Knowledge ripped through Rusty's mind, and he hunched over, planted his hands on the floor, as he sat there on his knees, prostrated and trying to focus on breathing and keeping his sanity intact.

But he understood, all right. He understood, that he'd just changed himself on the fundamental level, and nothing would ever be the same.

That said...

Rusty opened his eyes, and breathed, feeling the fear ebb, replaced by a dark certainty. That said, there was still something hunting him, and even if he'd gotten ahold of magic that was no guarantee that he'd walk out of here alive.

“That's pretty sensible,” someone whispered in his ear, and Rusty shrieked, felt the fear come back, jumped to his feet, and dove behind the stone table.

Someone sighed. “Close your eyes, please. Maybe hurry. The monster's lost your trail but if you keep making noise, it'll pick it up again pretty quick.”

Rusty hesitated. But common sense prevailed. The stranger had managed to sneak up on him, could have done him harm if that was what was intended. But he'd spoken, instead. This probably wasn't a trick

Rusty closed his eyes, and he saw a silvery figure step out of the darkness, picking its way across the floor. It was small, maybe two feet high. At first he thought it looked like a baby, but it was far too thin and spindly, limbs out of proportion to its large, round head, smooth, without hair or nose. Its eyes were large and black.

It looked, Rusty realized, like one of the little aliens that his brother had told him about. The ones that were supposed to be in Roswell, when they crashed ten years ago.

“Are you an alien?” Rusty whispered.

“No, I'm your familiar.” the figure said, as it came up to him, and sat on the ground, putting its legs criss-cross applesauce. It didn't seem to have anything between its legs, Rusty noticed.

“Oh. Um, okay. Are you a boy or a girl?”

The figure tilted its head, and considered. “I'm not either. You made me. I can be what you want me to be. Do you want me to be a boy or a girl?” Its flesh started bubbling on its chest and crotch, reshaping itself, and Rusty shook his head, fast.

“No, no, that's fine, um, let's keep it decent, okay?”

“Okay. But I can take any shape you want.” It looked back into the darkness behind it. “Maybe we can sort that out after you get away.”

“How... how do I do that?”

“Well, I think you need to find a way out and get out before it gets you. Or maybe fight it and kill it. That would get us more chakra.”

“How would I kill it? I don't even have a sword, or a gun, or anything!”

“Well, you've got a rune. Let's see... huh. Memory? Hm. That's kind of tricky. Yeah, that one might not be so good at killing stuff.”

“So how do we get away?”

The familiar smiled. “I get away if you get away. I'm all in your head. Nobody else can hear me. As to how YOU get away, I'd suggest running past it or looking around this place and finding another exit.”

“Is there another exit?” Rusty asked.

“Maybe stop whispering, and just imagine yourself whispering. I don't know how good its hearing is. And I don't know if there's another exit out of here.” The familiar shrugged. “I barely know more than you do, and most of what I know is about runes and chakra. I'm kind of a... I'm a part of your own brain that's been empowered to talk to you directly.”

Rusty stopped, and considered it. “You're me.”

“Mostly.”

“But you can see the thing?”

“No, you can. You're just not using that sense correctly yet.”

“So how do I do that?”

“Remember the symbols you saw?”

“Um... yeah?” Rusty said. “They went by kind of fast.”

“Oh, that's easy. I can give you this one for free. I want you to imagine silver letters in front of your eyes. They need to say, 'Grant me eidetic memory and total recall.'”

Rusty tried. It was hard to concentrate. His arm had stopped hurting, yeah, but it was cold and he was muddy, and he'd never done much in the way of visualization before.

“Here, I'll help,” whispered his familiar, and suddenly it was much, much easier. He could almost imagine he was reading for a book, as he mouthed the words and they came into being before his eyes.

“Grant me eidetic memory and total recall.”

Rune – Memory: Engaged!

Eidetic memory granted! Cost 1

Total recall granted! Cost 2

Chakra Usage: -3

Total committed Chakra: 6/39

“Good!” his familiar said, and despite the cold, despite the fear for his life, Rusty felt happy. It was a rare day when he got praise.

“How does this help me, though?” Rusty asked.

“Remember the symbol for Chakra assessment?”

And Rusty DID.

“Yeah! Right on, Rusty. Now do the same as you did with the last spells, only this time imagine something like 'activate chakra assessment'. Just use that symbol instead of the word assessment.”

This time he got it on the first try.

And the second he did, something across the cavern lit up, traced in lines much like the diagram of himself that he'd seen earlier. There were no beating orbs in it, like the silvery thing in his arm, but it let him see a rough body shape that he would have been much happier not seeing. The thing was like a snake, except it had some kind of legs in the back and front, and multiple things that were either more heads or tentacles.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Hydra? He thought to himself, remembering the book on greek mythology that Cyrus had loaned him. Remembered it exactly, every word on the page.

“Maybe it's a hydra,” his familiar said. “I dunno. Don't wanna get close enough to find out.”

It seemed to be questing back and forth across the way, dipping its tendrils or heads to the ground, and pacing in a line. Back and forth... why was it doing that?

The chasm, Rusty remembered. It's trying to find a way around.

It looked to be at about the right distance for the chasm... and abruptly, Rusty recalled every step he'd taken in the darkness, remembered it precisely and visualized the space he'd covered.

“Total recall!” his familiar clapped its thin hands together. “I figured that would come in handy.”

“I guess it is.” Rusty gnawed his lip. This was going to take some getting used to. If he survived the next few minutes. “Do we have a spell to see in the dark?”

“So... the way I understand it, is that each rune lets you do anything associated with the idea that represents the rune. Long story short, easy stuff doesn't take much chakra, hard stuff takes lots of chakra. I can't think of any way to make memory let you see in the dark, but if you can come up with something, maybe you can do it?”

“I can see the thing, but not the cave around it...” Rusty frowned.

“This room doesn't have chakra. The snake monster does. And so do you.”

Rusty looked down at himself, and almost gasped. He was silvery lines in the dark, just like the diagram that he'd seen a few moments ago. But there was no pulsing core, unlike the diagram.

“Yeah, that's inside you now,” his familiar said. “You'd have to cut yourself open to see it with just simple assessment. It'd take maybe a rune to see where it is without y'know, surgery. Or a giant snake thing eating us. Speaking of that, how are we going to handle it?”

Rusty frowned. Then he thought about it, really thought about it.

And he remembered the path he'd taken. He knew he could retrace it perfectly, flawlessly. The thing couldn't see him. It seemed to be sniffing or tasting the ground.

As he watched, it ranged further toward the way he'd come, further toward the edge of the chasm. Then it paced back, going the other way.

Eventually it would find its way around.

“So how's it smelling us? What's it scenting?” his familiar asked.

Rusty looked down at his formerly bloody arm. “Maybe it was the blood?”

“Maybe. It was on us pretty quick, back when we had the bandage on.”

“Yeah, but we were holding the torch, then. We're not, now. Maybe we'll get lucky.”

“So you're thinking retrace our steps back and... of course you're thinking that, I can see that from in here. This is going to take some getting used to, Rusty.”

“Yeah. I have an alien inside my head now.”

“Let's keep that head attached and we can sort out living space later, yeah?”

“Deal.”

And Rusty took a deep breath, and retraced his trail.

It went fine, up until he was halfway to the crevasse.

The snake-thing, the hydra, looked up, and in his direction.

Rusty froze.

“Breathe quieter! Breathe quieter!” his familiar said, jumping up and down.

“Stop shouting!” Rusty whispered.

Oh, that was a mistake. The hydra slithered along the crevasse, heading his way.

“I'm in your head! I'm not the one making noise! This is REALLY STRESSFUL!” the little alien screeched.

Rusty glanced over to where he'd crept around the crevasse, looked back to the hydra. No way he'd get past it at the speed he was going.

Okay, new plan.

Thanks to watching the hydra, he knew where the chasm was, more or less. And he could recall how it looked from the other side.

He forced himself to move slowly. He didn't know how it was sensing him, but he thought it was helping. The hydra wasn't speeding up, so that was good. Rusty crept along into the darkness, forging a new path. The side of the crevasse he was heading to was higher than the other, so he knew he wouldn't see the glow until he was right on top of it. If he went too fast, he'd go over the edge and die.

Every few steps, he'd stop and look over his shoulder. The hydra had rounded the crevassed now, and his memory told him it was following his original trail. If it stayed doing that, then he might be able to get away clean. He'd just follow the crevasse back behind it, and head to the hole it had dug. He'd get away while it was exploring around the stone table, and run for his life.

It was a good plan.

Up until the thing paused, right at the point where Rusty had left the trail, and stared his way with all of its head tentacles.

Rusty stopped.

The thing took a step.

Rusty took a step.

The thing charged!

Rusty ran, counting his steps, visualizing what he could of the crevasse. It hadn't looked THAT wide, and he was counting on that.

And when he came to it, came to where the purple glow leaked from the floor, and he knew, he KNEW that the next step would plunge him into the yawning void, he leaped, with only the sound of the thing chasing him and the panicked screaming of his familiar to accompany his desperate move.

There was a terrible moment, where he didn't know whether he'd live or die. And his total recall flashed to his brother telling him about a guy named Schrodinger and his cat.

And then his feet struck the muddy slope, and he knew he'd survived. The cat lived, this time.

Then the rest of him hit the slope, and he started sliding down, toward the chasm, and he realized that maybe that cat was doomed, after all. He scrabbled, dug in with both hands, felt a nail flip back and cried in pain, but managed to stop himself. He could feel the wind on his butt, feel his feet hanging over the crevasse.

But he was alive.

Then, with a terrible THUD, the ground shook, and he whimpered as he dropped a few inches, before managing to secure himself.

Something next to him groaned. A burbling groan, that rose to a deep, deep growl.

Rusty turned his head, and there was the hydra, its greenish lines right next to him, digging its hind claws deep into the slope as it slid gently downward. It scrabbled, locked its front claws in, and pulled its bulky body up with terrible strength. This close to it, Rusty could smell it... swamp scum and sweat and a rank smell that reminded him of goats.

And under all of that, old blood. Worse stench than a hog slaughter.

Rusty squeaked.

And slowly, the heads, or tendrils, or whatever, started turning his way.

He felt breath all over his body, saw them rising above him.

Time seemed to slow down. Memory. He had memory magic. What could he do with memory magic?

A head or tendril darted at him, and he worked a hand free, and punched it. It reared back, and the growl rose to a deafening crescendo.

And an idea occurred to Rusty. If he'd had time, he would have run it by his familiar, but there WAS no time. So he just did it, and prayed to god that it would work.

Despite the thing looming over him, despite the literal slippery slope he was laboring to keep ahold of, Rusty closed his eyes, and visualized the silver letters.

“Forget me!”

Memory wipe adult tarqual!

Committed chakra: 6/39

Cost: 12 chakra.

Remaining free chakra: 21/39

Unlike the spells he'd cast before, he could feel these.

The growling stopped.

Rusty opened his eyes.

The hydra... adult tarqual? Whatever it was, it was no longer focused on him. Its tendrils were sweeping up and around, up the slope. It shook itself, and started to crawl, slowly, laboriously.

For a second Rusty thought it was fine.

Then the thing paused, one front foot up in the air.

And it swiveled to look at him, growling again.

“NO!” Rusty screamed, and the thing recoiled, tried to dance along sideways, slipped a bit...

...and Rusty saw his chance.

He let go of the muddy slope, let gravity pull him down, and kicked the thing's rear foot as hard as he could.

The tarqual yelped, as its rear claws were knocked free...

...and down it slid.

Rusty didn't watch it go. He was fighting to get ahold of something, anything... and at the last moment, as he felt his legs go out over open air, he managed to grab ahold of the ledge.

The tarqual didn't.

Down it went, until its fading bellow was stopped by a loud, and very abrupt CRUNCH.

Rusty hung on, shivering, feeling tired, feeling his just-healed arm aching. But he was a skinny thing, and after a second, he managed to haul his lower body back up onto the slope.

And there, clinging to the mud, exhausted and injured and safe, he cried.

This was no grand adventure. This wasn't dragons and dwarves and riddles and wonder.

This was just him, in a muddy cave, trying not to die in a place where his mom wouldn't know he was dead.

Letters and symbols flashed silver across his eyes, but he ignored them. He knew he'd remember them later, perfectly.

He'd remember ALL of this perfectly, no matter how he'd try to forget later. The spell he'd cast had done that.

Rusty would remember everything.