Tiny Long hibernated.

His body was curled around a tiny golden treasure box. It was warm and glowing, hidden beneath the spiral of his slumbering scales.

The system had told him the box would disappear when he’d opened it and gotten his signing bonus. So he’d decided to save it for after he had tested his new skill, and take advantage of being able to get a good night’s rest even when feeling cozy and warm. His normal, cold-blooded brumation would not have allowed this, but being able to hibernate just like a warm-blooded animal meant he could go into a deep slumber while also benefiting from the warm energy of the little treasure box. And his skill would allow him to wake up when he wanted to, instead of being out of commission until spring.

He deserved some proper rest. It had been a harrowing night, trying to get the ladies to freedom and safety, but of course he had survived. It would not do for a hero such as him to meet an ignominous end dying quietly in a bento box.

But he felt that it had been close. Without his new hibernation skill he wondered whether the shocks to his body would have finally caught up with him. The bag had seemed so optimistic about his future, but what did a bag know about being a snake?

Eventually, the snake stirred.

Wow. I feel amazing. This is so much better than normal. You really did do an excellent job, my dear Bag.

He tasted the air and realized he was no longer in the bag, and so he didn’t expect an answer. The bag had warned him they might not be able to talk if he was too far away.

The bento’s lid had been left open a crack. He slowly uncoiled from around the treasure, delighting in how immediately ready his body felt to move, and poked his head out of the bento to see that he was in some sort of sparse habitat with opaque walls.

Trapped, once again? Ha! I am an Avowed Hero now. These walls cannot hold me.

His tongue caught the scent of water and he slithered out of the bento to flick his tongue into it. It was good pure water, better than the plastic-tasting stuff his human captors had forced him to drink. But escape was still his responsibility, at least, after he’d slaked his thirst.

Feeling refreshed and energized, he rushed back toward his treasure. He was reluctant to open it and lose the source of light and warmth, but the ambient temperature in the habitat was decently warm already.

Let’s do this, treasure! What are you? And how will you help me escape?

He poked his nose into the latch. There was a sudden glow of light and sparkle, and the top of the treasure box popped open.

His eyes took a moment to adjust as the brightness faded.

The treasure was gone.

And in its place was…

Why, hello, handsome! You must be my knight in shining armor!

The lovely snake in front of him lay coiled and still. It was similar in size and coloring to himself. Tiny looked closer, and the snake didn’t react.

You look quite a bit like me, actually.

Tiny flicked his long tongue at his potential rescuer. He had a moment of disorientation as he realized the snake smelled exactly like himself, and then the bright lines of his new interface popped up to give him a list of buttons he could push.

A startling new voice entered his consciousness.

“You have been gifted a decoy by another system,” the neutral voice said. “I am bound to assist you in accessing its functionalities while you are under my jurisdiction, under normal conditions. However, as it is not normal conditions, this is a courtesy message to welcome you and inform you of disaster-related restrictions that went into effect before you gained system access.”

Ah! Hello! It is I, Tiny Long, First of Bag’s Avowed. To whom do I have the pleasure of making my acquaintance?

“I am the personification of Contract Earth. As a young contract, I am not capable of feeling positive or negative emotions about your origins or your current status as an Avowed Snake. I have been apprised of your unique situation, however, affixed non-humans earthlings are not completely unheard of here on Earth.”

Well! I’m glad to know I’m in good hands! You say there are others like me?

Tiny Long wasn’t quite sure how he felt about that.

“On Anesidora, it’s mostly dogs.”

Tiny shuddered.

Dogs! Big, wonderful, curious creatures with excellent noses and snapping teeth, wouldn’t you agree?

“I don’t like them either.”

The snake let out a hiss of relief.

“Unaffixed, they are sources of unpredictability, outside my control or jurisdiction. Affixed, they make ideal avowed and become quite endearing. It creates a conflict of interest. I find dogs quite stressful, to the extent I can feel stress.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Unpredictable is right! It has been years since I have seen a dog, and that’s not long enough.

“As a courtesy, if any of my Avowed Canines who you encounter act unduly aggressive, I will tell them a very firm ‘No’.”

You are a most accommodating and upstanding system, my dear Earth Contract! And I have utmost faith in your assistance in using my new Decoy and my new Avowed Powers to escape once again.

“I am afraid I must disappoint you, Tiny Long. I have been indulging in personal conversation because your circumstances are unique. However, now that I have delivered the courtesy welcome, I must return to my current limited functionality due to the ongoing disaster.”

Ah, I understand, of course. I know that I can count on you to help me out just as soon as you have a moment to spare!

“I think, in this case, you may find that my lack of interference has benefits. I will now leave you to attempt your escape. Good luck, Tiny Long.”

The voice disappeared, and Tiny Long was left alone with the uncanny copy of himself. He didn’t know whether it could do anything besides lie there looking like him, but he realized even that would be a benefit, as no one would be looking for him after he escaped.

Now about that escape. Let’s do this!

He snaked himself as far up the side of the bin as he was able. It was slightly slanted, and so he was able to just barely poke the lid if he pushed himself.

But the lid felt quite immovable, just like the top of the old habitat he’d lived in for years.

Well, that’s to be expected, of course. But how about… Hero Powers Activate!

The snake slithered up the wall as fast as he could, and poked into the lid with a bit more force.

It was exactly as solid as before.

A little help? Bag? Earth Contract?

Tiny Long was an Avowed, now. Heroes didn’t sit around trapped in bins while innocent scorpions and spiders were out there, suffering who knows what indignities at the hands of their captors.

I can do this. I’m a hero. Focus! I’m too handsome to fail!

Tiny Long tried to find the place within himself that felt the most powerful. The part of him that wasn’t just a snake, but was now officially a Snake.

He tried again to climb the wall.

Give it everything. Everything I’ve got. I’ll show them!

Tiny Long began to push himself up the wall, and something about his body felt different.

What? It’s working? It’s working!

He had barely begun the thought when he found himself barreling into the lid with too much force.

Ouch! Ah! That would have hurt a lot, if I weren’t a very strong hero now! I’m fine! Again.

Feeling empowered, he kept at it. And his next coiled spring felt even more powerful.

On the third, before he’d understood what was happening the lid had burst off the top of the bin and he was flying through the air.

Aaaaaaaah! I’m… I’m flying? I’m flying! I’m a hero! A heroooooo!

The tiny snake felt the air around him as if in slow motion. His body was incredible. His abilities were profound. He… he was falling now. Really fast.

Uh oh.

Just before he smacked into the ground, he panicked and entered hibernation.

A floppy, unconscious snake smacked against the ground.

When he woke up again, half a minute later, he tested his body to find it completely unharmed and still coursing with the new strange speed and strength that had come to him. The human was gone, and so was Bag, which last he knew was where the scorpion and tarantula had been hiding.

Ladies, here I come to save the day.

He slithered under the door and down the hall, following the scents on the air, with a speed no snake had ever gone before.

******

Several of Lute’s classmates were around him, all asking for wordchains after his success with Vandy.

Thanks to a few stacked Self Mastery chains, Lute Velra was hiding his embarrassment at his discovery of lust-driven targeting. But the wordchains that allowed him to control the bloodflow to his cheeks and the minutiae of his expression did nothing to stop the shame he was feeling.

It can’t be just lust. The system wouldn’t do that to me. Artonans wouldn’t… well, hold that thought. Artonans would totally design a lust-driven skill.

There had to be another answer. Something strong. Love, disgust, fear.

If the system made me this way, that wouldn’t be my fault, right? Would that be better or worse than if I’m a degenerate lust demon all on my own?

He focused on the guitarist he had the displeasure of performing with in arts. The one who was so aggressively mediocre it felt like it had to be on purpose. It wasn’t hard to summon up some strong feelings about the butchery of innocent music. He had written entire essays in his head about exactly why the kid’s interpretation of Bach’s prelude in C was a crime deserving of punishment.

To Lute’s relief, the chain worked.

Lust, and now disdain. Great. That covers just about everyone.

He wanted to be able to do it with a positive emotion, but in this situation and with the people in front of him it was difficult to feel friendship or admiration.

What about fear? There’s definitely some of that going around, right now. But I don’t feel like general worry and dread are targeted enough.

Lute searched his memory for a sharper kind of fear, something that had felt immediate and personal. A memory popped up of when he’d visited an older classmate’s off-campus art studio. The guy had tried to scare Lute by suddenly shoving a live snake in his face.

He’d had an instinctive moment of fear, even if he’d collected himself immediately after.

Lute didn’t think there was anything brilliant in the guy’s fear-based performance art, but he could respect it for being unpretentious. Some try-hard artists want to get a reaction by doing profane things with religious iconography and bodily fluids. Boring. Overplayed. This guy Royce? He keeps it honest.

The snake had actually been a pretty cute little guy. But he still remembered that instant of intense focus where all other worries dropped from his mind and his only thought was to back away from the unexpected threat.

He held onto the feeling as he finished casting another chain at his classmate.

It didn’t land.

He tried several more times before he gave up on using fear as a focus.

Lute decided to put the snake out of his mind and send another chain to Emilija. He didn’t know his own rage, but he was feeling his own power and he thought it was possible. If wordchain debt could travel across dimensions, surely a powerful enough chainer could chain anyone, anywhere.

Scary. Definitely scarier than that snake.

Lute shuddered to himself, imagining what someone like the grandwitch or Hazel would do if they had such power unrestricted.

…Wait. I haven’t been sending wordchains to a snake, have I?