When I came to it, the ceiling was moving. Or was it that I was moving?

I was on top of something, something cool. And everything else was moving. The ceiling, the walls, the bugs… bugs? I stared around and my goodness there were bugs. Mostly just centipedes. Giant centipedes, bigger than my arm; all slathered across the walls and ceiling. I wasn’t being carried by centipedes though, right?

Right!?

Phew. To my surprise, no, I was just being carried by a group of lizards. Smaller than the large one from before but they were still pretty sizable, basically small crocs. ‘That one had kids?’

Where even was he though? And yes, he. His voice was somewhat childish when he spoke out loud, but when he spoke in my mind, I could definitely tell… definitely a he.

I checked my hand and on hindsight, it was fine. The mark was gone, the finger looked perfectly normal… except, that was just my imagination and the lack of light. It was all there; both the mark and the white finger. I really thought I was going to die back there.

My glowing waterbag (which I was weirdly still carrying) was the only light source. But I did see a lot better than before. Probably because I had my eyes closed all this time.

I squirmed a little but for the most part, remained calm and didn’t move around. If these things wanted me dead, I’d be dead. But I wasn’t. I was alive, and my finger had regrown. It was a mighty gamble but it still worked. ‘A contract with a giant lizard though…’ Oh well, I’d just brag that it was a big dragon or something. Heh.

Now, how the hell was I going to find the meat though?

As I kept on contemplating reality, the cramped walls around me widened and the bugs more or less became scarce, actually no, I just fell upside down towards the ceiling! Ow- with a thud, I fell and well, apparently, the lizards were carrying me upside down the whole time.

Oh yeah, typical boss room pattern.

The lizards quickly vanished. However, instead of the familiar lizard I was greeted with snakes? There were like six, maybe seven? And all dead? There fumes were making me a little nauseous but otherwise I was fine. I didn’t recognize the area but I guess the right way was forward? Because the path on the other side was actually leading up for once!

Massive headache, but I managed to walk just fine. My pants were barely hanging while half of my shirt was missing. My knife nowhere to be found. I still had the water bag though.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Without even a second of delay, I ran up, and straight up the damn stairs, crossed some lonely corridors and some more snake corpses and found my way to another set of stairs, also leading up. So far, nothing out of the ordinary. No cracks, no monsters. But the corridor widened and the ceiling went up high. Another boss room. However, I recognized this one; there was a dead snake in the middle. And I recognized the space on the other side that wasn’t cracked. Holy shit, I was actually almost there.

‘They literally carried me all the frigging way?’

I was not expecting that, no.

It took a lot of courage, really, to cross that cracked space; it wasn’t cracked anymore but there was no mistaking it. I remembered every little detail about this place and even the smell of the dust!

I actually, didn’t fall down this time! Face lit up, I ran up the stairs as though I had all the stamina in the world. There were skeletons around, and there was that shit smell. But hey, I didn’t care. I just ran up, and up, and out!

It was pretty dark outside and I immediately fought the urge to shiver. Not only was this place dark as hell, it was also covered in mist and kind of freezing. Okay maybe it wasn’t freezing, but after coming through that comfortable warm cave, I just couldn’t deal with this cool mist….

“Rest for now, we’ll go back in early morning. We’ll find him!” Some rather distant voices.

“Try to get some rest,” a familiar voice.

“Are you fucking serious? I said I’m going in!”

I walked towards them, slowly. Slowly. Before long, I saw a fire. A tent. And as I kept on approaching, they haphazardly looked in my direction, bows pointed. But- “Guys!” I waved, and ran. One of them, a woman, ran my way, really fast.

It didn’t take me a second look to recognize her. It was Mom.

“SOL!” She almost squealed as she hugged me tight falling flat on the ground. She panted, wheezed, yet… yet her heart was so calm. A little racing, sure, but she was calm. No, relieved. “Oh, thank god!”

Sweaty. Even in this cold ass weather, Mom was sweaty and kind of smelled. But honestly… I didn’t mind it. Her scent put me at ease.

“Our resident atheist is actually thanking god for once!” Xerec broke out in laughter but we all ignored him.

“Mom…” I said, rubbing her back. I got a chuckle in response.

“How?” Male voice. Serec.

“Yes, how?” Lyra said, her stomach nowhere to be found. Wait… she had a baby in her arms. And there was a guy next to her. If I recalled correctly, Lia’s brother?

Wait, wait- did she…

“Sol, how did you get out of there?” Mom asked.

“Dragon spirit,” I said. I showed her my hand. “Big white lizard. Carried me.”

Her eyes went wide. As did everyone else’s. Wait, was getting a contract with spirits that abnormal? I wouldn’t say the lizard was a good spirit perse but it did save my life… it did almost eat me though.

“Dragon spirit? Are you sure it was a dragon?”

I mean, lizards were technically dragons… right?

“My arm burned and-” And I showed her my arm. Which was healed. “I fell in water,” I said. “Water healed me.” I also showed them my glowing water. “Then I went deeper and found a lizard that tried to eat me.” I then showed my finger with the scales. “In the end, I somehow contracted with it and…” I was having a very hard time explaining without sounding too natural or creepy.

Mom hugged me again while the others looked at me with pity. What was going on? This certainly wasn’t the reception I was expecting.