“It was too late to do anything, our mere existence had doomed this world beyond repair. I had no choice but to end our kin and birth forth a new life, smarter and more advanced than rest. It is within them that my hope lies and I hope that one day they will be able to save this world from its destiny.”

Orou woke up with a start. His eyes darted around in search of any bats, but all that he could see was old wooden walls. His gaze landed on Grizz, who was sitting by a table with a quill in his hands, intently writing something. Orou’s body felt stiff and uncomfortable and as he moved his body, his entire lower body ached. The noise startled Grizz as he turned his head towards Orou and with a wide, beaming smile said: “You’re finally up.”

“I was worried that you would never wake.” Grizz looked over at Orou’s lower body and pointing his finger at Orou, he continued: “It was quite miraculous to see your body regenerate like that. Not a week later you’re completely fine, though I wonder how much of that is attributed to the crystal.”

If it truly had been a week that would explain his growling stomach and his overwhelming sense of hunger. He looked over at his body and if he didn’t remember being exploded by the spell earlier, he would’ve thought that there was nothing wrong with him. His mind tried to recall what happened after, but it all felt like a blur. He was forgetting something very important, something that was related to the voice he heard earlier, but no matter how much he wracked his brain, he couldn’t remember anything.

“You must be confused at how you survived. It’s quite easy, the bats can’t go up to the surface, end of story.” Grizz mistook Orou’s bewilderment and started to excitedly explain his heroic deeds of saving Orou. “You were quite heavy but I took you in my hands and ran as fast as my legs could carry me. Even fed you a pure crystal, see how nice I am?” Orou rolled his eyes the way he had seen Grizz do it and began to slowly slither out of the bloody corner that he was resting in, looking for any food that could relieve his hunger.

“It would’ve gone much better if I wasn’t so greedy. I got the crystals and everything, but I had to go into that room. They were feeding the corpses and the injured beasts to the sapphire bats, can you imagine that? We would’ve been sapphires by now if we went along with it.” The last two sentences got Orou’s attention. He wondered why the beastmen in metal armor carried both the dead and the injured beasts to the same spot. Perhaps there was never a round two planned after all.

While Orou was pondering over what would’ve happened if he hadn’t escaped, he saw a beastman unlike others walk into the room. It was a woman with green hair and green eyes, bearing a resemblance to a frog. Although most of her body was covered with clothing, Orou could see patches of green on her body. If that wasn’t the case, one could mistake her for a human.

“It should be about time to feed him, do you want to...” She stumbled into the room in the middle of the sentence, but once she saw Orou moving towards her, her words trailed off. After several seconds of standing still, she approached Orou and placed her hand in front of him. She was staring at him with bemusement as if wondering what he will do next. Orou didn’t know what she wanted of him, so he simply slithered past her. He heard something about feeding him, so surely, there must be food somewhere here and he was on a mission to find it.

The two of them exchanged looks before Grizz shrugged and the woman followed Orou with sad eyes. Orou could smell the scent of meat coming from the room to the right of him which only made him hungrier. He picked up the speed and barreled into the kitchen. There, he saw two plates of steaming potatoes and vegetables on the table, but more importantly, he saw a butchered carcass of some beast. Orou opened his mouth wide open as he started to stuff himself with the meat before him.

“You can’t just eat so much after waking up and besides, that’s for multiple days.” The woman cried out as she turned to corner and saw Orou’s wide open mouth. Orou hissed at her and picked up his pace. Before she even knew it, the meat was gone and in its place was a satisfied Orou. She sighed and yelled out for Grizz to come and eat while looking sternly over at Orou, saying something or other about how it wasn’t good for his stomach.

“I told you this before Lyra but you can’t control what he does, he’s too smart for that.” Grizz laughed as he sat down by the table and started to eat his meal, his eyes darting between Orou and where the meat previously was, a weird expression on his face.

“So, what are you going to do now that he’s awoken? Beastmen are looking for both you and him, the bats from the under city have a lot of influence you know.” Lyra sat down next to Grizz and asked him a question. She poked him with her fork a few times when he didn’t answer and after yelling out in pain, he slowly said: “Although I would like to stay here with you, I need to get back to my family and sort a few things out. After that, I promise that I will come back and settle down with you, no more of my adventures.”

“As for the bats, I disguised myself to make me seem like someone of lower status and I’ve got things planned for this big guy when we arrive at Onilia and if everything pans out, he should be safe to travel on his own.” A bit of a sad smile broke out on Grizz’s face as he stared at Orou, perhaps he had grown fond of him over this month or so. Orou flickered his tongue in response, unsure of what to think. He lifted himself up and peered through a window only to find himself in an unfamiliar place. A small hamlet with only a few handfuls of wooden houses greeted him, beyond that were only the rolling plains. A couple of beastmen, some resembling Lyra were walking around the village, it seemed like there was a new house being constructed in the vicinity.

After a few minutes, he felt a tap on his scales and as he turned around, he heard Grizz ask him: “Do you need a few more days of rest or are we safe to travel further? It will probably take a few days or so, depending on how fast we go.” Orou lifted his tail and while he did feel some residual weakness, it wouldn’t stop him from moving forward. Besides, the meat from earlier didn’t completely fill his stomach and he was eager to move unobstructed by any people or buildings blocking his way.

Wanting to check how combat ready he was, Orou started to slither forwards and the next second, he started controlling the waves inside of him. As he wanted to guide them forwards, he realised that he had been blind this entire time. Almost instinctively, he could visualise the thing from where the waves were coming from and returning back to. It was a blood-red sphere rapidly spinning inside of him, constantly sending out and receiving back the waves of blood. He felt as if he could grip the sphere and make it send out more waves, or recall all of them back. Not to mention simply guiding the waves, he felt like he had total control over them.

As he experimented with simply covering his flesh with the blood waves to gently pushing him forwards and then violently jerking him towards the right, he realised that there was something else in the sphere. A small crystal was floating in the middle of it and each time he commanded the sphere, it slightly dissolved into the sphere, making it bigger. Now that he knew there was a crystal floating there, he could feel a minute source of heat coming from within him, something he wouldn’t have noticed or brushed off otherwise.

“Hide the crystals somewhere safe, you never know when a patrol could show up in this place. I’ll be off now, hopefully back before the end of the month.” Grizz kissed Lyra before picking up his backpack and solemnly walking out of the door, Orou following from behind.