—Sally—

  As Orion stepped out of the house and into the early afternoon light, I was amazed by how different the sky looked. How different it felt to me. While I couldn't tell what had changed with my vision directly, I could still see so much more going on in the sky.

  Every fluffy cloud held an instinctual reaction, I could feel the instinctual knowledge of how to use them brushing against the edges of my mind. Thermals and currents in the air, both inconsequential and almost invisible to me before my evolution, but now I could just make them out in the sky, and knew how to use them. It reminded me of navigating rge rocks as a kid, when my mind calcuted with fast precision where I could put my hands and feet to get to the top of the boulders. That same way-finding part of my brain now knew how to climb to the very top of the sky.

  It made me all the more eager to get out into the forest as fast as possible, to experiment with these new senses and finally fly.

  But as Orion started to make his way to the forest, he was stopped by an overexcited little kid, who was practically vibrating with excitement as she blocked his path.

  "Hello!-Where's-miss-dragon?" She asked so fast that I could hardly make the individual words. Seemingly not remembering that she'd find me if she bothered to looked up.

  "No… He is not a dragon." Orion corrected her, the child's disappointment palpable. I was gd that this child could at least see my graceful scaled form for what it was. Though I do have to get someone to tell me why everybody kept assuming that I was female at first gnce. I mean, I can tell that I’m a lithe creature, but that doesn't mean I’m female.

  Though I’ll take the compliment about my implied elegance whenever I could, so I’ll leave correcting that detail to people who care enough to intercede for me—like Orion.

  "Aww…" She muttered, and I took the opportunity to take a look at the roadblock.

  The girl was a cute and chubby little thing. She couldn’t have been older than eight, but she wasn’t bumbling around like a toddler, somewhere in between the ages of youthful independence and complete infantile reliance. Her long bck hair was parted into two braided ponytails, had two bright, wide, and pyful eyes, that looked like they wanted to drink in every experience the world has to offer. And st—and certainly not least—of all, a great toothy grin that never ended, always visible, even if she tried to close her mouth between sentences.

  She had dark tanned skin like everyone in the vilge, but she looked more alive, both un-starved and full of energy.

  "Aylin! Where did you go?" A tired and exasperated voice called out from around the corner, and a middle-aged woman emerged.

  Now, I can happily admit that I can be somewhat… critical of other peoples' appearances, especially when my own used to be so cklustre. But there’s something about wrinkles, old people and folds in skin that absolutely disgusts me—it makes me want to shed my scales at the sight of it. And this woman was making it hard to sit still.

  Her skin was tight and her cheeks sunken, her face was atrophied to such a degree that I was surprised she was still moving. Though her hollow cheekbones and big eye sockets were scary enough, the sunken, ratty, beady little orbs peering at us with a baleful gre only added to her hag-witch appearance. The best description I had for how the woman looked was ‘shaved mole-rat’. Though, she did still have a full head of hair—as matted and ratty as it was.

  “mom-mom-mom look! New people!” The girl asked while she ran to her mother and tugged on her shirt, pointing at us like we were exhibits at the zoo. I almost felt insulted on Orion's behalf, because even I didn't think he looked that much like an ape.

  “C-come back inside A-Aylin.” The mother weakly stuttered, grabbing Aylin’s arm and gently tugging it. But the girl didn’t care and pulled herself free, bounding towards us with the endless enthusiasm that only children can possess.

  “What’s-your-name?-Where-did-you-come-from?” The girl spit-fired, leaving Orion reeling as he tried to decipher the kid’s words.

  “Orion, and Sally, and we're from… the forest.” Orion answered for both of us, he sounded like somebody who was forced to introduce themselves in a team-building exercise. But I noticed that when Orion answered, the mother only grew more distressed, gasping as her ghastly expression became even paler.

  "Did you see my daddy out there?" Aylin excitedly asked, Orion taking a step back as the girl got a bit closer, the giant becoming overwhelmed by her rapidly glistening puppy eyes.

  "I… did not meet anyone on my way here." Orion eventually answered, the girl's eyes becoming downcast as her enthusiasm was trodden on.

  "But it is a big forest, and we're about to go hunting. I could look for him?" Orion kindly offered. If this side-quest interrupted my experimentation time, I'm going to be very annoyed.

  "He's a hunter, and you should find him with all of the other ones!" Aylin quickly answered, running back to her mother. But the woman only seemed to grow more on edge the longer she was around us. Notably whenever coming from, or going to the forest was mentioned was when she seemed to get the most uncomfortable.

  “Can I come with?" She quickly tacked onto her previous sentence.

  “No.” Orion denied, the girl immediately drained of her enthusiasm. But it only took a moment before she recovered and decided to try to change Orion’s mind, staring up at him with even bigger puppy eyes than before. I let out a chittery little ugh at her antics, watching the little girl press the attack on Orion.

  When Aylin heard my ugh, she frowned for a moment, clearly wondering where it could've come from. But with a quick gnce upwards, she finally figured out that I was on top of Orion's head.

  “d-d-dragon? THAT’S A DRAGON!” the girl screamed, acting like she just met her favourite member of a k-pop group.

  I haughtily lifted my head and tilted it back, snootily lifting my nose to the sky, knowing that this girl had finally recognised me for what I am.

  “No he’s-”

  “I-I-Introductions, dragons like those?” the girl said, completely tuning out her uncomfortable mother and Orion's corrections.

  “M-my name’s Aylin” she nervously announced, adorably giving me a little bow. I didn't have the cynicism in me to disappoint her, so I gave her acknowledgement through a nod of my head. She let out a little gasp of undiluted happiness at the recognition, before loudly clearing her throat.

  “And yours, miss?” she asked, Aylin’s innocent question making me crack up with ughter as the girl looked at me in confusion. Her unintentional misgendering honestly felt like praise. If she looked at my beautiful scales and thought that I could only be a woman, then I suppose I'll just have to take it in good humour.

  “His name is Sally.” Orion corrected, dampening the mood of the situation. It made Aylin frown with confusion, as if someone had handed her a Rubik’s-Cube without expining the rules. But before she could figure out what was going on, her mother finally worked up the courage to intervene.

  "Sorry about her." She sighed, with the exasperation only a parent could muster as she walked up to the unruly girl. She grabbed her arm and began to drag her back to wherever they came from.

  “Byeeee Sally!” Aylin shouted as she was dragged around the corner, waving at us until she disappeared around the corner.

  What an… energetic kid.

  ***

  It didn't take long for us to arrive at a secluded area of the forest, far enough away from the town that I couldn't hear or see any hint of its existence.

  I took the opportunity to jump down from Orion's head when he suddenly stopped. I ignored what he was doing as he took his quiver off of his shoulder, and looked around for a good pce to begin testing my new to—skills.

  When I saw a good rock to jump off of, and that the area around it was free from obstacles, I immediately climbed it. As I readied myself on the boulder, I did notice that my body was reacting much faster and just generally better than before. The slight resistance I felt when I walked, the friction between how I wanted to move and how I actually did so, was gone.

  It was an unintended side-effect of the evolution, but undoubtedly a positive one.

  I spread my wings and prepared to fly, to use my skill to… and then realised I had no idea how to consciously use the skill.

  I gnced at Orion, who had begun to transfer the arrows in the quiver to his skill, making them disappear into thin air. Maybe it just is that simple, and it only takes a thought—like [Appraisal].

  So, I swallowed my fear, and tried to flip a mental switch to activate [Flight (Basic)].

  Activating: [Flight (Basic) – Level 0]

  My excitement upon seeing the blue system appear was short lived, quenched by the fact that nothing had happened. I looked around my body, just to check if something had changed, or started to glow. But no, nothing.

  Though… now that I’m sitting still, my legs are feeling… strange. Kind of itchy and energetic at the same time, like the restlessness to get up and move that I sometimes get from long car rides. But this was more directed, purposeful than just the simple need to move.

  I almost ignored it, but I then realised that this might be my new skill. It would've been an extraordinary coincidence if these feelings just happened to appear seconds after activating the skill.

  But as the need to move, and use certain muscles only grew, I decided to follow their lead, curious as to what exactly they wanted me to do.

  My legs tensed before I jumped forwards, my wings spreading as they caught the air, and holding my weight. In that split-second, I knew that I’d found what I was made for. The thrill of it overwhelmed me with happiness, at least for the moment I was airborne before I hit the ground.

  I let out a squeak of pain as my body and nose smmed into the ground. I writhed in pain for a few seconds as the incredibly agonising sensation echoed through me. But compared to breaking my wings, it's hardly comparable. Though, as I got up, I realised that Orion was currently crouched by me, his hands awkwardly hovering over me.

  I snorted and wrote the simple message of 'I'm fine' into the dirt, Orion re-reading it a couple of times before standing up and retreating a few steps.

  "Are you… practising flying?" He asked, and I nodded, which seemed to satisfy his curiosity.

  "I'm going to prepare my gear and investigate the nearby area for tracks. Shout if you need assistance with anything." Orion offered, to which I graciously nodded.

  As he began to leave, I was already climbing back on top of the rock, ready to give flying another go.

  Activating: [Flight (Basic) – Level 0]

  This time, when I followed the skills instructions, I managed to make it a bit further after the initial jump. I managed to get in a single fp of my wings before I tumbled to the ground. Which was—slightly—more graceful than st time.

  [Flight (Basic) – Level 0] has Levelled up![Flight (Basic) – Level 0] -> [Flight (Basic) – Level 1]

  Already? Well… I suppose that this'll be a fast grind.

  ***

  [Flight (Basic) – Level 3] -> [Flight (Basic) – Level 4]

  I had to eventually stop my training as the exhaustion became too much of a hassle to work through. I was surprised that it only took fifteen minutes to become this fatigued, but in that time, I'd managed to get 4 levels in [Flight (Basic)]. Maybe it's one of those rookie skills, just there to show you the ropes before you get a more advanced version.

  And so far, that seemed to be the whole purpose of the skill, as all levelling it had done was make its instructions subtler, more particur about the finer details. Now—instead of giving me the full movements like it did at the first level—it highlighted where I was underperforming. It was less of a skill, and more of a learning tool.

  Disappointing, but I wasn't really expecting the skill to be all that impressive. I already had wings, so how much more could it do?

  But with my physical limits reached, I had a much more exciting thing to begin testing.

  Activating: [Weather magic (Basic) – Level 0]

  I tried not to feel too disappointed as nothing immediately happened, and was overcome with a wave of resigned frustration as the same sensation from [Flight] appeared. Though, the muscles it was asking me to use were ones I was unfamiliar with.

  With a sigh, I followed its instructions and… massaged—some muscles around my heart, coaxing out some sort of anomalous liquid towards a talon. The sensation of using the muscles were so foreign to me, that I wouldn't have known they exist is not for the skill pointing them out to me.

  And the sensation it created, it was like cold—no, a wet—sensation that I could feel internally. It reminded me of drinking water when dehydrated, and being able to feel it travel through my oesophagus. I put aside the weirdness of it, and excitedly waited for the feeling to reach its end destination of my cws.

  Though all that happened once it did, was mist dripping from my talon. I felt a bit perplexed as I watched the end of my right-front leg become a fog-machine.

  I waved the limb around, and felt a bit of glee emerge through the disappointment of [Weather Magic]. Though… I do suppose that mist and clouds are the most basic aspect of the weather.

  [Weather magic (Basic) – Level 0] has Leveled up![Weather magic (Basic) – Level 0] -> [Weather magic (Basic) – Level 1]Mana: 45/45 - > 44/45

  Though… with my mana pool, it won't take that long to level it at all!

  My excitement returned with a bang as I excitedly began to channel even more of the substance—it's probably [Mana], isn't it?—into my talons.

  But as I slowly surrounded myself with a cloud of white mist, the sound of a twig snapping loudly behind me ruined my concentration. I turned to scowl at the interruption, assuming that it was Orion, but instead I was looking at a creature much furrier than the Ranger.

  Both me and the stag were frozen, the strange-looking buck standing perfectly still. The deer had extremely short fur, to the point that it almost looked bald, and its antlers were sharp. Instead of the blunt fuzzy appearance I expected, they were sharp ivory, polished bone-like branches that all ended in needle-sharp tips.

  I hesitantly began to move away from it, but as I shuffled backwards, it took a step towards me, maintaining the distance between us. At the point I began to panic and make a—completely strategic—retreat, and I'm unsure if it was instinct or just panic and desperation, but a talon scooped up and tried to throw the mist gathered around me. Though the really surprising part, was when it actually worked.

  I'd completely forgotten about [Cloud Shaping] until I saw the clump of clouds in my talons, and when it flew at the aggressive animal like a snowball. I let out a ugh when the cloud stayed tangible even after I'd let go of it, the material sticking to the deer's horns like cotton.

  Though, the ughter quickly died when it opened its mouth, revealing a maw of long and sharp teeth, the vampiric visage only enhanced when it let out an otherworldly snarl. Then I started to scream, hoping that Orion was still nearby as it started to run towards me. I was then thankful it was still blinded by the clouds sticking to its face, as I think that was the only reason why I managed to dodge its wild swing of its antlers.

  I ran before it could wisen up to my location, already calcuting the best way to keep it off of my back.

  Cherrys_chapters

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