-Day 3-

(Draven) «Finally awake, snowflake?»

(Saria) "Yes, mister shadow."

She looked distressed still. Must never feel good to wake up after a nightmare.

(Draven) «You had a bad dream?»

She shifted her gaze from the ground, sulking to looking at me with sort of sad eyes before she silently nodded.

(Draven) «Alright. Then, before you start aimlessly walking around here again... You don't have a home or somewhere to return, right?»

Although not tinted with fear like yesterday, Saria's eyes went blank for a second. I must have hit her right where it hurts, especially if the vision of tonight really was what she dreamt.

(Saria) "I don't."

(Draven) «Great. Or- Well, it's not great, but in that case, let's figure out what we want to do now. I'm sure you don't want to spend the rest of your life walking around god knows where and slowly starve yourself to death, right?»

All I needed was her shaking her head to agree that this in fact was not something she wanted.

(Draven) «Three things.»

I made sure she would follow me. Saria was still yawning, probably still recovering from a bad night's sleep.

(Draven) «First off, what do you plan on doing with food?»

(Saria) "...I don't know. The humans who sold me used to feed me enough to survive, but... I would rather die than return there again."

Who sold her? Like, slave handlers? That's a new one. Would make sense if she somehow ended up in their hands and survived until today because of their care. If old fashioned slave traders still exist around here.

(Draven) «I get that. What really is the difference between a fastfood restaurant worker and a slave anyways...»

(Saria) "There is food that is fast?"

(Draven) «Anyhow, getting on topic again, you don't know how to make food, do you?»

(Saria) "N- No... But I can collect fruit!"

(Draven) «So we need to find some work. Or at the very least find a source of food you can take from.»

(Saria) "Work? Does that make food?"

(Draven) «You don't know what work is?»

(Saria) "Like, working to hunt?"

(Draven) «Sigh... This might be harder than I thought... Okay, so adults work during the day. Then the person they work for gives them money, and you can use the money to buy food.»

(Saria) "So I just have to work for someone?"

(Draven) «Well, finding someone to work for first is pretty important.»

(Saria) "Let's do that!"

(Draven) «Good. Secondly, can you defend yourself against something like a wolf? Since you got your magic tricks. Maybe a lightning beam of sorts?»

(Saria) "I- Uh, no. I was born with light magic."

Right, she already mentioned at some point that her magic was kinda weak. I could guess that I'd be able to use some kind of shadowy magic myself considering my circumstance if magic really was real here, but this magic stuff was still a bit too foreign to me. I wouldn't know how to even start using it. And if magic really exists in this world, then I bet some sort of monsters would too.

(Draven) «So explain again what you can do with your light magic hocus pocus.»

(Saria) "I can heal and warm myself..."

I was wondering how she didn't have any injuries. When I fought those summoners she mentioned, I must have somehow used this Take Over skill and fought those guys as her, but I got her body injured on both hands and the shoulder if I remember right. It clearly had a toll on it if I went all-out. She wasn't built to withstand so much force from a punch.

(Draven) «So you can heal. That in itself sounds like a pretty damn surreal ability. But remember, you've got me now. It wasn't difficult to kill those people back then, so I think I am stronger somehow.»

(Saria) "That's right!"

(Draven) «But! Your body is really weak! One hit with your fists and they were already injured. So we need to work on that!»

(Saria) "Yes. Yes. Mhm."

(Draven) «So let's figure out some sort of training program or a weapon. It sounds like you are going to need it if people come after you. Finally, what are you going to do about your sleeping situation? You don't have a roof or bed, so it's going to be a bother if you keep sleeping in the open, especially if something dangerous comes around, right?»

(Saria) "Hmm... That's true."

(Draven) «Back when I was 'summoned' by those people, we were in some kind of room. Where was that? Maybe we can find something there.»

(Saria) "That old mansion? It didn't look like anybody was there."

A deserted mansion? That sounds too good to be true. But maybe it's worth a shot going for it. If anything, I could just instruct her how to make some basic lodging. That boyscout training I've had would really pay off here.

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(Draven) «Let's go back there then. Do you know how to get there?»

(Saria) "Ooh, I do!"

...

And so we decided. First thing we would do is go back to where we came from originally. While travelling there, I would try out my own skills a bit. Saria was rather lucky to find food scattered here and there from trees and bushes. Stuff that looked downright poisonous was something she liked eating, apparently.

And finally, in order to get at least a somewhat stable life going, I thought that we could check if there was any money to be made in the area. There were people in that mansion when I got here, and they were humans. If I know humans, then they would be living together in some kind of settlement or a city. It's not like I knew for sure what the relationship between humans and other creatures would be, but it should be worth a try to check it out as a human-in-mind. Maybe there was opportunity in this new world that forced itself on me.

Things that seemed obvious or something you could figure out by thinking, wasn't as obvious to Saria. Her tolerance level in regards to the nutrition she took was high. She was even able to drink water straight from the ground without getting ill. Chances are that river water wouldn't be a problem then. Finding a river was the issue in that regard though. Or ideally a well or a faucet.

Not sleeping through history lessons during my school years was suddenly paying off now. Human settlements usually formed next to sources of water unless humans for some reason don't need it here. So naturally, the water issue would be fixed if we were to find a settlement.

Saria also told me that demons require way more water to survive on a normal day than humans do, so that is the main goal right now. After all, it is just didn't feel right to see her in her current state. Also, when I asked her if she never had to go to the bathroom, she had no idea what I meant, so luckily I wouldn't be the guy who would have to bear witness to something like that, as demons supposedly don't ever need to go to the bathroom.

...

During the day, I really had to force her to take breaks now and then. This kid had no sense of moderation. And in order to protect her for now, I wanted to try using my skills.

My skills weren't easy to practice without her help, which was an issue. So during the many breaks, I attempted to use the Take Over skill. The fists that I slammed those humans back then with were with her hands, not my own. So I needed to know restraint in order not to damage her too much.

Surprisingly, using the skill wasn't very difficult. All I really had to do was think about it. A much more convenient way of doing things rather than having to learn it from scratch. Maybe it was just in my DNA now. If I even have any DNA.

(Draven) «"You can't talk right now, can you?"»

No response. So it really robbed her of all control from herself. The Take Over skill really did what it said it would. I was using Saria's voice to talk, her eyes to see and her hands to feel. I didn't even know if she was conscious during all of this. If it were me, I'd be scared like hell. I've done a lot of things in my past, but literally robbing control of one's movements even sounds like too much to me.

As long as she was alright with it, I reckoned that it's not an issue. It was assuring to know later that she still saw what I saw and felt what I felt and everything while the skill was active. At least I believed so. For all I know, it might just be even more terrifying if you can feel your body moving without being able to do anything. But Saria never mentioned anything of feeling robbed of her movement.

While using the skill, Saria's appearance also drastically changed for the duration of the Take Over. Her skin became more dark-tinted and a layer of "living shadow", for a lack of better word, which I assumed was me, formed around her. Her small hands suddenly had sharp shadowy claws made of these living shadows, the small horns on her head felt way longer, and fangs around her mouth formed which felt like something a real alpha-predator would sport.

Now, for whatever reason, I quickly had to adapt to this skill of ours, because the second time I attempted using it during the day, a pack of weird rat-like creatures approached us out of nowhere. They were kind of rat-like, except they had large antler~esque horns sticking out of their head seemingly at random. And lest we not forget, they were huge. As big as a large dog. And Saria herself was pretty small in the first place.

They weren't really a match at all though. Saria's body combined with my Take Over skill gave me incredible agility and power. It surprised me how easy it was dealing with these antler-rats, but I thought back on how easily I handled those summoner guys and it made perfect sense. With four of these weird looking rats aiming to eat us for dinner, I managed to take two out in consecutive blows. The remaining ones were startled at my display, and I managed to hurt Saria's hands when punching those pests. Not as much as last time though, so it was an improvement. The rats still flew quite a distance after I hit them and died in a single hit. They were rather squishy and one of them almost exploded when I hit it.

One of the two remaining rats attempted to attack now, with the final one being undecided what to do. Unlike Earth rats, their tails were being used as weapons. Like fencing swords, it continued trying to stab at me, learning not to get too close to me like it's other two compadres, almost landing a hit had it not been for my reaction time and my ability to actually react in time due to my increased speed.

I figured it would be a good idea to try seeing just how effective some of these claws and fangs I had on Saria were, and sure enough, they were pretty damn effective. All I needed was one clean cut, and the attacking rat had it's innards completely sliced. Talk about an effective weapon, with a simple swipe of my hand, I could cut something like this easily.

The remaining one recoiled after hearing it's brethren let out a loud screech in agony, but I wanted to try the fangs on my face as well. Biting a rat wasn't something I had ever wanted, but the fangs my shadowy figure generated weren't actually attached to Saria's mouth, just on the layer of shadow around her. I took a good bite, making sure Saria's mouth didn't actually come into contact with it, and again, it had a devastating effect.

The injuries on the rat I bit were enough to make it harmless to me. If the attack itself hadn't killed it, the bleeding thereafter certainly would. It did manage to whack me a few times with it's tail while I was gorging into it, but that was the extent of the damage. I did eventually let go of the poor creature as it coiled around in pain and would have bit me back if I didn't create distance. It was all but over for the poor thing as it let our it's final screech. At the end of the day, using claws and fangs were totally the way to go. It didn't damage Saria's body at all, and meant I could go all out in one swing, even if I still had to be careful not to accidentally shred her arms due to high friction.

I made sure there weren't any other creatures who suddenly got in the mood for a brawl and returned back to being a shadow of hers easily.

(Saria) "W- Wow. You really are strong, mister shadow."

(Draven) «Those rats were nothing.»

(Saria) "Rats? Weren't those fae?"

(Draven) «Is that what they're called?»

(Saria) "I think those animals were fae."

(Draven) «You're telling me that animals have different names here than what I'm used to. That's going to be annoying to remember...»

(Saria) "I think there are really strong fae too. I can't remember, but they look much more scary than they did in the picture books. Fae are these animals with horns that look different from mine."

(Draven) «Hm, they didn't seem to be much of a challenge.»

(Saria) "Of course not, mister shadow! Shadow beasts are really strong too, much more than a fae."

(Draven) «Looks like it. By the way, what about your hands?»

Saria was clearly trying to cover up her knuckles I used to beat the first two of the pack. She is trying not to show weakness, huh?

(Saria) "This is nothing. I can take it."

(Draven) «Uh-huh... Still, you've been using your magic to heal them, right?»

(Saria) "It's really the only thing I can do though..."

(Draven) «So what? Still amazing that you're able to do that. I don't really get why you hate your magic so much, but I would have given a lot for your tricks back in my world.»

I guessed a little encouragement like that wouldn't change her obvious self-doubting much, but she still looked downwards with a slight blush on her cheeks, hopefully because she got complimented, not because of the other reason why people suddenly blush.