The wind started blowing again and the world started moving. Lightening thundered in the sky above and it started raining.

My feet moved and I got up. Warmth filled my body. My dried heart erupted with warmth. The heat was searing as it flowed down my veins and reached for my broken bones and wounds.

The broken bones snapped back in their place and healed. The wounds closed and mended. My lost eye recovered and I burst out with strength that was countless times more than what I had at my peak.

The Roarer noticed me; he noticed the warmth flowing inside me, and it made him turn. He was salivating, and behind him, Kalki was frozen stiff. It was the first time I was transforming right in front of her, and I scared her.

The warmth did not only revive me. No. It gave me the strength to defeat the Roarer, and above it, it gave me the strength to protect.

I grew taller, taller than I had ever been. I was five feet tall when I stopped growing. My coat of hair shed and in its place, segmented black armor grew to cover every inch of my body. However, unlike the Roarer, I had a skull helmet over my head with its own set of fangs and a pair of curved horns at the forehead. That was not all. The bony protrusions from my back finally took shape. They grew out and wide, separating and branching, growing into a pair of bonny wings that spanned seven feet in total. A thick sheet of skin grew over the bones, giving me a bat-like appearance.

The Roarer spread out its arms and let out a roar, a challenge. I accepted by spreading my wings and letting out a war cry. The air undulated when I roared. The effect was so strong it pushed the Roarer a few steps back. That could have been dangerous. The growling wheeled beast was right behind it. I could have unknowingly hurt Kalki and Ginger.

Maybe I hesitated and the monster saw it or it simply wanted to charge, because that’s what it did. The road trembled with its every step. A blink of an eye and it was right in front of me, swinging its arm at my head. I pulled back in time, but couldn’t evade properly as its fist still connected with my chin. There was a cracking sound as the skull armor broke. The Roarer smirked, but before it could add insult to my injury, the warmth flowed to the cracks and repaired them.

Angered by the display, it beat its chest roaring and came swinging at me. This time I managed to get back in time. I beat my wings once and they pushed me back, out of its reach. The thrust they created was too strong; it scared me.

The Roarer chased me with intent, but it was too heavy and couldn’t again over me. The fourth time I jumped back I decided to test out my new wings and just as I touched the ground, bent my knees, and jumped up. I beat my wings as I reached the peak of my jump and they pulled me higher. I beat them once more and they took me even higher, faster. I didn’t know flying was the same as climbing a vertical wall, only that it was far easier. I didn’t have to dig my nails into the wall and time my jumps or anything! I only needed to beat them—

Something flew past me at a blinding speed. I glanced and learned it was one of the two-door panels that the Roarer had torn from the wheeled beast. Oh, yes, I had forgotten about him.

I turned toward him and saw him throwing a second panel at me. It was strong alright, very strong indeed. Because the panel screamed toward me and I panicked. I forgot how to fly and fell out of the sky —not like I knew how to fly in the first place. I fell and I think I ruptured something and broke another thing. I knew they would heal, and were already healing actually, but the bloody pain was a mess to deal with. And then there was the Roarer. It obviously wasn’t going to miss the chance. It jumped, landed right next to me, and slammed me back to the ground as I tried to get up. It hammered blows on my back, which I defended with the wings, which broke and healed with each blow they took. The monster —we were both pretty monsterish at the time— didn’t like my wings. I knew what it was going to do when he gripped them from the roots, but I couldn’t prepare myself for it.

However, my tail acted without my knowledge and that’s when I realized that it had also grown pretty nasty in design. Covered in white scales, it had a sharp arrow at the end, which proceeded to pierce the Roarer in the chest once, pulled out, leaving a gaping hole, and then did the same again. Obviously, the Roarer wasn’t interested in the injury, but it did grow confused and staggered back, leaving my wings alone. That was a commendable effort by my tail. I never thought I would praise it for acting without my attention, but that was a job well done. And it had saved me. What else could I want?

The wheeled beast whined far behind the Roarer. It was trying to get up but couldn’t.

I could head ginger barking from the gaping hole. She wasn’t going t eave her pups alone, but she wanted me to come back.

I got up and charged at the monster. I had to buy them time. I lunged at its chest and it punched back. I got hit on the shoulder, but I also managed to slash its chest armor. That angered the monster and it came around for some more action. This was when I realized how limited my form was. It could grab a hold of me, punch and kick me, while I could bite and slash, which it could also do. Well, I could fly. And that’s what I tried. I beat my wings and got in the air, but it jumped and caught one of my rear legs and slammed me back on the ground.

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That hurt!

At least nothing broke this time, but I was angered too. I crawled and bit its leg. The armor crunched inside my jaw, but I didn’t even get to break skin before it grabbed my tail and pulled me straight up. It tried to swing me around and throw me at a wall, but my tail pierced one of its eyes and it released me. I rolled on the road like an empty can and got back on my feet.

This was getting frustrating. We were about even in strength, but it had more attacks, while I had more warmth or endurance.

Finally, the wheeled beast roared. The hu-mans had done it. The monster tried to go after them, but I stopped it. I jumped on its back, bit its neck, and clung to it like a bat. It roared in annoyance and tried to get me off. It scratched my back and pounded me against the wall, but I refused to let go.

However, for some reason, the hu-mans drove the beast straight toward us. Like there were other roads! Couldn’t they have taken one of the other roads? But no, they had to come straight toward danger because they are impulsive and overconfident.

I let out a groan and out of nowhere the monster grabbed a hold of my neck and started choking me. I don’t know if it realized, but unlike it I needed to breathe. Though I didn’t look any different from the screamers, I was indeed alive inside: my heart pumped blood and my lungs sucked air. I had to act or I would die.

I fluttered my wings in panic and we flew straight up. Since my tail was wound around its waist, I didn’t have much problem lifting the Roarer into the air, but that didn’t solve the choking problem, instead intensified it. However, by taking it into the air I had cleared the road and the hu-mans could leave.

The monster flailed its arms as the wheeled beast passed on the road below us. In its haste to get the hu-mans the Roarer released my neck, allowing me breathe. I would have definitely lost conscious had it kept at it, and welcomed the relief with open arms. The Roarer hadn’t given up but was beginning to put its efforts elsewhere, mainly in breaking my ribs with its elbows. It had spikes jutting out of the ends.

I saw Kalki trying to jump out of the moving wheeled beast and a shiver went down my spine.

I barked. She heard but didn’t stop struggling. I barked again, but that had no effect either. Then out of nowhere, some warmth traveled up my chest and to my throat, when I tried to bark next a word came up my throat.

NO! I shouted with all my strength. I spoke!

Kalki looked at me in disbelief and I shared her emotion. That —I didn’t know I could do that.

Maybe my grip loosened or I grew complacent because Kalki had stopped struggling against Karishma and was no longer trying to jump from the moving wheeled beast, but the monster managed to elbow me in the chest and puncture my left lung. My grip loosened and it fell to the ground at a distance from the wheeled beast that it could easily cover in a few steps.

It chased after them and I glid toward it, creating a trail of blood on the way. I went so fast the world blurred around my eyes. I knew things would grow grim if I let it anywhere near them. So the moment I caught up to it I cling to its back once again, dug my nails into its chest armor to anchor myself to it, and took flight. I went straight up. Every beat of my wing pulled us a few meters higher. It struggled, but before it could get me off itself we were so high up I could barely see the wheeled beast tracing away on the long empty highway.

That’s where it managed to break my rear legs. It was roaring me to let go and that’s what I did. I let go and it fell straight down on the hard solid road. It was so heavy the road caved in from the impact, sending dust and debris ten feet high in the air. The Roarer had moved out of the crater and was crawling on the road when I landed on the road.

However, it was a broken mess.

Its bone armor had broken into pieces and three of its four limbs were mangled beyond belief. Its legs had torn at the hips and no longer moved. Its left arm had bone shard poking out at various places. Its skull had split open and half of the grey shriveled up brain was visible inside. Yet it was alive —in a horrible cursed way.

The sweet scent wafting from its skull was way stronger than any I had ever smelled. My mouth watered from a single inhale and I couldn’t stop myself from dreaming about it. It was no surprise that I jumped at it.

I dug into its brain and found the source of the sweet delight. It was not a shard that I found inside its brain, but a group of them sticking to one another creating a sphere. It was missing two pieces; however, I could feel the warmth that flowed inside. The gem held a gargantuan amount of life force inside, easily rivaling the amount that flowed inside my heart, which had been loaned to me by the figure of darkness.

The moment I pulled the gem out of its brain the Roarer went silent. It had finally died.

A slew of colorful words filled my sight, but I could not see them clearly. They were faint and washed out as if I was losing sight and growing unconscious.

The gem melted into my mouth as my sight grew redder by the second. I panicked at first then the warmth traveled down my throat and I forgot everything about the pain, my pack, Kalki, and even Kanti.

When my sight returned the world died in a shade of blood-red and I felt empty inside.

Then the voice came.

How are you feeling? It was the voice of my master. I kneeled on the road and spoke with a voice that was low and heavy.

I’m feeling empty, master. What happened to me? I can’t remember anything.

Come to me. I have a talk to cure your emptiness.

As you command, master.

I looked down the empty road. Something down its length was attracting me but tried as I might, I couldn’t remember what it was. In the end, I shook my head to clear my thought and took flight. The rain grew strong and blocked my sight, but I need not fly under the clouds. I flew higher until I was above the rumbling storm and under a bleeding sky. From there I followed the sound of my master’s call. West I went, to the place where my master resided.