—Sally—

  Things were not going well, to say the very fucking least.

  I’m cold, thirsty, a tad hungry, and Orion is sitting right next to me like there isn’t a massive serpent outside waiting to eat the both of us. The cold was probably the worst. It felt different from how it did before, more debilitating.

  At least when I'd just washed off after the fight with the Deer-woman, a campfire had been popped up in the next ten minutes. There wasn't enough time for the cold to really seep in like it had now, it didn't affect me much more than feeling a bit uncomfortable.

  But now my whole body just didn’t want to listen to me, rebelling every time I tried to do anything. Like sitting on the toilet for long enough that your legs fall asleep, but a full body experience instead of a couple of limbs. That mixed with the exhaustion I felt mentally—not from even doing anything—thinking was enough to make my brain want to leak out of my ear-holes.

  The mental sluggishness was the worst part by far, nothing I did could chase it away. I tried to move around and walk a bit earlier, but that only made it worse, and added to the very short list of things I disliked about this body compared to my previous one.

  Before—when I was human—I would shiver and feel uncomfortable, but now it's like I'd been stripped of all those defences. I slowly shut down, and everything I did to try to fight it off would just accelerate the creeping cold.

  I tried to get up, to see if moving would get some blood flowing, and heat myself up. Even though it didn't work five minutes ago, I had trouble believing that exercise would do nothing to keep me warm. But I could barely get up onto my feet, my legs just stubbornly refused to listen to me and I was filled with shame. It felt pathetically similar to when I first tried to walk with these limbs.

  I slumped to the ground, the inch of progress I’d managed to make vertically disappearing in an instant.

  "Sally?" I heard Orion ask, and I rolled my head around to look at him. It felt too exhausting to even consider lifting it up.

  He was staring at me with… Concern? It was always hard to tell with him, especially now, when stringing two thoughts together made me feel like passing out.

  I let out a dismissive grunt in his direction, before trying to turn my head away from him. Though even that seemed to be too much for me right now, the action quickly becoming a slump onto my side. I didn't have strength left even to sit up straight anymore.

  But before I could valiantly fall over all by myself, Orion grabbed me, the warmth of his hands the only tolerable thing about his action. I let out the most menacing growl I could muster, but it came out a lot softer than I intended—weak and feeble—lacking all of the threats it would usually promise him if he continued. It still pissed me off just as much as usual.

  With a single hand—that avoided touching anywhere uncomfortable—he lifted me up, just enough so that his other hand could snake underneath. He cupped the lower half of my body, giving me a comfortable position to lie down without him having to squeeze anywhere to lift me up.

  He held his hand to his chest, creating a v-shape with his torso and palm, and causing my body to roll into the firm wall without being able to put up a lick of resistance.

  But as much as I wanted not to, I had just as much control over my completely limp body as I did my thoughts. Both were capable of nothing, well nothing but passively observing my surroundings, and following the path of least resistance.

  My remaining couple of unfrozen braincells screamed in agitation, suspecting that the ranger would take advantage of my placidness to do something. But holding me was all he did, and his other hand fell back down to his side before it could do anything.

  The ranger was seemingly content to do nothing but hold me close enough to absorb his body heat and sit still for a while. Well, that and stare off into the distance like a soldier traumatised from trench-warfare while rubbing the pads of his thumb and fingers together. I thought that it might be a nervous tic.

  All I could do was lie there, letting the delicious heat seep into my numb limbs and immediately felt better. I was quickly starting to realise how much I enjoyed and relied on getting my body heat from an external source. By the campfire and now, when warmth flowed into me, it gave me a relaxing, mellow feeling incomparable to anything I’d ever felt before.

  It felt like the sensation of getting into a warm bath, but a continuous, never-ending feeling of satisfaction, at least compared to the fleeting pleasure of warming up after walking in the rain.

  It made me realise that I could only get the necessary heat and important ingredient for my continued existence, from everywhere but myself, and I really, really hated that fact.

  The current experience was probably the most humiliating thing I’ve had to go through, ever. Before, in the tent, it was something being done to me, inflicted on me. And I hated it, and I hate them for doing it to me. When Orion scratched me, it was done without permission, I made it very clear not to do it again, and that I didn’t need or want him to do it.

  This was necessary, I wasn’t obstinate enough to deny that, I know that falling unconscious from the cold is a bad thing. But I still hated the fact that I had to rely on Orion for it. It was humiliating that I couldn’t even function properly without him.

  I know that I'm an infant that needs a carer to survive, but it doesn’t make having your body physically incapable of being independent any more tolerable.

  The last time I was this helpless was probably when I was a human toddler. Back then I wasn't conscious enough to feel shame, or old enough to remember it, both things that current experiences have made me immensely grateful for. But the most miserable thing so far, was that I couldn’t even blame Orion for it. And fuck, did I want to get angry.

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  He's a ranger, and I'm his… 'pet', eugh. It would be weird if he didn't help his 'animal companion' when he ends up debilitated from the cold.

  I suppose that’s why I feel so angry at myself. Orion’s doing the right thing, the right way, so I can’t even push the blame for the situation onto him, it’s all me. I’m the one who needs help, I’m the one who can’t help himself with the simplest things. Orion’s just the person here and is willing to help me.

  It’s just that I thought—I know that I’m going to be strong, but strong people don’t exactly fall over whenever it gets a bit chilly. Strong people don’t need others just to function. It’s humiliating and demeaning and almost makes me angry that I got this body.

  I let out an angry huff, a despondent squeal instead leaving my mouth, my body betraying me once again. But I ignored it this time, instead trying not to think about stupid shit.

  Eventually I decided that I was warm enough and jumped out of Orion’s hand, wanting a bit of space from him to think. Also I’m just feeling re-a-ally uncomfortable, being held in the palm of someone’s hand is not something you can just ‘get used to’. Both being picked up, and being small enough to be lifted up with a single palm.

  I walked in circles for a bit, still finding it amazing that Orion managed to spot the secret path behind the stone skeleton. I knew that there had to be something off with it, there’s never just a mysterious statue without some weird secret to it. But it's still a pity that he broke it—it looked cool.

  Eventually I sat in front of the front entrance to our humble abode, appreciating the ominous scenery of the cavern. Yet again I found myself both creeped out and in awe of the feeling the place instilled in me. It kind of reminded me of a cemetery I walked by one time.

  It was dark at the time, and no matter how much I tried to convince myself that there’s nothing inherently evil or dangerous about tombstones, there’s no silencing that little gremlin in the back of your head telling you something's wrong. Like when you turn off the last light in a room, a little whisper of terror following you as you try to ignore it as you leave and lock the door.

  The trees were inert, harmless and couldn’t do anything to me, but they were alive once, wood and root instead of stone if the corpse was anything to go by. It held that impossible promise of what could happen to me, that if I kicked the bucket, would I turn to stone too?

  A little chirpy laugh escaped my mouth at the amusement I felt by the idea, I would already be dead, so what would be so bad about being petrified?

  So I kept on trying to ignore the thoughts and looked at something other than the trees, eventually spotting some nice green… Let's call it foam, floating around on the lake's surface. Less creepy than the trees and that brown rock.

  After day-dreaming for a few minutes, my eyes eventually settled on the chunk of the stone path that the Ulun'suti had destroyed. It was terrifying how overpowering that monster was, it felt like we needed some sort of gimmick to defeat the boss.

  Like if it chased us into a cave and got its head jammed in the entrance. If it tried to thrash in an attempt to escape, it'd cause a boulder to fall onto its head and kill it. Y'know what I mean, something else had to be the thing that killed it.

  Either way, Orion didn't have the abilities to kill it right now, and it's not even worth considering for me. As much as Orion embodies the gymnastic and physical abilities of a super soldier, that doesn't mean much in the face of something like that monstrous fucking snake.

  Though, his ability to dodge and weave was impressive, I don't think I've met anyone who could dive out of the way of a giant serpent's maw on a moment's notice. In fact, it couldn't be completely natural, right? Did the system buff his agility, or more accurately his [Dexterity]?

  I glanced back at him, noticing his abs that'd been permanently exposed to the open air for the past day. I shivered from the cold and glanced away, there's no way that those things can be earned naturally. What did my friends call it?

  Oh yeah, 'natty'.

  But my jealousy of his muscles aside, could I check his stats with [Appraisal]? With my current luck with the system, and how it'd been working on enemies, it won't show me much, but now I'm curious what it would show if I used it on him.

  [Using [Appraisal – Lvl 1] on: Orion, the Ranger]

  I ignored my discomfort from the cold, a mix of excitement and disappointment pushing me to dissect what I just saw. My race, the confirmation that Orion must also be from Earth, and his magical healing.

  But I ignored the last two revelations, as I already knew about those, the first one though, that was loaded with chaotic feelings. I'd always thought I’d end up as a dragon, but a 'Lesser Silver Drakeling'? That's… uh…

  Who am I kidding? It's a disappointment. A drake is already the lesser version of a dragon, and I'm a lesser version of even that. I'm the bottom of the barrel when it comes to dragon species.

  I still had hope that once I unlock this system fully, that I could evolve into my final form of 'something-something dragon'. I'm not really fussy when it comes to the adjectives, as long as that final word is dragon. That's not something I'm going to acquiesce to.

  However, I couldn't fantasise about my final evolution forever, as my attention returned to the outside world when I thought I saw something move. But as I re-examined the surroundings, I only saw the mysterious foul-smelling foam, fossilised trees and the stone path. I felt like something had moved, but with nothing that I could spot out of place, I dismissed my concerns, I had something more important to worry about anyway.

  I was starting to freeze again.

  Already my body was refusing to move how it should, and I found myself maintaining my spot and position. I wanted to go back inside, to where the breeze of the open cave air couldn't reach me, but I couldn't move.

  Mostly out of stubbornness, I refused to move, even as I started to sway on the spot.

  A groan left my mouth as I tried to lift a leg, to move back inside without having to commit to the despicable act of relying on Orion again, but I couldn't even do that.

  "Areyay ouyay okayyay?" I heard Orion say in the background, but I barely heard him as I struggled to stay upright.

  With a sigh, I fell over, slumping onto my side as I deflated like a punctured bouncy castle. I hit the ground with a thud, the impact probably would've hurt under normal circumstances, but I was too numb to feel it properly.

  "Sally!" I heard Orion shout, but I didn't give it much thought as I fell into a weird, semi-conscious state. I still saw and felt my surroundings, but I wasn't able to move, touch or do anything, mentally frozen in time.

  It was like I was in a dream, stuck watching the scene before me without any agency to change it, as if stuck in third person. Even as Orion scooped me up and brought me back inside, I couldn't even twitch.