I woke up in a strange world.
The first thing to catch my sight? Not even lying in my bed, let alone being a human.
No. Instead, I was.... slithering across the ground, my body long and snake-like, glowing in the dim light of the cave around me. That strange sensation of scales upon my skin, each one sharp and smooth, yet there was little time to grow accustomed to it. My new instincts were screaming at me to move. To survive.
Wait. Hold on.
I tried to recall what had happened before. A bus crash? A blinding flash of light? All I could remember was this strange sensation of being pulled limb from limb, and then. this. A snake. In a dark cave, surrounded by rocks and. other monsters?
My heart-or anything that passed for a heart in this new body-was pounding with fear. My mind was racing. Was I dead? Was this a dream? No. The strong hunger eating inside told me otherwise. To live.
I looked around me. The cave was wet, but the air was rich with the smell of something alive. Something edible.
In an instant, I hunched up, pounced, my body sliding frictionless across the rocky floor. As clear as day and as sharp as a knife, my eyes pierced the darkness, and I saw it: a rat, a big one, running toward a pile of leftover food, totally oblivious to my existence.
Instantly, I jumped.
My body moved forward more quickly than I could have believed possible, and in an instant, the rat was in my grasp. Swallowed whole in one second, it slipped down my throat like a lantern with some odd and strangely satisfying sensation inside. The instant that nourishment was inside of me, the strong hunger was revived with even greater force.
I stopped all at once and thought about what I had done.
Well, I was alive then-a snake-and well, hungry. It was tough to think about, but at that moment in time, survival was the most crucial point. The world outside that cave? That was a dangerous world-the monsters and beasts nothing to trifle with.
I didn't know whether I was in a new world or even a type of different dimension, but one thing was for sure: I had to get stronger. I couldn't continue just living on rats and hope everything would be all right. This hunger, this constant feeling in my mind, was a warning-a warning that I needed more.
Another thing I noticed was that my snake senses and instincts were very strong. My senses were very strong, almost expanded, and my body could do a great deal more physically than ever before, it seemed. Can a person change? Is there some sort of way one could get stronger?
I pressed further into the cave, peering from shadow to shadow. There had to be more in this cave than I was seeing: more food, more power, and maybe-just maybe-a way out of this cave to this strange new world.
Still, I would not merely survive; I would thrive.
The real question was how far would a small snake like me go against a world where monsters could move around freely; it was endless, and my journey was just starting.