I landed on a hard, cold stone, not unlike the floor of the fairy prison. The fall damage barely touched my health but my paws still stung. As I rubbed the pain away, I turned my head from side to side, examining the small, stone room.

There wasn’t much to look at aside from the bars at the front of the room. They were made of some weird white material, like iron or something. Taking a closer look, I noticed the glowing golden words lined the bars. Magical energy, the kind of aura I sensed when the baby monk cast its spells on me, radiated from the bars. I got the feeling that if I touched them, another one of my lives would be lost.

Great. I let myself get captured again and this time, I had twenty-something guns to back me up! It was humiliating to suffer such a defeat…

The peasants deserve to be punished.

Yeah...Yeah, they do, don’t they? First the snooty Head Maid and her ridiculous attitude and now this! How dare they try and contain me here? I’m a dragon! To try and imprison me is-is worthy of―

Death. They deserve death.

N-now you just hold on a minute. Sure the dwarves captured me for no reason and I’m pissed about it, but they don’t deserve to die for it―

You are weak. A true dragon would not hesitate to slaughter her enemies.

Well, just cause I’m not eager to go around causing death and destruction like some maniac doesn’t mean I’m not a dragon!

It is in our nature, girl. We do not cause death and destruction. It is who we are.

Well then maybe I don’t wanna be a dragon. I didn’t come to this world to kill people willy nilly, you understand?

This world does not care for your kind-hearted feelings, girl. They will slit your throat before you can even say ‘Howdy’.

Well, then, I’d just have to stop them from trying to do that, won’t I? I’d imagine there’d be something magical I could use to get people to like me, like a ray of sunshine. A forcefield of friendliness. That’s right!

I imprinted my idea onto the orb; a bottle of brandy that creates an aura of ‘don’t kill me please’ around me of about ten feet. The longer someone was inside the aura, the less likely they’d want to hurt or capture me!

The system called it [Rune: Friendship Brandy]

Unfortunately, the drink wouldn’t get me out of this cell. I still took a hefty swig just in case a guard would come by and, out of the goodness of his heart, let me go free.

As if my prayers had been answered, footsteps sounded from just down the hall. I finished off the bottle and tossed it to the back of the cell before plopping down on my rump. I stretched my face into the cutest darned smile a baby dragon could manage and waited patiently for the effect to set in.

A red-haired lady dwarf stepped around the corner and into my view, holding a tray of meat slabs and a bowl of water. She stared at me with wide eyes as she inched toward the cell bars.

“Aren’t you just the kindest thing!” I said with a noticeable slur in my voice. She flinched when I spoke, nearly dropping the tray in her mitts. I kept talking, oblivious to her discomfort. “Bringing me a meal when I was just gettin’ hungry!”

She murmured something, shuffled forward, and plopped the tray down. Half the water in the bowl splashed out onto the floor and on her boot. He hurriedly bowed and sprinted away from the cell.

“Hey,” I shouted after her. “How am I supposed to eat this if I can’t reach it?”

The fleeing dwarf ignored my protest, ducking out of sight a moment later. Huffing with indignance, I padded over to the bars and pondered what to do.

Is food more important than escape?

“Silly demonic voice in my head,” I muttered, pulling out an orb. “Grub comes before everything.”

I needed to get the tray without touching the bars, but how? I couldn’t touch the bars and the tray was too wide to fit between them. If I could somehow widen the space without touching the bars, I could pull the tray in. I would also be able to escape from the cell, which was also important.

I needed something like a...a car jack! Yes, a car jack would definitely work. I focused on the orb I had in front of me and imprinted the image of a handheld car jack onto it. But wait, I might still get hurt. I’d be touching the car jack, after all. I needed something that would let me touch the car jack, put it on the prison bar, and not get hurt by the backlash. An absorption pad or something that would go on the handle. It would suck in anything that came from the bars.

I waited for it to pop into existence, but the telltale sound never came. Frowning, I looked over the orb. The image was there, it just wouldn’t turn into a rune. Did it need more mana then?

The last time I tried to bring a second orb into the light, the previous orb vanished. I didn’t want to lose this orb to risk getting another one.

But...I had done it before, hadn’t I? I used up all of my mana summoning the Shottys when I came face to face with the Acid Cow. Perhaps it would work now? I wasn’t panicked out of mind but I was sure I’d be able to replicate the experience.

I kept a close eye on the orb as I reached into my dark space to grab another. Orb #1 flickered dangerously when I grabbed orb #2. I paused long enough to readjust my hold on orb #1, making sure the image stayed connected on it before continuing to bring out orb #2.

Slow and steady, I paused every so often to make sure orb #1 was okay as orb #2 was brought into the light. Success! But now came the hard part: figuring out how to merge the two. I didn’t know if that was possible but it didn’t hurt to try.

I brought the two orbs together like a school girl coordinating a wedding with her barbies and her brother’s ‘action figures’. I even giggled like one when I made orb #2 ‘kiss’ orb #1, nudging the two to mix with one another.

The merging was a success, thankfully, but the merged orbs still didn’t want to form the rune. Fine then. I’d just add more mana.

It took me five more orbs to finally get the rune. The [Rune: Jaws of Life] popped into existence right before my eyes.

This is a waste of precious magic.

I ignored the voice and clamped my teeth around the padded handle. It was time to put my Low (1) Strength to work!