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---   Little drake   ---

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I sat there in the dark anxiously, the sounds of battle portraying a violent and deadly struggle, hearing the pained cries of my new parents and wincing every time I heard them. I didn’t know that hearing people fighting could be so… jarring.

I know that I’m not a battle-hardened warrior and I’d also never been in a fight, but just being close to this fight was frightening. The angry roars of Father and the plans Mother shouted at him made me feel queasy. The distinctly human shouts and war-cries were even worse, I couldn’t understand their angry words and it made them all the more terrifying, knowing that these raiders would probably kill me as well. I wouldn’t even be able to plead to them, de-humanising what the species I once was into savage t-t-things.

But then a savage cry from Father broke me out of my miserable state for a second.

“Ayvion! AYVION!” He roared, the sound of grief evident in the deep thrumming of his voice.

“yooo-oOOU-UU!” Father choked, His deafening words told me all that I needed to about the situation outside, Mother was dead. I felt a small tremor building in my legs with the revelation, a new feeling that I’d never felt before gathering in my heart and sending jitters through all my muscles. A sense of helplessness dominated me, the fact I could do nothing and there being people who’d happily kill me was a stark realisation. The fact that I was prey to these people left me unable to move, my heart unbearably loud, the loud hammering drowning out all other sound.

I eventually calmed down a bit, my rapid breaths slowly winding down and the sounds outside calmed down as well. I clamped my jaw shut, not trusting myself to not make any noises, the weight of knowing what must’ve happened outside making me feel emotions I’ve only read in books.

Quickly and abruptly the sounds of Father’s struggles ceased, the cave becoming quite for a moment before the humans cried out in victory. At one point one of them shouted in anger, the rest of them quietening down.

I waited for a while, almost letting out a sigh of relief as the sounds of people talking and the thuds of their boots slowly faded, the group of invaders trickling out of the cave. After waiting a bit, I almost tried to push the stone away so I could escape my claustrophobic hellhole, but then the loud sound of a leather boot on slapping against stone stopped me.

But this time it wasn’t getting quieter, I could hear the thudding getting closer and closer. I scrambled backwards, trying desperately to find if there was anywhere to hide, a corner or nook or cranny that’d be able to hide me.

But there wasn’t anything else inside this small hole, and I felt my fear bang my heart like a drum, my legs becoming worse than useless as they began to spaz and shiver with panic.

I was so scared. I was helpless, I couldn’t stop them, I couldn’t do anything.

I don’t want to die…       

I managed to shut my panting maw with a shaky talon, holding it shut as hiccup-y breaths tried to escape, praying to a god that I didn’t believe in to save me.

 

But it was useless, the stone that was protecting me was shoved aside and a painfully bright light shone though, instantly blinding me. I curled up in a ball, closing my eyes as I trembled before who- whatever found me.

In a moment I was snatched by something leathery, feeling myself getting held down by a giant’s hand, getting plunged into near pitch-black light. I squirmed in desperation as I was clamped down tightly, barely able to move as my situation went from bad to worse.

I felt him stand up and start walking, the jolting of each step sending my heart racing even faster. I started to blindly move, wriggle or anything that’d slightly release this pressure trapping me.

It was dark,  very dark… I-I felt helpless.

I heard a deep hum while I panicked, the deep vibration running from the person’s chest and into me, an ancient lullaby, maybe they’re trying to calm me down.

But I didn’t care, if anything it just made me feel more f#cking scared.

What’re they going to do to me?

I writhed, giving into the manic energy running through me and wildly trying to attack anything in reach. I felt something poke me, it was leathery and hard, and I felt it rub my body, as if it was trying to dig into me. I screamed, it was a pathetic yelp of infant, but it perfectly encapsulated how frightening the jarring, hard touch was, how scared I was of dying.

For the first time in my life, I lashed out, twisting and lunging at it with my mouth. I tasted the metallic tang of blood when I wrapped my mouth around it, and then I bit harder, easily tearing through the leather to the soft skin beneath.

Blood flowed into my mouth, the overwhelming amount of it forced me to let go as it started to flood my throat and choke me. Before I even had time to register what was happening, I was flung away, my desperate efforts finally getting me out of that tight, cramped and dark place.

I hit the stone floor hard, rolling and tumbling a couple of times until I came to a stop. I groggily lifted my head, finding myself laying before a group of twelve… cosplayers? I felt my brain short circuit when I looked at how out of place they seemed in this dreary cave, all of them dressed up in either priestly, elegant white robes or polished and shiny armour, except for one.

A man dressed in the medieval equivalent of camo, green and brown leather clothes that looked completely out of place when compared to the crusade next to him. He was cradling a profusely bleeding hand, the wound spraying out blood like a faucet.

Somewhere in my fear addled mind I managed to figure out that it was him who I’d bitten.

I managed to slowly get up, barely able to use my legs to stand up as my traitorous limbs shook violently. I glanced up at one the priestly looking characters who was angrily shouting and I realised for the first time just how small I am, my head didn’t even reach up to their knees.

But the priest interrupted my thoughts with more unintelligible words, shaking his hand at the man in green and seemingly blaming him for something. I weighed up my options, wondering what I could do to escape, survive or maybe beg for mercy. I could take being a pet, I wanted to Live.

But my hopes were crushed when the man in white and gold robes turned his attention to me, pointing at me with more angry words spewing from his mouth. The man in green taking all of this emotion abuse without his face even twitching, a purely emotionless stare directed at me, the green man not even bothering to look at the priest.

But I did when I noticed the priest man start stomping towards me, he got close to me in no time at all, and just before he did, I saw him raise a leg high, as if he was about to kick a soccer ball.

I tried to dive out of the way, but my legs gave way as soon as I tried to move them, falling face first onto the stone as I watched a boot fly towards me.

Am I going to die?

The moment the boot touched my side I was filled with pain, feeling myself fly again as I limply soared through the air. The momentum from the kick sent me spinning, allowing me to see what was behind me as I flew backwards.

Nothing. Only a deep hole that I couldn’t see the bottom of.

I was sent straight over the cliffside, a deep and endless pit of black reaching up to swallow me.

Just before the abyss claimed me, I caught one last glimpse of the green man, at least he seemed sad to see me go.

And then, everything went black.

 

 

 

 

…

 

 

 

 

 

 

…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…

 

 

 

 

My eyes snapped open, the writhing and burning pain in my body jolting me awake. I coughed violently, my body felt bruised and battered. I took advantage of my long and flexible neck to inspect my body and saw that nothing seemed to be broken, just that everything seemed to ache.

I heard an electronic ping, distracting me from my pain for a second, where did it come from?

Oh right, the system.

[Achievement! For surviving a minute high-speed flight in a dangerous and tight space, you’ve earned the rare title, <unparalleled flyer>]

I hate this bloody thing. But it’s not worth trying to ignore it. I opened the system, finding that it was still broken as hell, but there was a new ungarbled section.

I supressed my happiness when I saw <appraisal> sitting there, hoping that it was as broken as all the crappy stories I read made it out to be. But I put it aside for now to read about <unparalleled flyer>.

 

[A unique title that works once without being equipped, giving you multiple skills that start at level one.

It includes:

Air dodge: Uses MP to dodge projectiles in the air

Magically enhanced flight: Uses MP to increase the maximum stamina in air, including the weight you’re able to lift

Aerial combat (passive): Attacking in the air gives increased damage

Aerial mastery (passive): Allows for unnatural movements in the air, no flip, barrel roll or trick is out of reach]

 

I sighed, knowing that this wonderfully overpowered sounding title would have to be left to rot for a while, I doubt that I’d be able to move my wings properly, let alone get air born enough to use any of these skills.

I closed the system and glanced around at my surroundings, finding myself at the end of a rocky passageway at the bottom of some ravine. A wall stretched up behind me and two more on my left and right, couldn’t see the top either, the stone stretching up until I couldn’t see it.

The only interesting things to note was the puddle of water sitting in one of the corners of the dead end and the fact that there was only one way to go if I wanted to leave here.

I let out a tortured cough, feeling thirsty for the first time in my life, well, for this one at least. I dragged myself over to the puddle and shoved my mouth into it, struggling for a bit before I figured out how to drink with my new anatomy. I eventually had to shove my face in sideways to get the water to flow into my mouth.

After filling my belly with the water, I tried to stand up, and immediately failed.

How is walking harder with four legs? I’ve gotten two more and yet it seems to be four times harder. But I tried again to stand and failed.

But on the third go I succeeded, managing to get the achy and shaking limbs to hold me up and leaving me feeling like I was going ice skating for the first time.

I sighed and tried to carefully move one of my front legs forwards, and immediately toppled over like a table missing a leg.

I let out another sigh and got back up, trying again to take a step and succeeding this time. I held my breath in anticipation and moved my other front leg forwards, and quickly realised a problem.

I’d turned myself into an arch, and now I couldn’t move at all, trembling with the effort needed to maintain this yoga pose. With a grunt I collapsed, depressingly finding myself laying on the floor again.

But before I could get up again, I felt a sharp pain in my stomach, it felt like something was trying to claw its way out of my insides. I’d never been this hungry before, almost regretting not eating that meat my new parents-

*sob*

All of a sudden every emotion that I’d been badly suppressing burst free at the thought of Mother and Father. The dam of emotions that consisted of murder of new parents, fearing for my life and getting kicked off a cliff by other humans, it all came at me at once, leaving me unable to do anything but curl up into a ball.

I tried to cry, I desperately wanted to let out these emotions in the way I usually do whenever things get to much. But I couldn’t, apparently drakes don’t cry.

I let out a choked laugh at my own joke, ignoring the miserable sound that sounded like a cat or a fox getting strangled. I grabbed onto my tail like it was a life raft, clutching it like a pillow and using it to ride out my complete breakdown.

I want to go home.

I-I miss mom. MY mom, and MY dad.

Will I ever see them again?

W-why do I have to be stuck in this hellhole of a world…

I want to be able to do something… anything. I hate being this helpless.

It was so jarring that I was now this weak little thing, I couldn’t even WALK! People actively don’t care about my existence, I got kicked off a cliff.

MY BODY IS NOW IS A LIZARDS!

Ha-ha-hahaha…

I laughed incoherently as I tried to process the idea that I’m now… less…

Less of a person, not even human.

I’m a wild yet sentient animal that has to try and survive in the wild as a baby.

F#ck, the Buddhists were right, reincarnation sucks.

But eventually a coherent emerged between all of the broken sentences of misery that’d were floating through my head.

I… I still want to live.

I don’t want to die-NO.

I won’t die, I’m sure there’s a way back home. I can still see my parents and friends again.

Mom, Dad, Ethan, Lachlan, and hell, even Cousin Kerry.

I can’t die yet.

I might be happy one day.

 

When I finally remembered the sentence I’d been telling myself for all of high school, I stood up. Feeling miserable but determined, ready to try and live through this hell.

I decided to dedicate myself to walking for now, recalling how my cat used to walk, mimicking the memory of his movements until I had an unsteady gait. It felt incredibly strange to actually walk on all fours, similar to when I was a kid and I’d awkwardly hobble and hop around on my hands and feet like Gollum. But now it was comfortable, my body helping me smooth out the unfamiliar movements into a confident saunter, making me look like a leopard or a four-legged runway model.

As soon as I regained my ability to walk, I went over to the puddle again, deciding to finally get a good look at what I look like.

For a moment I was dumbstruck by how beautiful the sight was. A gorgeous head that looked like a dragon stared back, elegant and smooth without horns or any rough ridges, similar to a snake’s head but with more definition and height around the eye ridge and forehead, like a lizard’s features.

But it was so much more than either of those animals, you could see so much more liveliness and emotion in my face, it was human in a way, resembling those cute animals that people loved to sympathise with. Like cats or dogs, and really any infant animal that’s just cute, like me!

I turned my head so I could inspect the back of it, the back of my head adorned with a ridge flaring outward, starting from my hole-like ears and wrapping around to the other side, my scales sticking out at back to create a regal crown. It made my head into a triangular shape, my two big eyes sitting on either side of my head.

Oh, those eyes, they looked royal and haughty, with giant blue irises that reached from the top to the bottom of the whites of my eyes and had cat-like pupils sitting in the blue orbs.

I thought that I’d be bothered by seeing what I looked like, that there’d be some sort of backlash at looking in the mirror to see a face that isn’t mine. But I could only be enamoured by it, feeling like my wishes to escape my terribly ordinary and boring body to something new were granted. Surprisingly, the non-human reflection staring at me felt… right, like this is what I am, like this is what I should’ve expected when I first peered into the water’s reflection.

I suddenly remembered those characters in the teen-fantasy books I read when I was younger, who got magicked into something fantastical and had to explore a new strange world with a friend they met as soon as they got there. I felt inspired, hopeful, like the rest of my journey in this dreary cave would be as fantastical as those stories.

Like I was going to have an adventure, the ones I’d imagine when I was younger. Though those fantasies had been replaced by… more inappropriate ones a while ago.

I shook my head to get rid of those naughty thoughts and inspected my new body further. I admired my lithe and thin form, wondering if this is what you got if you mixed a cat and lizard. Then I spotted the two wings attached to my back and unfolded them, stretching out the two thin bat-like wing awkwardly.

At least with my legs I knew what muscles to move and how to move them. But wings were an entirely new concept, and I could barely twitch them. After a while I managed to get them fully outstretched by tensing every muscle I had, the two appendages resembling a bat’s wings, a membrane stretched over long and thin bones, with a singular little claw attached to the joint at the top of the wing. 

I let them uncomfortably retract after I finished admiring them, having to try a couple times to get them to fold up properly so they’d stick to my body again.

Though my one-man fashion show came to an end when the terrible hunger in my belly returned.

What should I do? I can’t hunt, I doubt I could even kill a rat.

I glanced over by the pond, spotting a weed growing near the water. I wonder if I’m still an omnivore.

[Using <appraisal>]

[Fouled water hemlock: A widespread plant that’s native to the lakes and bodies of water that exist in the wild expanses of the Divian forests.

Hemlock is considered to be one of the most dangerous non-magical plants in the whole forest. Ingesting the non-magical variant may cause abdominal pain, convulsions, delirium, nausea, seizures and vomiting, often resulting in death. The fouled subspecies can be found in areas filled with magical contaminants, and result with similar but much more extreme symptoms that are incurable without magical remedies.]

N-e-v-e-r mind then. Meat it is.

I started walking down the hall, the growing pain in my stomach wasn’t allowing me to wait any longer. As I kept walking I found that this corridor was strangely uniform, like one of those dimly lit concrete corridors in a cheap apartment complex or a car park.

My pace slowly increased as I found myself walking down the endless corridor, finding nothing but more and more plain stone the further I went.

I let out a groan, miserably realising that there wasn’t much living in these caves and prepared to return to the place where I landed, there was at least a water source there.

*scccccritch*

I flung my head back around to peer into the darkness, hearing echoing noises from the unexplored depths of the cave. I slowly began to prepare for a fight, my hunger giving me the desperation to find out what was down the hall.

I waited anxious as the familiar scratching sounds of claws on stone got closer, a beast around the same size of me sauntered out of the darkness. It was a mean looking thing with a couple of scars on its face and covered in dirty brown fur.

F#ck this.

As soon as I was confronted by the monster that was as tall and much fatter than me I started to run, fear giving me stable enough legs for a clumsy sprint.

I glanced back at it, watching the hulking thing start running after me, the fangs that were poking out of its mouth were dripped with saliva.

I wanted to eat, not be eaten. I cursed, feeling like one of those animals on national geography. I took another look at it, almost falling over to take the chance to use <appraisal>.

 

[Using <appraisal>]

[‘Mangy brown rat’ - Level 3

An adaptable rat

A common species found nearly every in corner of the Brekun, known for their tenacity and magical adaptability in rough environments and ability to breed and spread like a plague.

This scavenger and bottom feeder isn’t a threat for most things, but you’re special]

 

F#####CK ME! A RAT? I’m a D-R-A-K-E, I can at least fight a rat, right?

I turned back around and face the rat, sliding to a stop as my talons made scratch marks in the stone, the rat doing the same and facing me, a stand-off forming as we stared at each other, leaving me wondering who’d move first.

As I stood there with a million half-formed thoughts running through my mind, I remembered the title I got and came up with an idea.

If I got this title through falling, maybe this broken system’s definition for flying is just ‘being in the air’.

So, could I use it by jumping to get airborne?

I returned my attention to my opponent, the viscous rat taking a step closer, and I could practically feel that the delicate balance of the stand-off falling apart.

I made my move, putting all my faith into my shaky limbs as I charged the rat, managing to make a shoddy leap off the ground, just barely enough height to get all my feet off the ground at once.

But I knew my stupid gamble had paid off when I heard a little ding.

[<Aerial combat (passive)>: activated]

[<Aerial mastery (passive)>: activated]

All of a sudden I felt my muscles twitch, a whole new level of control settling into my body and it was a strange sensation. It was like something else had tensed my muscles, like an electric shock, but I could control what it affected.

But my admiration of what the system could actually do was cut short as I used the newfound control to twist my body, using the full force of my momentum to rake my claws across the rat’s face, like slapping someone with a set of knives.

The rat recoiled, squirming backwards as blood went everywhere. A unbelieving laugh escaped my mouth and I couldn’t even find it in me to get annoyed at the sound anymore.

I’D KILLED MY FIRST ENEMY!

Wait, wouldn’t the system tell me if it died, or maybe give me a level up?

I glanced over at the rat, finding it very much alive and EXTREMELY pissed, half of its face looking like minced ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇, and its eye was, was- *retch*.

I held its stare for a bit, deciding to try and repeat my new jump n’ spin^tm attack after seeing how effective it was. But the rat had other plans.

I didn’t get a chance to make enough space for another attack as the rat charged me, grabbing onto me with its claws and biting me. I felt its sharp needly teeth dig into me and I quickly realised my scales didn’t mean much here.

And I retaliated in desperation, trying to dig my claws into it in an attempt to get it off me. But it only made the rat angrier, and the two of us quickly turned into a writhing ball that clawed and nipped itself.

I started getting desperate, feeling every scale it bit and tore off, feeling my mind get hazy with pain.

F#ck-f#ck-f#ck-f#ck-sh!t.

I DON’T WANT TO DIE. With new-found desperation I bit back, sinking my teeth deep into the rat’s neck, the animal letting out a satisfying cry of pain. I held on tight, managing to wrap my snaky body around its body like a python, holding it down as I clamped my teeth down harder. I almost let go when the rat writhed in my grip, slamming me onto the rock floor with a thud.

But I didn’t let go, even as I started feeling delirious with the blood loss, though it did make the pain more manageable.

Eventually after a few more minutes of the rat’s squirming, it started to twitch with its death throes. I felt it finally go stiff between my jaw, the animal’s body going limp.

I finally unclenched my mouth and body, letting the rat’s body roll off of me, a deranged giggle coming out of my mouth.

Now it’s really dead.

I woozily got up, feeling dizzy and light-headed as I roughly fell on top of the corpse. I opened my mouth and latched onto a piece of it, tearing it off and munching on the fur covered meat.

Huh, this… doesn’t taste like chicken at all. I shrugged and got back to eating, only tasting the metallic tang of blood as I slowly worked my way through the corpse.

*ding*

*ding*

*ding*

*ding*

Shu-u-u-u-t UUP.

I pulled my head out of the half-eaten rat and opened the system, annoyed to find it spinning back and forth.

Ha-ha, silly me, that’s just my head. I took a paw and used it to steady my floppy neck, swiping at the system and pressing buttons until all the annoying notifications went away.

Back to my d-dinner!

I stuck my head back into the rat’s insides, cleaning up whatever meat that was left.

I wonder if there’s something else to eat around here?

I unsteadily got up and started walking back down the tunnel, stumbling side to side like a drunk man as I went to explore the darkness for snacks!