Paul Ray had a really bad day. 

Not only did that rhyme, it also was almost an understatement, so bad had it been.

Because not only was he terribly lost and separated from his party and friends, he also doubted that he could even get out of this situation in any reasonable amount of time.

Why did that stupid floor have to cave in? Am I really that freakin’ heavy? But thank god that I didn’t break anything when I fell down that shaft. How did I even survive that with just a few scrapes? Still, I am not sure if stumbling around in these dark tunnels for all of eternity is any better than hitting my head on some stone and just dying. At least I wouldn’t lose my fucking mind in this labyrinth. Who even dug this? Haven’t seen any sign of something actually living here. Though I am not sure if I really want to meet whatever is responsible. Has to be something crazy if there are no monsters at all around.

At this thought the tunnel opened up and he stepped into a cave with the volume of small house.

Well that’s a first. Finally something.

A quick look around the cave with his magical lantern however revealed not much of anything. Just a couple loose rocks and an exit at the opposite side.

Thanks for nothing. What am I getting my hopes up for? A brochure for tourists with all the important sights in this random ass cave system under your resident newbie dungeon? Hahhh, I still want to get my hands on whoever is responsible for throwing me in this shit medieval fantasy world. Never would have thought how depressing this would be. Still two lifetimes of work away from coughing up enough money to even talk to a wizard who even has the slightest clue about realm travel. If someone like that even exists. Fuck me. Well, moving on.

After a good session of wallowing in depression and despair, Paul felt finally ready to traverse on to the next tunnel. But after crossing about half of the way, he noticed something in the corner of his eye.

Behind a larger rock, previously hidden from view, was a small orb with an ethereal glow, which shone brightly but somehow didn’t illuminate the surroundings.

Absolutely crazy. What is that? And why is it here?

Ignoring any caution his short life as an adventurer might have imparted on him, he stepped closer.

I...I...should piss off want it. I need to get away it. 

With almost irresistible power the orb seemed to draw him in. Before he knew what happened he had already picked it up.

It looks so dangerous good. It looks so...tasty?!

Without even finishing the thought, he had already swallowed it.

A sudden pulse of energy threw him out of his stupor, just to notice how everything went dark before his eyes.

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Waking up some time later, Paul found himself lying on the ground.

That was kinda weird. Why did I swallow that? The thing glowed really weird. Wait, something is wrong. Ah, I know what it is! I passed out! I should be really panicking right now! And I’m not. That’s what’s wrong! How did I miss something this obvious? 

Well, that isn’t even everything. I am not just not panicking, I am even in a really good mood! How weird! Feels really good after all that self-pitying!

‘Urgh, seems like I really overdid it.’, a deep, melodic voice said with some exasperation.

“Who’s that?”, Paul responded.

‘The one who just controlled you to kick you out of your body to take it for herself.’

“How neat, I didn’t even know something like that was even possible!”

Paul’s current hyper mood seemed impossible to drag down.

‘Yeah, that was way too much. By the way, you don’t have to speak out loud, just think what you want to say.’

‘Like that?’

‘Like that.’

‘Uuuhhh, so exciting!~’

‘By my tail, you sound like some drunk, giggling girl right now. Not that I mind, but that shit was a bit too effective. Well, better than not enough of an effect.’

‘Whatcha talkin’~ about?’

‘Well, to keep you from absolutely losing your shit when you wake up, I released some of your hormones. And as I didn’t really know much I would need, I more or less used all of them.’

‘Ooohh, that doesn’t sound healthy. Also, where are you? You sound somewhat farther away than this cave should allow. Really funny~.’

‘Good thing that you still seem to be able to use your brain. For all intents and purposes, I am in your head. I just made myself sound farther away. Here, is that better?’

Paul jumped up and around, as the voice of his newest “roommate” sounded right behind his ear. But nothing him. Some suppressed laughter resounded.

‘Whaaat! That’s crazy! Can I also do that?’

‘Yes, you can, but that isn’t really what I expected you to ask. Don’t you want to know why I am now in your head and what will happen from now on?’

‘Oh, right. I just got a teeny, tinsy bit excited there. So, whom have I the pleasure of hosting inside my head? And why there? And, actually, what was that orb?’

‘Yeah, so the short version of the story is, that I got my soul sealed in that orb you saw after some, umm, minor conflict I had with some individuals. No idea why the orb is here and where “here” is. So, when you came along, I used the little power I could still use to draw you in and have you swallow, well, me. The plan was to kick out your soul and use your body as a base to regain my power. That should have worked, but for some bizarre reason your soul is tied really hard to your body and if I would have done it, well... poof!’

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‘Poof?’

‘Combustion, disintegration, turning to ashes, explosion, implosion, who knows, something like that. Definitely not usable anymore.’

‘Sounds bad. So, what happens next?’

‘Well, firstly we should get out of this cave. Or do you live here?’

‘What..., no! No, I don’t live here. Some dumb floor gave in in the dungeon above, I fell really far down and now I’m here. No idea where I am. Just underground. But I wanted to go through that tunnel over there. Can you see it?’

‘Yeah, we share all of our senses. So, like, go on. Hop, hop!’

‘You can’t move my limbs?’

‘You want that? No, I can’t. I just had a small window of control when you were unconscious, so that I luckily could release the hormones.’

‘Okay, okay. But it would probably be kinda funny if you could move me. Tehee~’

‘I have the suspicion that you will see the matter a bit differently when the effect wears off.’

Paul finally got up and walked towards the tunnel. It still didn’t look any different than the previous ones, still rough hewn stone walls and no light, but it was a bit wider.

After a couple minutes he remembered some questions he still had.

‘Sooo, will you like, just stay there inside my head or can we transfer you to someone else?’

‘You know me for ten minutes and you already want to get rid of me?! I am hurt beyond belief. How can you reject a lady so hard?!’, the still unnamed voice said and Paul had the impression the owner of it playfully winked at him.

‘Did you just wink at me? Telepathy is so coool~! No, like, will something else happen? Also, what’s your name? Who are you? Actually, why did you tell me that you wanted to steal my body? Wouldn’t it have been better to tell a story that puts you in a better light?’, Paul questioned as he came upon an intersection and chose the wider looking path.

‘Uwaah, not so many questions at once! Oh, ehh, good job choosing that path. The wider one will brings us probably to somewhere with more, well, hopefully friendly organisms. Okay, first question: Yes, I did wink. Our connection allows for some body-language like expressions. But that will get more in-depth with time. So: what will happen in the future? First of: I don’t think you can get rid of me. Well, except for killing yourself. Which I would like to avoid for the obvious reason that I would also die. Would be kinda sad to be stuck in that stupid orb for so long just for my “host” to kill himself. Suicide would also be a big loss of an opportunity for you, I might add.’

‘What opportunity? Getting super-duper advice from you?’

‘Obviously that, but much more. Reason being who I once was or rather who I still are. I am Grimiora, a mighty dragon!’

‘Yeah, dragons are sooo cooool!’

‘Urghh, I really can’t tell if you actually would still think that when the hormones wear off. Would have never thought having the attitude of a five-year-old could be such a formidable defence. I actually wanted to start of with that introduction, but your hyper mood really threw me off track.’, the self-proclaimed dragon mumbled. ‘Oh well, so because kicking your soul out failed, the only alternative is what I would call a “soul-merge”. As you might know, your soul is a vessel for all the power you manifest in the physical world. And with the merge, I would manifest mine through your body. Problem: Your vessel is currently too small for all the power I have. Which I will solve by modifying your natural growth of vessel and power to only a growth in vessel size.’

‘But that would mean I would be using your power, so your skills and stats, right?’

‘Yes..?’

“So I get super cool dragon skills! I get to breath fire!”, Paul shouted and jumped into the air. Which resulted in him hitting his head on the low ceiling.

“Ouch!”

‘Be careful you dumbass! I don’t want to tease you with dragon fire just to have you break your neck in some cave. Oh man, I really should have gone more easy on those hormones.’

‘Sorry…..won’t happen again.’

‘Okay, so there is an alternative, but the name of that one is “doing-absolutely-nothing”, which would include me dying whenever you humans die, so that isn’t happening.’

‘How mean and authoritarian!’, Paul quipped.

‘Authori..what? Don’t complain, it only has advantages for you in my opinion.’

‘I got it, hehehe.’

‘So, why did I tell you the truth about me wanting to basically kill you and not pull some fairy tale out of my ass? Simple, as I estimate this whole soul merge thing will go, we will at some point have access to each other's memories. So, you would have found out sooner or later. And sooner is probably better in this case, as I don’t want to imagine what happens when souls that are about to merge have massive trust issues.’

‘Basically building trust early on?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, I can’t say that I disagree with that sentiment.’

The male organism currently inhabited by two souls turned unto a large tunnel with vastly superior craftsmanship than the ones they traversed previously. It was still somewhat rough looking but had a more geometrical form.

‘Looks like a main route or something of the like.’, Grimiora observed.

‘I do hope we find someone who knows a way out. As nice as these tunnels are, I do want get back above ground. I need to regroup with my friends and still haven’t found a way back home.’ Paul said in a rather talkative mood caused by the extreme amount of dopamine and serotonin still flowing in his veins.

‘Oh yeah you mentioned something about a dungeon above, are you and your friends adventurers? And what’s with that way back home? Are you lost somehow?’, the supposed former dragon asked while Paul continued down the larger tunnel.

‘Lost would be fitting a word for it. But not lost geographically, but lost in another world. And yes, we are adventurers.’

‘Another world? How did that happen?’

‘I don’t know. I think no one knows, except for whatever cosmic force is responsible. It just randomly happened. One moment I was with my friends on a trip on the road and the next moment we are all standing in some forest in this world. We decided to look for a way back by earning money as adventurers, while looking for information about realm travel or some wizard who knows something about the topic.’

‘But that sounds like plain teleportation to me and not realm travel.’

‘It was realm travel. In our world we had lots of really advanced mechanical machines, no magic and no weird system with skills.’

‘Interesting~. Hey look! Another advantage of having me: I can help you look for your realm travel magic or whatever happened to you. If I, or rather we, have my full power back, I’m sure I could pull it off, if it is indeed magic and not some natural phenomenon.’

‘You sure?’

‘We can try at least and I assure you I am better than any mage you could find. I am not bound in my skills by your measly lifetime.’

‘Hubris much? That stuff sounds like something only a literal god could manage.’, Paul mocked.

‘Hmpfh! It is not hubris! If anyone could do it, it would be me! The gods shivered in fear before me when I moved to slay them for their arrogance. They dared to claim to have created the dragons when I could still remember them challenging me when they were just simple humans, orcs and elves. I even easily got half of them.’ 

‘Oh. Is that why you were sealed?’

‘How did you figure that out? Your intellect is shocking considering how drugged you still are. But that only happened because the rest basically sacrificed themselves to seal me. How can anyone expect that from basically the most arrogant people in existence?’

‘The most arrogant except for you.’

‘Naturally. I am the greatest in any aspect.’, she chuckled.

Paul’s thinking had gotten a bit clearer as the hormones slowly receded.

‘Are the gods you talked about still around? I only know of a monotheistic religion and some nature cults in this world.’

‘How could I know? I was sealed up until a couple hours ago. We will have to check for ourselves. Oh, I think you should find a place to rest. I don’t think you noticed how tired you are with all the hormones still around.’

Indeed, now that Grimiora mentioned it, Paul noticed how exhausted he was. It would have already been bad after a normal dungeon dive, but additionally he had been traversing this cave system for hours now. Luckily, he found some enclosed corner in the tunnel and went to sleep after putting out his bed roll and taking a sip from his canteen.