Disbelief seized her muscles. She couldn't move.

Cecilia had, several worlds ago, learned to question whatever was in front of her eyes. She... didn't want to remember the illusionist villain she had to contend with.

That made the world after that rather problematic as she became a mess of suspicion. Everywhere she looked she saw impostors. Only after being hunted by half a continent and escaping that world did she learn to use the ten-foot-pole concept. Trust, but keep suspicious individuals at the end of a ten-foot pole.

Right now she had two. The kid, which she assessed by touch not to be a threat unless he was a master at disguising one's power, and the drenched guy at the door. The one with the silver m— nothing! The one standing on his own by the door.

The knot in her throat swelled and hurt. Her eyes stung. "Dad?" She managed to let out a plea.

"____________!" The man opened his mouth and spoke but no sound came. His lips became blurred so as to not allow any cognition of what he intended to say.

Cecilia lowered her eyes. She felt shame, though it was undeserved. "My old names were stripped from me. I go now by Cecilia." She explained. She couldn't make eye contact. Despite her life, her old name was the biggest gift her father gave her.

"Cecilia is a lovely name," he said with a warm voice. "Yes, it's me, daughter."

She trembled. The words were honey in her ears. She could still feel the cold of the funerary urn metal. The despair of knowing she was alone in a world that looked at her like a monster and something inhuman.

Letting out a staggering sigh as her chest wanted to sob, she moved forward. Then she ran and slammed her face against the man's chest. He felt smaller than he once was but she was but a child when they were so brutally separated. With her face hidden from sight, the floodgates opened. Cecilia wept.

A caring hand caressed her head and nape. A warm hug she longed for throughout the last century. One that she looked for in dozens of different worlds.

"I'm here now."

She hugged him back.

*

*

Klatus eyed the new inmate, trying to divine his intent. He never heard of a single pair of relatives being sent to this island. Something was afoot and he couldn't find in himself the will to trust that man. Not to mention the obvious magical mirror hovering over him. The mirror had an eerie magical aura that made his skin slime over as if he would need the mucus to escape its grasp.

He knew that mirror. It was a magical sentient artifact working for the Judges. The fact that Cecilia was avoiding even looking at it confirmed his suspicion. The mirror was bad news.

Two inmates in two days was also an oddity but not a first. It had happened in known history once or twice. The two circumstances, back-to-back made him believe the Judges had some agenda with these two.

And that meant trouble. Though inscrutable, the Judges never acted without rhyme or reason.

"Come in, come in," he told the human man. "You'll catch some weird disease if you stay in the rain for too long."

"Thank you, elder," the man said. He sounded friendly enough but also had that schooled, well-modulated voice of people who knew how to give a speech. Politicians, reporters, motivational speakers, or other sorts of conmen.

It took one to know one, Klatus snorted to himself.

They walked inside. Cecilia, her alleged father, and the kid. The mirror, for some reason, stayed outside.

"I'm Seth," the man introduced himself. "I'm also Cecilia's father. We've been separated for more than a century." A hand was offered in that universal gesture of peace.

"I'm Klatus Fuzoya," he shook the man's hand. Strong grip.

"I'm going to get an extra set of bedding," Klatus explained. "I'll be back soon. Make yourself comfortable."

"Thank you!"

The newcomer entered the thatched-roof cottage. Klatus stared at the mirror as the floating object tilted slightly, keeping father and daughter squarely framed. It was... watching them. Mirrors were often used as viewports into...

Oh, crap.

The old man walked outside, his eyes quickly adapting to the darkness. Not that it was dark all the time, but all the lightning flashing in the sky gave enough light to see by, even if in flashes. Giving the mirror a wide berth, he went into the heart of the village.

Then the old man started to run, without looking back. Whatever shit was about to drop on this settlement, he wanted nothing to do with that.

*

----------------------------------------

*

Cecilia heard Klatus run but it was a sensible thing to do in this scalding rain. And she was too focused on her father's return to give the green elder's motivations any thought.

She led him to a pillow and made him seat. For a moment, she hesitated, fighting against the desire to sit on his lap like she used to do. She was no longer a child. In fact, she was older than most humans back on Earth. At least while Earth existed.

She didn't lament the loss of her homeworld. She had little love for the planet that treated her so badly.

"What happened, father? I thought you were dead? How did you end up here?"

"I died, yes. Somehow, the Judges brought me back to life and sent me here."

She thought it odd. Why would the judges go to all this trouble? Worse, wasn't this supposed to be her punishment? Having her father back was the best reward imaginable. Something was odd. Cecilia felt a shiver and shook away those thoughts as her mind sprung into battle readiness. Decades of fighting and honing those instincts paid well...

The mirror had floated into the cottage. Its polished metallic frame caught every light ray and amplified it tenfold. She stared at her own reflection on the nigh-perfect reflective surface. Then a pillow flew out of the mirror. It landed on her lap.

Suspecting it to be an attack, she jumped. The kid caught the pillow and squeezed it. "No!" Cecilia shouted, but it was too late. The pillow... crumpled under the squeeze.

"So soft," the kid crooned.

She stared from the pillow to the mirror to the kid.

"It has your name embroidered," her father remarked.

"K-can I see it?" She stammered. The kid handed the pillow over. She felt a jolt on her fingertips as she touched the fabric. Silk. Something connected in her mind, the way some magic items did when they acknowledged their owner. She was familiar with the feeling. Searching her soul, she found the connection. It was as if she could pull it in one direction only. Nudging it to a side, the pillow shrank. On the other end, the pillow increased in size. She pulled it all the way into the small side and found the pillow sitting on the palm of her hand, the size of her thumbprint.

"Convenient," her father remarked.

The kid stared at the pillow. "How big can it go?"

"Way big. I wouldn't try it inside, though," Cecilia replied. "We'll test it later."

"Can I sleep with it?" He asked.

"Sure, why not?"

Cecilia was used to bivouacking in the wild. Sometimes naked during one of her wild hunts. Several of the worlds she visited were System worlds and she always had to grind her levels from scratch. Clothing usually got ruined in the kind of close-quarters combat she favored.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Hey, kid," her father interjected. "What's your name?"

"It's Joseph, Seth, sir."

"Joseph," he moved his jaw as if chewing on the name. "Are you an inmate here?"

"No, sir. I was born on this island. I'm not a prisoner but a native. I—" He shut it as if he'd caught himself oversharing.

"I see. Thank you, Joseph." Seth nodded, then scanned the room. He stopped at Cecilia's giant ceramic dumpling. "Is that your storage device, daughter?"

"It's huge!" Joseph said with a proud nod.

"I still have to shape mine," Seth remarked.

"Oh, sure, sir. Here you go!"

Joseph removed a ceramic locket from under his shirt. Opening it, he pinched a bunch of dimensional clay from the inside. Even if the inside had a thousand times the volume of the outside, it was still a pitiful amount of space.

"Cecilia, help me clear the table. Joseph, get me some of the firewood."

She did. Seth then spread the clay over the table, pushing it and using spoons to smooth it over. Two minutes later, he pulled the sides and folded it around the logs into a box a meter wide, a meter across, and half a meter tall. He removed the excess clay and shaped the bottom and four handles, one on either side, top and bottom. With the remainder clay, he shaped a lid. Keeping the lid away from the remainder, they waited a few minutes for the dimensional clay to settle.

The firewood inside was crushed slightly. Seth put his arm inside and pulled the logs out one by one. They were only lightly damaged but would still burn just as well.

"There we go. about five hundred cubic meters of space. Perhaps a bit less than yours, daughter."

"That's a lot!" Joseph cheered.

"I think yours is better, Dad. It won't mess with your balance as much."

"We shall see. I don't have any leather to make straps, though."

"We can use twine rope. I know how to weave some!" Joseph proudly thumbed his chest.

"Sure, tomorrow. We should try to sleep now." Seth said.

"I'll do the dishes. You must be tired from hiking here, Dad."

Seth smiled warmly at her.

*

----------------------------------------

*

The dead of the night.

A tsunami hit the island, triggering the shield as usual. Deep inside the mountainous side of the island, practically a stone spire that occupied less than half a square mile and was two thousand feet tall, a rift opened. The rift disturbed the pocket dimension hidden inside, awakening its occupant after five thousand years of hibernation.

Hunger.

Understandably, the creature lurking in that pocket dimension was hungry. It sensed the chaotic energies churning in the world outside and understood it had slept for too long. Muscles groaned, and joints popped and creaked as they moved and stretched. Walking through the rift with catlike grace despite its enormous size, it found the way ahead blocked. The cave that once led to its hidden demesne had vanished.

With a roar of frustration, it clawed at the granite as if it was Styrofoam defending against a hot knife. Powerful claws moved tons of stone each second as it dug itself free. Within minutes, it broke into the surface, bursting through the base of the mountain. The stone spire lost its support and crumbled behind the creature.

Wings spread. The sleeper stretched its long neck and powerful limbs, unfurling its tail and shaking the ridges upon its back. Stretching two hundred feet from its mighty snout to the tip of its tail, with about three hundred feet of wingspan, the Dragon scanned its surroundings for sources of food.

It quickly located a settlement of sentient creatures. Flexing its back muscles, the wings flapped, causing the trees surrounding it to bend under gale-force winds like subjects greeting their long-absent sovereign. It stretched the rest of its body, crushing bits of rock between its scales and raising a plume of dust.

Soon the wing muscles warmed up enough to lift the massive creature into the sky. Aerodynamics combined with magic made it soar through the air, closing on its unsuspecting prey. As it became evident it would have a scrumptious meal, a fire lit up in its throat. Light shone between its teeth and fangs as smoke trailed out of its nostrils.

*

----------------------------------------

*

Cecilia shared the pillow with Joseph as they slept, the kid lying in front of her. The magical pillow was a godsend and the most comfortable piece of bedding she ever used. But she didn't survive for a century in the most brutal worlds out there without developing the instincts and the keen senses to spot incoming trouble.

Her ears twitched. Her brain rose to a waking state though she didn't move a muscle. Too often shooting one's eyes open right upon awakening spelled disaster. She gave no hint she was awake, keeping her breathing steady and soft, while all of her senses scanned around her for trouble. No light came through her eyelids. A sign the cottage was still dark. Minute noises were caught by her sensitive ears and vibrations through the thin straw mattress they lay upon. She heard screams, the roar of flames, and the crashing of things breaking. Something huge was moving outside, causing all sorts of wrong wind currents.

Sure nothing was inside the cottage, she opened her eyes and looked around. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary except for some glow seeping through the gaps in the thatching and the faint smell of smoke, she slipped out of the bedding, careful to not wake up Joseph.

The first thing she saw was the mirror, two feet away from her. Cecilia froze and cursed. The mirror just floated. Then it spat a ring right at her face, the band of metal erupting from the reflective surface like a reverse-motion video of something dropping into a still pond of water. She caught the ring. It felt warm and connected to her mind just like the pillow.

"Another magical item?" She thought to herself. "Why would the mirror keep giving me random stuff?"

She remembered the mirror was linked to the Judges. What was their agenda? Wasting time on the inscrutable wasn't her modus operandi though. Sensing the ring wasn't harmful, or at least didn't seem so, she put it in her right hand and skulked past the mirror to check the door. The damn reflector moved around, keeping her reflection in frame. It would give her away but unless she wanted to attack the mirror, there was little she could do.

Peeking through the cracked door, she saw the village in flames. A creature was flying in the darkness, hidden in the smoke and rain. Rain. Despite the torrential downpour, the thatched roof cottages were burning. The fire seemed to evaporate the rain before it had a chance to quench the flames. Or it was a magical fire. Probably a magical fire.

Whatever was flying up there was massive and diverted the rain every time it beat its wings. She stared up and caught a shadow against a flash of lightning. She didn't see much but she counted six limbs.

Unquenchable fire.

Six limbs.

Massive monster.

That was enough clues for her to know she had to get the fuck out of there.

Cecilia dashed inside. "DAD!" She hollered as she deftly wrapped Joseph and the magical pillow in the blanket, making a convenient kid bundle to carry. She looked at her dumpling-shaped storage item, popped the lid open, and slid Joseph inside. His locket slipped out of his neck, refusing to enter the storage item. She snatched it and put it around her head.

"What's the matter?" Seth rubbed his eyes.

"Kaiju protocols!" She shouted back. "We need to go!"

"I'm on it," he stood up and grabbed his own ceramic box.

Cecilia heard the kaiju descend on them. She kicked the back wall and made Seth lead the way, trying to focus on the monster.

A jet of fire heated her back. "Dad, catch!" She tossed her storage item to Seth. "Run!"

Klatus' thatched roof cottage had been burninated. Cecilia spun around and looked up, hand raised to shield her eyes and keep her night vision from being ruined. Moments later, the scaled monster crashed into the burning cottage. Blood dripped from the fangs, bones, and limbs of the settlement's former inhabitants stuck between sword-length teeth.

A Dragon.

The creature stared past Cecilia, staring at Seth's back with malice. That was the biggest sin it could commit.

"No!" Cecilia roared. The hairs on her arms rose as goosebumps formed. Her claws popped out as she became more and more feral. She screamed a guttural challenge. Tense muscles in her legs propelled the Atavistic woman forward as she started seeing red. Using her tail for balance, she jumped at the creature.

Faster than it had the right to be, the Dragon swatted her out of the air with a massive paw. Cecilia flew sideways and crashed into a mud bank, rolling and steadying her fall. She ran again, kicking the mud and clay away.

"So you dare challenge me, mortal!" The Dragon chuckled, amused.

Cecilia ran. The dragon tried to swat her away like a cat would a dizzy mouse. She threw her legs forward and slid under the claw. With an Aikido roll, she was back on her feet and running toward the monster. She jumped and grabbed onto a scale, finding that her claws couldn't scratch the armored plates. Cecilia climbed the Dragon's chest.

"You are inconsequential. You cannot hurt me." The Dragon ignored her as it leaped back into the air.

She kept climbing, as fast as she could. At some point, she shed her boots to use her feet claws for more grip. The Dragon seemed to completely forget her as it chased Seth.

"You will not hurt my father!" She vowed. Conviction burned in her heart.

The fire of such conviction spread over her like the warmth of hot cocoa after a winter afternoon playing outside. She never got the chance of doing that. Power burned in her veins making her feel like she could do anything.

Cecilia roared and pulled a scale. Reinforced by this newfound power, the claws sunk into the Dragon's scales and she yanked it out, causing a spurt of black blood to stain her muddy clothes.

The Dragon roared in pain. Cecilia reached out and slashed at the exposed hide, dragging shallow furrows in the dragon's flesh. Her curved feline claws weren't as long as she wished.

But the monster was bloodied. She had proved she could hurt it. No longer able to ignore its passenger, the Dragon tried to swat Cecilia like a gnat. She jumped up and used her claws to run upward on all fours around the monster's neck. Her target was right beyond that, a bit further down its back.

The Dragon twisted its neck and inhaled. Cecilia dashed down the back and took shelter underneath a wing. The flames washed above and over the wing, as she endured the heat. The wet mud dried and flaked off as her skin sweltered.

"Ahhhhgh!" She screamed in pain. Cecilia started to claw at the soft scales underneath the wings, digging furiously through scale, hide, and then flesh.

Dragon wings were not much different from the wings of other creatures. It was the optimal design, after all. Cecilia quickly found the tendons that allowed the dragon to pull the wings down and dug into them with utmost fervor. She was in a horrible spot for the dragon to strike.

Though she was so focused on tearing that tendon that she didn't evade. The dragon scratched beneath its wing and caught on her leg. The magic-enhanced claw severed it at the shin. Cecilia screamed but held onto the flesh as she directed all the pain to dig faster. She grabbed the damaged tendon and pulled, feeling as each fiber tore under her imbued strength.

She dragged her claws over the tendon several times, sawing through them and dodging around as the dragon tried to repeat its feat. She was bleeding through the stump and knew she was on a timer. She would either down the Dragon or faint of blood loss.

If she died, she would lose her father again. She rejected that fate. Her body glowed with a herculean feat of will. A phantom of a great cat's claw, two feet across appeared over her hand. She swiped and the spectral claw tore through the wing tendon, ruining the limb and disrupting the innate flight magic that allowed dragons to flip the bird at Physics-Chan.

They plummeted. A blue box hovered in front of Cecilia.

> > Miles traveled: 1,009

>

> > You gained the Phantom Claws Perk. Summon the claws of your animal ancestors to deliver righteous punishment to your enemies.

Apparently, the Dragon had flown a lot during their fight.

They plummeted into the ocean. A lightning bolt struck the Dragon's horns. Though she was dozens of feet away, the shock jolted her unconscious.