful for Thorin's teachings, but as he said, what works for him may well not work for Pan.

 He then started trying new approaches, ranging from politely asking for the flower to putting it in his mouth, or even threatening the poor plant, but nothing seemed to work.

 'If asking doesn't work, if eating doesn't work, if trying to connect doesn't work, then I'll force you, you damn flower.' Thought Pan venomously.

 Pan then tried to take the perception of the sunflower as well as the senses of the grass and the trees in the first awakening and to his surprise, it worked!

 "Suck goddamn sunflower," said Pan triumphantly.

 Pan then focused on feeling the flower's essence and what he felt was completely different from what Thorin felt, it wasn't just some red veins. The essence was like a body of ethereal red water shaped like the flower itself and superimposed on it.

 'That must be why he has such a hard time healing with green, he uses all his consciousness and still only manages to catch a few veins.' Pan thought, feeling happy for his apparent advantage.

 But he also needed to find a way to catch the essence and not just feel it. Having an idea, he decided to imagine that there were small vortices at the tips of his fingers sucking all the water for himself.

 Which surprisingly went very well, as the essence of the sunflower entered Pan's body through his fingers, he was able to feel his own essence for the first time, it seemed to be a liquid like the sunflower's, but instead of red it was a light green and almost transparent that filled out the shape of his body to perfection, as if it were an ethereal copy superimposed over him. The copy in question had five vortices on each fingertip of the left hand and greedily sucked in the sunflower essence and directed it towards the wound.

 However, as the wound closed, the flower began to wither.

 'That's different.' Thought Pan.

 When Thorin took the essence of green, nature remained healthy.

 Surprised, he even thought about stopping, but curiosity stopped him. So when the wound closed and the sunflower died, soon after, Pan felt a slight itching sensation in his hand, the wound had already closed, but there still seemed to be some of the essence he had taken.

 Pan thought that the essence would dissipate, so he decided to wait, but as the minutes passed and the itching still remained a nuisance, he decided to try to speed up the dissipation process, he imagined the small volume moving through his arm in which the essence obeyed his conscience and acted accordingly.

When the essence arrived in his shoulder he tried to move it to his throat, in an attempt to get the external energy out of his body. But the essence seemed reluctant to obey.

  'But what the hell?' Thought Pan.

  Having an external energy inside you that itches and throws a tantrum was not the most comfortable or normal of feelings.

  He then decided to move the essence down to the only other exit he knew of.

  But the essence underwent a strange phenomenon when it reached the height of its abdomen. When it reached the height of the navel, the essence snuggled there and began to become compact until he felt it as if it were the size of the head of a pin.

  After the sphere finished decreasing he felt a tug on his body and soon all his essence was being sucked by the small sphere, even though the sphere itself did not increase in size and after nothing was left except the small sphere that now glowed a faint green. Itching has finally stopped.

  'But what the hell is this?' Thought Pan, surprised and distressed by the developments that eluded what his knowledge encompassed and what Thorin taught him.

  He had no idea what this situation was. But seeing that the small sphere did no apparent harm, he tried to continue moving the compact mass of energy, but it steadfastly refused to leave the snuggle of his abdomen.

  Thinking of something then, Pan cut a wound on his hand again and tried to use the energy in his abdomen to heal himself. This time, to his surprise, a small part of the compact mass came off and went towards the wound that began to heal slowly.

  'Interesting.' Thought Pan.

  He then repeated the process a few more times, but when the mass became half the size of a pinhead it refused to send more essence into the freshly made wound.