"Kahli? Kahli, are you waking up?"

Kahli struggled to open her eyes to face the bright blue sky as the wind buffeted her face. She felt woozy, but also groggy, and she didn't want to wake up. Plus, wherever she was, it was cold. It felt almost like a wind tunnel or something. "No," she answered sarcastically.

"Oh, she's still asleep, Unit 5a23," said Sahdi's voice.

"Well, she needs to hurry up and wake up," said Unit 5a23.

Kahli was a little confused. Sure, she still wanted to sleep, but she was waking up now, what with all the wind whipping over her face it felt impossible to fall back asleep - and in fact, she was more awake each moment, and she was becoming deathly concerned, because she didn't know where her bag was or where Froufrou was! She sat up and started looking around. Where was Froufrou?

"Froufrou! Where's Froufrou?"

"Wow, she must be having a bad dream," said Sahdi.

"No kidding," said Unit 5a23. "Well, I'll be back to my meditation now. Let me know when Kahli wakes up."

Kahli was getting really exasperated. Finally, she came to the conclusion that what had happened was she'd unwittingly used her [Tale Teller] [skill] to deceive them into thinking that she really was asleep, although Kahli had only intended to be answering sarcastically to a question she thought was obvious and extraneous in nature.

"You idiots, I'm awake!" said Kahli.

"Woah, she's awake all of a sudden!" said Sahdi. "Well, that explains a lot. I was under the impression that you were having a nasty dream and also that you suddenly started sleeping with your eyes open, even though they've been shut for the better part of twelve hours."

"Twelve hours??" said Kahli incredulously.

"Yea, you've really been sleeping," said Sahdi. "You hadn't slept in, gods, I don't even know. Probably a whole day, at least. That's really not good for you, but don't worry - I've done my best to heal you as well as possible, and I'm a water elemental as you probably guessed by this point, so I like to think I did a pretty swell job. That said, you're still pretty weak - try not to get into any fights with evil aliens, or evil ex-friends, or evil boners or anything."

"I'll try," said Kahli with a cough as she sat up and brushed her face with her left hand. Then, she did a double take. Her left HAND? Hadn't that gotten severed off by her old mentor, Omar, back when she convinced him that she was infected with New Curr in order to scare away the evil alien, Lloyd? Kahli looked closer at her left hand and noticed it was different... It was made entirely out of living wood! She gasped.

"Yea, I had a feeling that would be a bit of a surprise to you," said Sahdi. "As soon as you fell asleep, living wood started growing at an accelerated rate at the end of your arm where it had been severed. When I put my water elementality [skill] towards healing you, it sped up even further to the point that, soon enough, a whole ass hand had sprouted right up."

"Shut the fuck up," said Kahli with excitement. Then, she whispered a quick prayer to Theseosus begging for forgiveness. "I could... Whew. Sahdi, I could kiss you! Figuratively, of course."

"Of course," Sahdi agreed.

Kahli was so excited. So not only did she now have a system, but indeed she was also a hand haver. Seriously? And to think, she'd previously doubted herself in choosing this timeline. Which now just seemed absurd. She had, in sacrificing her hand in order to save Omar and indeed the world from Lloyd, unwittingly become the recipient of something she'd only dreamed of and indeed seethed with jealousy over for what felt like, essentially, her entire life. Kahli had a hand made out of living wood, and she was all here for it.

One of the first things she immediately learned about this was that hands made out of living wood were more flexible than most living wood was. Of course, all living wood had a bit of a base layer of malleability that was more than, say, a static tree standing there in the wild, but this hand almost responded the same as Kahli's normal hand made out of flesh, which was still quite impressive to her. All that said, it was clear that it was more rigid and brittle, but also that it could stretch and move at a stronger pace. Along with that, Kahli knew deep in her soul that the next time she leveled up and got a [skill] slot, she'd have the opportunity to use it to develop a [skill] that put her new hand to use - hand havers with systems always got a [skill] based around that hand, it was at once expected of herself.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Then, Kahli snapped out of her joyous state for a moment and remembered what she'd been doing before she realized she was a hand haver of all things - she was looking for Froufrou, her beloved, her harbinger of doom!

"Gods damn it, people, where is Froufrou?!" cried Kahli suddenly upon this realization. She once again whispered a prayer to Theseosus, hoping that the dire circumstances she'd been whirled into recently would translate to forgiveness for her apprent propensity for verbal transgressions. It was so much easier to slip into vulgarities now that Omar wasn't around to spout them off every five seconds, she was noticing.

"No need to shout," said Sahdi. "You'll shake Unit 5a23 out of his meditation."

Kahli glanced over to the left of a large, shimmering scale to see Unit 5a23 levitating above the rough hide they sat on, his legs crossed, his eyes dim.

"Froufrou is resting, too," continued Sahdi. "You've both had a lot going on. She's been sleeping and recovering [HP] in your purse. We set her over by G'athoong's large horny crest."

"I"m sorry, what did you just say? Was that an expletive that I'm not familiar with?" said Kahli in confusion.

"Oh, just look over here!" said Sahdi, pointing to a large, scaly ear. Kahli's fuzzy, velvet purse, which held Froufrou within, hung off the side of a jagged scale that caused rainbow coloration to abberate in the air around it.

"Froufrou!" Kahli rushed over to her pet, scooped it out of the purse, and held Froufrou tightly to her chest. "Oh, Froufrou, I was so worried about you!"

Froufrou let loose an affectionately putrid squelch. Kahli petted her tendrils, three pets per tendril, and then placed Froufrou in her purse. Then, she slung it over her arm and walked back up to Sahdi.

"Thank the mighty pincers of Theseosus. I'd been worried that Froufrou had... Well, I hate to say this, but I was worried she'd either left or perished or something," Kahli said. "Anyway, who's G'athoong, again?"

Sahdi tussled her flawless, shiny hair and sighed. "Look, Kahli, we're riding on G'athoong. Get the picture?"

Kahli felt irritated, and leaned into sarcasm to cope. "What, are we on a dragon or something?"

"Yes," said Sahdi. "A dragon named G'athoong."

Kahli did a double take. "Wait, really?"

"Yes."

She really hadn't expected that. Not that dragons were terribly uncommmon or anything, although they weren't necessarily common either. Dragons, really, just were when they were and weren't when they weren't. And, apparently, this dragon was at this very moment. It very much was, in fact this dragon was so was that it were what it was. And what it was was giving Kahli and her unlikely companions a ride in the sky.

"Well, that explains the awful windchill," said Kahli. "Mind explaining why we're riding G'athoong, again, Sahdi?"

"Let's just say that..." Sahdi took a deep breath and started playing with her hair. "Gods, I don't even know how to go into this. But, well, soon after you passed out while we were staring out at the sea, a number of things happened."

Sahdi went on to explain to Kahli, through a large number of hair tussles and weighty sighs and glances off to the distance that New Curr had absolutely decimated what life remained in downtown Gifflenberg, and it quickly started spreading to people outside of the downtown area. And, it started spreading to life outside of the downtown area, as well. Which was of course, no big surprise - in fact, it was well in step with the history of the original Curr outbreak about five centuries prior. This was spiraling quickly, and needed to be contained. Sahdi herself had suggested to Unit 5a23 soon after Kahli had passed out that they consider traveling to the land of high water elementality, a region known as Clathalia halfway across the world away from Gifflenberg, in order to discuss with their top elementals how to stop this threat. Sahdi's argument was that water elementals would be the most effective people to perform such a task, and Unit 5a23 had heartily agreed.

Somewhat unrelated to that, although incredibly convenient, was the fact that G'athoong the water dragon had been awakened by the impact of Lloyd's building-sized meteor when it hit Nomachiato. Now, G'athoong had been trying to go to sleep, much like Kahli had, and had indeed unlike Kahli almost succeeded in falling into a deep slumber that could've easily lasted another century, that was until Sahdi heard G'athoong tossing and turning under the deep sea waves. Normally, no tauman would notice, but Sahdi was extremely in touch with her water elementality, and as thus the water dragon's thrashing was just enough to tip her off.

Sahdi quickly established a psychic link with the ancient dragon, much to its chagrin, and soon enough, G'athoong had risen from the deep trenches and waters of the sea and was agreeing to take them to Clathalia in exchange for an act of service.

"An act of service?" asked Kahli with wonder and suspicion. "What act of service does G'athoong expect from us?"

Sahdi gave her an anxious look. "Maybe you better ask the dragon herself that question, Kahli." She bit her lip.

Kahli sighed. She'd only been awake for about five minutes, and now she had to suck up to a dragon. What was her life coming to?