This entire situation was an entire mess. I was currently standing in front of a red furred Kobolt with eyes the exact same color as mine. The entire situation gave me a headache. I spoke in an annoyed tone to the Kobolt. “Alright… tell me what your name is then why you tied me up!”. The Kobolt looked up at me and said with fear still visible on her face. “M-my name is Yarm, I am a female priest of the fire god. I-I tied you up because you killed my friends…”.

‘A girl… wait, she has red fur, I killed her frie-oh no. She was the Kobolt who cried over the first one that I killed’. Yarm looked away from me, looking as if she was going to cry. I will admit that I felt bad about killing her friends. ‘They would have killed me just as fast’. Snarling at Yarm I spoke again “I killed and ate both of them… if I hadn’t eaten those Goblins earlier I would eat the one I killed just now”.

This time Yarm seemed a little happier after I said that ‘not what I expected’. I am still not very good when interacting with other people. Speaking with less anger I apologized. “I am sorry though that they were your friends. Thank you for pulling me out from under that big brute… I have two more questions. The first is how did you calm me down earlier”. Yarm spoke, clearly upset about my killing her friends. “I-I figured the fire god wouldn’t let you kill me when he marked you”.

‘What the fuck, when did I get marked by a god? That must be where the question marks and smoke breath came from. Well, I had only asked for one more question so…’. “Alright Yarm, one last thing. What does being marked mean?”. The last word came out like a hiss, I was almost mad that someone would mark me. This was my second life, my rebirth, I would not be controlled.

Yarm looked me in the eyes. She seemed to have replaced her sadness and grief with anger or frustration. I wasn’t sure which it was but she started to speak clearly and louder than before. “I prayed for the fire god to send me a savior to protect me, he marked you”. She lifted her paw and then put it on my chest. “The red scale marks you just like my red fur marks me. So it looks like we are going to be together for a while”.

This time I snarled at her, I didn’t want to be forced to do anything. ‘Ugh… I can’t even look at my own chest to see if she is lying. Also, who gets to decide who I save and who I let die? Right now though can’t fight a god even if I wasn’t marked I will need a reflective surface to check. I will let her stick around but I am not going to just accept a Kobolt’. Looking at Yarm’s eyes I got annoyed at how similar they were to my own. Giving a low growl I spoke “fine, if you can help me I will let you stick around”.

Yarm looked at the ground for a moment, thinking about something. Standing up she said “I can help you heal. Right now you are probably barley standing on that leg. If I hadn’t prayed for your wounds to close you would have bled out”. ‘That makes sense to me at least. So she can help heal me when I get injured…. “Alright, you can tag along. I will keep you safe until you become useless to me. Follow me, we are going back to my nest”.

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The entire walk back we barely talked. When we did talk it was just us learning some more basic information about each other, but I kept me being reincarnated a secret.

By the time we got back to the nest mother was eating what looked like a very large boar with yellow, crystal tusks similar to the deer’s antlers. Mother seemed to notice me instantly and stand up, glaring at Yarm. “G-Glen… why is it looking at me like that”. It seems like Mom thought that Yarm was sneaking up on me. I got ready to pounce and said to Yarm “stand back a few feet, I might get beat up and you might die”.

Yarm took a few steps back as my Mother started to walk towards her. “Mom I swear it isn’t what it looks like”. I laughed at my own joke as Mom got too close to me and Yarm for comfort. I began to take in as much air as I could. Then I began to focus on the lingering mana feeling that was surrounding me. I began to try and manipulate it, focusing on my lungs as much as possible.

“BACK!!!” I roared with as much energy as possible, my theory also worked as mana shot out of my voice and added to my roar, increasing its volume. Mother stopped walking for just a moment, before running at me. She began to beat me around, slapping me from left to right until my scales started cracking and I bled a bit. After that, she licked my face and went back to lay next to the nest. “Alright!!! Mom, fine…. I won’t talk back again… I swear”.

Yarm came out from the tree line a few minutes later and sat next to me. “Looks like you made your Mom mad. Also what did you mean by it isn’t what it looks like?”. ‘I guess a Kobolt wouldn’t understand a human joke’. Sarcastically I said “You wouldn’t get it, mind praying to your fire god to heal me?”. I looked up to see Yarm with a devious smile. She then ran off and got a bunch of sticks.

Yarm made some weird prayer that I didn’t get and then smacked two red rocks together creating a fire. Surprisingly the fire then flared up and ran at me “are you trying to kill me? Possibly for the second time!!!”. I felt a strange warmth come over me. The fire began to slowly mend my wounds together. “Ok, I accept that you are not trying to kill me”.

Yarm gave a small laugh and says “I hope that you don’t get healed by it one day”. I ignored that comment and checked on the eggs, every one of them were just fine. Then I turned back and looked at Yarm, saying “feel free to do anything that doesn’t get you killed. I am going to sleep”. Yarm just gave a heavy sigh and went towards the nest. I felt my brotherly instincts urge to kill her for getting too close, but instead of getting into the nest or grabbing an egg she just laid down next to it. “You can stop looking at me now”.

If I had human skin my face would be flushed red. I realized I watched Yarm until she laid down. I laid down as well, preparing my mind for a long rest. Checking my status before getting good rest after a while of not getting to sleep well at all. First though, ‘I feel like a social media addict, STATUS’

(Name: Glen

Level – 7

Biomass - 9

Skills: Rapid Development lvl (P), Roar lvl 4, Pain Resistance lvl 2, Heat Scales lvl 1, Mana Infusion lvl 1

Physical Aspects: Small Horn lvl 1, Weak Hide lvl 1, Weak Scales lvl 3, Claws lvl 1

Mutations: System lvl 2, ??? lvl 1, Smoke Breath lvl 2)

‘Very nice… I think I will kill at least ten to twenty goblins tomorrow… that should be fun’.