Something sheep like.

Even before they broke the surface and started moving around, one could hear their noises. A bleating that any shepherd would recognize. As they uproot themselves, the resemblance only continues to grow. While they appear to be made of plant matter-cotton for wool, on a wooden body that has roots jutting out of it at spots, and of course the bush sticking out of there backs- anybody could see a more than passing resemblance.

Like Seedbeds such as myself, these were a somewhat unnatural creation by demons. Taking the docile barometz and modifying it to turn into something that can help support fiendish armies on the move. Supplementing its normal plant-based requirements with the absorbtion of mana from its environment, it concentrated it into the small bush that grew on their back. This would produce what, for lack of a fancier term, were known as 'mana berries'. Virtually no flavor-but they were nutritive, the thing that made them was easy to keep, and they naturally recouped some of the mana used to make them on consumption, in case better potion supplies ran low.

This kind of information about many monsters (irritating, nothing quite like myself) had flowed into my mind as I had been forcing myself on Senia the first time-and from the variety my loins could produced, I seemed these to be suitable. What better gift to them, then something that uses what they don't already have much use for (my own roots told me the biggest thing eating up local mana was myself before these got planted), for more foodstuffs, basically year round?

Seeing them get up and start wandering around, I couldn't help but feel a small sense of pride in myself-even if most of the difficult parts was on Senia's part, I felt a joy to watch my creations get up and amble around. This pride was accompanied by an odd feeling, a change in my own body. Something I could check on later.

I adopted my human guise once again in order to deal with them-helping herd them so the things don't wander off. Lacking any other place set up for them, we put them in with the normal sheep. Considering both are about as bright as a post and basically harmless unless you're being a complete moron, seemed fair enough. "Keep the seeds you will lay tonight safe, in case something happens to them-and consider this night a day of rest. Your are dismissed for tonight" I don't want her to be around me further for the night.

The reason was, as I returned to my well-worn spot on the ground, taking on my monstrous shape restored me to power-including the power to notice someone who thought their invisibility was total. Perhaps it was-to lesser senses. But me, I'd noticed some time since about noon, when they had slinked around. I'd ignored them, hoping that they would politely screw off, but they seemed almost obsessed with sticking around me. "I know you're there, Nanase. You'll learn a lot more asking questions than you will looking."