The sun brightened the room inside the hut as The Being slipped away, but what should it do with Gabriella? Prince didn't exist anymore but it wanted to be Felix, just for her. It had never had a false name before but it felt happy to have one. When she woke up, would she hate him? He couldn't be a human but something was different inside his form.

He was now able to manifest a small amount of a physical presence, it wasn't enough to be Felix again but a small insect could be created. Had the act of producing and absorbing Prince, allowed him to grow this ability? He felt a rush of pure joy, this was beautiful, was this what the other experienced in the bodies of living things?

He analysed himself and discovered a strength, a bonding of parts which had previously been absent. The source of this power was obviously from Mama Mango, who was originally a part of the other spirit. So in order for him to feel and grow, he needed a part of the other spirit, a bridge to his soul mate. If Gabriella was his other part, the missing spirit, it made sense. Love was a sharing of self, he understood now.

Mama Mango had been formed from the energy but could Gabriella contain the essence of his missing love? He admitted it to himself, the other spirit had always been his partner, the feelings had also been there. He just wasn't able to process or understand them. There was nothing he could do about Felix now, but he wanted to recreate that human form, for Gabriella.

Felix tapped on Mama Mango's trunk and waited, unsure of how to treat her. Was she his mother, partner or child? Perhaps she was all three, he understood that those feelings of love had always been there. Although the feeling from a child's perspective was fairly new. There were other emotions to analyse, loss and comfort. Gratitude, pain and emptiness. Pride and greed too, he was starting to understand them all.

"Mama? I mean, Ms Mango, I'm not sure what to call you anymore. Felix is gone, I am him now, sorry. I didn't mean to let this happen yet, now he will never learn. I want to bring him back but it may take some time. Mama, did you do something? Was it those mangoes? I, it's not, I don't blame you! You were right, I didn't understand, it's different now." He said as his smokey form appeared in the shape of Felix for a moment.

Mama Mango stayed silent, rustling in a comforting way, unwilling to answer in case the being decided to destroy her. The Being coiled around the tree, taking the form of a ghostly serpent, sprouting feathers then clawed feet. He held the tree as if giving it a gentle hug, then slid to the ground, becoming formless.

He started to slip away then changed his mind, his eyes flashed red in anger, flames sprouted on the mango tree. Mama Mango screamed as her bark was seared and leaves shrivelled, blackening in the heat. Felix blinked, then shook himself into the form of a gigantic cockerel. He spewed water over the flames, until the tree was as before, untouched, fresh and green. There was no sign of any fire and the water never existed. The cockerel faded away and the being was gone.

Mama Mango stood as she had, no different than before, a majestic mango tree, bearing magical fruits. Inside she cried to herself, she had been lucky, her son was no more. She had been mistaken, she shouldn't have set him up, believing that she had some kind of hold over her master. At the same time she was proud, The Being was also no more, it had matured, becoming something beautiful but even more powerful. Was it wise to give such a thing as emotions to an all powerful creature, a spirit with the ultimate hold over them all?

The Being rested in the quiet, a place the other spirits could never reach, not unless they could become whole again. While Prince had been a separate part of himself, it had been difficult to stay here for long. He watched the inner selves of spirits and creatures alike, seeing new colours and textures. Emotions flared in them and he could see them, it was as if he had been blind and his sight was restored.

He studied them, learning the new information and seeing a new layer of life. Like the distant past, he had changed, grown and matured. Would it always be this way? There was no end, he was wrong to punish Mama Mango but she should not have ignored him, she had done something that needed to happen, it was the new emotions, they were uncontrollable. He recognised that his behaviour was childish, immature and quite simple minded, a tantrum, nothing more.

He examined himself again, feeling shocked at all the shades of anger, love and pleasure. Contentment and sadness, longing and pain. So many more swirled inside him, they had always been there but he had not known. He was not just The Being anymore but he could sense a definite maleness in himself, although Felix was not his true name, he would be known as him from now on.

He looked back on his punishment of Mama Mango and came to realise that he had almost taken form several times, he knew how to do this! He could become Felix again! How simple, how amazing to be near to her! Felix looked to his wife, her sleeping form sparkled with something he knew, someone he had been looking for. She was his opposite, his companion, the one he had been searching for!

But in this form he could damage her, Gabriella didn't have enough power to withstand his presence. In her current state she was fragile, mortal and possessed a short lifespan. He searched the village and decided to test a few non spirits, injecting them with spiritual power. He came to the conclusion that his power was too strong when the creatures fizzed away, dissolved as if by acid. Then he used loose power that had been released from the other, her power had a similar effect, the creatures glowed until consumed by light.

With all his tests, the small creatures near the village were starting to flee, feeling their doom approaching,  although this was pointless considering his reach. Felix turned from them and instead tested his body, flickering into different forms and checking his limits. Instead of changing his entire essence into a single form he found that he could take the smallest part of his spirit and bring any creature into physical existence, they were still linked to him but they wouldn't harm those around him.

He sighed and turned his gaze to Gabriella, he wanted to hold her again, it had been so long since their spirits rested together, entwined until they were one. The single moment just now was nothing, it was a spark in a forest fire, a fraction of a grain of sand of the universe. He remembered those times when the garden had suffered a crisis, they would comfort each other, bringing peace to those troubled times.

Maybe Gabriella was different, she would hold some spirit power as she possessed the essence of the other, his opposite and companion. He reached through to her physical body but he hesitated, what if he destroyed her? Her hair, testing that would do no harm! He couldn't bring himself to break her hair so instead, he simply brushed through it with the slighted fraction of his presence.

Loose hair gathered in his semi solid palm and he took it back with him to experiment with. As he thought, the hair was able to hold some spirit power, more if the two different types were mixed, getting that right took some time. When he was certain of the results, he carefully eased back into the form of Felix, becoming him. Taking Gabriella in his arms, he gathered her power, returning a small amount at a time, with the tiniest fragment of his own proving unnecessary.

The simple act of joining had left her with enough traces of his own power, she took in more, until the village disappeared, with no more spare to create another illusion. He stopped short of destroying the younger spirits, for now this was enough, she had to get used to the energy and remember her past. She would forget this place while she absorbed her spirit self. A few months should be long enough, then she could join him as his companion once again.

He would follow and protect her, leaving the garden under the protection of those spirits who were strong enough. Mama Mango deserved an apology first, she was also the strongest although she couldn't leave the enchanted area. Felix stroked his wife's cheek and gently slipped away, tucking her into the blanket that remained. Everything that was made of spirit power had been destroyed, but the blanket had been bought in the market for his marriage bed.

The bare earth under the branches of the Mango tree looked desolate, too empty, he felt sadness at the loss of Felix's home. He felt the grass of the meadow under his feet and looked at his naked body, he tweaked some matter into a patterned top and loose trousers and turned towards Mama Mango.

"I'm sorry. I lost my temper last night and I hurt you. These emotions are difficult to control but I had a right to be angry. Tell me exactly, I need to understand, what did you do?" Felix asked.

Mama Mango shrank into her human form and sat on one of the handwoven mats left scattered on the ground. She tapped a space in front of her as she had done many millions of times before. He automatically sat where he was told to, the practice of listening to his mother was ingrained into the memory of Felix.

"My child, my master and my friend, I'm sorry. The mangoes were just in case, a boost to prevent Gabriella from being hurt. I gave one to Felix to stop him from scaring her, she would not eat if it was only her. I had no idea that the result of this would happen so quickly. Eventually after the two had spent some time together the power of the mangoes would have allowed them to grow in spirit and wisdom." She explained.

He tilted his head and sighed, she wasn't telling him the truth. Taking a small twig, he scratched the earth absentmindedly, a habit leftover from the original Felix, from when his mother was lecturing him.

"I'm not your son, you cannot lie to me so easily. " He whispered quietly, knowing she could hear him.

"I admit that I don't want you to cause so many to die from disease or other causes, it's terrible to see small children dying because of their parents. So many times you have left to help only to return after many die, you seemed to be so angry, to hate the people so much but you couldn't see it yourself. Felix would have learnt so much with the mango in his stomach but you were impatient." She snapped, fearfully.

"They deserved their fate, they eat everything, burn everything, destroy everything! I was only restoring balance." He grumbled, but looking back on things, he had acted slightly over the top.

"I see, did it make a difference? It did not, there are more people behind them to fill the place of those you killed. You took their lives without making anything better, but gave many terrible scars to carry. It's true that some improved but others took advantage of the lack of opposition, becoming worse than before. Survivors aren't always the best people." She continued, staring straight into his eyes.

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So felix is starting to show how dangerous he really is but he meant well.... sometimes having too much power is not so good, especially when you don't have emotions to limit you.

Do you think having emotions will make him better or worse?