Darkness surrounds me as my body flies backwards or at least I think I am flying backwards. The darkness is absolute, nothing with which to gauge the speed of my backwards travel just a gut feeling. I don't know what I'm heading towards and the memories of where I am coming from are rapidly dwindling. I remember the feeling of a light rain on my face, a cold hard surface on my back, and the noise of people bustling around me. My thoughts race as I try to remember more, a car racing towards a little girl, acting not thinking and then just pain and the rain.

My backwards movement feels like its slowing but I have no real way of knowing. A light appears above me as I come to a stop. Like one of those cheesy movie moments with the disembodied light hanging above, creating a perfect circle below on nothing. There is just me and the cone of light surrounded by what feels like infinite darkness. I can hear the clicking of heels from behind me but I cant seem to turn towards it. The clicking gets closer and closer and then she comes into view. She looks like a regular woman, black hair in a bun on the back of her head a dark red dress and black high heels.

She turns to look at me as she reaches the other side of the cone of light. "Hello", she says flatly.

I try to open my mouth to speak but I have no mouth, no body. My thoughts being to spiral into what I can feel will be a panic attack.

"Do not worry", she says smiling, "You are safe now."

*Safe!? how can I be safe, I cant move, cant speak, and i have no idea where I am.*

"Well I can help with some of that."

click

I shudder as feeling blossoms in my limbs, I turn my head side to side finally being able to look around. Unsurprisingly it is darkness in every direction other than the light.

"What is this?", I ask tentatively "I remember rain, a girl, and a car. Now I am here?"

"Well, here is neither here nor there. You haven't passed through yet but you can if you wish, or you can try again. We always leave it up to you to choose", She states with a calming tone.

"Ya... That was cryptic, care to elaborate?"

"You died, but you died well. You saved her which is all that really matters now because that means you get to choose."

"What do you mean choose?". *Who was the girl? Was she important to me? I try to remember more but nothing more is forth coming.*

"You get to choose your next life, or to move on. I cant answer who she was, but yes she was important.", She answers patiently.

"Move on?", I hope for more elaborate answers as my anxiety continues to build. I realize I didn't ask those last two questions out loud, *can she read my mind?*

"Yes I can, it helps to make sure that I do not misunderstand you. Moving on is simply that, moving on. The essence that is you gets reabsorbed by the whole. I will try to give you as much information as possible, but I wont be able to answer all of your questions, that is out of my power.", Her eyes soften "You don't have to be anxious about this part, we can take as much or as little 'time' as you need."

"Okay, that doesn't sound very good for me, why would I choose that?"

"Then you're choosing to continue your cycle, excellent!", she claps excitedly. "Since you died in a heroic manner you are able to choose what Race you will come back as. Unfortunately you wont be able to come back in the same universe you left, but I think you'll enjoy this one thoroughly"

"Um, I guess you're correct. Moving on sounds like obliteration.", skeptical of her change in tone.

"Yes yes yes. So what race would you like to be?", Her smile growing wider.

"What are my choices?", My anxiety dwindles as my curiosity grows. I still cant help but feel like she is leaving things out.

"Oh I am, like I said, I can't tell you everything. As to your question, You'll be reborn in what you would call a fantasy world. The primary races are the usual; humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, dragons. The reason I think you'll like is due to how much you enjoyed your RPGs that you spent most of your life playing."

*Did she say dragons? Like I can actually be a dragon?!?*

"Yes", she says, seeming disappointed. "You can be dragon, terrible choice though. They start incredibly weak for good reason."

I cut her off, "I choose dragon!"

"Oh come on, not another one! You get a choice and automatically choose the WORST one"

"Dragon."

"Please choose something else!"

"DRAGON!"

"Fine. Fine, if you want to die within a week and come back here WITHOUT the choice next time. I think I'll make you a goblin when that happens, they like to eat their babies after all so it might be a back to back visit if you're unlucky." She visibly deflates as she seems to realize I won't reconsider. "What type do you want to die as?"

"Well I dont intend to die again, but what types are there?", My mind is reeling that I'll actually get to be a freaking dragon! I thought she was messing with me after the first few race choices.

"They are dragons, If you can think of a type it probably exists", Her attitude has changed to that of some one that is just doing their job and now wants me out of her hair.

"Okay, hmm.", I start to ponder my different choices. All the different types of dragons I have ever heard of start rattling around in my brain but one dominates them all, Astral. Ever since I first read about them when playing Dungeons and Dragons I thought they were incredibly cool, minus the whole eventually going insane part. "What about Astral dragons?"

"There is no Astral sea so they dont exist as you're thinking but there are Celestial or Star dragons as some call them. That would be the closest. A word of warning though, You're choosing a race that already starts handicapped due to it's infinite growth and choosing a Celestial dragon will handicap you even further due to their rarity."

I hesitate for a momemt, her warnings about being weak quickly overshadowed by infinite growth. My mind solidly made up "I choose Celestial Dragon! Final answer"

"Well I didnt ask if it was your final answer but I get your meaning. Fine you can be a celestial dragon, but when you're back here in a week I'm making you into a goblin.", She states as we walks by me "See you soon." The clicking of her heels slowy dwindling to nothing behind me.

The light above winks out and I find my self in complete darkness again. This time though I can feel something pressing into me from all sides, a sticky substance coats my whole body and I cant seem to move very well. I start pushing back against the pressure on me but nothing seems to work. I try to wiggle my body around to see if maybe I can push the pressure off me somehow no amount of moving seems to change the pressure though. I move my head around to try to find something that will help me move as I do the tip of my nose seems to catch on whatever it is thats pressing in on me. I push back and there is a small cracking sound from where my nose has gotten caught on. I push with all my might straining my neck and back to shove with everything I have. The cracking sound grows louder and then suddenly the pressure on my head is released as what I realize is an egg breaks open.

I immediately stick my head out of the opening I created, and start to try and claw my way out of the hole. The shell easily cracks as my shoulders and then body comes free as soon as my body is half way out of the shell it topples over and spills me onto the ground. My body feels strange as I stretch out my head feels like its on the end of a long noodle and my arms are much shorter than I remember. My noodle neck allows me to turn my head in unexpected ways though allowing me to easily get a look at my body.

*I'm really a dragon!*

My body seems to be equally distributed into neck, torso, and tail. My scales are a deep purple color almost black with dark reds and blues spattered thoughout making each scale look like it has a small nebula. The three distinct parts being roughly one third of the over all length. My hind legs are much thicker than my fore legs with larger claws on the end. The top of my torso has small wings attached which I immediately stretch out to their maximum width. Dissappointing is an understatement. There is no way these dinky little things could make it possible to even glide let alone fly.

*Well, at least my scales are cool!*

I flick my tail back and forth to see how easy it is to manipulate and accidently crush part of my shell that was still intact. Maneuvering it comes naturally enough but I clearly need to practice more with it if I expect to use it in any meaningful way. I practice with it for a few minutes gleefully breaking the fallen shards of my shell into smaller pieces.

I roll my head around to see what the limits of movement are on my neck and realize that my vision is much different from what I am used to. I can see behind my head quite a bit further than what I expected. Memories of why eyes evolved in the place they evolved immediately flood my mind.

*Wait a second, dont prey have side mounted eyes to allow them to see behind them more?? Why does a dragon have eyes that are closer to a preys' eyes?*

I try to bend my neck backwards to see how far it can go and find that I can get my head back almost to between where my 'wings' are.

*Well thats interesting, at least I can scratch my own back! I wonder if I can stand on my back legs*

I try to pull my body up onto my back legs and realize that my front legs are not nearly strong enough to just push up into an upright position. I vainly try to flap my wings thinking that might help with the pushing but all I manage to do is cool myself off a little bit.

*I wonder if I can leverage my tail to help as well*

Pushing with my legs and flapping my little wings as hard as I can a straighten out my tail and flick it trying to leverage the momentum of the tail to pick up the front of my body. My front legs rapidly leave the ground and I perch on my back legs for a millisecond before crashing to the side and landing on my wing.

System Message [-1] HP {Blunt}

*What the hell is that*

I stare dumbfounded at the pop-up window floating in front of my eyes, momentarily distracted from the intense pain in my right wing. After a few seconds the window seems to minimize slightly out of view. Mentaly focusing on it brings the window back up in front of my eyes.

*Hmm, is this what she meant by not the same universe, am I in a video game??*

I roll myself back up onto my legs and try to assess the damage, the wing doesnt seem to be outwardly broken but when I stretch it out it hurts like sore muscle would.

*Well at least its not broken, but maybe I should only use those if I'm starting to get a little warm*

Not giving up on standing on my back legs I try to use just my front legs and tail. The second attempt goes much better but I end up putting to much into and flopping onto my back. This time I dont get a notification saying I damaged myself though.

*That first one must have been due to me having my wings extended and landing on them*

My third attempt goes much smoother, I dont use my front legs at all and just use them to try and balance as I leverage my tail to do all the work. Once I'm upright I use my tail to balance and my hind legs to support my weight. With my body upright I can check out my stomach and legs more clearly. The scales on my stomach are a much darker purple with the nebula parterns being brighter.

*Are they moving?*

For a minute I sit there dumbfounded as I realise the patterns on my scales are actually slowly shifting, with them bleeding into the scales next to them. Mesmerized by my own scales patterns I sit there for a few minutes just watching them. After finally coming out of my trance I take a better look at my two sets of legs. The hind legs being roughly double the thickness of my front legs and also a bit longer only hve three claws on them, each one being roughly half the width of my front legs. My front legs seem much easier to manipulate though and the five claws on ends look much closer to what a human hand would be. The 'thumb' for lack of a better term is closer to the fingers but still acts as an opposable thumb.

*That's interesting, I wonder if I will still be able to use tools like I could as a human.*

A few memories trickle into my mind of writing and typing but no details manifest outside of that.

*If memories keep trickling back in like this that could be a huge boon depending on the technological advancement of this world.*

As that thought crossed my mind the pangs of hunger start to grow with in my stomach.

*Well so much for exploring myself more.*

I take my first real look around the area and realize that I'm in the back of a cave. The walls are quite tall from my perspective with large gouges in the sides and floor. The gouges could easily fit my entire body in them and ran the entire length of the cave. The back of the cave seemed to be a semi flat area with a slope leading down to an opening that had bright light. My egg shell sat almost all the way to the back wall of the cave.

*Was this cave dug just for my egg? Did my progenitor dig it and then place the egg in here or did some other massive creature dig this cave out and then it was just used to place my egg in after the fact?*

Testing to see if I could dig like that as well I rolled my body forwards and landed back on my front legs. The entire motion feeling incredibly natural. I started trying to dig with my front claws into the rock of the cave, my claws dug into the rock a little bit but only enough to make a small scratch in the surface.

*Looks like I just keyed this cave. Keyed? Weird so I can still remember arbitrary things like keying a car but I cant remember my name or anything else actively. It's good to know the memories are still in there somewhere*

I explore the cave for a few minutes to see if there is anything else of note but find nothing. My stomach lets out a small growl as I am searching and the pains grow a little bit.

*I wonder if the egg shell is edible for me*

I go over and hesitantly pick up a small piece of shell with my mouth and bite down, outside of the strange gritty texture it seems to be fine and I swallow. The fluid that covers the shell actually tastes quite good but the shell itself its bland.

*If the fluid tastes good that must mean it has some value to me as nutrition*

I start lapping up the fluid with my tongue and realize as I am that my tongue is forked like a snakes. The bottom of the egg shell is filled with a good amount of the fluid and my stomach fills up before I am able to finish more than a quarter of what's left.

*Well that's good, at least I have some sustenance for a little bit, but food is going to be a problem. I guess it's time for me to leave this cave and survey my surroundings*

As I make my way down the slope out of my little hatchery cave I notice that there are a lot more gouges in the floor and wall towards the entrance.

*Definitely a dug cave then and not a natural one that was just added onto. Hopefully whoever left my egg in here at least found a good spot for me.*

As I get closer to the exit of the cave I notice that the light is incredibly bright. I have to take a few moments to allow for my eyes to adjust to the difference in luminosity. While I'm waiting for that to happen I start to notice the sounds of the surrounding area. I can hear birds in the distance and the rustling of leaves in the wind. I reach the end of the cave and peer out into what looks like a jungle with massive trees.

*Are those redwoods or something!? Those trees are HUGE!*

The cave entrance is surrounded by a small wall of dirt and rocks beyond the earthen fortification is a large forest with massive trees and dense vegetation. I climb to the top of my little wall and see that I'm actually up a mild slope and the forest floor is quite a distance below me. Behind me the cave looks like it was dug into a cliff face that is easily half as tall as the trees.

*So whoever left me here at least gave me a defensible spot for my little home, how nice of them. I wonder if they are still around or if I'm just expected to survive on my own. No point hoping they come back, I need to start looking for some food.*

I listen to my surroundings for a few minutes just taking in the beauty of this forest. The trees alone are an incredible sight but the sounds of vibrant life are what catch my attention the most. I can hear what sounds like running water off to my right and decide that is probably a good thing to check out first.

*I'm assuming I'll need a source of water even though I'm a dragon. Humans can live a lot longer without food than they can without water after all. Hmm, more information that I just know from my previous life but still no more memories.*

I climb down the slope with ease and start moving off into the underbrush. After a few minutes of traveling through the brush I come upon the moving water that I heard from my cave. The water is relatively slow moving but it is quite a wide body of water. I can see that it meanders deeper into the forest and that there seems to be a water fall coming off the top of the cliff. I move close to the base of the cliff and see that it drops in a large pond. I can see life moving around in the pond, what looks like fish swimming around and some vegetation in the deeper spots.

*I wonder if I can swim*

I jump into the water and immediately start sinking. I can feel my nostrils instinctively close and my eyesight becomes much cloudier than I expected as my head goes under the water. It feels like there is a covering over my eyes though because they don't get irritated by having water in them like I expected. I try to keep myself a float but it seems pretty futile so I start to claw my way back to the edge of the pond.

*So swimming doesn't seem to be that great but at least I didn't get water in my nostrils. The eye thing is weird though, it's almost like I have a second eyelid that was protecting my eyes. I wonder if that's for when I can eventually fly. I would really like to catch one of those fish though, if I can do that at least I have a food source for awhile.*

I decide to wait by the edge of the pond to see if any fish come close. While waiting I keep trying to get down the act of getting up onto my back legs. After quite a few attempts I have an epiphany and realize my front legs are a hinderance when trying to get up onto my back legs. They are far to short and I end up putting a lot of my weight forwards instead of rocking back on my legs. After that realization I manage to use just my tail to get up onto my back legs and it feels far more natural than using my front legs.

*I have a lot of bad habits I'm going to need to break. Using my 'arms' to do everything is certainly not helping me.*

After I manage to get up onto my back legs I settle in to wait if some of the fish my swim closer to me. It takes a bit but eventually a few of the smaller fish come closer to the edge of the water. When they get within what I feel is my range a pounce, mouth open wide neck extended fully. I feel my second eyelids close over my eyes and my nostrils close preemptively as I jump towards the water. I splash into the water and feel the fish in my mouth as I snap my jaws shut. The fish starts violently flapping in my jaws but I manage to barely hold onto it as I pull myself back out of the water.

*Haha, first try! I'm a natural Fisherdragon!*

After I manage to pull myself and the fish out of the water I pin it down on the ground. Not wanting it to flop away I keep it pinned down with my mouth and the skewer it with my front claws. The fish keeps flopping around even though it's been impaled on my claw. The flopping fish manages to overpower my front leg and starts flopping around wildly. I snap at it with my jaws frantically trying to prevent it from getting back into the water. My first bite misses entirely and all I manage to bite is dirt

*Well note to self, dirt doesn't taste good to dragons either*

My second bite is much more accurate and I manage to get the fish around the head. Not wanting to lose the fish I bite down as hard as I can severing the fish's head from its body.

System Message Level 0 Fish Defeated Choose Attribute Distribution

The window popping up in my vision surprises me causing me to drop the fishes head from my jaws.

*just like a video game this is so cool! Attribute to increase, that seems interesting*

As if the thought itself was enough another window pops up in front of the first

Attribute Distribution Would you like to distribute earned points to: STR or AGI?

*weird are there only two attributes? That seems like a very limited selection of attributes for a game. I wonder if there is some sort of character sheet*

Once again the thought itself brings up a massive window filled with a ton of information

System Message: Character Sheet Open? Y/N

*well I guess that answers that question, I wonder why I can only choose STR or AGI for the attribute increase though. I wonder if there is a help system*

No new window immediately pops up.

*um how about TUTORIAL! Nothing there either, hehe GAME MENU! Dang nothing there either.*

I turn back to the attribute distribution window that I already have open.

*hmm strength or agility, I think strength would probably be better for now it seemed like my agility was enough to at least get the fish*

Confirm Distribution: STR Y/N

*Sure.*

Y/N

*Really you can read my mind but you need specifically a Yes or No to accept it?*

The Y/N system message flashes once.

*YES!*

Attributes earned for slaying Level 0 Fish assigned to: STR STR Increased by 1 New STR Score: 2

*Wow a single fish DOUBLED my strength!? I need to go catch another one, can't let this farming opportunity got to waste!*

I perch back up on my hind legs watching the water intently. The sound of the water fall to my right is quite soothing and I find myself thoroughly enjoying this entire adventure. It only takes a few minutes before another fish starts swimming towards me. I wait patiently hoping that it continues swimming in my direction. When it gets within range I start to coil my body up preparing to launch forwards, feeling the power in my back legs that seems to have grown by quite a bit. I release the built up energy surging forwards, as I start to move I hear a snapping sound above my head and my body is pressed down into the water. Pain erupts from my left shoulder as I feel my body being pressed down into the water and then the mud below the water.

System Message [-2] HP {Piercing}

*What was that!?!*

The pressure quickly releases from my body and I immediately start clawing my way out of the mud. As I reach the shore I can hear the splashing of whatever attacked me in the pond, the waves of it's thrashing reach up to my belly scales as I get to dry land.

*Whatever that was must be MASSIVE*

I start running as fast as my legs can carry me back to my small cave. There doesn't seem to be anything following me, but I still don't want to risk another run in with something that large. My small home is easy for me to find and I scale the small hill going up into it and go all the way to the back of the cave.

*I think I should wait this one out for a bit, I don't know what that was but clearly it was trying to eat me. I guess it would be a good idea to explore that character sheet in more detail*

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

System Message: Character Sheet

Just focusing on the message cause the character sheet to expand in front of me.

Race: Celestial Dragon Health: 7/10 Stamina: 30% Stage: Baby Attributes: Traits: Skills: STR: 2 Breath: 1 None CON: 1 Claws: 1 DEX: 1 Jaws: 1 AGI: 1 Scales: 1 PER: 1 Wings: 1 WIS: 1 INT: 10 CHA: 1

*Hmm, Baby Celestial Dragon. So she wasn't lying, I wonder what other types there are. I guess what they say is true 'haste makes waste' I really should've asked more questions, she did say we had as much time as I needed after all. No point worrying about that now though. The Health portion makes sense, I do need to be much more careful though since I've already taken 30% of my health in damage in just the short time I've been here, I hope it naturally regens some how. My stamina though is almost completely depleted, that explains why I feel tired after that mad dash back to my cave! It's nice to have a metric for how tired I am though. I wonder what would happen if I drain it fully?*

I start sprinting from one end of my cave to the other, the slight slope making the runs back up to the back of my cave slightly harder, after a few laps it feels like my body is ready to collapse. I start looking over the rest of my character sheet noting the different parts, Attributes seems pretty straight forwards. My intelligence being a ten seems odd when all of my other Attributes are a measly one, except for strength being a two.

*I guess that makes sense as to why I can still think though, I wonder what an intelligence of one would look like though. I need to test this new strength attribute though, how much of a difference does that make, is it actually double?*

I look around my cave to find something to test my new found strength on and notice the small scratch I had made earlier in the floor. Moving over to it I put my front index claw next to the old scratch and scrape down into the rock as hard as I can. After pulling my claw away the gouge in the cave floor is noticeably deeper.

*It certainly seems like it could be double the depth, no real way of knowing without some sort of measuring device.*

I stick my claw into each scratch and it does seem to be roughly twice as deep. Looking back to my character sheet I start looking over the different pieces.

*Traits and skills, hmm that's interesting. So I have no skills, I feel like that's a load of crap, I should at least have a fishing skill! The traits seem interesting though; Breath, Claws, Jaws, Scales, and Wings. Wait a second, Breath? like fire breathing???*

I immediately take a massive inhale and try to blow out fire. Instinctually I can feel parts of my body reacting to my desire to breath out a weapon but all that comes out is a dark purple smoke that seems to linger in the air before slowly dissipating.

*Um, definitely not fire, but what is that?*

My curiosity is piqued by this strange smoke I can breath out so I do it again and try to get a sense for what it might do, sniffing the smoke I find the odor to be not unpleasant but it also doesn't seem to do anything. Walking into it doesn't seem to affect me at all, but that's probably better than me killing myself with my own breath.

*Maybe it doesn't do anything yet? I wish I could pull up more detailed explanations as to what each thing was.*

Mentally I picture myself tapping on the "breath" trait but nothing seems to happen.

*I'll have to test this on different things to find out what it actually does.*

Looking at the cave surrounding me I try to exhale my breath onto the walls, they seem entirely unaffected by the smoke. So I move onto the other traits, filing "test breath weapon" away on my to do list.

*Claws, Scales, Jaws, and Wings; they all seem like normal traits I would be expecting. I wonder how I can go about making them stronger. Does it just happen over time or do I need to actively try to make them stronger?*

I guess I'll have to do more testing with these different aspects after getting some rest, my stamina bar regained around 5% during my testing and introspection.

*Well at least that regenerates fairly quickly, I do need to be careful though. I feel like I was lucky that I escaped from what ever that thing was... I hope it didn't follow me.*

With that little bit of anxiety kicking in I start thinking about my day so far. Breaking out of my shell, finding out that my shell contains at least a little bit of nutrients to get me through the first few days of being a dragon was a huge boon. Thinking back on my adventure to the pond I realize I left that uneaten fish on the edge of the pond.

*Damn, I was in such a rush I didn't even think to scoop that up as I ran by. Whatever that thing was that attacked me not only ended my fishing trip but also probably stole my dinner!*

I move back to the mouth of my cave and look out, noticing that it has become much darker. Deciding that waiting until tomorrow might be a better idea I decide to curl up just inside my cave and watch the sunset through the canopy. The forest starts to grow a lot quieter over the next hour or so of me just observing, the birds that have been constantly making noise through out the day have dwindled to only a few calls here and there. The wind is still rustling through the canopy but I cant help but feel content in my new environment. Outside of something trying to kill me this has been quite the enjoyable day. As the sunsets fully I notice that my vision starts getting better as the stars begin to come out.

*Well that's unexpected.*

My vision continues to grow better as darkness fully takes over the forest, It's not like what I remember from being a human. The trees and brush seem to have an ethereal glow and I can even see what looks like shapes moving around in the distance. I can't tell how far away they are but it looks like varying sized clouds of a light purple color moving throughout the forest. When I look up I can see those same purple clouds up in the canopy, these clouds look smaller but seem to have groups of them throughout the canopy.

*What are those?*

My curiosity getting the better of me I pick myself up and start moving towards a cloud I can see back towards the pond. As I close the distance I can see more and more of the clouds moving around further away. The initial cloud I saw seems to have stopped moving around so I continue towards that. As I get closer to the cloud it seems like it's actually underground, my suspicions confirmed when I get to the cloud and find that it's underneath the forest floor. The cloud is about the size of my body and seems to be rhythmically pulsing. Looking around for a few minutes I find a burrow hole nearby.

*Am I seeing animals?*

The cloud that is now below me starts to move directly towards the burrow hole that I found. I decide to wait at the opening of the hole to see what comes out. I lay my body completely flat within striking distance of the hole, coiling my neck back so that I can still reach it quickly with my jaws. The cloud stops moving as though it's responding to my movements.

*Hmm, So it must have sensed me moving some how. I guess I'll wait here for a bit to see what else happens. I can't afford to tunnel vision like I did on that fish though*

I keep my head trained on the burrow hole noting where the cloud is but periodically move my eyes around to make sure I don't see anything else moving towards me. As I wait I notice the clouds in the distance go in and out of existence, some growing larger and then smaller. At one point I notice a cloud start rapidly moving across my vision seeming to chase another much smaller cloud. When the larger one catches the smaller one they seem to merge and rotate around each other for a moment or two before the smaller cloud dissipates. Not disappearing like like the previous clouds had but slowly dissolving into the darkness.

*Well that's interesting. I wonder what would cause them to dissipate into their surrounds like that.*

Mid thought I see the cloud underground start moving towards the burrow hole. After a few seconds of waiting I see a large head poke up out of the burrow hole. With the head poking up out of the hole I immediately notice that the light purple cloud that I can see extends slightly beyond being's body. It's completely covered in fur with two large ears protruding from the top of its head. One large eye dominating easily a third the side of its head it immediately locks onto me as it appears.

I strike forwards snapping my jaws as I feel contact with its head. It's fast, much faster than me and all I manage to catch is the tips of its ears as it retracts fully into its burrow. I can taste some blood and fur in my mouth, but I fail to get a good hold on it.

*Was that a Giant Rabbit? I've never in my life... Previous life, seen a rabbit that is that large. I guess it's a good time to try out my breath*

I position my self over the top of the burrow, sticking my head slightly into the hole and exhale my breath into it. I can see my breath exiting my mouth and the purple smoke looks much darker than it did earlier, it's almost approaching a black color.

*Well that's strange. I could've sworn it was a brighter purple color earlier*

Pulling my head back out of the hole I can see my breath through the ground as it fills into the burrow, giving me a good idea as to how large the hole is. It looks like it's only a single passage way the expands out into a good sized cavity where the cloud that is the rabbit is hiding in. As my dark breath reaches the much lighter purple cloud it seems to infect it, veins of dark smoke creeping through the much lighter purple before starting to spread. The veins of darkness spreading and branching into hundreds of smaller veins, fully tainting the light purple of the rabbits cloud. The breath dissipates shortly after reaching the rabbit but the dark veins do not go away.

*Well that looks positively evil. I wonder what its actually doing though*

The rabbit still stays in its burrow, with the rhythmic pulsing of the cloud now accented by dark veins. The veins don't seem to grow but as I watch I see that they seem to be sucking the lighter purple away, the light purple cloud slowly becoming less dense. After a short amount of time the black veins seemed to withdraw back along the same path they had entered through. During this withdrawal I noticed that the veins seemed to be much more numerous at the center of the rabbit's cloud.

*That's interesting, so my breath weapon seems to drain whatever that purple cloud is.*

I perched back above the hole and stuck my head down in releasing another blast of my breath. Watching as the dark purple cloud filled the burrow out again I patiently waited for it to hit the rabbit. Once again when my breath cloud reached the rabbits cloud the black veins streaked back through the rabbit. They seemed to follow the same paths they did before but did so much more quickly. The light purple cloud continued to grow less dense as the almost black veins throbbed with the rhythmic pulses of the rabbit.

The cloud of the rabbit seemed to be around three quarters of the original density by the time the black veins started to withdraw. Right once I saw this happening I sent another blast down the hole and watched the results. The veins stopped their retreat when my breath hit the rabbit again and surged forwards. They seemed to grow slightly thicker as well before shrinking back down to the original size.

*Why did they thicken like that? Was it stacking the effect??*

Along this line of thought I sent a fourth blast down the hole following the third. When my breath hit the rabbit while the dark veins were still present they seemed to increase in thickness and then also shoot out new veins of darkness.

*So it does increase the effect of it. With that in mind I should just continue to blanket the hole in the breath to speed this up*

I perched back onto the top of the whole and tried to send another breath down into the hole to continue the stacking of whatever the veins of darkness were to hopefully reach the conclusion faster but I could feel a sense of fatigue deep within my being. The breath just didn't come, I exhaled simple air into the hole.

*Wait what? Is it a cooldown? A limited use? That's so annoying.*

I pulled up my character sheet to see if any more info like a cool down timer was present and to my dismay no such timer was present. Focusing on the location of that fatigue I gained a sense of where my breath came from. It was deep in the core of my being as a human I would have said it rested around my diaphragm. After locating it I noticed that I could feel a trickle of something entering it, slowly filling the emptiness back up.

*Hmm so it's like a gas tank that slowly refills. Well that's good to know. At least I can focus on it and find out if it's close to empty or not.*

I sat back and watched as the veins of darkness continued to drain the light purple clouds density. Realizing I hadn't been doing a great job watching my surroundings I did a quick survey of the surrounding area, the clouds I had seen earlier were still present. None of them seeming to be very close to me but there were a few in the opposite direction of my cave that I noticed travelling in a group. They seemed to be slowly making their way in my direction.

*Well I guess I need to finish here quick before whatever those are get to me.*

My decision was made for me as I noticed the rabbit start to move. The light purple cloud was easily half of it's initial density and still draining. The black veins were back to the original size but they were still more numerous than the first breath. I coiled my body ready to strike when its head appeared at the top of the hole. I didn't have to wait long as the ears appeared followed by its head and then its shoulders. I struck when I saw the top of it's head appear. Even with my pre-emptive strike the rabbit was still much faster than me. My bite hit it's upper shoulders, my jaws not large enough to fully enclose the rabbits shoulder but pinning one of its legs against it's chest.

As my teeth sunk into it the rabbit went into a frenzy. Kicking it's powerful back legs it yanked me from the ground sending both of us tumbling into the nearby brush.

System Message [-1] HP {Blunt}

I wasn't releasing my grip. My jaws locked tight on to the rabbits shoulders, the rabbit started kicking... me. The first kick caught my tail, I felt it but it didn't seem to hurt that much. The second kick caught me just above my hindlegs.

System Message [-1] HP {Blunt}

*Ouch, two can play that game*

Using my forelegs to get purchase on the rabbits body I brought my hindlegs up and raked down the rabbit with both, I could feel the large claws of my powerful legs catch in the rabbits soft belly. I pushed with all my might and I felt a pop as my hind legs ripped free, the rabbit still fighting but clearly losing its energy tried to jump again but could not lift us off the ground again. Another second passed of struggle but the rabbits strength had clearly left it. I noticed that the cloud surrounding the rabbit started to dissipate like the one I had seen previously.

System Message Level 1 Rabbit Defeated Choose Attribute Distribution

*Interesting, so that earlier cloud dissipating must have been that animal dying.*

Mentally minimizing the window I checked to see how far away the group was that head been heading towards me. They seemed to have heard my scuffle with the rabbit and were definitely moving in my direction now. They had also spread out, allowing me to see that there were five of them and the clouds were getting much larger.

*Crap. I need to get back to my cave fast, but I'm not giving up another meal!*

I started dragging the rabbits body using my mouth to hold onto it and dragging it backwards. During this process I noticed why the fight had gone out of it so quickly. My kick had managed to disembowel the rabbit its' intestines now made a line behind the rabbit's corpse that I was dragging along with me.

I kept dragging the body as quickly as I could while also using my larger cone of vision to try and keep an eye on the rapidly approaching group. By the time I was halfway back to my cave they had covered more than half of the distance to me. They were still a good distance away from my cave but I was cutting it very close. If I gave up and ran not only would they get a free meal but it would be the second time today that I had my food stolen from me.

I redoubled my effort of pulling the rabbit back to my home, this increased effort led to the rabbits body starting to tear, with the bottom half getting stuck on branches and rocks in my relentless dragging. The line of intestines and the trail of blood could be easily through the broken underbrush I had plowed through in my haste.

As I felt the incline up to my cave with my back legs the large group started to encircle me. The animal closest to the cliff slowing it's approach to allow for the others to get around me. My stamina was getting dangerously low from all of this effort, but I wasn't giving up now. As I crested the top of my small earthen wall they rushed me.

Out of the underbrush the largest wolves I had ever seen came charging out at me. If I had been standing next to them I might have come up to their knees if I was standing upright, on all fours they probably could've crushed me with just a single paw. The purple clouds I could see around them took up almost all of my vision and their mouths snapping with monstrously huge fangs.

*Fuck.*

The back of my body was barely into my cave as they reached the slope up into my cave, the rabbits lower half still up on the small wall around my cave. As I pulled its head and upper legs into the cave I felt the impact of the wolves mass hitting the cliff side around my cave. Their massive snapping maws grabbing the lower half of the rabbit and yanking. I barely managed to hold onto the rabbit as they began pulling it out of the cave, my claws digging into the stone of the cave as much as I could. The tug of war was clearly one sided, but fortune didn't abandon me entirely. All of that dragging had managed to severely weaken the rabbit's connective tissue, the tug of war was the final straw.

The body ripped in half, what was left of its intestines and most of its' organs dropping into the opening of my cave. The release of pressure caused me to roll backwards with the head and arms of the rabbit still firmly in my mouth. Not wasting a moment I sprinted back up the small incline of my cave. I could feel the hot air of the wolves breath as their snapping jaws entered my cave, fortunately the cave was not large enough for them to get more than their snouts into the cave.

My survival instincts took over and I dropped what little of the rabbit I had left and let loose a large blast of my breath, emptying everything that had been filled in my mad dash back to my cave. I exhaled for easily double of what I had previously and the dark purple cloud filled the entrance to my cave. The unfortunate wolf that had been trying to eat me took the blast right to the snout, I could see the black veins start to permeate his cloud. They looked miniscule compared to when they had been invading the rabbit, but the wolf immediately pulled back. The whimpers of the wolf could be heard over the growling of the other wolves.

I watched as it's massive cloud started to lose density, but it was nowhere near as effective as it was against the rabbit. The veins pulsing and drawing the density out as the wolf whimpered in pain. The other wolves seemed to take no notice and continued trying to dig into my cave and reach me with their mouths. Having nothing left in the tank I too what was left of the rabbit up into the back of my cave. Hoping that the wolves would leave me alone before they dug all the way into my cave.

I laid down at the back of my cave and ate what I could of the rabbit, Most of it being skull and fur there wasn't a ton of meat left but I still managed to fill up on the organs and little meat that were left. The idea of eating its brain was initially repulsive to me but I was hungry at this point and decide to try it. The flavor was amazing, easily over coming my initial hesitancy I cracked open the skull and devoured every last bit.

The wolves were still trying to break into my cave but they seemed to be making little or no progress in their endeavor. Out of spite I threw the remained of the rabbit at the wolf that was currently had it's snout in my home. The pieces bounced off of its nose but the greedy tongue lashed out and immediately pulled the pieces into it's mouth and retracted its snout from my cave with its meager prize.

I looked up to see if the wolf I had hit with my breath weapon was still being affected by it. At first it was hard to see because it was still in the back, but it seemed to be laying down away from the cave. The black veins were still there but they were now as thin as hair running through the massive cloud that made up the wolf. The overall density of the wolf was definitely less than that of it's pack but it was hard to tell by how much. It looked like maybe five or ten percent at absolute max.

*So clearly this cloud shows its health or something and they have a lot more than that rabbit did. That makes a lot of sense but I definitely hit it with close to 30% of my total breath capacity. So even if I dumped a full load of my breath into that wolf it would only take out a third of its health. I wonder if the deterrence for a smaller dose is the same.*

Another wolf took up trying to break into my cave after the second one had backed off with its treat. Noting how full my breath felt I decided to try it out. As I moved forwards to test how good of a deterrent my breath was I noticed that the fourth and fifth wolves seemed to be off to right the side of the cave a little bit close together.

*Hmm I wonder what they are doing.*

As I got within range of my breath, trying to stay back far enough that the wolf couldn't get me the snout withdrew from the cave. The wolf's eye appeared in the cave, looking in directly at me, reinvigorated the wolf launched its snout back into the cave. The ground beneath me shook with the impact it's front teeth almost catching me as it reached much farther into the cave than I expected. I leaped backwards and expelled around ten percent of my total breath capacity at the wolves snout. Immediately on contact with the wolves snout it bucked and hit the walls of my cave. The black veins shooting through the large light purple cloud of the wolf. As it retreated I could hear it whimpering in pain.

*Good, stay the FUCK out of my house!!*

With that test out of the way I backed up further into my cave and watched the clouds of the wolves move around, the second wolf joining four and five off to the side all huddled close together. The first and third wolf seemed to be laying down a small distance away from the group huddled together. The firsts black veins had visibly started to retreat from it's cloud but the third was still riddled with the thin hairs of black. As I watched the dark veins fully withdrew from the first wolf and it slowly moved over to the group that was huddling together.

*Are they eating the rabbit? That must be what they are doing, unless they are holding some sort of war council..*

I decided to curl up at the back of my cave and try to rest as much as I could. Finally calming down from almost being a wolves dinner I notice the slowly blinking window I had instinctively minimized earlier.

System Message Level 1 Rabbit Defeated Choose Attribute Distribution

Attribute Distribution Would you like to distribute earned points to: DEX or AGI?

*Interesting so the attributes you get aren't always the same, It doesnt seem to be based on the attributes used when killing the thing. I definitely used more strength this time than I did last time and it's still not an option. I wonder if I can choose both?*

Confirm Distribution: 50/50 DEX / AGI Y/N

*Well that answers that. Yes.*

Attributes earned for slaying: Level 1 Rabbit DEX Increased by 1 AGI Increased by 1 New DEX Score: 2 New AGI Score: 2

*Wait so if I had chosen to split it on the fish I would've gotten 1 in each. Ugh, what a waste.*

I spent the next few hours curled up like that, watching the wolves a the edge of my cave. During this time my breath organ fully refilled, making me feel whole again, when it was below full it felt like hunger pains but different. At one point two of them went off in the direction of the rabbit's burrow and then shortly came back, all five of them posting up a short distance from my cave.

System Message Skill Rank Up: Aura Sight Rank 0 -> Rank 1

*Wait what? How can a skill rank up that I didn't have!? Do skills just not show up on my character sheet if they are Rank 0?? So that's what I've been seeing this whole time, their Aura.*

The light purple clouds that make up the wolves had resolved into a much better approximation of the wolves, like a child drew some light purple circles and called it a 'dog'. I could now make out the wolves heads and bodies, the limbs could be seen but not made out clearly unless they were standing still.

*Well that was certainly unexpected, So just looking at the world through this mode of sight ranks it up. I wonder how it will change as I rank it up, should be interesting to see how my breath appearance changes with this.*

An incredibly dumb idea crosses my mind.

*I'm probably going to regret this...*

I think as I pick myself up off the ground and move to the front of my cave. Keeping a careful watch of the wolves to see if they react to my movement as I slowly walk down towards my cave entrance. Sure enough the closest wolf to the cave, the first wolf based on the density of it's Aura, reacts when I'm only halfway to the cave entrance. Immediately standing up and moving towards the entrance to my cave. I can see its eyes outside in the dark staring hungerly into the cave. When it sees me it lunges, slamming its snout into the cave trying to reach me. I could see the Auras of the other wolves reacting to this and coming to investigate.

The wolves' snout wasn't close enough to get me but it was well within range of my breath. I let lose the entirety of my breath organ's contents into the snout of the wolf. The cloud that billowed out from me was an almost completely opaque dark purple cloud, with my improved aura sight I can see small pin pricks of light within it. It didn't seem to travel any further than any of my other attacks but it was definitely on a whole different level of density.

*Wow, I did not expect it to be that thick, I was expecting a much larger area to be affected. If I survive this I'm glad that I decided to try emptying it all in one go.*

The wolf's Aura was penetrated by dark veins that were easily triple or quadruple the thickness of the veins that had previously affected it. The yelp of pain coming out of it was deafening in the closed space of my cave, the first pulse of the dark veins drinking greedily from its Aura. Visibly diming and doing more damage to it's density than the previous attack had done over it's entire duration. The wolf immediately retreated and the other four did not take up the attack on my home.

As I watched the wolves Aura dimmed significantly, that first pulse easily taking it down to 80% of the density of the other wolves. As the dark veins continued to pulse over the next few minutes the wolves Aura density continued to dwindle, nowhere near as quick as that first pulse, but by the time the veins had withdrawn the wolves aura was close to a quarter of the density of it's pack.

*That was surprising. The power of the fully charged breath is much more than I though it would be, even though its only roughly three times that initial attack it did well over six times the amount of damage to its aura. It also lasted for a lot longer than I expected it to.*

I curled back up in the back of my cave and kept watching as the first wolf laid down a lot closer to my cave than I expected and seemed to fall asleep. The other four wolves seemed to think attacking my cave wasn't worth it and started going off deeper into the forest. Leaving their injured companion behind.

*I think I'm going to be making more bad decisions tonight...*

After roughly half an hour of waiting for my breath organ to refill it had reached its max capacity again. I had kept watch on the other four wolves and it seemed like they had all wandered off further in search of food. Two of them seemed to be over closer to the pond that had all of the fish while the other two had headed directly out from my cave. At one point I watched as they came upon a much smaller animal and caught in a pincer between the two of them. The first wolf stayed laying down the entire time, its' aura slowly regenerating. The wolves' aura had only regenerated roughly a quarter of the damage I had done in the time my breath organ took to refill.

*I will have to try and sneak this time so it doesn't react until I'm on top of it.*

As I slowly crept down the slope of my cave my anxiety started to peak. The "I'll see you in a week" and "I'll bring you back as a baby eating goblin" rattling around in my brain, making my anxiety go even higher. I couldn't let this opportunity go though, the only reason it was within my capability of killing was due to it relentlessly attacking my home. Steeling myself I crept out of the mouth of my cave, still no response from the wolf. It's aura was very slowly pulsing which made it look like it was in a deep sleep. As I got closer to the wolf it's head moved, my adrenaline spiked through the roof and I stopped moving entirely.

*shit shit shit*

Fortunately the wolf was just moving in its slumber, but that made me immediately check my surroundings. The other members of it's pack were still a long ways away, and did not appear to be moving in this direction. I slowly and carefully began to continue moving forwards, when I was within range for my breath I began to softly inhale, filling my little lungs to their maximum capacity and then I let it all out, fully emptying my breath organ into the sleeping form of the wolf. As my exhalation completed I turned around and sprinted as fast as I could.

The wolf didn't wake up yelping in pain, it woke up howling. The sound shaking my small frame as I put all of my energy into running up the incline to my cave. I could hear it getting up from it's laying position and turning towards me.

*Half way!*

I could hear the dirt under its paws crunching and cracking as it turned towards me. My 'almost prey' eye placement giving me flickering views of its massive form starting to lurch towards me. I could see the black veins pulsing in the glimpses of its Aura. The density of its' Aura was dropping but it didn't seem to be enough to stop it from coming to kill me.

*Just over the wall and I'm in. Fuck, Fuck, FUCK!!!*

I could hear the ground crunching under it's back legs as it launched itself at me, and then pain.

System Message [-3] HP {Piercing}

My body was lifted from the ground as its claws caught me in my right side between my legs. I flew, for the first time as a dragon I was flying just not how I wanted to. Fortune was on my side again because I flew through the opening of my cave, smashing into the upward slope inside my cave and sliding up almost three quarters of the length of the slope.

System Message [-1] HP {Blunt}

*Hahahahaha*

*What was that? That wasn't my voice, it sounded like that woman in the red dresses' voice. How close was that??*

Character Sheet: HP: 1/10

*That was way too close, but at least I'm in the cave now and safely out of their range. Even if it does feel like I got hit by a semi truck and then run over by a train.*

I turned to look at the wolf, my whole body hurting as I tried to first turn to the right. The wound from its claw in my side preventing me from easily turning that way so I gave up and turned to the left. I could feel the would opening as I turned and fresh blood spilling onto the ground. My left side felt like it was bruised all over but at least the muscles seemed to be working. As the wolves' Aura came into view I could see the dark veins pulsing throughout it's aura draining the dredges of density left. Within a minute the density had dimmed to the point where the light purple color of its aura wasn't even visible over the dark veins pulsing. The only indication of where the wolf was through the cave wall was the mass of dark veins pulsing. It had turned away from the cave and had started to move away, it only made it to the bottom of the slope before collapsing. The veins pulsed once more and then disspated.

System Message Level 3 Wolf Defeated Choose Attribute Distribution

Attribute Distribution Would you like to distribute earned points to: STR, CON, DEX, AGI, or PER?

*FIVE choices this time?*

Was my last thought as I sunk into unconsciousness.