My eyes, both gold and green fly open. The darkness isn't enough that I can't see my own faces, scaring myself after the nightmare. The terror calms, and notice the scales on my faces look faded. Instinct knows what to do though. I let them take control. They start our molt. My molt.
I let my mind wander, since that's all I really wish to do with Instinct taking care of things. I remember my grandmother. She taught me how to pray. I really only prayed when she was around though. For holidays she was around. She died when I was fairly young, though. With the stone crack I made my home last night and Instinct as my only company, I prayed once more. The words seem to come from me, or maybe somewhere else.
"God of Scales and Fangs and Eyes of Gold, hear me now. Ferry the souls of my siblings into your majestic court. Ferry the soul of Mother into your embrace. May the soul of your servant stay here and do your mighty works. By Scales and Fangs and Eyes of Gold, I will live!"
Of course, my prayer to a being that I have no idea exists isn't out loud. If it was it would've been a long, drawn out series of hisses in varying lengths. Now, it did feel strange sending a prayer to a god I possibly just made up, but it calmed me. Calmed me enough to realize there's a weird noise that isn't a noise coming from somewhere between my eyes.
Focusing on it causes it to stop, but not before a flash card appears in the air before me. The flash card glows, but doesn't light up my surroundings or hurt my eyes. The words are jumbled at first, seemingly switching between dozens of languages before settling on one that I can make out. It reads as follows:
Huh. I wasn't expecting this. This is almost as absurd as dying and waking with the body of a multiheaded serpent. You know, I might be a hydra. I'm just guessing here, but I don't know of any other multiheaded serpents.
Stuff like those games my sister plays for an internet audience though? Just as absurd. Instinct doesn't seem to think so, though.
It makes me wonder if this is a reward for that prayer I sent. Although, the notification before it said something about surviving until my first molt? I try to bring it back up.
It's not coming back up. Well, whatever. I didn't want to know the specific reason for the level up anyways.
That weird feeling between my eyes has come back. If it keeps up I might get a headache. A glance at Instinct shows that they're entranced by the card in front of us... me. Instinct seems to be pushing for me to accept.
I don't see a button to push, so I think real hard about the word 'accept.' It seems to do it, since a new card shows up as the old one disappears.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Well, there's really only one choice I can pick here. To pick either of the other two would reduce my future options significantly. I wonder what specialization Mother was. She didn't seem to have magic, other than being a hydra. That leaves either Massive or Venomous. Unless badgers are the size of small buildings here and I'm actually not that small, I'd say she was venomous. I choose not to follow in her slithers, since she didn't leave me with a strong impression of her survivability.
<0/3 Selected>
Okay. So I get some choices here. Air and Knowledge are greyed out, so I guess they're off the table. An ache in my bones reminds me of my fall last night. Instinct agrees when I ask about healing.
<1/3 Selected>
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Alright, now for the second choice. Instinct doesn't seem to be opposed or for any of them. So I weigh the decisions myself. Fire seems like it would be a really cool one. The staple spell of any wizard is fireball, and the only damaging spell my sister allowed me to have. Very limited utility I'm guessing. Might be useful if I didn't have all this helpful moss around in this cave. I can actually see pretty well. Water on the other hand has more uses for utility. Like to drink. But I'm not currently thirsty and if I strain my ears I think I hear water somewhere. The air isn't dry at all either. Also, water magic is always connected to ice and cold in one way or another, and I think I'm cold blooded now. Maybe. Anyway that brings me to the last choice, Earth.
Earth magic would be immensely more useful underground, surrounded by stone and dirt. Like I currently am. So that's the second no brainer.
<2/3 Selected>
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So, Fire or Water. Seemingly opposites. Maybe they are. I don't know. This world didn't come with one of those strategy guides my sister had spent money on. Looking at my two choices, I am missing a overtly damaging magic. So, fire makes sense. Water, I don't know. A thought thrown Instinct's way reveals no innate fear of fire or desire for cold, so I guess I'll just choose.
<3/3 Selected>
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I think yes, and the card vanishes. A strange, itching feeling grows on the back of my heads, right at the base of my necks. It grows, stretching down a ways, leaving the top third of my necks itchy. I glance at the areas, revealing thin spines growing out with with a small piece of skin between them. When they finish growing, I have a small mohawk looking fin on my necks. There's a small glow coming from each of the three spines. The first is golden, with a silvery glow. The second is a lighter green than my scales, and has a brownish glow. The third is red, with an orange glow that flickers to yellow occasionally. The glow slowly fades, and the spines lie flat on my necks.
Instinct seems to know what to do though, and I can feel them flex the spines on their neck. The silver glow comes back and spreads throughout my body. Wherever the glow touches, a sense of relief follows. I can feel the slow process starting on mending the aches and pains. I realize that my tail was broken in the fall, which causes hisses of pain as the bones realign slowly, torturously.
I relieve control to Instinct, remembering the feeling of using our magic. I focus on remembering. The relief reminds me of home, of my other life. Tears do not come, since I am no longer capable of crying. But the pain and sadness I feel is still there. I wasn't able to say goodbye. I try to remember their faces, but they are distorted. I try to remember names, and nothing comes.
I try to remember my face, my name.
I can't remember.
No... I can. I can remember my name.
Sam.