"Wanna eat..."

"Do you want it raw? If not, wait."

"But I'm hungry... Can't it go any fassster?"

"Oh sure! Hey fire, mind spontaneously getting hotter? He wants it to cook faster."

"Don't need to be meeeaaan..."

"Well I'm sorry, but you've been at this for... I don't know, HALF AN HOUR? It will be ready, when it's ready. Give it ten, more, minutes. Please. I beg of you."

"Well, assss your massster, I will accept your request."

A silent rage threatened to burn right into the wyrm's mind, but it simmered down shortly after. "Oh, sorry master. But if you're so great I suppose you don't need to be resting, hm? Wanna go do some extra fishing on your own? More to eat, given you're oh so hungry."

As for the wyrm itself, it was currently curled around Jaden's neck. Hanging around him like a scarf, it was surprisingly flexible.

"Yooou... Make a fair point. Very well my... Completely equal partner, we can wait right heeere for a little longer." They held on a little tighter at Jaden's half threat. Very much not wanting to be sitting on their own in the cold. Especially not wanting to have further experience with freezing cold water.

"That's what I thought."

It still felt odd to Jaden, speaking in an entirely new mental language. He could tell that this wasn't any normal language. Instead moreso thoughts that formed themselves into coherent words that both parties would understand. But he'd get used to it in time.

Jaden sat at a wyrm made fire, cooking a skewed fish over the flame. As annoying as it was making itself, Jaden wouldn't deny that he was useful. And that it was something to talk to. If you asked him he'd say that annoying company was better then crippling silence. Buuuut they probably wouldn't tell that to the wyrm. It was already plenty self confident, it didn't need more incentive to be smug.

As for how they'd gotten to this point. After Jaden fashioned an impromptu spear out of a appropriate tree branch. (Or at least he thought it was a tree branch.) Jaden had engaged in a particularly favored hobby of his, spearfishing. And he was fairly good at it, managing to catch two fish on the first go. Luckily, they didn't seem like empowered monster fish. So they went down pretty easily.

At one point, the wyrm had even tried to immitate him. He had crawled down from atop his perch and stood still at the wayside. Shortly after stabbing one of it's claws into the water when it saw a fish. It was cute, though both he and Jaden quickly regretted that.

One. He didn't even get anywhere near it and ended up scaring it away. And two, the water was freezing cold and he immediately climbed back up to Jaden's shoulder in search of warmth. Sending Jaden toppling to the ground with the sudden imbalance of weight. Jaden hadn't been all that happy with the wyrm after that had happened.

"Cooold..."

"Yeah, so I heard. If you're gonna flip out about it though, maybe don't dip into the freezing cold water? Just a thought, hm?"

"..."

After that exchange, Jaden didn't have much more luck with fishing, so he set to gathering firewood. And after a few minutes, he'd acquired a sizable amount. Most of it was rather wet though, and wouldn't make for the best of fire wood. He'd need a pretty good kick-starter...

"Uh, hey?"

"Yesssss?"

"You wouldn't happen to have any way to uh, light this? Wyrm's are basically baby dragons right? Might you have some some kind of breath weapon that could light it?"

"What is thissss breath weaponnnn... That you speak of? I want it..."

"Well you know what your abilities and skills are, right? Do you have something that sounds like a breath skill?"

"Hmmmm... Let me ssssee..."

Jaden waited for a moment before the wyrm spoke again.

"Yessss... Dragonsss breath... 'Sssspew elemental attacks corressssponding to your affinity'... Doesss that sssound.. Appropriate?"

"Yeah, that sounds about right. Do you know how to use it?"

"Yessss... Obssserve my work..."

After that declaration, the wyrm once again crawled down from Jaden's shoulder. Strutting in front of the pile of wood. It opened it's little mouth wide, and a black glow began to come out of it. A high pitched noise emanated from the wyrm's throat, before a small ring of energy rocketed out from it's throat! It crashed into the wood and dissipated onto the messy logs, creating a black tinged fire upon the wood. It emenated heat just as any other fire would, though Jaden wouldn't lie and say it wasn't a little off-putting.

After a moment, he looked down at the little wyrm standing proudly beneath his gaze. After a moment, he shrugged and thought, Ah for the hell of it.

"Good job little guy, would've been much harder without you." Jaden reached down an arm for the wyrm to climb up onto in tandem with his praise.

And that combination of actions, was a mistake.

...

"Sssee without me we would've been freezzzing by now... Aren't you grateful to me? Without m-"

"I GET IT! You're a great help thank you, now PLEASE can you talk about something else other then your own greatness?! It has been at least ten minutes of this! How do you not get tired of it?!" Jaden's eyes practically popped out of his skull even while he twisted a skewered fish over the fire.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Hm? What elssse ssshould I talk about then hm...? I am perfectly content to sssing my own praisssesss..."

"Ok, you want to talk about yourself!? How about you tell me what you can do then? But so help me, if you start praising yourself midway through I'm putting you on mute. "

"What even isss this... 'mute'?"

"It's called, SILENCE!"

"I don't even think that'sss posssible..."

"I'm WILLING to try if you keep this up much longer."

"Very well... What would you like to hear about?..."

"Ok, how about you just tell me what your stats are?"

"And how might I do tha... Oh... I sssee..."

"Hm? See what?"

"Nnnothing... Merely being ssshown the way..."

"Oooookay?"

"My ssstatsss... Eleven ssstrength... Fourteen dexterity... Ten conssstitution... Ssseven Wisssdom... Fourteen capacccity... Twelve intelligenccce... Four charisssma... And lassstly... Sssixteen manipulation..."

Jaden took a quick look at his own stats, and glanced back at the wyrm. "And you're... Level one?"

"Yesss..."

Well that hardly seems fair. Jaden thought to himself as he glanced at his stats again

Jaden, human.

Level 3

Strength 6

Dexterity 8

Constitution 15

Wisdom 13

Capacity 18

Intelligence 12

Charisma 17

Manipulation 18

Abilities, Planeswalker.

"...Good for you little man."

"Yesss... I know... Inf-"

"Abahbahbahbah do NOT start! Tell me about your skills next, please."

"Mmmmm... Not yet, I am hungry... Very... Hungry..."

"What did all of that mental talking tire you out?"

"No... I've been... Hungry... Ssstarving... I've never even... Eaten before."

"Oh yeah... With how fluent a conversation you can hold I kind of forgot you were just born, sorry little guy."

"It isss... Fine... It isss sssimply a fault of my grea-..." Jaden stared hard at the Wyrm, and it reconsidered It's next words. "It isss sssimply a fault of... My failure to inform you... Of my... Hunger..."

"Right... Well, feel free to tell me about it in the future."

That, was also a mistake.

"I am... Ssstill rather hungry..."

"Oh, my god. Can it wait just another three minutes? Unless of course, you are alright with eating something raw? Or is that too distasteful for you? If so, WAIT."

For the past fifteen minutes, he'd been going on and on about how hungry he was. It really was easy to forget that the wyrm had quite literally just been born with how fluent it was in mental conversation. But they still acted like quite the child.

"Fine... Three minutesss. you promissse?..."

"Yes, just give it three minutes, and it will be ready. Please."

"Very well..."

For the first time in, Jaden wasn't sure, a little less then an hour? He had a short respite of blessed quiet. It would never be really silent, this was a forest. But it was peaceful. Though after a minute or so, his free hand drifted up to the wyrm quietly resting around his neck. Lightly stroking the scales on his head.

"What are you doing?..."

Jaden stopped his hand and brought it back down after realizing that they were infact petting the, all pretenses dropped, wild animal. "Sorry, just kind of did it absentmindedly."

"I did not sssay ssstop... I Merely asssked... What you were... Doing..."

"I mean, would you like me to keep petting you?"

"Isss that what It'sss called?... And... Yesss..."

"Well, alright. That I will then."

...

Jaden pulled a second fish off the fire, fully done. "Now I swear, you'd best be full with this. Or at least not actively complaining anymore. These two fishes alone are literally half the size of your body."

"Do not underessstimate... How much I need to... Eat..."

"Alright, but seriously. I'm genuinely getting a bit tired of this little guy. Here."

Jaden held the skewer up to the little beastie, and he took to it ravenously. The entire thing was gone in a bit under a minute.

"You know, you're gonna get indigestion like that."

"What is this... Indigessstion..."

"Your stomach will hurt real bad."

"Ah... I'd rather not get it then..."

"Maybe slow down the eating a bit in the future then, huh little guy? Actually speaking of that. I do need to call you something besides little guy. I mean, at least I think I do? Do you want a name?"

"A name... Yesss... I want it..."

"Alright then, how's Kurori sound?"

"Yesss... I likesss it..."

"Alright then, Kurori it is!" I'll just leave out that I'm basically calling him blacklight... It sounds good enough on it's own, no need to burst his bubble.

"Alright, now what do you say t-"

Jaden heard pounding footsteps in the distance.

"Do you hear that?"

"Yesss..."

"Is it just me or is that getting closer? Like pretty quickly?"

"Yesss... We ssshould move..."

"Might be a bit late!"

Jaden got up in a frenzy and immediately tore away into the denser forest. But by the time he'd been moving, he was already late. From out of the dense foliage bursted a huge charging boar like creature! And with a tremendous roar, it came straight at him. Tusks aimed for his chest.