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---   Sally   ---

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I woke up feeling refreshed and vibrant, like I’d just had the best night’s sleep of my life, shuffling around my stiff body so that I could shift myself even deeper into the pillow I was lying on.

Pillow?

I jerked up, opening my eyes to find somebodies sleeping face right in front of me. With a miserable screech I threw myself off of him, tumbling to the ground as I breathed heavily, wondering if something had happened.

Calm down Sally, remember you’re a drake now and people and drakes do not… do that sort of gay stuff.

…

Something feels off. I glanced around at my body, glad to find it whole and without injury somehow.

But that wasn’t it, there was that itchy feeling at the back of my mind, like I’d forgotten something.

I gave it a bit of thought and tried to remember what’d happen before waking up in some guy’s arms. The last thing in my hazy memory being sticking my head… into a… rat.

Okay let’s erase that from my mind… wait, what about that system notification.

I opened the system to find a few notifications waiting for me.

 

[Congratulations!  1s4#2 change into ‘Baby dragon’ is complete]

 

[You’ve learnt the 1s4#2 skills:

<Sp#!k> level - 1 : produce small g1M^4 flames using MP.

<D@?g”n scales> level - 0: seemingly immune to magic, and the sharpest swords cannot pierce it, only things made of a similar legendary grade material has a chance of competing.

<D@?g”n heart> level - 0: the core of a dragon and the source of its power. Eating it would boost your life force and magic tenfold, allowing you the potential to reach the peak of humanity.

<D@?g”n’s e@fs> level - 0: see asg34 en `”3.]

 

Neat! It’s dragon time baby! But this bloody system is still broken, why are you describing my body parts like I’d just gotten it as loot?

Sigh, moving on…

 

[Congratulations! Upon picking your 1s4#2, you’ve unlocked your talent!]

[<Cycle of the Ouroboros> (Passive): The power of beginnings and endings, reincarnation and change. This talent harbours many secrets, but with it you can permanently end a destiny and make it anew. While this talent may not reveal itself to you now, it will forever be with you and will determine you fate.]

 

Ominous but… isn’t this useless? It’s only a bit of cool flavour text. I felt like I gotten one of those weapons that looked cool but was in the F rank on some tier list.

I have some choice words for whoever made this stupid thing…

 

[Congratulations! You’ve received the title <soul bond>:

Bonded companion (initiator: Orion): the receiving partner that has been soul bonded, shares increased emotional ties with companion and skills. (Grants name) (Bond evolves with time, read ‘bond checklist’ for more information)]

[Ability shared to recipient(Sally):

<Heart of life (talent)>: in you beats a heart overwhelming with life force, the power of nature that flows through your veins will leave no wound unhealed.]

[The talent <cycle of the ouroboros> has temporarily awakened! It combined the skills, <D@?g”n heart> and <Heart of life> to form the skill <unceasing heart>!]

[<Unceasing heart> (level – N/A): A never ending well of life that will provide you energy from the flow of the world. No matter what, this heart will never stop beating.]

 

This… oh no. Did something happen while I was sleeping? I slowly turned to look at the man with dread, finding a familiar fella dressed in green, and my new lifelong enemy, Orion. I managed to calm my breathing, I’ll give the idiot who’d BONDED OUR SOULS TOGETHER a… talking to, once I’d figured that other problem that was still bothering me.

But before I could, I noticed something sticking out of Orion’s stomach, the golden blade glinting in the campfire’s orange light.

Huh, he’d been stabbed, and the blade was covered in blood...

Oh-my-god-oh-my-god, that’s blood, he’s bleeding, blood was-is going everywhere.

I ran up to Orion, skittering around him nervously as I tried to find where the blade had entered him, I eventually spotting the entry wound add pushed aside the sleeveless jacket he was wearing. I tore away the crusty clothes stuck to the injury, freezing in shock for a moment as the sight. The blade had torn a messy hole in his midsection, blood still flowing freely from the wound.

Why hadn’t it clotted? Never mind that, let’s get this sword out of him. I reached up with my claws, being as careful as I could and gently tugging on it.

I felt much more resistance than flesh should be able to give, Orion letting out a pained groan in his sleep.

F#ck, what was this blade made of?

[using <appraisal>]

[A dagger made for backs:

enchanted weapon

A magic dagger originating from forges of the city of sun, enchanted with the devious magic of a fiery half-god.

Enchantments:

Extension:

has the ability to extend to the length of a short sword.

Vicious wounds:

while this blade is in something, the wound it makes won’t heal unless the dagger is removed.

Cruel barbs:

once in someone, this blade doesn’t want to leave, only removable through magic or retracting the blade out of the stabbed individual by reversing the extension enchantment.]

 

Damn, this guy managed to make a nasty enemy. I refocused on my task, my mind fuelled by anxious energy, wondering how he’s managed to survive this long with this… thing stuck in him.

I clambered onto Orion to inspect the blade closer, trying to figure out how this thing worked so that I could get it out of him.

What activated it?

Magic? I hope not, I can’t use that.

A keyword? That’d be a dumb, having to say something out loud for a dagger made for backstabbing.

A button? That could be it.

I slowly balanced myself on my back two feet, reaching up to the hilt and fiddling with it, trying to see if it has a trick button anywhere.

*groan*

I glanced down at Orion with a pained wince, practically feeling his pain whenever I accidently moved the dagger too much. Once I’d poked every part of the hilt I moved up to the pommel, investigating the semicircle that’d been tacked onto the end of the dagger.

And when I pressed the flat side of it, the blade silently pulled itself backwards into itself, retracting with smoothness and speed that earth technology could never achieve.

But I didn’t let myself relax just yet, throwing aside the dagger with disdain as I investigated the remaining wound. For the first time I was happy that my mom had forced me to take a first aid course, using that knowledge and some of Orion’s ruined clothes to create some makeshift bandages. I began packing the wound with cloth and wrapped the remain strips it around his stomach a couple times, for the first time needing to use my mouth to hold something as I used it to pull the bandages around Orion.

When I finished, I collapsed onto the ground with a sigh, feeling exhausted from the emotional rollercoaster and physical exercise a baby’s body really shouldn’t go through.

Then a strange thought struck me, why’d I care so much about this, I’ve never gotten this worked up before about something.

If he did die, that’d sort all of my <soul bond> related problems. I mean I wouldn’t kill him over it, but it still should’ve occurred to me, I still should’ve had some sort of intelligent thought before I devolved into a mindless medic.

I was just getting angry at this man before I saw that he was injured, why was I genuinely worrying for his life? It was like a switch in my brain had been flicked and I couldn’t not care about his health.

 

Wait… I think I know.

I opened the system again and read a certain title.

[Bonded companion (initiator: Orion): the receiving partner that has been soul bonded, shares increased emotional ties with companion and skills. (Grants name) (Bond evolves with time, read ‘bond checklist’ for more information)]

‘increased emotional ties’…

Ok, ok calm down Sally it’s-

There it was again, that feeling again. It was both gratifying, like I’d heard something nice said to me and incongruent, out of place and appearing from nowhere…

What was I thinking that brought it up?

calm down Sal-

Sally…

Why have I been calling myself that?

I know for a fact that it’s not my name, my parents had given me something completely boring.

And it was definitely a MAN’s name, not this girlish ‘Sally’.

Where’d it come from?

Why was it lodged in my brain like it’d always been my name?

Hooo, think it through Sally- F#ck.

Stop it, your name’s Sa-

Sal- S-…

…

Oh god I’m so f#cking screwed, I read through <soul bond> again to see if I missed anything.

How’d I even miss this before, the <bonded companion> title says it in the small text at the end. So not only did I turn into a beastly companion for the guy that killed my new parents, I’d even got given a new girly name.

From my position on the ground, I rolled over onto my back, letting out a depressed groan. How do things keep on getting worse?

I started feeling that familiar cycle of worrying about things without being able to give a proper answer to anything, my head feeling heavy with all my worries.

It used to be things like,

Why does existing feel so pointless?

Why does my body and face have to look so merger and disappointing?

God I’m so lonely, how do people even get girlfriends? Heck, even just friends.

 

But now it was more,

Am I going to live long enough to grow out of being an infant?

Did I really eat a rat less than a day ago?

My soul just got bonded to some random guy and he probably thinks of me as his pet.

And now some mind magic is affecting me, and my name has been forcibly changed to Sally.

Oh, who can forget the fact that said magic is also forcing me to care about my kidnapper.

 

I let out a tortured groan, feeling miserable as all my worries slowly dragged me down, feeling too tired and miserable to have another breakdown about my whole situation.

So, I attempted to pull some of the remaining dregs of my motivation together to sort out a plan, any ideas that could help even a little bit.

Well, if this guy considers me his pet, then at least he’ll protect me and treat me well for the next while. And that means I won’t starve while I’m with him.

I can sort out the whole, <soul bond> thing later once he wakes up, we can have a nice long… chat, about it.

Hopefully that will end all the mind f#ckery happening to me.

After trying to figure out some of my problems I promptly closed my eyes and curled up by the fire, finding a bit of sleepiness in me, grabbing onto it desperately and using it to slowly lull myself into an uneasy sleep.

 

 

 

 

…

 

 

 

 

 

 

…

 

 

 

I slowly woke up, still feeling tired enough to pass out, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to be to, no matter how hard I tried. I shook my head a couple times to get rid of the lingering tiredness, dragging myself over to the sleeping Orion and inspecting my handiwork.

I was surprised to see how well the wound was healing, it can’t have been longer than a day since I took out the blade and it was already closing.

Where’d this cockroach constitution come from?

Now that I think about it, he’s the one who gave me <heart of life>, so he’d also have it. Also explains how he managed to live so long with a magic dagger leaving him with an open wound for hours, maybe even days.

He’ll make a good meat shield, I finally realised as I saw his potential, looking at him with a wicked grin.

But a rumbling of my stomach reminded me of another problem I had to solve, breakfast. So, I got up and wandered off into the darkness, hoping to test out some of my new skills on a rat.

 

 

…

 

 

After not too long I happily trotted back, carrying a thoroughly beaten-up rat corpse in my mouth. I plopped it by the fire, my mood improved by how well the hunting went. Even though I was still extremely uncoordinated and definitely would’ve lost the fight if I was still a drake, I won without injury, the protective power of a dragon’s scales easily trumping my previous ones. It allowed me to just carelessly fight the rat while ignoring its attacks, all I had to do was clamp my jaw down and wait.

I cut open the rat with a claw, using them like a butcher’s knives to carefully peel off the skin of the rat, exposing the juicy meat underneath. I carved out a few pieces and left them near the burning campfire, rotating them around on the ground so they’d cook evenly.

I heard a groan to the right of me, and I looked up to see my patient stirring. For the first time I properly looked at him, his features clearer in the firelight.

He had messy hair of a decent length, the black mane covering his ears and trailing across his forehead, dark tanned skin of someone who spent most of his days under the beating sun and by God was that body BUILT. I could feel the jealousy pounding my heart as I admired the well-defined muscles on the places of his body I could see, they weren’t too big, but you could see the strength and definition, similar to a gymnast’s build.

His face was stoic and harsh, chiselled from stone with a heroic jawline. It was like a younger version of those eighties’ action heroes, rugged and ready to save the day from a terrorist or a Russian, maybe both. But currently that handsome face was twitching.

I let out a chittering noise as I laughed, finding it funny how his face was scrunching and twisting with hunger, obviously smelling my meat cooking as the man opened his brown eyes and stared at me with obvious confusion.

But all the questions written on his face disappeared when he spotted the sizzling meat sitting by the fire, the man immediately overcome by temptation and reaching out to pick up some of the meat.

And that made me annoyed, I bothered hunt and catch it, why should this guy just get it for free? I felt my frustration build up in my throat, an animalistic snarl coming out my mouth. As soon as the noise left me I snapped my mouth shut, surprised by the sound I made.

I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to the noises I make, especially when they just… come out whenever I feel an emotion too strongly. Hopefully that’s a thing that only lingers while I’m a baby.

But Orion seemed to accept my denial, retracting his hand and relaxing back against the wall. The man glanced at his stomach, surprised to see that it’d been treated, he looked at me with suspicion and confusion clearly wondering if I did it.

But then he shook his head with a laugh, clearly disregarding me as something that could’ve fixed him up. He glanced to his side spotting the dagger that’d once been in him, staring at it with obvious confusion before shrugging, wincing in pain as he reached over and put the dagger into a pocket in his hunting jacket.

“elaxar… elaxar…” Orion coaxed, as if he was trying to calm a wild animal, slowly reaching out with his hand towards the cooking slivers of meat. Well crap, here’s another problem I managed to forget, I can’t f#cking speak the language around here. Setting back my plans to not be a pet and get rid of this <soul bond> by… how long does it take to learn a new language from scratch?

Oh, and with no-one too teach you.

Yup, I’m so-o-o-o f#cked.

But I sighed and pushed some of the cooked rat meat towards Orion anyways, the cooked meat honestly smelt unappetising when compared to the uncooked stuff right next to me.

I realised that this was another thing to get used too, watching Orion with envy as he ripped into the cooked pieces of meat with his bare hands. Being a dragon was great and all, but I hope they can’t get diseases from my new diet of raw meat.

I latched onto the remaining rat with a talon and dragged it below my head, depressingly looking at it. While I contemplated eating this rat, I realised that being lucid made it really hard to willingly eat raw meat. Crossing that barrier from man to beast was hard, trampling over the little dignity I had left of being a person.

I tentatively lowered my head towards the meat, carefully tearing off a piece with my fangs and swallowing it, feeling the piece of meat squelch down my throat.

it tasted so… meh?

It just tasted like an unseasoned steak, not unbearable, but certainly unappetising. But hey, I can scoff this down. I continued munching on the rat, finding that the bones were actually not bad, crunchy with a bit of delicious bone marrow inside.

“Easeplay, elaxar Sally” Orion pleaded again, my peaceful meal was interrupted when the man pleadingly reached out with his hand again gesturing at my meat. But amongst all the unintelligible words he’s said since he woke up, I could understand one of them, ‘Sally’. The word invoked a whole plethora of feelings, reminding me of my soul getting tied to his and the probable idea that he thinks of me as his pet. But then the simple name made me feel whole and tingly inside, like that’d been my name all along and hearing it, it filled a gap that I never knew I had, with all the satisfaction of the long seventeen years it took to find that name.

And then I felt bitter, knowing that all the happiness I heard from hearing it was forced upon me by the bloody <soul bound>. So, in the end I just felt like sh!t.

“Uckingfay elaxar Sally” Orion miserably said, breaking me out of my miserable state with another cycle of aforementioned emotions. But I stopped myself from getting distracted by it as I pulled the half-eaten rat corpse closer to me, haughtily looking away from desperate man.

Why should I share more of my quarry with a mere mortal man? I tried not to laugh again as I embodied my rhetorical question with as many game of thrones vibes as I could.

But Orion sadly couldn’t hear my joke, turning away with a stoic face, but his tantalisation was obvious to me and ruining my good mood. I glanced down at the rat corpse beneath me, realising that I’d already eaten my share and that I wouldn’t even be able to finish it off, the rat did start off the same size as me.

So, I begrudgingly pushed the remaining bits towards him, tilting my head even higher with an indignant expression that only a royal princess would be able to make.

Orion snatched it up, whipping out a hunting knife from somewhere in the deep pockets of jacket and began slicing up the corpse with dexterity, speed and skill that I’ve never seen before. Quickly piercing the flesh with unburnt splinters left lying around and stuck them over the fire, impatiently roasting them with visible avarice.

After seeing this I couldn’t stop myself from sniggering at Orion’s performance. His facial expressions were… weird, his face seemed like it carved out of stone most of the time, holding the same generic emotionless stare you’d see if you asked someone for their best batman impression. But it’d twitch and change if you managed to push the right buttons.

And how fun it was to push this guy’s buttons.

Orion looked over at me with confusion when he heard the strange noises coming from me, obviously not knowing that I was laughing at him.  He gave me another emotionless stare before pulling his rat bits out of the fire, chewing on them like they’d been seasoned by a five-star chef.

Naturally, hunger is always the best spice.

I watched Orion devour the barely cooked rat like it was going to evaporate the moment he stopped. Yup, the rat was definitely underdone, he might end up with some disease later and he’d deserve it.

Orion finished the rat in less than a minute, promptly leaning back against the stone wall and closing his eyes, his breathing slowing down as well. Did he just go to sleep? Just like that?

Honestly that’s just impressive.

I laid down by the fire, resting my head on my paws as I watched the fire slowly die out. After getting a decent workout of ‘beating the ever-living sh!t out of a rat’, I felt a little bit sleep might do me good. I took a deep breath and tried to relax, but the moment I stopped thinking about something else, my head was filled with usual anxiety inducing nonsense I had to deal with on a daily basis.

But I simply used my well used tactic of trying not to think about that stuff and focus on something else, like the campfire before me. Watching it until the fire began to fail, the flickering flames slowly disappearing, only the warm glow of the clustered coals growing and fading with the slight blows of wind. The rhythmic beat of the fire slowly coaxing me to sleep.