Karl smiled at the old hippie. “Of course, I will come with you. I’ve had plenty of sleep, and if I don’t go visit, then we will have to guard against marauding Nature Priests all night anyhow. Sitting still indoors isn’t in their nature, and from what I know, she wasn’t injured.”
The white robed doctor did that pinching the bridge of his nose thing again, and Karl knew that they were stressing him out only minutes after his shift had started.
Karl patted him on the shoulder. “I recommend that you just go with the flow. It’s the nature of things. The harder you fight against it, the more problems you will cause for yourself, and it’s not like anything you could do would prevent it if we were actually determined to make it happen.
That’s one thing that the Nature Priests have right. You need to embrace nature, and accept that rigid rules aren’t always the right answer for every patient. Just let the nature priests cuddle the monsters, and they will be happy again. It’s better than any medication you can give them.”
The old hippie snorted in laughter as he nodded in agreement. “This one is practically custom-made for followers of the Green Dragon. Do you know how many of our people have been mauled or killed trying to pet the unpettable? Now, he shows up with dangerous monsters that will actually accept their affection, you can’t just tell them ‘no’ all of a sudden.”
That was a real danger to the Nature Priests’ lives. Their brains had a hard time accepting that not all friend shaped things were friends.
The white robed doctor waved Karl out of the room, and he followed the old hippie into a large empty room that he thought might be an empty storage room. Lotus and Doug were already there, along with a half dozen other green robed clerics, all sitting around telling jokes.
“Karl, you’re already awake. Good timing. I just realized that we haven’t actually gotten to properly meet Remi yet, even though I saw her on the battlefield.” Lotus announced.
“Of course. Remi, how about you come out and say hello?”
Remi came out of her space to coil in Karl’s sling, and then poked her head out to take stock of the room before she decided if she was going to actually come out in the open.
The old hippie that had led Karl here burst into laughter, shaking his head in dismay.
“It’s a good thing that I led you here. Can you imagine the white robes reaction if they met her? Remi, wasn’t it? They get panicked enough when we bring in cats and Earth Mice for comfort, but a venomous Spirit Beast? We might need the crash cart for them instead of the patients.”
Remi giggled in Karl’s mind as she heard him ramble, but the little snake recognized that he was looking at her with adoration, while Lotus had come up in front of them with a pleading look and her hands out.
The little snake slithered out of the sling and wrapped herself around Lotus’ arm to take a better look around the room.
She was bigger than Karl remembered, well over a metre long now, and beginning to get properly snake thick, not pencil thin as she had been when she was born. But, if she stayed as a Spirit Snake, she would be twenty metres long fully grown, and if she evolved into a Naga, she would be at least human sized in the torso.
Karl thought that if she was going to evolve, there should have been some signs of it by now, but Remi was happy as a snake, even if her totems were of a four armed Naga Shaman.
While Lotus was leading her around the room, introducing Remi to all her new friends, more people came in to join them. Ophelia was escorted by another Nature Priest, and a nurse escorted a delicate featured teen girl with a mass of bouncing blonde curls into the room. She looked to be about thirteen or fourteen, possibly a freshman at the Academy, if she was an Elite, but Karl didn’t recognize her.
“That’s them. I tell you, I’m not crazy. Karl, tell this crazy woman that I am Tori.” The dainty girl demanded.
Everyone went silent as they turned to look at her.
[She still smells like Tori.] Thor agreed.
[Yup. It’s a tiny Tori.] Hawk added.
[Can I keep her?] Rae asked, thinking how much fun it would be to run around with an even tinier human on her back.
Lotus and Dana were only a minor burden for the extra firepower they provided. But the new Tori was two thirds their size and just as Stabby. Or, she had been. Rae recalled the clerics saying that she might not be an Elite anymore.
“Yeah, that’s Tori. She was ritual resurrected. The beasts confirmed it, she still smells like herself.” Karl agreed.
That was enough for the nature priests. If the family pets recognized you, then it didn’t matter what disguise you had on, it was probably you. Not many disguise spells were powerful enough to fool the finely tuned senses of certain animals.
“How did you get younger?” Karl asked.
“Would you believe it if I told you that my last thought was that I would like a chance to do things over again if I was reborn?” She sighed.
Karl felt the familiar amused presence in his mind, and he smiled at the annoyed mage.
“I one hundred percent believe it. With the Dragon God’s own luck protecting us, that’s only a small thing. Between all the Dragon Scale luck charms and Holy Stones that our group carries, it’s only natural that you got a small wish granted when you were resurrected.” Karl agreed.
Tori smiled, and a [Magic Missile] orb formed in front of her. “Not just a small wish. I kept my powers, but from what they tell me, I’m not an Elite anymore, just an Ascended Rank mage.”
Karl shrugged. “Semantics, really. You could use magic before because of the injection, you can use magic now because you had it before.”
The nature priests all nodded in agreement, and the nurse gave Karl a suspicious look.
“You’re encouraging them to team up on me, aren’t you? There is no proof yet that she is who she says. We need to finish the testing and psychological evaluation.” The Nurse insisted.
Lotus giggled. “Just annoy them until they stop. It worked for me.”
“Can I trust you to keep her here while I talk to the administration?” The Nurse asked suspiciously.
Lotus gave her a thumbs up, but the nurse looked at the green robed doctor.
“Of course. I will make certain that all the patients and visitors in the room remain here until someone returns for them.”
The nurse nodded and left, while Lotus ran over to hug Tori, who recoiled from her, and the Spirit Snake on her arm.
“What the hell did you bring into a hospital?” She demanded, and Lotus pouted at being rejected.
“Oh, this is Remi, Karl’s fourth pet, who doesn’t like to come out in the cold. She’s the Chain Lightning source. We’ve all seen her Poison Flame Totems, remember?”
Tori’s eyes lit up in excitement. “Oh, you’re Remi? You’re beautiful. Sorry, I thought you were some random snake that the nature priests had found.”
Remi’s laughter made her fangs drop, and Tori backed up again, while the nature priests chuckled.
Karl stroked Remi’s head. “That’s a laughter response. She might not be able to speak, but she understands us just fine. Ignore the fangs, she’s not likely to bite anyone here.”
“How is Thor’s leg?” Doug asked as the other priests came over to meet Remi, who was happily curled around Lotus’ arm.
“Better. It’s all healed, and while he hasn’t tested it to make sure that it will hold weight, it seems to have set properly, and it doesn’t cause him pain anymore.
The separate spaces are an optimal recovery spot for the beasts, with everything they need to heal. Thor also has a pond full of Holy Stones, and that seems to help his healing ability.” Karl explained.
“A whole pond full of Holy Stones? How did he even manage that? You can only pick up one.”
Karl just shrugged. “He scooped them up and dumped them at the bottom of his pond. There was a whole lake full of them on a resource gathering mission we accepted, and he wanted to recreate it in his space. I have no idea why the stones didn’t stop him.”
Doug nodded skeptically. “Well, at the very least, it does explain why he managed to learn [Circle of Protection] as a Lightning Cerro. The influence of that much constant Holy Magic was bound to have an influence on him.”
