It was a normal day. I was walking back home with a basket full of supplies for the winter. The serene village of Sapline was even calmer during the night. The only noises belonged to the long river and the riders above my head, their gentle wingbeats reaching even my ears, which are on the ground.

*Sigh.* I watched the riders with subtle admiration and envy. It must be nice flying in the sky like that. I hope my familiar has wings.

I smile sadly. Then I heard someone call my name, rather her nickname for me…

“Selly!”

Rushing behind me came the liveliest girl you would ever see. Her breasts boun- I mean her smile spreading across her face rapidly. A small bird perched on her shoulder.

“I told you not to call me that Emi, it makes me sound like a girl…” I shake my head in disappointment. I must have told her hundreds of times now. The villagers don’t even react to that name now.

She smiled in response. “I can’t stop calling you your name! If not Selly, what should I call you?”

“How about my real name, Setrialon?”

She started to say my name. “Se- setr, setiol… ARGH. This is too hard. I’m just going to keep calling you Selly. Your name is too weird.” Her bird chirps in agreement.

I groan and continue walking. I’ve known Emi since we were children. Being the only two children in the village at the same age, we played together a lot. Now that were older I hear whispers from the elders about our future. Specifically about us getting married. Emi didn’t seem to notice or maybe she’s just pretending but I would get annoyed when the elders joked about us behind our backs. There is no way me and Emi could get married, we’re just friends.

I hope.

*Tweet! Tweet!*

Pamila started to tweet. Her eyes looking at me with concern. I guess I went too deep into thought. I smile at the bird and it turns back around. I’m still amazed with that bird’s wisdom. Emi is way too carefree, with Pamila she could get lost in the forest, fall down a waterfall or worse. 

Emi and Pamila are almost like sisters. They were born on the same day, at the exact same time. Emi's mother, Miss Fotiá and Miss Fotiá's familiar Paema both gave birth to two healthy girls. Ever since then, they had been together.

*Tweet*

Pamila tweeted again, pulling me out of my thoughts. Emi was far ahead of me now. Seems like even thinking for a mere second leaves a giant gap between us.

I rushed back to join them.

“Are we going to your place Selly?”

I hold up the bag of supplies. Emi nods and keeps whistling.

“You don’t need to keep me company Emi…”

Emi looked at me and frowned. “That’s no good Selly, wandering the streets at night is dangerous you know? Especially if you don’t have a familiar yet! Don’t worry though, me and Pamila will keep you safe, right Pamila?”

"Our village is extremely safe, the most dangerous thing that's happened here was when Mirr fell into that cauldron. Even then, he was completely fine after some healing magic!"

“Nope, its too dangerous. Without a familiar, you can get really hurt. Even Mirr had a familiar. Come on, lets go."

Oooh, oww. That was a huge hit to my pride as a man. I can feel the manly image I had of myself in my head slowly start to cripple.

But Emi’s right. It’s way too dangerous to be walking alone at night especially without a familiar. Without your familiar, your weak. Even with my pride being crippled I’m still very grateful for Emi to be walking back with me. I heard rumors of people kidnapping children who hadn’t got their familiar yet…

Emi and I walked for a bit more time before we reached the bridge. Long river had a bridge going over it, separating half the village. Emi stopped here. My house was right across from the bridge anyway.

She smiled, “See you tomorrow Selly!”

I nodded. “Yeah, tomorrow…”

I walked back home. It was a simple construct, like most of the buildings here except it was way smaller. Masonry for the base, a wood skeleton and some weird white material that could also be wood or something else. I don’t know.

I opened the door.

“I’m home…”

I say it even though I won’t get a response. I sigh. How many times has Emi’s family tried to convince me to stay with them? I really don’t want to though. I like the freedom my own house gives me. I remember when I used to live with the village chief. It always smelled of onions and various sick familiars.  Chuckle when I think about the old guy. He always was one to help anyone and everyone. I should visit some time soon. I’m the closest thing he has to a son as he is the closest thing I have a father.

I walk to the kitchen and start a fire under the stove. It took a few attempts but after some time, the stove lit. The once wood, burned 5 times still works, the charcoal wood makes really is the best. Looks like I can save a few more jems today.

I set down my supplies beside the stove and get ready to make a stew. I grabbed an apple, an onion and crushed them together. Then I dumped them in a heating pot full of water.

My homemade apple-onion stew! Is it nutritious? Probably not. It does provide sustenance though. I’m grateful that I’m even able to eat something today. My jobs haven’t been going so well…

I hobble out of my little house and past the village, deeper in the forest. I have about 20 minutes before most of the water turns into steam, leaving a thick bowlful of watery apples and onions.

It’s time to take a bath. I go to my usual spot. A place where long river goes through part of tall mountain.

I undress myself and hang my clothes on a low-hanging branch before I jump into the river.

The cool waters seem to seep in and take away my pain. I scrub myself of any dirt. Hygiene is important after all.

5 minutes’ pass before my stomach started to hurt. That was strange. I don’t get hungry until after the bath. I decided to ignore the pain, thinking it would just pass.

A minute later, the same pain returned except stronger. Worried I might have become sick, I jumped out of the river and put on my clothes. I started to head back before I bent backwards in pain. I could feel my stomach bouncing around in agony.

I tried to crawl back to the village but it just hurt too much. I couldn’t keep it in anymore. I threw up, yesterday’s food coming out today, but apparently, I wasn’t done. I kept convulsing, trying to get something else out of me. Eventually, I could feel something very smooth get launched out of my throat.

After hurling my guts out, I got up, still woozy but feeling much better.

*SNAP*

Something snapped a twig. I looked around, but couldn’t find who did it, because the culprit was right in front of me.

*Hissss*

A snake’s hiss slowly entered my ear. I looked to my pool of vomit, sure enough, there was a snake sitting in the middle of it.

Jet-black scales that shimmered in the moonlight, it stared at me with silvery eyes.

I stared back. Huh? What just happened? Where did this snake come fro- scratch that. Did that snake just come form inside me? How long has it been there? Why now?

We held the world’s longest staring contest before I began to calm down. First things first. I need to take another bath. I took off my clothes and started to undress again.

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The snake looked at me curiously.

“You too.”

I grabbed the snake by the head and dragged him with me to the water. We were both covered in vomit.

The snake struggled against me but didn’t really put up a fight. I easily dragged it, my clothes and myself into the water.

There I started to wash myself and my clothes. The snake seemed reluctant at first, but soon started to enjoy the cool stream and started to swim.

I took this time to examine it. It was about as long as my leg and about as thick as my arm. Yeah, I’m no good with lengths. But other than that, I noticed how its scales were completely black, a single colour all the way through, and those silver eyes…

I have never, ever seen a snake like this, nevertheless heard of one.  Black scales and silver eyes, what is this thing.

The snake noticed me looking at it strangely and it hissed at me. I got annoyed and just hissed back, mockingly.

It slapped its tail on the river and splashed water on my face. It didn’t seem to understand that I was already wet and splashing me with more water wouldn’t do anything.

I already knew the answer, from the moment I saw but do I really have this… thing as a familiar?

I jumped out of the river and hung my clothes to dry. The snake slithered out as well and curled around my leg.

That was fine, but it started curling UP my leg and all the way to my shoulders where it wrapped itself around my neck and sat there.

“Hey, buddy. Uh, can you not wrap around my neck please. Bad things happen when you wrap something around someone’s neck.”

It stared at me, thinking I was stupid. Wait, how did I know that.

The snake shook its head enthusiastically. Not in a yes or no pattern, but sporadically. I looked at it as if it was retarded but soon I could feel my own head becoming woozy. I could feel a pounding on my head that just wouldn’t stop.

“Okay, okay enough. I understand now…”

I grab the snake to make it stop. It looks just as mentally exhausted as I did. But wait. This is a mental connection.

I grinned widely. Mental connections are extremely rare, and only happen when certain conditions are met. Even having a mental condition can qualify you to become a rider.

I looked up through the trees at the sky. Maybe I don’t have to only watch any longer.

I smiled at the snake who was still curled up around my neck.

“Let’s go to our home.”

The snake was feeling sleepy. As was I. It was time to end the day. I put on my somewhat soaked clothes and headed back to town. Then we heard it.

The roar of a horrible beast that sounded like metal scrapping on ice amplified. I covered my ears with my arms. The snake coiled around even tighter and put its head inside its coil.

The beast roared again, only this time the roar was closer.

“You don’t think… no. Wrong question to ask. Which way do we go?” The village was far away, so far away that even they wouldn’t hear these roars, and if we can’t get to the village, where do we go?

I asked my snake who pointed his head in the direction of the cave.

I ran over, and ducked behind the stone wall.

The roars kept growing closer, and closer before two gigantic beasts popped into our view.

One was a grey tiger with black flames coming off of its claws, its tail and straight down the spine. The other was a humanoid creature that seemed to be made of ice, rock and metal.

The tiger was badly hurt whereas the giant seemed unhurt.

“Fool. You dared challenge me? Now you face the consequences.”

The giant brought up its hand and smacked the tiger, who happened to fly right into tall mountain his flames started to flicker and die out. I jumped farther into the cave, but I was still sent flying backwards. The pure force behind that attack knocked everything back.

The ceiling above us seemed to shake as pieces of debris fell from the ceiling.

“You’re the fool. You’re too old for your throne Argonic. Its been a thousand years. Step down already.”

The two creatures seemed to be fighting over, “a throne.” I could only hypothesize what that was, and no, I didn’t think of a giant throne.

The giant walked up and picked up the tiger.

“I am the strongest. Therefore, I have the throne. Give up now and I’ll spare your life.”

The tiger jumped out of his grasp, and with its remaining energy, pounced forward, flames coiling around its body, straight into the giant.

They both tumbled backwards into the left-side of the trees. The giant’s ice layers melting rapidly.

Bu the tiger wasn’t done yet.

It slashed and clawed, and kept clawing at the giant. Shredding the thick, thick ice that protected its rocky insides.

Finally the tiger dug out of a huge chunk of pure black metal and the giant started to shake.

“Ho-how… I can’t beat beaten yet. I need to…”

The yellow glow in its eyes died out and the giant tiger jumped off.

It roared a mighty roar in victory though, I bet it didn’t expect anyone to hear it.

The tiger started to walk off, picking up the big black core of the giant.

I nodded. That was a good fight and probably the last time I’ll ever see those creatures again. Well, time to… wait. Where is my snake?

I looked around looking for the snake, trying to make as little noise as possible.

“Hey, snakey, snakey, snakey. Come on out, we need to go now. We really need to go now…”

I was talking nervously, what if the tiger decided that the giant wasn’t enough and wanted more kills?

I looked back at the tiger. It majestically walked away, beaten and bruised as it was and that’s when I saw it.

The snake, so minuscule compared to the tiger, slowly creeping up its leg. It would be almost impossible to find the snake if it were on one of the tiger’s stripes.

Wait, wait. What are you doing. Snake? Hello?

I sneaked out of the cave and rushed up to the tiger’s leg. It was walking quite slowly, obviously hurt from the fight. I caught up quickly.

“Hey, snake. What are you doing? We need to leave. This is not the time to be playing hide and go seek!”

The snake kept crawling upwards. I didn’t want to, but I climbed with it. The tiger seemed to badly hurt to notice.

The fur was surprisingly thick and easy to hold. Climbing up to the snake was easy enough, the snake hadn’t gone far up anyway. Snakes don’t climb vertical surfaces well.

I grabbed the snake. “Okay, time to go home. Curl around my neck or whatever. Let’s go.”

But the snake shook its head and pointed upwards. It wanted to get up?

I looked at the tiger’s head. It didn’t seem to notice.

“Fine. Just this once. It seems that we can run even if the tiger finds us.”

I placed the snake on my shoulders, where it quickly wrapped around my neck. I then started to climb. The thick hairs were easy to hold onto. It wasn’t long before I reached the top. The flames on his back were still lit, but just barely.

I didn’t walk close to them.

“Okay, now what do you want to do?” I asked the snake. There is no way he just wanted to get up on top of the tiger. The sooner I get down with whatever the snake wanted to do, the better. I think my stew has turned into mush, which isn’t bad.

The snake pointed its tail towards the head of the tiger. I looked at him in disbelief.

“You want us… to go to the head of this gigantic killing machine?”

The snake nodded its head.

I groaned and walked forward, my sense of self-preservation apparently missing.

The snake tapped my head and pointed toward my clothes, which were already dry. Then he pointed to the flames on the tigers back, to the tiger’s head and then to himself.

“What? What are you trying to say? My clothes got dry?”

The snake thought I was stupid.

In my head I got an image, which was strange, of the snake biting into the tiger’s flames.

“You want to eat the flames?”

The snake nodded. It stared at me with those silver eyes.

“So why are we going to its head?”

The snake kept pointing to the head and I kept walking, getting more and more confused.

When we reached the neck, the snake jumped off.

“Wait, where are you going. Come back here!”

It kept slithering forward until it reached the very top of the tiger’s head. Again, the tiger didn’t seem to notice, or it didn’t seem to care.

Then the snake bit into the tiger’s head.

Wait what?

The tiger roared and started looking all around it, I could only grab its hairs, and hope it didn’t notice us.

Suddenly, its veins started to pop out of its skin, big, black and slowly expanding.

The tiger’s eyes turned from yellow, to a pale white and it fell over, breathing rapidly.

“Who?! What?! WHO DAR-“

It was cut short, the snake, who latched on its head by holding its bite, delivered another bite after it fell over. The tiger roared again but didn’t move. Its paws twitching.

It tried to speak, but anything that came out was just a garbled mess.

Slowly, the eyelids of the beast started to die out and it stopped moving entirely.

I looked at the snake in disbelief.

What had just happened.

The snake coiled up my leg and around my neck, and pointed downward.

I guess I’m climbing down then? I don’t really want to not listen to the snake anymore.

I climbed down. The snake pointed towards the jaw of the beast.

“What?! Are you crazy? You know, sometimes, monsters like this guy still have some energy left even after they die, and they can bite us!”

The snake kept pointing towards it.

I sighed and walked towards the mouth. There I saw the chuck of black metal, about the size of a human, and a tiny black flame, which seemed to come from the tiger.

The snake slithered down and swallowed the flame. It lurched and started moving as if it had a seizure before it stopped. When it opened its eyes, a silver flame appeared on its back, a thin line extending from the head to the tail.

The body of the tiger slowly started to disappear. I looked at it as its body turned into black flames that flew off in the sky.

“What did you do?”

I asked the snake.

“I killed it.”

I looked around, trying to see who said that.

“It was me stupid.”

I looked back at the snake and pointed at it with a shaking finger.

“Yes. Me. Hello. Your familiar?”

“How did you do that?”

It looked at the torched ground where the tiger once was.

“It was instinct. Something told my to inject my poison into its head. I’m just glad that it worked out fine.”

So, the snake did that entire thing, just on instinct? He didn’t even know if it would work?

“Yeah. I didn’t. But it did so that’s good. Also. Stop calling me, ‘snake’. There are thousands of creatures you could call ‘snake’. I need a name.”

I started to stutter. Before I realised the danger was gone. “How about we go home first. I would really like to go home now.”

The snake shaked its head in disappointment.

“Fine, fine. How about… scaly?”

It looked at me with eyes of anger.

“Okay, not scaly. How about darky?”

“Are you even trying human? Or are you trying to make fun of me?”

“Right, right. How about… Bane?”

This name perked the snake’s interest.

“It’s used another way now but it originally meant something that causes death. That something was usually poison. I saw it in a book once.”

The snake nodded. “I like that name. Okay. Bane it is. Let’s go now. I’m hungry.”

The snake coiled around my leg and up to my neck. I almost stopped it before I it pushed my hand away and showed me that the fire it had didn’t burn me.

I looked at the big chunk of metal.

“What do we do with that?”

“How would I know? You humans use metal a lot. You should know.”

“I can’t do anything with that gigantic piece!”

“Then let’s leave it for now. We’ll always know where it is later.”

I nodded and started to head back home.

It was then when I realised something.

“Hey, Bane."

"Yes, human?"

"I hope you like apple-onion mush!”