//A series made for the fun of it. Feel free to take it as you will, seriously or not.

Either way, hope you enjoy.

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It felt like everything was on fire. That's how excruciating the sensation was. An incomparable agony, as if his entire being was being bathed in a fiery pit of molten magma.

A detestable feeling that made Nereus wish the darkness had taken a much more permanent hold of him. At least within the confines of the endless void he had been floating through previously there hadn't been any sense of pain or discomfort. Granted, there hadn't been much of anything within that space, but even that was rendered entirely inconsequential when compared to the utter torture he was now going through. His head felt like it was being split apart, atom by atom, his body crumbling to ash along with what little of his mind that remained. Nereus couldn't move, speak, or even think. He could only remain where he was, drowning in his own personal misery, praying that it all came to an end one way or another.

Then, after what seemed like an eternity of suffering, the pain began to gradually subside. What had previously felt like the raging pits of hell diminished to a controlled forest fire, then to a small homemade campsite blaze.

Nereus let out a relieved sigh as the pain eventually sputtered out entirely, allowing his mind and body to finally relax. There was still a rather heavy feeling on his chest, which he could only now feel, but it was FAR from the worst thing he had experienced.

For an indeterminable amount of time, Nereus didn't bother to attempt movement. He just lay there, soaking in his pain free existence, waiting for his mind to catch up to his restored body.

Only after he was sure he was operating at a full hundred did he open his eyes, crimson hues gracing the world.

(("Huh. I'm alive. That's surprising,")) Nereus noted, his orbs grazing over everything within his line of sight. (("Could've sworn that I bit the big one."))

Wiggling his own fingers a few times, the black haired teen moved his hand to the front of his face, observing it within the miniscule light provided. Glancing at it from front to back, clenching it into a fist and then unclenching, wiggling the fingers every which way, Nereus assured that he wasn't dreaming or hallucinating in any shape or form. Having his last clear memory be that of him foolishly attempting to slam an alligator with a WWE diving elbow drop didn't exactly leave him with high hopes of remaining in the realm of the living. When he had first blacked out after the one sided exchange between him and the gargantuan lizard, Nereus had fully expected to be sleeping with the proverbial fishes, never to awaken ever again.

He hadn't expected to open his eyes to a full set of working appendages, fingers still intact.

"Guess my luck is just built different," Nereus said with a chuckle. "Nereus Freyer, Reptilian Annihilator. Nah, that sounds retarded."

The voice that came out was slightly raspy and entirely alien to the youths ears, but he waved it aside, attributing it to having just survived his own rampant stupidity. Lowering his arm, the black haired teen made a move to push himself into a sitting position.

However, he didn't get very far.

The heavy feeling from before, the one that had been pressing down on his chest when he had been unconscious, shifted when Nereus attempted to move. Crawling upwards, the pressure stopped just below his neck, soft strands of hair grazing the underside of his chin, small arms coiling around his midriff. Normally, the black haired teen would have calmly picked apart the situation currently happening to him and handled it accordingly, adopting as mature of an attitude as he could muster. Having someone cozy up to him, regardless of who it was, wasn't as big of an issue to him and was usually welcomed heartily.

Unfortunately though, this wasn't one of those times.

Using his free hand, Nereus grabbed the arm strung over his stomach and carefully moved it off of him. Wiggling out from beneath the pressure, the youth slipped from blanket and into an upright position.

"Well, now. Thats quite an interesting cunoodle. Where the fuck am I?" Nereus made a quick glance around his environment, red hues flicking every which way. "Some kind of derelict hovel?"

He was in a room, one much smaller than his own. If his personal dominion was the area equivalent of a decently sized cardboard box then the current one was the size of an overly large, oddly built Rubriks cube.

It possessed a simple layout, only consisting of a rickety desk near the front right, one that looked on the verge of collapse, and a bed. The bed itself was poorly constructed, the cloth covered mattress wobbling in it's frame every time Nereus so much as shifted positions. The walls were falling apart, white paint peeling away but by bit, the roof had seen better days, and the floor was in need of a good sweep and perhaps a full power wash. There was a singular overhead light fixed right in the middle of the ceiling but the black haired teen didn't have any sort of confidence in it turning, meaning the window was the only way to get proper light. Even that was looking quite abysmal as the grime covered panels of glass were cracked, only permitting a few days if light to permeate through it.

In summary, it was one of the worst rooms Nereus had ever lay eyes upon. While not a cupboard under the stairs, it seemed like something the Dursley's would shove Harry into if given the chance.

"Guess no one has ever heard of remodeling," Nereus muttered, raising himself off of the bed and onto the dirt smeared ground. "I've heard of low class housing but this shit is ridiculous."

Only after getting his fill of the rooms interior did he finally return his attention to the bed, red hues focusing in on the very thing that had temporarily halted him, or rather the PERSON that had halted him. Sprawled across the surprisingly clean black sheets was a young girl, bright blonde hair spilling out on all sides of her head in a horrible case of bed-head. Despite being garbed in a raggedy midnight colored dress, she looked quite angelic, even while she was drooling all over the spreads beneath her.

"And where did you come from my blonde friend?" Nereus questioned. Reaching over, he moved some of her hair back, pushing it away from her face and revealing an unnaturally pointy ear. As strange as things were looking, this small find was almost nothing in comparison.

(("A bodily mutation?")) Softly probing the girls ears, Nereus rubbed them curiously, careful not to apply too much pressure. (("Definitely not that. Then an elf?"))