Returning to the pool, the pair decided to push themselves and see what they could really do. The first step being to create a drone. A creature that would be similar to the wolf, no mind of its own, entirely under their control. But rather than using an existing body as a base, they would create a wholly new body just like they did with the knife. Despite the initial horrifying imagery of homegrown monstrosities emerging from the pool, Ves was honestly far more comfortable with this idea. Hunting beasts was one thing, capturing and enslaving them was another. As most animals were likely not to accept the change as well as the bear. A bear whom was currently lazing around inside the very cave they were in.

  Walking over to the lazy brute, Ves kicked the bear in the side, which, granted to the massive beast, it likely felt akin to a flick on the forehead. “Oi! Bu get up!”

  Slowly, the bear opened an eye and stared at Ves. Projecting thoughts of that, now was the time for napping, and Ves should leave him alone before closing his eye and going back to sleep. While the bear obviously couldn’t speak, they had gotten pretty good at communicating with emotions and imagery. Trying to rouse the beast, Ves tried to tell it that it would get a treat if it did its job helping Ryuko hunt. Said treat being roasted deer legs. Except like everything else in this forest, the deer were massive, many closer to the size of a horse. While it could hunt a deer itself, it couldn’t roast the leg or add spices. Eventually, the reward won out as Bu slowly rose to his feet.

  Even on all fours, it was a good several heads taller than Ves. With a yawn and a stretch that left scratches in the stone floor, the bear sauntered away. While they would introduce Bu to the others one day, for now, he was kept a secret from all but a select few. Not that anyone aside from hunters ventured very far away from the safety of the camp.

  With Bu out of the way, Ves returned to the pool and crawled right in. Letting the water take her as she slipped beneath the surface, she took a moment to relax. Taking a calming moment before the work began. This made the next step easier as she and Nell mentally reached out to each other through their connection. Letting their minds mingle and interact until neither could really tell where one ended and the other began. Ves still found the whole process a bit unsettling whenever she looked back at it, but in the moment, it just felt right. It made her feel complete, like her and Nell were just two halves of a single being. Besides, she always knew they could revert back when the work was complete.

  Merge completed this new nameless being started her work. Just like the knife, she began by pooling the worms together. Forcing them to connect and congeal into one. First off, they created a skeleton, as the worms would stretch and harden until they reached the desired shape. As this was her first attempt at making a drone, the Gestalt of Ves and Nell wanted to start with something small. It would be a four-legged creature, roughly based on the weasels she saw running around the forest.

  Basic Skeleton complete, she moved on to the internals. After many long nights learning anatomy from Ogata, along with her own insight, fixing and modifying their body, she had a rough idea of what was needed. To simplify things, most of the internal body structure needed to sustain life was absent, resorting to the bare minimum required. Rather, it would use the pool or their main body as a means to restore any lost nutrients. It even lacked the ability to think, having only the most basic of nervous systems as required to allow it to move.

  The gestalt could feel the Ves side of her feel discomfort at their actions. As if enslaving a functionally brain-dead creature was immoral. Her Nell side pushed back at that way of thinking. Did she think there was a moral issue if the brain signaled one's hand to move? This was not a new creature, a new life, the drone was them. Just a new limb, nothing more, nothing less. The Ves part of her accepted this answer with some trepidation.

  She then took a sigh of relief, too much discord between her halves would end their merger, pushing their gestalt consciousness back into their subconscious, allowing the distinctive halves of Ves and Nell to resume control. Not that she feared such an occurrence, she was still her. She was still Ves and Nell, not some new third mind. The issue was that it would disrupt the creation of the drone, and exhausting as this was, she really didn’t want to start over due to a mild internal conflict she was having with herself.

  Back on track, she finished the drones' internals before working on the eyes, she made them to match Ves’s natural emerald color. Lastly was the skin or exoskeleton in this case. The entire drone was coated in a protective layer of flexible black chitin similar to her own clawed right arm.

  Her work complete, she cautiously reached out to the drone. At first, nothing happened as she could only feel her connection to the worms, not the drone itself. Before long, though, she felt a spark in the back of her mind. A new connection ready to be explored. Reaching out, she traced the connection back to its source. Link established, she opened her eyes.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  All around her, the world was black. Frightened, she tried to gasp, only to remember this form had no mouth, breathing through its skin like an insect. Quickly enough, though, she reoriented herself, chuckling at her own foolishness. Of course, she couldn’t see anything, she was still in the pool. So with awkward steps, she began to acclimate to the drone as she walked across the floor of the pool before finally her head broke through the surface, allowing her to see. Crawling out onto the moss, technically a mold or fungus, but moss sounded more pleasant, she began to glance around the cave. Not that there was much to see in the darkness. Looking back to the pool, she was struck by how massive it felt. Seeing as this drone was hardly larger than a rat, the change in perspective was jarring.

  Taking a moment to feel back along the connection, she could still control both bodies with ease. She was simply focusing on the drone, and finding humor in raising her main body's arm above the surface of the pool to wave at herself. For now, it was time to take the drone on a test run. One of the significant items she wanted to test was the range of her connection to the drone. She had initially been worried that if she got too far away, her mind would be left stuck inside the drone, but that fear quickly vanished. As she could still feel her mind was safely in her main body and never left, despite her shift in focus.

  First thing was to get out of the cave. Although a natural cave was used as the base, Xeeta did smooth things out, which was the only reason Bu could even fit inside. Her drone quickly ran into a problem. The walk to the entrance may be short in her true body. In the drone, though? It felt like a mountain hike with its tiny legs. Adding to the ordeal were all the little imperfections in the drone's skeletal and muscular design. It was akin to being active with an old wound that never healed quite right. Still, it was lessons learned for the future.

  Having finally reached the surface, she took a break to rest her weary legs. After she recovered, lacking a better idea, she wandered off towards the camp. Despite her better judgment that she should keep the drone hidden, there was amusement at the thought of trying to sneak around the camp in such a tiny form. Before she could even reach the camp, she felt her heart stop as a massive shadow shot overhead. In a panic, she dodged to safety only to turn and see that a gigantic boulder had just landed next to her. As she stared at the thing which nearly squashed her, she noticed something was off, the thing was certainly not made of stone. Cautiously, she walked closer to the sphere, which loomed overhead many times her size. It wasn’t until she heard the laughter of children heading her way that she realized what it was. It was a child’s toy, a leather ball. Realizing her mistake, she slouched in relief. It was amazing how a change in perspective could make even mundane things appear.

  “Wooo look at that! What’s that by your ball Kenta?”, in a panic, she snapped her head around only to see two dragonewt children walking her way. To her, they looked like giants. She hadn’t even made it to the camp and had already been spotted. She began to wonder if this had all been a bad idea.

  “It kind of looks like a lizard?” The Nell part of her mind questioned this as the drone was clearly based on a weasel, the skeletal structure being a near one-to-one just scaled down slightly. That was until the Ves part pointed out that, with no fur, it likely was hard to tell.

  “We should catch it and ask the adults, I bet Ryuko would know.” Seeing the children draw even near, reaching down to grab her, she bolted. Thankfully, she had included a series of small claws on all four feet, allowing her to scamper up a nearby tree and out of the children’s reach.

  “Itomi! Kenta, where are you!” a new voice called out. This time, sounding like an adult.

  “Over here, Mom!” the boy Kenta called out, before a moment later a woman walked towards the children. The Ves side of her mind recognized the woman, not that she had any idea of her name.

  “What are you two doing out here. You shouldn’t stray this far from camp,” The woman said as she scolded the children, hands on her hips.

  “Our ball flew away, but look what we found!” the boy shouted in excitement as he pointed to a nearby tree, directly at the drone.

  She could see the woman’s eyes go wide before quickly ushering the children to hide behind her.

  “What’s wrong, Mom? Is it dangerous? We wanted to catch it and ask Ryuko.”

  “I have no idea, but that’s all the more reason to stay away.” Leaning down, the woman grabbed a stone and hurled it at the drone. Despite the distance, she only missed by a few inches. Before the women could grab another stone, the gestalt knew better than to risk any more interactions and scurried off into the forest.

  After several hours, she was utterly lost. Despite having lived out here for nearly two months now, experiencing the forest from the drone’s scale was an entirely new experience. The trees became insurmountable towers that seemed to reach the sky. With all the smaller plant life creating an impenetrable maze. A two-foot shrub may as well be a castle wall to her in this form. Trying to get her bearings, she scurried up a tree high enough to see above all the clutter of the forest floor. It didn’t help at all. Left with no options, she continued to climb and climb until she broke through the canopy. Thankfully, her small form could be supported by even the smallest of branches, allowing her to see for miles in all directions.

  Still lost, she mentally sighed. She could always leave the drone behind, but that would mean admitting defeat. Not to mention it held sentimental value, being her first creation. While lost in thought, she was alerted as yet a second shadow for the day loomed overhead. Looking up she had only enough time to see a talon swoop down, plucking her from the tree.

  Upon the drone’s death, she snapped back to her true body. The trauma of being crushed to death was enough to break her concentration as her mind split back into Ves and Nell. Standing there in the pool, Ves just stood there for a moment, blinking.

  “No more climbing trees.”

  ‘No more trees.’