I woke up from a dreamless sleep lying on a rocky floor. I gasped, my hand racing to my neck. That, that was horrible. The dragon had injected me with some sort of poison before I had a chance to talk my way out of it. That scorpion tail coming out from the back of that thing wasn’t for nothing after all it seems.

Getting that out of the way I looked up at the cave ceiling. A face hovered above me with a cautious grin and a little bit of drool coming out of her mouth. It was… A cosplayer? I mean, she was a sight for sore eyes but looking at her just left me with a strange sense of both confusion and mild familiarity.

“H-hello?” I mumbled, looking away from the eyes of this undeniably pretty girl. 

“I was delighted to find that you were as delicious as I thought you would be! But-” She said this while clasping her hands together before her chest. She said this last part looking away from me with a look of discomfort. 

“You were a Mage?” 

What? I’m a Mage now? How many girls are going to assign me fantasy positions this week?

I tried to get up but something about my body felt unbalanced and odd. It didn't hurt, in fact after a night's rest and the temperature of this cave I felt better than I had for the past week. That is including when I was still home. 

She went back to being excited as she stared into the half distance, turning to me again with a ravenous look. 

“Now, how long until your legs return again? Is it random? Do you control it?”

“My legs?!” 

Desperately propping myself up on my arms I looked over my belly to see where my legs were meant to be. That was it, the balance problem, my legs weren't there at all. God- My skirt was gone too! I worked hard on that!

A part of me panicked but the sensible part looked at this and wondered why I wasn't actually in pain. I suppose all of that was showing on my face when I turned helplessly to the girl.

Wiping the stream of saliva off her lips she walked back away from me slightly.

“You need not worry nor suffer, I healed your wounds. It would be so troublesome if you went and bled to death after all.”

My head was foggy, probably a mixture of both the poison I assume I’d been injected with and having just woken up. For the first time I got a larger glimpse of the girl standing before me. It was that trope. That trope that I really do like to see in other things but in real life is only confusing and troubling. 

Oh, man, the hot chick is the dragon, isn’t she?

I sat there, legless, my head aching. I rubbed my eyes and looked at the girl again, who was now staring at me with an odd expression on her face.

Her body was partially covered in black scales, most of which acted as a sort of natural bikini covering the important parts. These scales reached up to her cheeks from her neck over to her ears where they spiked out from under glossy dark-brown hair. Her hair reached down to her delicate waist where the ends daintily fell over her voluptuous hips. From the back, I could see that black scorpion tail curving around to where a pair of wings sprouted from her shoulder blades. Actually, I’m not sure if those are wings. They’re coming from where wings would come from but they’re sort of scaled and stretched back appendage coated with thousands of little polished scales. Almost like a bat without the fingers, or a bird without the feathers. There are four of them as well.

Her left arm is what is most similar to the dragon’s. Above the elbow it goes from 10/10 girl arm to an animalistic claw with only two figures and what I assume to be a thumb.

The dragon girl began to look uncomfortable and backed away from me a bit more, her tail reading for another stab.

“Please refrain from looking at me in such a way.”

“Ah-” Sorry…

I let myself fall back to the floor, stupidly not expecting to bang my head on the rocks. The pain woke me up at least. I stared at the ceiling.

Day 2

 

Aimlessly, I scratched two tallies into the stony floor with another rock. The rock I was using chipped away faster than I expected without leaving much of a mark. I laid down again. The pocket watch the goddess gave me was the only way I even knew time was passing. I let out a long sigh and tossed the rock a partial distance across the cave. I couldn’t hear it fall with the waterfall in the background. So much for silent forest. That sound is going to drive me crazy. 

Over on the other side of the cavern M.S.F (master of the silent forest) was sleeping in her massive dragon form. I wish I had a massive dragon form, this floor is horribly uncomfortable. I wish I could at least get up but the moment midnight passed and my legs appeared back in a gleam of light that toothy black maw of her’s gobbled down another one. I guess she was already full from the first two so another full serving of me would have been too much. I say that as if it wasn’t the single most horribly painful thing I’d ever experienced in my life. It was, but only for a split second until it was sealed back up with that mysterious pink glow M.S.F said was healing magic. I assumed that’s what she meant by healing magic. It healed me and it was magic, what else could that have been? 

I think I said earlier about seemingly having a stronger pain resistance? Nope. Definitely not. I’m feeling pain the same as I always have. Having my leg bitten off by searing hot dragon fangs proved to me that I’m not nearly as invincible as I felt I was. If it wasn't almost immediate I would have passed out for sure. That being said, that is my one positive characteristic. I’ve always been good at taking hits, maybe I wouldn’t have passed out after all?

Looking up to the faint and distant glimmer of sunlight from the entrance of the cave made me wonder something. 

If, even without a leg, I was some buff superhuman hero type, I would be able to climb that somehow and get myself away from this dragon. Someone has to be able to do that. A pro rock climber maybe, or a gymnast. He’s not me that’s for sure. I can at least rest easy knowing that he’s not most guys and 99% of people would be as screwed as I was right now.

That little girl goddess is probably laughing her ass off at this. She had to see this coming, dropping me in this silent forest with this power and this monster. It’s probably some hero test that I’m failing. 

 

Day 3

 

Today she ate both my legs again like the first time and crawled like a lizard out of the cave in her dragon form. I would like it if she would use that human appearance more often but I probably made her uncomfortable enough that she won't. What form does M.S.F like more? Why does she even have forms in the first place? What a strange creature.  A part of me thinks these questions are pointless and will never be answered by the other part is bored and crazy enough to ask the dragon. 

I’ve gotten used to sleeping on uneven rocks somehow. Like M.S.F I do that most of the time now. 

I’m thirsty, and hungry, what little food I did have on me ran out on Day 2 because of how much of a piece of garbage glutton I am. Not that it matters.

Now I just sleep and wait for the day to reset. At least when the night turns over when I’m sleeping I don’t have the sleep deprivation debuff any more. All the other ones I get over the rest of the day are just uncomfortable inconveniences now, sort of like sleeping on rocks.

 

Day 4

 

This time when I tried to tally the floor I actually found a way to do it properly. The sound of the water isn't getting to me much anymore. The dragon still hasn't returned. I got up and walked around a bit but this place is just one big empty cave. 

I think I might be able to convince her to let me go. Maybe I can work out, become superhuman, and escape this hell hole. Maybe I'll just wake up out of a coma and realize this was all an insane extended dream. 

Maybe that's just the denial talking. 

I don't want to panic, if anything.

 

Day 10

 

The water is driving me crazy. I knew it would, honestly, but having it happen to you is different than speculating about the possibility. If I had something else to do, something else to think about, it would probably be easier to deal with. No. Even on the other side of this cavern the damn water is still there. Just a constant splashing. 

Sometimes corpses fall down into the pit. The damn water fizzing around them eating away at whatever is actually left. I'm glad those things are dead, but I have to deal with one of those things. That is, if she ever comes back. 

M.S.F. is still gone. It's been 7 days now since she left. I wish that damn dragon was here. At least that's something to think about. That's something else than the endless god damn waterfall and all these rocks. 

I tried to climb out of the cave but I couldn't even pull myself off the ground. The rocks are steep and smooth where the water isn't and they're wet and covered with flesh eating whatever-the-hells over where the incline is less harsh. That being said I still don't think my fat-ass could climb up there even if it wasn't possibly deadly. 

I think the daily reset resets any starvation I might be experiencing. I have the feeling that's happening but with only the week I've been in this world I don't think I'd be able to tell. 

I just feel worse. All around worse. Every aspect of my life has become objectively worse, and I wasn't even starting out with high standards.

 

Day 12 

 

M.S.F. seems to have returned while I was sleeping. My legs are gone again, I'm assuming she did something to not have me wake up while that was happening. Either that or that feeling was incorporated into some horrible nightmare I'm blocking from my memory. 

I'm quickly finding it more normal to not have legs, though I can't say I'm getting used to it, necessarily. 

Looking at the dragon, I can actually see damage on her body. It's only in a few places but her black and brown scales have been scraped away and some of them are broken if not missing entirely. I know it's new, after all she's still bleeding in some spots. 

What kind of crazy monster would fight that thing? What kind of crazy monster could actually do damage to it? It's more horrifying to think about what she fought against than to just see the scars. 

I feel bad for her. Is this Stockholm syndrome or just misplaced empathy? But, that does give me an opportunity. 

 

Day 13

 

I don't know if this is going to work but I've decided to propose an idea to M.S.F.

“Info.” I said quietly to myself. As the whisper escaped my lips a game like screen showed up before my eyes.

Arthur Callow

Lvl: 3

(Summoned Hero)

 

Health: 163/250

Stamina: 225/300

Magic Power 5000/5000

Luck: 1,900,445,092

 

Strength: 10

Agility: 4

Constitution: 15

Intelligence: 11

 

That 5000mp of mine has to be good for something, doesn't it? The dragon did call me a mage after all. I'll try my hand at healing her up. Or, at least using that as a tool to get out of this cave. The dragon hasn't even tried to heal herself with healing magic since she got back. Those scrapes look pretty painful as well. It's just an assumption but I don't think that healing magic can be used on yourself, otherwise she would have probably already have done that. I can have her teach me how to use healing magic and when she does I can hold back my healing until we can come to more agreeable terms… if she wants it at all. Regardless, I'm still holding the, “you have to at least keep me alive to have a constant food source” card so I'll be fine in the end. 

Worst comes to worst I'm just stuck here still. 

That is pretty bad, though. 

Ah, that's the only problem…