The sleep reminded me of the dream I had when I first arrived. Falling under the water lazily, only to occasionally float back to the top, taking a deep breath of clarity. These moments were fleeting, and, ironically, I used them to give myself some water. I was back under the depths quickly. But I felt the water growing shallower. The moments of clarity growing from a warm haze of humid self-awareness to hollow echoes of perception. I believe it goes without saying, but I had never been through anything so dangerous up until that point- the closest I had ever come to death was when my mother crashed into a deer back in 3rd grade.

And, even then, the windshield didn't even break. I flashed back to the looks we got when we drove into school with the front of our car destroyed and leaking smoke. There was a very fun story to tell that day. Or many of them, considering how much I liked to embellish and how gullible children were.

And I was allowing my mind to wander again. But I could at least reminisce. I could think.

The first step I needed to take was to remember how to feel things. I had 'sensations' at the moment, but no perception. It was all vague feelings I couldn't process into comfort or discomfort. The feelings were simply there, with no context or meaning. I lived life in my head, but this was something else entirely. It wasn't simply feeling disconnected from my body, it was as if I didn't have one at all.

A while ago it would have been comforting. But my resolve against myself from that while ago brought me a sense of dread that overpowered it. It was that dread that was the impetus to understanding again.

First came proprioception. I still had this one, to an extent, on instinct. I wouldn't have been able to drink water or understand I was thirsty otherwise. But it slowly became a bit more distinct than a tool in muscle memory, a sense of myself I could actually consult. I began to realize my arm was wrapped around something, and that I was moving forward, up, and down slowly. Rilu must have been carrying me, but why? He didn't before. If he did, couldn't this entire thing have been avoided? `Why would he do this now?

I calmed down and internally breathed (I was not in good control of my lungs, so I just made the closest approximation to meditative breath in my head). I didn't know his reasoning, and I could not ask for more. He had done too much for me. Even if it was for a malicious reason, I would need to respect it. I would have been dead long ago without him regardless.

Then came temperature, quite long after. I could recognize it was hot, the nerves intended for processing heat and cold giving me that exceptionally basic input. I did begin to differentiate it in areas. Most of my body was surrounded by an almost biting heat, the same corrosive sort I had felt earlier, though less painful. In my hand, though, there was something cool. The canteen.

My vision was black and my ears and nose full of ash, but I began to taste. Not much, mind you, but my tongue was no longer too numb and dry to relay to me what the hot air tasted like. It wasn't exactly vivid, but the vague and smoky taste in my mouth gave me something to center myself on.

Something to center me on enough to begin feeling the pain. Which wasn't much, actually. It was just a lot of burns and scratches, and the things I felt were still 99% TV static. I would be in constant pain soon enough, that much I knew, but I wasn't quite yet.

And, for a long time, that was all. Until my cycles stopped once more.

-

Leaf had been out for a day. Even just mere minutes in the ash had done such a number on him. Despite myself, I found myself hoping for there to be no permanent damage.

Well, it wasn't 'despite myself' anymore, was it? I had saved him, I had evolved my Skill for him, and now I was carrying him. *I*, a dragon, was carrying another being.

And the worst part was that I look back on what happened, on the entire situation, and everything I did and felt throughout. I stare in retrospect only to find this is the one time where I wouldn't have done anything differently. Where I do not wish to change the past, however much pain doing this has caused me. For the sake of somebody I don't even know.

And my biggest worry wasn't even about why I did it, but what the reasoning that felt so right meant about me. The questions on my mind spiraled.

Who was I?

I nearly stomped on the ground, but I knew to sustain the barrier I would need to minimize the use of my Imprint. It was too easy to lose connection to this amount of power, especially power so unstable. Power was released from growth in an awakening, power that shouldn't exist.

I looked at said barrier. A red-orange dome that crackled with yellow sparks. Swirling in an imperceptible cycle. It warded off a billowing pitch black.

I stepped onto stone from salt, relieved at stable ground to stand on. I wasn't tired- this was not strenuous for someone such as I- but it was nice to feel less up in the air. To know my orientation remained true, even without sight. Now, I knew the direction to head in again, and I was approaching the worldbridge. I hoped that we would come across a Forgebreaker on our way out, but finding any early birds was unlikely. Any who could move fast enough to have arrived would most likely be too capable of flight or too fast to catch them in the smoke. Along with being too powerful to actually care.

I imagined it to be a week's journey if they didn't rest. But if Leaf could regain some strength, there was a new option that came with his Skill Evolution.

I sat down and lay Leaf beside a rock, before I focused and waved upward, summoning my Manifestation. A stone tablet rumbled into existence, and I finally got the chance to read the carved in letters and numbers.

-

Rilu

Level 19 Duelist

-

I allowed my eyes to wander past the title card, down a few categories, until I got to the word 'Protector of the First Flame: 1/10'. That wasn't good news, the name of a skill tended to only change when you found your own path for it, be it through a unique development or an entire evolution.

-

Skill Levels

(0 Points Available)

Output: 6/10

Shifting: [Immutable, Rank 4]

Enchant: 2/10

Burst: 4/10

Transfer: 3/10

Solidify: 1/10

-

I was disappointed but unsurprised. It wasn't a full evolution, just an upgrade. I supposed that I still needed to figure some things out before a full upgrade.

I could feel I was close, though... Having a 4th Class Skill before Second Class wasn't unheard of, but it was close to. If I could get it to Tier 1 alongside that, I could receive a title. Then... I could have one last chance to bring it all back together until Second Class.

It was unlikely, but less likely things had happened to me. The me who sought out reality's miscalculations. The me who tried to make it his strength.

Just a little bit further.

-

I would say I woke up, but that would have been a bit of an overstatement. Although, oddly enough, I found that I could move. I suppose I had been out for a day and most of the ash and smoke was out of my system, but I was surprised at how quickly I had... I didn't want to say recovered, but I was a lot better. I still felt like death, mind you, with sores and marks all over inside and out, but there were blurry images in my sight, it was no longer pure darkness. And I could hear more than ringing. And I could smell. Only smoke, of course, but it was an improvement.

I was stable. I would be able to make it out alive. At least, I hoped so. The colors I saw were that of flame and darkness, which wasn't particularly comforting. I appeared to be safe regardless, and the heat wasn't unbearable if I kept to the ground. I tried to get out more words, but my adrenaline had run dry. I couldn't do more than cough before taking a long sip of water.

Yesterday, I suppose, the injury had seemed like the worst thing imaginable. But perhaps I was biased in assessing my condition. After all, I had never experienced something at that level before.

Well, nothing I could figure out then and there. Hell, I didn't even have the lungs to ask Rilu about it, on top of being unsure whether or not it was natural.

"If you can hear me, tap the stone," Rilu asked. At least, it was probably Rilu, the voice sounded fuzzy and far away, drowned out amidst the ringing. As if I were underwater, listening to someone try to speak to me from the surface. My head was spinning, but I managed to pull myself together enough to give a tap about 15 seconds later.

I couldn't tell from his tone, for obvious reasons. but the aura of his words through my Imprint appeared to carry exasperation. Apparently, he had tried communicating with me often. With my response, he spoke again.

"Don't tap if you don't understand the question, tap once for yes, tap twice for no, and tap thrice if you get the question and don't know the answer. Tap once if you understand."

One tap. The stone felt cold against my skin, but it was still indistinct. Like the cold could have been in many places on my body, and even if I knew it was on my finger, I didn't internalize it to my senses. It was more knowledge than perception. It was a strange feeling and one that was entirely unpleasant.

"Alright. Do you think you'll be ready to walk in four days at this rate?"

3 taps.

"Then I'll keep heading forward in case you can't. It'll make recovery harder, though. We're about at the Worldbridge, which means 4 days until we reach the outer bounds of the storms. I checked so I don't think so, but I don't have the skills to assess brain damage or organ failure. Do you think you are in any sort of critical condition?"

Two taps. It was more an 'I don't think so' than a 'no', so maybe it would have been better to play it safe. But by the time I realized he was probably asking his question because he had something he could do about that, I had already responded.

Either I sustained brain damage or I was just that stupid. I knew people who would have bet money on the latter, most of whom people I love and trust. Thus, I left it at that. I would say I hoped I didn't mess up somehow and die, but that would imply that same hope hadn't been running full force for the past 48 hours at least.

"Alright, time for another day of walking. Don't try to open your eyes more. You need to spend that energy to recover. And, trust me, there is not much to see."

-

On the first day, I did nothing but rest. It felt like the canteen was growing into my hand, I had been grasping it for so long. I did not feel much better.

On the second, I had made some progress. My burns felt a bit healed, and I began to be able to form simple sentences for short periods of time. It was a very long day. I ultimately didn't learn as much as I had hoped to, so it was a very long day with little progress in healing. I told Rilu I wouldn't try much the next day.

I managed to keep my promise. Day 3 saw me feeling far better, and I could feel that some of my scabs were growing smaller. I could probably have spoken in full sentences, but I knew I had to take it easy, however bored I got.

On the fourth day, I could speak and breathe again. I could walk, but not very well.

I don't know how it started, maybe just a natural evolution of being alone together on the road. But we began telling stories.