A curved line made of spirits appeared in the air. Next to it were several triangles, symmetrical on both sides of the line started appearing. Halfway through forming the 4th triangle on the right side, the triangle fell apart, the spirits holding it together dispersed. This set off a chain reaction, the entire formation collapsed, the spirits scattering to their original positions.

A loud sound of something hitting stone could be heard. Orou lifted up his tail and once again, brought it down on the stone with all of his strength. The stone wasn’t affected by Orou’s display of rage as Orou continued to move around the room, trashing everything in his way. As his tail hit the bookshelf, it glowed with a soft light and his tail hit a thin barrier, completely blocking his strike.

He calmed down after a few more minutes, his rage was growing hotter with every failure. It had been a couple of days since the last trip outside, and the two spells, the healing spell and the beam of light spell, were occupying his mind. After a good night’s sleep, he spent all day trying to cast the two spells, to no avail. When he could complete the formation, it was too small for it to trigger, and if he made it bigger, he couldn’t complete it.

The problem was that he couldn’t hold down enough spirits for the spell. As he spread out the spirits and placed them in their positions, he had to split his attention to a different spirit and move it to its intended location. Initially, he didn’t encounter a single problem, but as he controlled more and more spirits, it became harder and harder to split his concentration, to bring a new spirit.

The worst part is that he felt when he would fail. He knew that the spell would break if he didn’t continue to focus on what he had before him, but the formation wasn’t finished, so he had to stop completely focusing on the spirits.

Days passed with only the slightest progress. Orou could easily go on all day, repeatedly practicing and trying to cast the spells, but each time, he stopped at the same place. He would wake up the next day only for him to be slightly closer to finishing the spell, he could draw two extra triangles with magic compared to days ago, but he still needed several more to complete the spell.

Once or twice, he had sunk into a state of absolute focus, his mind being completely divided in half, one part concentrating on the formation, the other bringing in new spirits. He had completely finished the formation, the only thing left was for it to take effect. Perhaps it was horrid luck, or something completely else, but at the last moment, Orou felt the beating of something inside of him clearly, and the waves that usually helped him broke him out of his concentration.

The thing that broke him out of his rage that time was the pain he felt injected in him. Dawn had walked in and Orou in his mad rage had attacked her, madly lunging towards Dawn’s neck. The pain was unbearable, but thanks to the waves inside of him, the bursts of pain lasted only a few instants. He snapped out of his rage, but it was too late to stop is the attack.

His fangs were so close to her neck, the urge to bite down and taste meat for the first time in a few days overtook him. He bore through the pain and bit down, but his fangs only met barrier made of light. The rest of his body slammed into the barrier and he started falling to the ground. Orou noticed a few cracks in the barrier, but as his view left the barrier, he noticed that in Dawn’s hands was a prismatic sword, made primarily out of light.

The sword was not raised or aimed at Orou, but merely the sight of it scared Orou. Twisting his body mid-air to soften his fall, he landed on the ground and immediately retreated, not willing to come in contact with the sword no matter what. Both Dawn and the sword remained motionless, but after a while, the sword vanished as if it had never been there.

The feeling of danger passed, but Orou was still vigilant. He realised that even without the collar, he probably couldn’t eat her. He observed Dawn’s expression and he looked for any signs of movement or the signs of chanting. Orou would bolt as soon as she did anything threatening, rather escaping than fighting this woman.

Her expression was blank, though he could see that Dawn seemed to make up her mind about something as she continued doing what she was doing before. Orou flickered his tongue and let out a sigh of relief, at least the best sigh a snake could do. In his mind, he had already forgotten about the reason why he was so mad and he went on to unsuccessfully experiment with spells.

Returning back to the present, another spell and another failure. He occasionally cast a ball of light spell, simply to remind him that he could in fact cast spells. His gaze lingered on the bookshelf, specifically, on the book that Dawn had opened when he learned his first real spell. He had tried to take it out multiple times, simply by biting it with his fangs and dragging it out, or by smashing the entire bookshelf, all to no avail. It was protected by a barrier that completely enveloped it, the same happening with the shelf full of scrolls.

His stomach growled and as it did, his face distorted. Orou didn’t know what the problem was with Dawn, but she didn’t feed him raw meat, even though he had seen her eating meat herself. She fed him some kind of liquid that filled his stomach with all the nutrients he would need, but Orou absolutely despised it. Although it did fill his stomach, it had no taste, it offered nothing but nutrition. Where was the pleasure of crushing the bones, the pleasure of slowly devouring prey or feeling the warm corpse inside of his body?

After he “ate” his meal, he continued his spellcasting practices. It was the exact same each and every time, but Orou still enjoyed it, up until the point where he failed. He saw Dawn sit down and write a scroll, but she neither brought out the book nor was the formation new to him. It was the same spell he was practising currently, the spell of healing other people. The only difference was that the formation had an eye with dots above it, a formation he had also seen before.

Orou didn’t know what Dawn did besides writing scrolls in her free time, but he didn’t care. The only time he bothered about her was when she went out and he had to come with her. A few more visits to the mage’s tower, all uneventful for Orou in terms of magic as well as trips to the market to purchase something or other.

As Orou watched her, Dawn was writing the scroll for hours, the formation she had to draw was more complex than any of the scrolls Orou had seen her draw before. Halfway through the process, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the paper she was writing on was completely in flames. Hours of work burned in front of Dawn and she didn’t seem phased, only picking up the next piece of paper to continue working.

Unless Orou sunk into that magical state of concentration again, it would take weeks for him to cast the spell. Even if he did repeat what happened last time, how could he know that the waves inside of him wouldn’t disturb him again? In fact, as he was manipulating the spirits, he started to realise that the thing inside of him was preventing him from completing the spell. The longer he maintained concentration on the spirits, the larger the effect of the waves was. Orou had the faint feeling that they were destabilizing the spirits, making Orou work twice as hard just to keep a single spirit in place.

He didn’t know how to solve the issue, so the only thing remaining to do was to keep practicing. Although the improvement was small, it was still noticeable, so Orou didn’t lose hope. Even if it wasn’t, he wouldn’t give up. His passion for magic making each time he tried casting the spell unique.

Another failure from Dawn’s side signalled the end of her patience. Orou had gotten better at identifying Dawn’s current mood based on how she behaved instead of looking at her face. This time, her actions were faster, she didn’t do everything with as much grace as she normally does, which meant she was angry.

“Follow me,” was all that Dawn said as she stood up and started walking outside. Orou got just as frustrated as her but for a different reason than hers. He couldn’t control spirits and walk at the same time, though that didn’t stop him from trying. Couldn’t this woman just stay in one place and not move so much? She had food stored in this building, so why did she have to go outside so much?

With his mind on the task before him, he slithered further down the street. He kept trying to move the spirits to no avail up until the point where his head hit a stone wall. A bit staggered, he looked up to see the tamer’s house. Dawn swaggered into the house as if she owned it, catching the man sleeping in his chair by surprise.

“I need the ingredients for the ritual, I’ll pay full price for all of them,” before even giving the man a chance to speak, she laid out her terms.

“What do you mean? It’s still way too early to conduct the ritual, a failed attempt might make further rituals impossible, it might even lead to worse consequences,” the man exclaimed, still a bit sleepy and shocked by her sudden intrusion.

“I don't care, provide me the materials and that’s all you need to worry about. Don’t butt into my own business.”

“Fine. If it fails, I don’t want you complaining to me,” he had a frown on his face as he stood up from his chair and started walking to the other room. He came back with a large sack in his hands and a little, white fox scurrying by his side. He reluctantly handed it over to her as his other hand grabbed a pouch of gold with his other hands.

“Last bit of advice, you really should take more time before doing this. Being too hasty will ruin the entire ritual.”

Dawn stored the stack in a separate space in the air. Orou was already heading outside without Dawn prompting him to go, his eyes staring at the eastern wall. Orou saw several crossbowmen patrolling up on the walls, which would spot anyone entering or exiting town. Besides that, there were several guard towers with more people looking in the direction of the forest.

Orou had seen the walls once at night. They were illuminated by magical lights, just like those illuminating the streets. There were even more men patrolling the wall at night, but the light only went so far, not even reaching the forest. The trouble was leaving the city itself, someone as big as Orou would draw a lot of attention.

Dawn saw Orou staring at the walls, but she said nothing to him as they moved forwards. Orou’s mind was distracted by thoughts of escape long after they had returned to Dawn’s home. The issue of how to deal with Dawn, the collar and getting past the walls occupied his mind until the sunset.

As Orou was about to lay down and sleep, he felt a slight wind on his scales. The wind was cold, pricking into his skin like tiny barbs. By instinct, he cast his spirit vision. Looking around, he saw spirits rapidly moving past him and approaching Dawn’s room. They were moving faster by the second and the wind picked up, it felt like the wind wanted to drag Orou along to its destination.

He decided to let the wind guide him. Uncoiling himself from his original position, he slowly started following the stream of spirits. Passing the chandelier holding the unusual spirit, he saw that it was flickering, struggling against the wind. The chandelier was swinging back and forth, as if about to fall over.

His curiosity got better of him as he considered if he truly wanted to check it out. He still felt the wind prickling his skin, and the thought about something that could attract spirits excited him. He slithered into Dawn’s room and saw what was causing so much commotion. He saw Dawn writing runes into the ground using some sort of ashy powder. When the powder touched the stone, it burned itself into it, the powder disappearing in the process.

The circle of runes was almost finished, a pentagram was scorched into the stone and five skulls of beasts were placed down on each edge of the pentagram. Each of the skulls had a vine making its way through the skull, penetrating the skull in various places.

The sight was not much different in spirit sight. The pentagram made of spirits, with each of the points shining brightly. The runes inscribed on the ground were also made of spirits, though the spirits weren’t motionless like the pentagram. Instead, the runes were rotating and moving in a circle, constantly changing positions, but never leaving the circle.

“Ah, you’re here. Saves the trouble of me coming to call you over. Now, move into the circle and stay there, don’t even think about moving from your position.” Dawn stood up after finishing the last rune, completing the circle. She was different than usual, her indifference gone and in its place, excitement and impatience. The ring on her finger was shining brightly as a thin cloud connected Orou’s collar and the ring.

Even without her saying anything, the second the circle was completed, he smelled an alluring scent, reminding him of the forest, freedom and fresh food. His feeling of danger faded and the waves inside of his body stilled, his body started moving as he was pondering the choice and moments later, he was within the circle.

Dawn didn’t waste any time and started chanting in a weird language, it reminded Orou of someone singing a song instead of chanting. The chanting didn’t stop after a minute or two, Dawn kept singing for half an hour, the spirits in the air dancing and resonating with the song.

Orou sunk into the song, getting lost in memories not belonging to him. A rocky ship in a storm, the winds that threatened to capsize it and the smell of salt in the air. The men on the ship were screaming and yelling, some had lost hope already and simply staring out into the vast darkness before them. The ship was creaking and groaning, struggling against the storm.

In the midst of chaos around him was a single man, unphased by the storm. His voice was calm and steady, unhurriedly assigning each man his task. The sailors who lost hope were affected by his voice and once more stood up to perform their tasks, their eyes filled with determination and hope, the hope of surviving the raging storm.

Despite their best efforts, it seemed like it was all for naught. The ship’s mast creaked and started collapsing, snapping in half. The sailors were scrambling, trying to salvage the situation, but it was too late as the mast started falling, aiming straight at the captain. It was too late to get out of the way, so the man simply stood his ground, his gaze was staring straight ahead, staring at the storm in the distance.

The men were yelling and shouting at the captain, but his determination didn’t waver, for he knew that he would be safe in this storm. The sailors were cloaked in darkness as a shadow swept across the ship, a tail of humongous proportions heading towards the captain. He greeted it with a smile on his face, the tail wrapping around the mast and lifting it up in the air

The sailors stood in awe, their gazes locked onto a figure that had appeared in the vast ocean before them. A serpent that towered over the storm itself had appeared, its tail extending all the way towards the ship. There was no room for terror, only shock and awe greeted the serpent as it approached the ship, its tail wrapping around the ship.

The ship started shaking as the serpent raised it up in the air and brought its tail closer to its body. Two eyes, as blue and endless as the ocean stared at the captain. Without any fear, the man approached the edge of the ship, staring right back into the eyes of the serpent.

“I knew you would come, you always do.”

Instead of the authoritative voice that commanded the sailors, he spoke to the serpent in a soft tone, as if speaking to a friend he’s known for decades. The serpent opened its mouth and fangs easily bigger than the ship itself gleamed in the darkness. The serpent’s flickered its tongue in front of the captain, gently licking him before closing its mouth.

As the serpent let down the ship, the winds and the ocean calmed down, the dark clouds that were blocking the sun were blown away and the sun’s warmth descended onto every member on the ship.

“Full speed ahead men, towards the land of hope and promise.”