Chapter 1045: Chapter 1045: Vanilla
The girl who resembles Medivh happily skipped around Anwina, chattering incessantly in her chaotic speech about her experiences in the outside world. Occasionally, she responded to Anwina’s questions about what happened after she consumed the Goddess Leaf. I’m now convinced that this little girl is indeed Medivh—who reportedly has grown to a giant crow with a wingspan of a hundred meters.
It’s quite surprising that she can transform into this appearance, although it seems to be a good thing. For one, it indicates she has made significant progress in her skills of controlling her power. Furthermore, with a reduced size, things inevitably get quieter: imagine if a giant bird with a hundred-meter wingspan had descended from the sky and crashed onto my roof tonight, wouldn’t that keep everyone awake?
However, communicating with this talking version of Medivh seems quite challenging. Despite her ability to surf the internet, self-learn complex Dalaran textbooks, and fly at speeds dozens of times faster than sound while emitting spherical lightning, this doesn’t change the fact that she was hatched only half a month ago, with the personality of a four-and-a-half-year-old. She speaks erratically and has her own way of interpreting her experiences—essentially meaning none of us understand. Even Anwina seems overwhelmed talking to her. She mentioned that it was easier communicating with Medivh before; back then, Medivh was still a bird and did not have such broad thinking...
Often, little girl Medivh would enthusiastically babble on, while Anwina and I would huddle together, spending a long time piecing together formulas just to barely make sense of what this bird intended to say: assuming she can still be considered a bird.
The identity of the timid girl who returned with Medivh remains a mystery. We don’t know her name, her background, or what she was doing before this, not even which country she hails from. The most astonishing part is that even Medivh claims to have no knowledge of these details... She has no concept of "a person needing to have a background, identity, and name," and still thinks as a crow, believing that anyone accompanying her is sufficient. Previously, it could be a bird, but now it’s a human. It turns out the world of crows is very simple; they definitely don’t have any regional discrimination...
While Anwina and I were struggling to communicate with these two peculiar girls, we heard footsteps coming from the stairs on the second floor: it seemed family members had finally been awakened by the commotion downstairs.
"Ah Jun," my sister’s voice came from the living room, "what are you doing in the kitchen?"
I led Medivh and the mysterious girl out, finding the room filled with family members, except for the young ones, Sister Jier, and Sayaka, who were absent. It seems quite a few family members have a sharp sixth sense.
"Medivh is back," I casually pushed the nearby little girl forward, "but with a miniature version..."
The girl I pushed forward immediately shrank back, so I quickly realized my mistake and pushed the other side forward: "Oh, wrong one, this is her. And we don’t know who this is, not even her name."
The room’s occupants gave me horrified looks. Bingdisi pointed at us, speechless for a moment. I looked at her, puzzled: "Uh, what’s with those eyes? Especially you, Bingdisi, what’s wrong?"
Sister Bing managed to string together some words, her face serious: "Can I assume that anything that breathes near you has a seventy to eighty percent chance of turning into a girl? Sandora said you were previously limited to humanoid beings, but now you’ve expanded to poultry?"
I suddenly broke out in cold sweat, then Anwina jumped out, pointing at herself: "There’s one here that doesn’t breathe."
It seems I’ll never lack companions who understand how to stir up trouble at the right time... Even Anwina’s gotten so astute.
Anwina and I took turns explaining the events of how these two peculiar little girls appeared, including Medivh’s erratic self-narration as a strange girl. Everyone listened, clicking their tongues in wonder, yet nobody understood what this bird meant. My sister decided to utilize her strong ability to connect and communicate, using the simplest and clearest way to inquire of the two little girls. She first focused on the brown-haired girl still holding half an apple, the latter’s origin is unknown, but she seems to have been muddled along as a companion when Medivh returned home. The striking resemblance between the two piqued interest, and the latter’s timid appearance and constant apple munching likely sparked my sister’s compassion.
"What is your name?" My sister asked gently, her face soft and inviting. The apple-holding girl anxiously glanced around, perhaps realizing all gazes were friendly. This calmed her a little, and she lowered her head, saying: "No name."
I waved my hand: "See, told you, she doesn’t even have a name." My sister was taken aback, looking at the little girl: "No name? Then how do people address you? You must have a...way for people to call you, right? How do others normally call you?"
"Vanilla," the girl replied softly, habitually keeping her head down while speaking. "People call me Vanilla. I pick vanilla from the mountains, sell it at the market. When someone shouts Vanilla, I go over... Eventually, everyone started calling me Vanilla. Umm... can I eat another one of these? Just one... Sorry..."
The girl lifted the small remaining piece of apple in her hand, cautiously asking. I noticed something peculiar: she ate the apple without understanding the concept of not eating the core, seemingly unaware that the core couldn’t be eaten.
Medivh immediately dashed to the kitchen, causing a ruckus before returning with an armful of various fruits for the self-proclaimed Vanilla girl, offering them with a silly grin. Hearing the commotion from the kitchen moments ago, Anwina couldn’t help but investigate. A while later she returned, showing us a helpless expression: "Medivh knocked over quite a few things."
The Crow God Girl waved her arms at us (this seems to be her customary movement; whenever her emotions run high or she has something to say, she waves her arms, maybe it’s a bird trait?), exclaiming: "Learned to walk, very difficult, but can’t control wings... hands..."
Anwina provided a simultaneous translation, adding her own insights: "She said she barely managed to learn to walk using a human body, but still struggles to control her hands. Also, I assume she’s still accustomed to pecking things with her mouth—in cleaning up the floor, I found teeth marks on broken plates."
"Vanilla, is it?" My sister gently patted the self-proclaimed Vanilla girl’s hair. Seeing her no longer flinch, she smiled with satisfaction. "It’s actually a lovely name. Where are you from? Do you know where your home is? Or can you name a place you know?"
Vanilla curiously dealt with the tangerine in her hands; she didn’t know how to peel it, so I naturally took it, peeled it, and handed it back. The little girl was very surprised, then nodded: "I live on the mountain, but there’s a town nearby, called Loren."
I glanced at Sandora: "Loren, Vanilla, sounds like it’s not a setting from Earth, doesn’t it?"
"Gotta let Medivh get a full-body check tomorrow; she likely crossed worlds," Sandora seriously said, then attempted a relaxed expression looking at Vanilla, "How did you meet Medivh? Tell us the details."
It might be that there’s an aura on Sandora that only outsiders can feel, which caused Vanilla to instinctively shrink her neck. However, when talking about Medivh, she brightened up: "One night, before going to bed, I saw a large mass of burning clouds and lightning flying across the sky, falling into the nearby valley. I was terrified at the time. From the next day on, a thick fog started to appear in the valley, very dense, and once you go in, you get lost immediately. The two people who usually gather vanilla with me didn’t dare enter the valley anymore. They said it must be a war of the gods from the sky and that their fire bricks fell into the valley; anyone who goes in will be roasted by the fire bricks. After several days like this, the fog seemed to disperse a bit. I was very worried that the vanilla in the valley would be burned by that lightning cloud, and then there would be nothing to eat, so I bravely went in alone. I walked for a long time, passed through the mist, and found that there wasn’t any fog inside, it was very clear weather. Some vanilla was slightly burned, but most of it was intact. In the center of the valley, there was a very, very, very large bird resting."
Vanilla used ’very’ three times to describe Medivh’s body at the time, and exaggeratedly spread her arms to illustrate, showing how much of an impression the giant bird’s hundred-meter wingspan left on this little girl. Her sister patted Vanilla’s head and encouraged her to continue speaking: This kid speaks much more clearly than that silly bird.
"I was terrified at the time, thinking the big bird was going to eat me. It must have come from the sky, maybe a defeated Heavenly God resting in the valley, or perhaps just a passing Spirit of Nature. I heard some wizards who paint patterns on their faces with grass juice say that everything in the world has a spirit, and their leader is the Spirit of Nature. The Spirit of Nature transforms into a random creature to wander in the Mortal World, which is rarely seen by mortals because it uses natural power to hide itself. The mist should be natural power, right?" Vanilla happily looked at Medivh, who responded with a goofy smile, "I was so scared I couldn’t move and almost couldn’t stand up. That bird was super huge; I tried to turn my head, but I couldn’t see its other wing. It was surrounded by lightning and fire, even floating on a pool of magma! I think even the most powerful mages and samurai wouldn’t dare stand in front of it! Then it suddenly opened its eyes and looked at me. Just as I thought it was going to eat me, it slightly moved its body; all the lightning around was retracted, and the magma beneath it quickly cooled into rock. I think it was protecting me."
Anwina gently patted Medivh’s little head approvingly, and the latter happily raised her head and shouted, "Wow—"
I covered my face: "This kid looks quite endearing, but her shout is a bit grating."
"Later, I bravely gathered vanilla around that hadn’t been burned, but didn’t dare get close to the Spirit of Nature. The next day when I went to sell the vanilla at the market, I tried to get others to check out the valley too, but no one dared go, only two old wizards living in the nearby forest showed interest and went with me into the valley the next day. However, we had just not gone far in the fog when a strong wind suddenly blew, and black lightning wrapped around in masses tore through the fog and charged at us. The two wizards immediately screamed, saying the Spirit of Nature was angry because a mortal had trespassed in its lair, and we should scatter and escape, otherwise we’d surely face its relentless pursuit. Then they ran off."
Anwina glanced at Medivh questingly, and the silly bird smiled with a hint of adoration, flapping her arms: "I wanted to stand up, but my feet were stuck in the rocks, so I flapped my wings. But seeing people, I stopped!"
Anwina translated for us: "Didn’t she previously create a pool of magma under her body? When the magma cooled, it trapped her, but she wasn’t trying to hurt anyone, just flapped her wings a bit." Everyone: "..."
I think there are two points worth griping about, the first being the silly bird’s intelligence, the second being her power.
Vanilla continued to talk about her experience, and I unexpectedly found this child might be much braver than she seems now: Facing a "Spirit of Nature" capable of enveloping the entire valley in storms and lightning with a wave of her wings, she still dared venture into the mist repeatedly, and even tried to communicate with the "Spirit of Nature" in the end.
After entering the mist multiple times and safely returning, Vanilla felt that the giant bird had no ill intentions at all, so she relaxed even more. From initially only daring to stand from afar and watch, she eventually dared to approach. Medivh had no experience interacting with strangers at the time, and I suppose the silly bird was quite confused back then, but everything went smoothly enough. On the fourth day after Medivh’s descent from the sky, Vanilla was finally able to successfully touch Medivh’s feathers, and the two completely let go of their mutual guard.
"It seemed like the Spirit of Nature encountered some trouble and remained in that large pit," Vanilla said, "I thought it might eat something, so I picked some fruit for it. But it was too big! The fruit I picked was completely insufficient."
I imagined the scene of such a large girl wandering to gather wild fruits to feed a giant crow as big as a hill, finding her actions sincerely adorable. However, Vanilla’s actions greatly endeared her to Medivh, who wasn’t used to eating food, but since consuming Dingdang’s leaf, she’s changed and started learning to eat.
"I realized I could never feed it enough and considered finding help, but no one dared approach the valley anymore, even distancing themselves from me," Vanilla looked quite frustrated but soon eyes lit up, "But the Spirit of Nature seemed to have regained her strength. That afternoon, when I went to the valley to find her, she gently touched my head with her beak and then transformed in a strong light into a human form, just like me!"
We all went, "Oh": So that’s where Medivh’s current form came from. She muddled through, imitating the closest human she recently interacted with, turning herself into a girl who looked like a twin sister to Vanilla. I glanced at the silly bird snuggling in Anwina’s embrace and guessed when she started practicing turning into a human. Her coarse cloth dress should have been borrowed from Vanilla and possibly worn under her guidance since a bird...simply has no concept of clothing.
Sandora pondered: "Undergoing such a transformation requires transcending the material boundaries, suggesting she’s at least fully energy-converted once. Medivh’s original material component might have been completely cleansed during the transformation, a total rebirth. How did she preserve her soul throughout this process?"
I shrugged: "Never mind that, we don’t even know how she crossed worlds. Crossing worlds! This silly bird actually flew through the Void? What kind of absurd ability is that!"
Just as I said this, Lin weakly raised her hand: "Um, actually, it’s quite simple, I cross the Void using my wings..."
I took a glance at the Dragon God Girl and realized I had forgotten about that.
Vanilla pretty much shared everything she knew with us, including why she came back with Medivh and ended up in our kitchen. She’s been alone all her life, and we suspect she might be an orphan, surviving with difficulty. In such circumstances, it’s somewhat understandable why this child would exhibit such courage in a strange environment; she fears people, not a giant crow. Therefore, when the "Spirit of Nature" transformed into her likeness, Vanilla was naturally delighted: she finally had a companion.
When she found out the "Spirit of Nature" wasn’t wearing clothes, she offered her own clothes and food. She discovered the "Spirit of Nature" was actually quite friendly, contrary to the wizard’s descriptions of capriciousness and volatility, more like a sister to her. The two muddling "people" thus naturally became friends through this shared muddling journey. Vanilla was eager to show her new sister around, letting others get to know the kind "Spirit of Nature", so she gleefully took Medivh to the nearest town.
Yet this led to panic.
Despite turning into Vanilla’s likeness, Medivh still bore distinct non-human traits: That world apparently lacked hair dye technology and the concept of colored contact lenses. When Vanilla told people about her "sister’s" origins, it was immediately misunderstood, especially since the two old wizards who fled had already returned to the town and likely spread fearful rumours. Naturally, people associating with an enraged "Spirit of Nature" would be misconstrued the moment they saw Medivh appear.
The townspeople backed away from Vanilla, not daring to approach the valley. Seeing this, she became very discouraged but then her eyes lit up with hope, "But the Spirit of Nature seemed to have recovered her energy. That afternoon, when I went to find her in the valley, she gently touched my head with her beak and then transformed into a human shape, looking just like me!"
We all exclaimed, oh: That’s where Medivh’s current appearance came from! Apparently, in her confusion, she modeled herself after the last human she encountered closely, becoming a mirror of Vanilla. Medivh’s rough cotton dress was probably borrowed from Vanilla too, as well as potentially getting tips to dress herself properly.
On hearing this, Anwina gave Medivh a knowing look, and the silly bird chuckled heartily, flapping her arms: "I wanted to get up, but my feet were stuck in the stone, so I flapped my wings. But when I saw someone, I stopped!"
Anwina translated for us: "She had created a pool of magma beneath herself before, right? When the magma cooled, it trapped her, and she wasn’t thinking of hurting anyone, just flapped her wings when she saw someone." Everybody: ...
I found two points worth grumbling about: first was the silly bird’s intelligence, and second was the silly bird’s strength.
As Vanilla continued to tell us about her experience, I suddenly realized that this child might be a lot braver than she seems now: Faced with a "Spirit of Nature" that could shroud the entire valley in storms and lightning with a flap of its wings, she still had the courage to walk into the mist again and again, even trying to communicate with the "Spirit of Nature" in the end.
After going into the mist several times and returning safely, Vanilla felt that the giant bird had no malice whatsoever. So, she felt more at ease; from initially only daring to watch from a distance, she gradually gathered the courage to approach. Medivh at that time had not yet had experience interacting with other humans, and I guess that silly bird was quite confused herself. But everything went rather smoothly; on the fourth day after Medivh descended from the sky, Vanilla finally managed to touch one of Medivh’s feathers, and the two completely relaxed their vigilance towards each other.
"It seems like the Spirit of Nature has some trouble and has been staying in that big pit," Vanilla said. "I thought it might eat, so I picked some fruit for it to eat. But it was too big! The fruits I managed to gather were not nearly enough."
I imagined the sight of this big little girl picking wild fruits over and over again to feed a giant crow the size of a hill, thinking how genuinely adorable this kid was. Vanilla’s actions, after all, greatly endeared Medivh, who wasn’t used to eating, but it seems that after eating Dingdang’s leaf, the silly bird started to change and learn to eat food.
"I realized I couldn’t possibly feed it enough and thought about asking others for help, but no one dared come near the valley, not even me," Vanilla seemed very dejected, but then her eyes lit up, "However, the Spirit of Nature seemed to have restored her power. That afternoon, when I went to find her in the valley, she gently touched my head with her beak, and then in a burst of bright light, she transformed into a human, looking just like me!"
We all went "oh". So it turns out Medivh’s current appearance came about this way – she clumsily imitated the human she was most recently in contact with to transform herself into a being that looked exactly like Vanilla."
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