My eyes did not break away from the massive creature as it lowered its head closer to me, its face was covered in white scales, while the entire rest of its body was covered in thick black and red feathers. Its crimson eyes seemed to stare straight through me as it sat up on its hind legs, its front legs were long and one reached out, scooping me up. It lifted me to its eye, looking at my shaking form, then sat me back down, and made a few growling sounds, tilting its head curiously. When I didn't respond, it closed its eyes and I suddenly heard sounds in my mind, I still didn't know what was happening and my head was now hurting.
It looked at me again, most likely noting that the only reaction that it got out of me was me holding my head from the pain. The pain suddenly ceased, and the creature scooped me back up, staring at me again with those curious eyes. Then it opened its mouth and a red smoke seeped out before I heard a voice that I could actually comprehend. "Is this reaching you small being?" As I heard it, I looked up and tilted my head slightly. "Outstanding, that was my first time using smoke speak, hooray me." The creature said as its tail started swishing back and forth, unblocking the exit.
"You're quite young for such a massive mana pool, at least a week old. Though it seems your mana is basically empty, hardly a tenth filled. No wonder I didn't sense you enter like most other creatures, and a frost burn, it's raining already?" He said as he looked toward the exit which I realized he was much too large to fit through. I rubbed my head, still a bit confused, then he looked at me again. "Well, as it seems you can't leave, would you be willing to stay with me at least until the rain stops? If so, nod your head like this." He said as he tilted his head up and down a couple of times.
I thought for a moment before mimicking him, it was better being here in the warmth than in the literally freezing cold outside. I looked up at the ceiling, confused about how the fire was still alight, noticing there seemed to be a sheet of metal filled with too many tiny holes to count spread across the ceiling, it was filled with branches, vines, and other plant matter, of which was now burning slowly. I looked back at the beast as he brought his head closer to me, "I almost forgot to introduce myself, I am the great dragon Skevartalius! It is a pleasure to meet you, little being, though I don't think calling you "little being" is very appealing."
He set me back on the ground as he started pacing in circles through his cave, I noticed claw marks in the ground where he was walking, he must do this a lot if the stone has that many marks and indents from his powerful claws. He suddenly stopped and his tail lashed as he grinned and turned back to me. "I will call you Senartinas!" He said with a laugh. I felt a small wave of dizziness hit me for a moment before shaking it off. "Well, now that we are done with that Senartinas, might we see what you do know about our world so far?" He said as he sat back down, this time in front of the exit.
I noticed behind him had been another doorway, this time one he could actually fit through. I turned back to Skevartalius as he started to speak again. "Do you know of our world's rules of life?" He asked and I looked at him confused. "No? Well, you see little one, living beings like us, fauna, unlike the plants of our world do not die when we stop breathing. Not immediately at least, The Mist gives every living being life rings when they are first born, these green rings that you can see around your front right leg. He lifted his right arm, and four green rings materialized around it.
I did the same, expecting to see the two rings again, before looking at my leg confused as only one remained. "Hmm, well that explains why your mana is so low. To my next point, every time you receive a killing blow, fatal injury, or put simply, die, one of the rings shatters and you lose it permanently, upon losing the last one, the creature will experience permanent death. There is no return from that, good thing for you I can give you some rings." As he finished, two rings floated off his arm and started rotating rapidly before I heard a sudden ear-splitting cracking sound and ducked down.
I looked up as green particles entered my body and six rings formed around my leg. I look at them and then back at him. "Ah yes, also as a higher being, my rings hold more magic than yours, sharing a ring takes about half of its own magic, so if I were trying to give a being of similar power one of mine, it would take two of mine for the other to just get one. The other half of that magic goes into creating the amount of rings, in our case, one of my rings is equal to three of yours. Anyways, if you do decide you want to get more rings all you have to do is defeat a bunch of other creatures, and you'll get them after beating around five times your power worth of enemies."
After looking at my leg for a few more seconds, I looked back up to Skevartalius as he set me back down on the ground and pulled a massive board of wood seemingly out of nowhere. Placing it between us and pulling out a multitude of light and darker pieces of wood that were carved in a strange pattern. He lined up the darker ones and the lighter ones on opposite sides of the board, looked at me as if I wasn't smaller than the pieces of wood, and asked, "So, want to play a game with me Senartinas?"
Around a week later, I finally decided to stay with Skevartalius as long as possible, mostly due to the comfort of having a safe place to stay, but also because he could teach me things I would need. Food didn't become a problem till now as neither I nor Skevartalius ate much as it was, but of course, I was starting to get very hungry and I had to go out to find food. Skevartalius was unable to leave the cave, as he had long outgrown the exit and he would be unable to squeeze through.
I felt my way out of the cave, noticing that it sloped downward before going back up, the entrance part of the tunnel was shorter than the other side, and as I exited out in the moonlit clearing, I looked back to see the small mountain we had been in. I turned back to the deeper forest as I headed off, noting my path as I looked for anything to eat, and froze as I saw another troop of the three-eyed creatures. A small grin formed on my face as I tried to figure out a way to split them up. I then hid in a bush and made a clicking sound.
One of the creatures heard me and alerted the entire troop, including what I guessed was their leader, another one of the five-eyed creatures. A couple of the three eyes walked over toward my direction cautiously, and as they passed me, I lunched out, immediately taking out one and then tackling the other. Before the other creatures knew what was happening, both were dead and I was decently satisfied. The other creatures weren't though, and as they all charged I turned and took off as fast as I could move.
I attempted to lose them until eventually they stopped and turned around to go back. I then retraced my steps back to the cave, and just as I was at the entrance, I felt a warm ray on my back and turned to watch as the radiance filled the sky, and a strange sheet blurred out the sky, blocking whatever was there behind it. I noticed that that didn't happen during the night for some reason. After a bit of sitting, I turned and returned to Skevartalius.
Over the next month or so, he taught me multiple things and showed me his more advanced knowledge. "You're a spider creature, so you should be able to spin silk and crawl on other surfaces," he said as he coaxed me to try climbing up the cave wall. After a few minutes of refusal, I did try and was surprised as I scaled the wall effortlessly. I looked at Skevartalius as he clapped lightly, "Fabulous!" He said as his tail swished around and I noticed the back entrance once again. I had never gotten the chance to go in and look at it curiously and then back at him.
"What, wanna see my hoard? Well come on then," he said as he noticed my looks and gestured for me to go in, so I did so and looking around, I saw a few massive piles of shiny objects, mostly small round yellow objects, but there was also a pile of old rusted armor. I looked back at Skevartalius a bit confused, "It's a dragon thing, don't question it." He said as turned around and sat down. "Anyways, let's try webs, I don't really know how to explain it, as I'm obviously not a spider, but I'd assume it would be similar to dragons and fire," he said as I skittered my way back to him.
"It's almost completely instinctual for us, we just think what we want our bodies to do, and then-" he started before opening his mouth toward the entrance, I watched as his chest glowed for a few moments and then a steady stream of flames erupted just outside his mouth and shot toward and out the opening. He looked at me expectantly as I tried with all my willpower to make webs, but it just ended with an exhausted me. "Well, you might not be old enough to make them yet, so we will try coming to that later, for now, get some rest, I think I hear the rain starting," Skevartalius said as he lay down.
The next few months seemed to pass by swiftly, I had noticeably grown quite a bit, and I had started to easily notice it before I had been smaller than the three-eyed creatures, but now, I was similar in size to them, and I had also gained a few more rings bringing me to eight. Skevartalius had also decided to teach me how to smoke speak like him, though I didn't exactly know how to put my thoughts entirely into words so my possible speech was very limited. "-Skevartalius-" I sputtered through the smoke leaving my mouth, I had noticed that it seemed I wasn't able to do it for long before it left me exhausted.
"Yes, Senartinas?" He asked as he turned to look at me. "-Food-" I said, and he nodded before I turned and started to leave "Stay safe!" He said as I disappeared into the dark. "-I Will-" I responded. As I left the cave, I started walking down my normal path but froze as I heard something, shuffling behind me, I flipped around as a spear struck the earth behind me. I looked up at the being attacking me, just to see an armored humanoid with wings in the sky, before I could react, I felt a blade against my neck and then I was looking up at another armored humanoid.
They had helmets on, so I was unable to see their faces. "-Wha—, damni-" I tried to finish but everything went black before I could.
End of Chapter 3