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---   Sally   ---

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I held on for dear life as Orion started fleeing from that giant monster with all he had, wondering to myself as to why I couldn’t have ended up in one of those overpowered reincarnation stories. I begged to whoever put me in this hell hole to whisk me away to some shounen anime. Hell, I’d even put up with the obnoxious fan service, I could tolerate a world where everyone’s tits were big enough to give them severe back pain by the age to twenty-five.

But I’ve been dumped in a nature documentary. I could practically hear Sir Attenborough’s legendary voice going-

‘Here we have the infant dragon being chased by its natural predator, the giant horned serpent.

It’s time to say goodbye to our two friends, and while they’ve done well to get this far, unfortunately this predator isn’t one that’ll give up easily.’

I glanced back at the horned serpent, my mind going blank as I watched the head that’d just risen out of the water turn towards us as Orion ran along the lake’s path. I was still struggling to understand the raw size of it, its head was easily eight metres high and twice as wide and the body was ten metres across and impossibly long, going for dozens upon dozens of metres until its length disappeared into the depths of the lake.

I felt something wet on my paws, glancing down to that I’d accidently gripped too tight and cut into Orion scalp, blood dripping out. I hurriedly tried to relax my talons, not wanting to distract my ride away from that thing chasing us.

“Well… what kind of frogs have stumbled into my well?” A voice whispered, it was horse and breathy, like a gale blowing through trees, and it’d obviously not been used for a long, long time. For some godforsaken reason, I could understand its sadistic words, leaving me feeling terrified.

I immediately threw out all of my thought of trying to not distract Orion, pounding on his head in desperation, trying to get him to run just a little bit faster. What sort of god would be enough of an asshole to poof this monstrosity into existence.

“Ahh” The serpent gasped, I glanced back to see that the horned serpent looked stunned, well as stunned as a giant snake could look.

“Oh, the sweet scent of nature, it’s been so long that I’d almost forgotten how it smells. A-a-a-and I wonder if it still tastes how I remember it” A disturbing giggle that shouldn’t be able to of come out of its mouth echoed loudly, the serpent ducking its head into the water as it began to chase us, its short monologue only giving us a roughly hundred metre head start.

God, Satan, or maybe some pagan entity, whichever sadistic entity dumped me in here, why did it have to be right in the middle of that part of a wildlife show?

But as Orion kept sprinting for his life, I noticed a strange shape in the darkness ahead, a perfectly square shape sitting on a pole appearing.

I squinted, seeing the square’s vague red tint shining metallically, with some symbols drawn on it in white paint. I leaned forwards and tried to decipher them, doing my best to ignore the giant hungry snake.

What the f#ck?

Why is it in English? Nobody speaks that here and I’m pretty sure that words wouldn’t get auto-translated by the system if Orion’s spoken language was mostly unintelligible noises.

But its words made just as much sense as it being written in English, ‘fire escape’ neatly printed on the metal, with an arrow pointing straight down.

“Where are you going, blood of the old ones? I’m yet to have a taste of a dragon’s d-i-v-i-n-e heart.” The horned serpent teased, his words hearable even when he was underwater. I glanced at the monster, the snake having easily overtaken us now and languidly swimming alongside us.

It reared out of the water, sliding over the path in front of us and blocking it, Orion skidding to a stop as the scaly body of the horned serpent surged over the thin stone path leading forwards. Both of us stared blankly as a ten-metre-high obstacle appeared in front of us, blocking any possible way to the exit.

After a moment of shock Orion scrambled to retreat, trying to run back along the way we came. But as soon as he tried, the horned serpent circled back and sat its body on the stone walkway, staring at us with smug eyes as the snake looped around, creating a circular pen out of its body.

I looked around desperately, trying to find a path out that I knew didn’t exist, a single wrap of the snake’s body was enough to trap us, the snake lazily laying its head on the bit of its body that was blocking the path to the fire escape.

“It’s b-e-e-n a long time since I’ve gotten to eat, last time I got to eat waaas?”

“When was it?” the horned serpent asked itself, While I just blankly stared at it, my brain having trouble processing that something this big wanted to eat me. I silently cursed to myself as I felt the familiars feeling flood me, my legs shivering and my body feeling weak as the knowledge that this was something I was helpless against.

I felt angry at myself as the giant serpent casually discussed wanting to eat me, wanting to eat me. I should be used to this by now.

So why am I still so scared?

I felt my body tense up and freeze as the snake leant in a bit, lowering its head onto the ground as it slowly slid onto the floor, eyeing us with a bit of amusement. Orion immediately retreated, running as far as he could and reaching the snake’s body on the other side, taking out the golden dagger and ramming it towards the scaly body.

But it just bounced right off, even extending it while in the motion of stabbing did nothing, the force from it lengthening only making the recoil worse as Orion’s arm was flung back violently. He turned back around, the horned serpent sitting its head on the stone path and staring at us from around twenty metres away, unmoving as it watched Orion struggle.

Orion shouted in desperation as he took out his bow, shooting the snake’s head with an arrow, the projectile uselessly bouncing off its eye. The snake lifted up the milky glaze on its eyes, the layer horizontally moving like an eyelid in a winking motion, the horned serpent showing off the protective layer of its eye gloatingly.

“Come now, don’t leave me waiting” it drawled, the gem on its forehead shining brighter, an ethereal glow lighting up the dark cavern. I wondered what its purpose was, it seemingly did nothing but illuminating its face and showing off its scar.

I wondered what sort of thing could leave a scar running along the whole length of a monster this tough, the ugly flesh showing on along its body that was lying on the stone path.

Orion suddenly took a step forwards, shaking me around as the archer unsteadily walked towards the horned serpent’s head. I looked down in disbelief, wondering as to why he’d do something so stupid. I saw that his eyes were glazed over, blankly staring at the white gem with a strange, lifeless expression, different from his usual emotionless stare, it was like there was nothing going on behind his eyes.

I felt panic rise up as Orion continued to unsteadily walk forwards, the serpent lazily opening its mouth, clearly expecting Orion to just walk straight in.

“It’s niiice to know my gem is still, beau-ti-ful!” The serpent happily bragged as Orion stepped under the top of its jaw and left me staring into the abyss that was this snake’s gullet, making me realise just how big it this snake is. Its mouth was a dark tunnel, bigger than the one we entered this cavern through, twice as tall as Orion and just as wide. It was then I truly understood just how massive this thing was, it was one thing to see it from a distance, but being underneath it?

Standing almost inside of it?

I felt helpless, it was a force of nature that did what it pleased. Like a flood or an earthquake, it just depends on luck if you get killed, there’s nothing you can do but hope.

Hope that your room doesn’t get filled with water and you drown.

Hope that the building you’re cowering in holds, so you don’t get crushed.

Hope that this monster doesn’t set its eyes on you, pleading that it doesn’t devour you.

I’m gonna die, aren’t I?

I wanted to cry, shout, plead, anything but sitting here on Orion’s head as he mindlessly wandered into the snake’s mouth.

It was dark in there, down its throat.

I’m going to get eaten.

I closed my eyes, I couldn’t bear to see what happens next.

 

…

 

I slightly opened one of my eyes, peeking out to see that Orion had stopped moving, one of his feet planted on the horned serpent’s lip, just about to throw himself into its maw.

But he stopped just before that final movement.

I hesitantly glanced at Orion’s face, not really believing that he’d paused. His face was covered in a veil of blood as I realised that I’d cut up his head with my claws when I panicked, sending a cascade of redness over his face and blinding him.

He was blinking rapidly and trying to wipe his eyes of the blood, seemingly snapped out of his stupor and regaining his awareness. Maybe keeping your eyes open was needed?

But why’d the magic gem only work on Orion?

“Have you hopped in yet? I might eat some flies if I have to keep my mouth hanging open any longer!” the horned serpent cheerily joked, luckily the snake wasn’t able to see Orion pausing due to us being underneath the roof of its mouth. Orion thankfully regained his senses quickly, taking out the golden dagger again and looking around for something.

While I was overwhelmed with confusion, relief and the hope that Orion could get us out of this situation, the archer was eyeing the putrid scar that was a couple metres away. The ruined flesh on the side of its head ran over its mouth, the torn-up lip almost within arm’s reach.

I wondered how the old wound would help us as Orion stepped closer, carefully making sure to not disturb the serpent as Orion angled the dagger towards the scar.

Wait, he’s not gonna try and-

Orion activated the dagger, the blade extending and punching right through the scarred lip, instantly giving the ancient beast a brand-new lip piercing.

With an agonised scream the snake reared its head, jerking back violently as we were dragged with it, Orion managing to hold on for a second before being ripped away from his dagger, sending the two of us sailing through the air.

“Who DARES. TO. CUT. MY. SACRED. FLESH.

EVEN NOOTKA OF THE THUNDERBIRDS,

FEAR-ED

THE

NAME

ULUN’SUTI!”

The horned serpent roared, enraged beyond belief as it said words I didn’t understand. Before I could even think about deciphering its words, Orion and I slammed into the lake, my mind going numb as my head was slapped against the freezing water.

I could barely feel time passing as I slowly sank deeper into the dark lake, my thoughts jumbled and body unresponsive, feeling weak and numb as I helplessly started to drown.

But before I could sink any deeper, a hand wrapped around my midsection and pulled me out of the water.

I was thrown roughly onto the stone path, feeling woozy as Orion climbed out of the water next to me. The archer picked me up, placed me on his head as I clung onto his hair instinctively. As soon as I was secured Orion started running down the path again as fast as he could, taking advantage of the serpent’s whining to sprint towards the fire escape again.

The panting teenager reached the sign without much issue, the serpent having forgotten about us, but I looked around and didn’t see an exit.

Was the sign a trap?

Orion leaned forwards, peering downwards and forcing me to as well when his head tilted, my hairy platform becoming slanted.

Oh, there it is.

There was a gaping hole in the floor, a perfectly circular tunnel bored down through the stone, and it wasn’t that big either, only two metres across. I glanced back the fire escape sign, dread filling me as the white arrow cruelly glinted, still pointing straight down.

I gulped as I stared down the bottomless pit again, wondering how this would be survivable in the slightest, wouldn’t we bounce off the sides and be grinded into a paste?

“WAIT WAIT! Don’t leave me little froggies, I… I promise I won’t eat you” The horned serpent bemoaned, somehow thinking that it was convincing while it sounded like a toddler who’d stolen a cookie. Orion took a tentative step towards the ‘fire escape’, keeping his head trained on the slowly approaching serpent. The giant monster was slowly sneaking towards us like a cat, and it seemed to have forgotten about its new piercing, the pointy blade sticking out of its lip and making blood spray everywhere thanks to its enchantment.

“P-p-please don’t go, I-I-I’ll be lonely you know” the snake pleaded again, sounding as delusional as my dementia ridden grandfather. Orion let out a sigh and took another step towards the hole.

Wait… wasn’t he already standing on the edge of it?

The rapid tilting feeling and sense of vertigo from my sudden weightlessness answered the question.

F#ck meeeEEEEEEEEEEE.

I quickly started screeching in panic as he jumped into the hole, quickly accelerating as we fell down into the black abyss. As we started falling I caught a glimpse of the horned serpent pouncing on where we just were, hearing it screech in frustration as we disappeared down the hole, somewhere it couldn’t follow.

But luckily the narrow tunnel opened up rapidly, going from a meagre two metres to around ten, allowing us to not get battered against the stone walls ‘till we get smashed into smithereens.

But now what?

The two of us were free falling and the bottom wasn’t in sight.

I wondered how far we were going to fall, finding myself surprisingly unbothered by the fact that Orion and I were falling to our deaths. I guess it would be weird for a dragon to be scared of heights.

Wait, never mind, I’ve never been scared of heights…

One time when I was ten I almost walked off a cliff because I thought I’d be able to fly for some reason, scared my parents badly enough that I wasn’t allowed near any ledge without a guardian for a year.

Actually, this was a pretty good time to learn how to fly.

<Aerial mastery (passive): activated>

I released my grip on Orion’s head and started floating around in the air, feeling the torrent of air beneath and around my wings, finding it easy to twist them to direct my freefall. I spun and dived through the air, a chittering laugh escaping my throat as I weaved my way around the tumbling archer, enjoying this raw freedom to its fullest.

Ever since I’d been dumped in this scaly body, I haven’t been able to move like this for a long time, to just be able to have complete control over my body and move how I want, not stumble everywhere and get carried around because I have no stamina.

but the simple joy in being able to twist and soar like this was exhilarating. While it wasn’t exactly flying, more controlled falling, it was still fun as hell and made me wonder if I was an adrenaline junkie.

“SALLY!” Orion cried out, distracting me from my skydiving and making me look at him for a moment. He seemed terrified, his limbs flailing about wildly and his face twisted with panic, the always reliable Orion seemed to be in complete disarray.

I looked at him haughtily with a toothy grin, taking in his weakness happily.

“ONTDAY EAVELY” Orion screamed, the unknown words he was shouting were probably profanities.

Ok maybe I shouldn’t make fun of him, for everyone that isn’t the glorious me, falling to your death is probably terrifying. But I took in his broken look one more time before creeping closer through the air. He quickly wrapped me up in a crushing hug, winding me for a moment.

Oh right, we’re both falling to our deaths.

Is there anything I could do?

I opened up my still broken system and scrolled through my skills, hoping that I’d forgotten about something that can help.

[<Magically enhanced flight>: Uses MP to increase the power of the muscles contained in the wings, empowering the maximum weight you’re able to lift and your maximum airtime]

Did I even have any MP? It’s not like the system could tell me.

I don’t even know what it is…

[MP is the natural Mana flowing from your soul and into your body. With the Mana of attributes that you collect and store by passively, or by gaining it through other means, you can use it to power learnt techniques and skills provided by the system.]

Oh, so know you give me helpful pop-ups, but how do I even use an active ability?

[Abilities can be learned activating the skill and following what they teach you. They will simulate the feeling of using Mana and you copy the sensation]

Wait… The system can’t actually do anything directly? Just nice little lessons?

There go my dreams of being overpowered.

A whimper from Orion brought me back to reality, reminding me that we are in fact still falling to our deaths, I felt bad for the big wimp.

I quickly escaped his grip and clambered onto Orion’s onto his back, spreading my wings while clinging onto collar. My two wings were immediately blown back by the current of air, uselessly flapping in the wind like a cape.

[Using <Magically enhanced flight>]

I instantly felt an uncomfortably warm feeling emanating from my chest, where I think my heart would be. The flow flooded into my wings and made them hot and jittery. I somehow found the strength to slowly pull them down and straighten them out, the wind battering them and yet they managed to hold steady.

But then I realised another problem, even if my small wings were stronger, it doesn’t mean they could act like a parachute for Orion. My weight alone is probably too much for the two little wings let alone the fat crying oaf below me.

A new scream from Orion made me glance down in confusion, what could be happening now? We’re already falling to our deaths, how could it get worse?

I peered down into the pit below to see a little speck of light below us, the faint light quickly getting brighter and brighter.

That’s one way it could get worse, the very abrupt stopping of our falling.

I panickily tried to think of something that could save us, what could possibly stop us from going spat…

Mana is an extension of my will right? I really hoped that it was and that those crappy shows I’d been watching held some tiny speck of truth when it came to magic. If that didn’t work, I could always drop…

Let’s think about that when it comes to it.

I started pumping more of mana into my wings, pulling out that heat from my heart and forcing it through. It made it almost painful but not quite, like having a scalding drink just not hot enough to burn your mouth but feeling the burning heat travel down your throat and into your stomach.

But I continued doing it anyways, making my two wings feel swollen and burning, like they were covered in a rash. I focused every remaining braincell into my last-ditch effort, using my mana to try and extend the area of my wings, to turn me into a makeshift parachute.

I racked my brain for a way to use all of this pent-up mana in my wings, how do I use it? How do I get it out?

The answer found me before I could think of it, the mana rushing out by itself and bursting from the edges of my wings. At first the blue mana was sprayed like a mist, unfocused and going everywhere, doing nothing useful. So, I concentrated, focusing on the mental image of extending my wings rather than uselessly spraying my mana everywhere.

In that instant the rough spray became more focused and like twisting the nozzle on a hose, the mist flattened, the reach of the spray becoming longer and more refined. The more I concentrated the flatter the mana mist became, and slowly but surely becoming what I needed it to be.

For but a moment I glanced down, seeing that the end of the fall had gotten allot closer and sending my crappy mana wings into disarray, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel anything but reassuring. It was hard to concentrate when you saw the deadline for your life-or-death task rapidly approach.

Now that my death was staring me right in my face my mana started behaving erratically, sputtering and cutting out in some areas. I slammed my eyes shut and tried desperately to regain some scrap of concentration, and instead of looking at my wings to see how the mana was going, I focused on the idea of extending my wings and the flow of mana.

I tried to feel the flow of the mana for myself, instead of relying on the system I tried to do it myself. The system, in all of its useless glory, can’t teach me how to do anything new, just the things I’ve already unlocked.

The mana felt less rough this time, flowing smoothly without that ragged heat tearing up my insides, I felt it move to the tips of my wings and flow out into the air.

I focused on the mana for what felt like minutes, but I knew that I only had seconds before hitting the bottom of the hole.

 

[New skill: <mana reinforcement>]

[<mana reinforcement> replaces the skill <magically enhanced flight>]

[New skill: <mana extension>]

[New title: <self-taught>]

 

“HAHA, ESAY SALLY!”

My concentration got broken when Orion shouted, my raw annoyance and anger in him interrupting my ‘Zen’ state, but I quickly realised why he was so overjoyed.

We were floating slowly, well slower, I could still see the stone walls rushing past us at frighteningly fast speeds. We’d almost reached light below us, barely a few hundred metres away, and with the pace we’re falling at we’d have touch down in a few seconds.

I looked at my wings to see a plane of blue energy flowing from the edge of my wings, shooting out from the sides and flowing like a smooth sheet till it dispersed like smoke at the edges. It looked like a flat river flowing to the top of a misty waterfall, the water at the edge of the cliff reduced to a haze by the wind. The beautiful magic extended my reach by triple and the area of my wings by much more, catching the wind allot better than before.

I glanced back down, watching the light engulf us as I squinted, the blinding brightness of it was overwhelming, reminding me of how long it’s been since I’d seen a source of light.

My eyes quickly adjusted, allowing me to see a large cave littered with torches on the floor and a few strapped onto the walls. The flaming sticks were haphazardly scattered across the floor with a path in the middle cleared out, which I tried to aim for.

Orion and I roughly hit the floor, tumbling violently to a stop, luckily it seemed that nothing was broken, but I’m probably going to be aching for a while.

I wearily pushed myself up off the floor and blearily looked around the cave, finding something at the end of the path that was just the parts of the floor absent of tiki torches. There was a small alcove of this much larger cavern that was barred off, with rods made of a golden metal with angular lines and geometric symbols.

Inside the cage was something much more interesting, a large mural covered the back wall, the style of it ancient and primal, like the findings of an Egyptian tomb or Aztec temple, the hard and thick lines telling a multitude of stories.

There were scenes of a dragon eating a strange, stout person, a giant anaconda covered in rainbow feathers fighting a black as night panther, a scene of person dancing with a skeleton that’d been filled with flowers.

But the strangest sight of all was the biggest piece that was in the centre, a brutally simple scene of a strange… eclipse? There was no moon in the picture, but the sun was depicted as something like a coffin, the fiery lid partially off to reveal a mummified corpse beneath the surface, the body curled up inside the circular base of the sun, with the hilt of a dagger sticking out of its back.

But my attention was taken away when two abandoned items on the floor twitched, a plain yet cultish bark mask with only two small eyeholes and a brown sheet of cloth, a mass of silver coins woven into the fabric.

With a loud clatter of metal, the blanket rose off the floor mysteriously, rising up to Orion’s height before dropping, a form taking shape beneath the brown blanket. It was like a cheap ghost costume, the ones where people just get a bedsheet and place it over the top of themselves, the silhouette of a person appearing beneath the cloth. The person beneath the sheet reached down and picked up the mask, attaching it to where their face would be.

A ghostly and pale white light ignited behind the eyeholes of the mask, the flickering flames turning towards the two of us.

“Hmm, Sl-ighty un-Ex-pected Vi-si-tors” a strange genderless mused, the sing-songy voice coming from the magically appearing creature.

“Wha-t, Bri-ings YOU… too My-i pri-son?” The entity asked, bowing at the waist while keeping those two ghostly lights trained on us the whole time.