Headed by a Snake

Willow figured she probably had to become an adventurer.

For a twelve year old human girl, it wasn't... impossible.

Dad said that the Adventurer's Guild had some kind of test. She'd pass it somehow. She had her System, after all.

Sprig would probably have to toughen up a little.

A lot, even.

He always talked about wanting to join a famous adventuring company.

...something like Sol Invictus.

Willow was a little more realistic.

She might be able to make a name for herself good enough to be scouted. Imperia seems like she'd been adventuring for a long time, with the armor she wore on her arms and legs... and she was only a few levels higher than Willow was.

She needed to be good enough that Sprig could join too. She'd never leave him-- not willingly.

« System, show me the detailed list of my talent choices. »

A dizzying amount of information filled her head...

Talents.

Even a single one was enough to change her life... and as Willow completed her System's missions and leveled up, she could change her life dozens of times.

Most of her talents, she could take without thinking too hard.

When the System improved her stamina, she found that she could essentially run forever... or at least her skinny legs could take her way further than they probably should.

When she put points into perception, she found she could see two or three times further than any of the adults... She could count leaves falling from the trees and the individual raindrops that hit her open palm.

...Also, it became practically impossible for Sprig to win at hide-and-seek, ever again.

Then... there was ⌈Dragon's Heart.⌋

The System said it made her pretty-much immune to fear... that she'd always have the courage to push through, no matter how bad it got.

Dragons aren't afraid of anything.

After Dad disappeared... she was in a bad place.

She didn't have any parents to take care of her. The other adults in the village were all busy trying to survive. She had a snot-nosed little brother who was super sweet most of the time... but not all the time.

When she took that talent, her whole way of thinking changed practically overnight.

Things... still didn't get any easier. Everything just became... more tolerable.

Even though it still hurt... even though Willow still missed Dad-- and Mom even worse, all of her tears dried up.

There was no point in crying... not when there was work to be done.

Back then, she rolled up her sleeves and volunteered to help around the village... cleaning animals... shoveling dirt and snow... dragging in fish from boats. She started out not being very good at anything... and she got yelled at a lot... but after a few weeks, she became a productive member of society.

Willow had to... grow up-- more or less.

She even fooled herself into thinking she found a sense of belonging in Thorne Village... that they no longer thought of her and Sprig as outsiders.

She determined that to be a lie.

After all that, the villagers stole her away in the middle of the night and tried to sacrifice her to the Swamp Monster.

Still, Willow didn't regret taking that talent. Without it, she'd probably have just curled up under a rock waiting for a giant king snake to eat her.

There were a lot of those in the swamp. Really big ones, too.

The problem with ⌈Dragon's Heart⌋ was... well...

She first noticed the cross-hatch markings over her chest when she first inherited her System. They were only about as dark as a birthmark, but they were easy to feel-- hard like the skin on the soles of her feet.

They changed.

After Willow took that talent, the subtle, hard-to-see markings turned into thick, green, unmistakable scales.

It also made her start to... sense things.

Or not exactly?

It wasn't... 'things' she saw... but she could tell... 'something' was there.

Mana.

She was pretty sure it was mana.

It was all around her... this... weird energy? In the air... in the water... Trees were full of... life mana. Crackling, barely-controllable fire mana burned in the nighttime torches and cookfires.

When something had died for awhile... there was a strange... darkness around the dead body.

Death mana, probably.

⌈Dragon's Heart⌋ unlocked over a dozen new talents, too.

⌈Emerald Scales,⌋ ⌈Healing Breath,⌋ ⌈Domineering Aura,⌋ ⌈Force Shout...⌋

⌈Prehensile Tail.⌋

...⌈Draconic Glide.⌋

All of them were dragon related.

Willow only had one talent point to spend... and she was looking at the talents ⌈Emerald Scales⌋ and ⌈Healing Breath.⌋ Either would probably help her survive the coming moons...

She didn't even think about ⌈Prehensile Tail⌋ and ⌈Draconic Glide.⌋ While they did sound awesome and super-useful... it sounded like they'd change her body... a lot.

Normal humans didn't have tails.

...Or wings.

She imagined there would be a lot of questions if she walked around looking like a half-human.

It's not like it would be easy to explain to everyone that she had a System.

...Also, ⌈Draconic Glide⌋ took multiple talent points. Big nope.

Until she got enough levels that she wasn't practically scared of everything, Willow had to make sure she always kept the mark on her chest and anything dragon-related hidden away...

In this Realm... dragons don't exist.

It would probably be okay in a big city like Archangel or Whitehearth.

Big cities had hundreds of different types of people. Humans got along with elves and dwarves and Popotoes and... whatever else there was. It would probably be a little weird of Willow to be... something completely fictional, but if she got found out, she could probably make up a believable lie.

It *should* have been fine in Thorne.

Scales were a common birthmark for most of the villagers. Sprig had asked if the village was made up of dragons-- and that got pretty much ignored.

In Thorne, though... she, Dad, Sprig-- they weren't outsiders because of weird birthmarks or wings and scales. They were outsiders because they weren't born in the village.

People only needed to see one thing that was different from themselves in order to hate them.

Imperia.

Imperia... was so nice.

She kept saying things like, 'I'll help you even though you're human' and 'It's amazing that a human's survived this long by herself.'

Willow liked her a lot. She was smart, she was kind... and even though her words were a little mean and she always had a bad expression, Willow felt that was just her way of showing she cared.

They were two girls, alone, in the swamp... sharing a meal around the same cookfire. They were sisters by circumstance.

...Willow couldn't reveal her secret. She didn't want Imperia to hate her.

When the villagers threw her into the underground river, she was sure she was going to die.

She came out of the water at the mouth of the Swamp Monster's lair. She was beat up real bad from bumping into everything in the underground passage. She managed to tear off all her fingernails from trying to grab the rocky edges...

When she woke up... the Swamp Monster hadn't killed her, for whatever reason. It was a miracle that none of her bones were broken. She was mindful enough to tear off a shirt sleeve to wrap her bloody hands with.

The fates decided that she was to live. After all that, it would be stupid if she were to kill herself because of her own stupidity.

If Imperia were to see the green scales on Willow's chest...

What would she think then? That she was a freak? A monster?

Imperia was a Cleric... which meant she was an adventurer.

Adventurers kill monsters-- it's part of their job description.

...

"Willow, are you *absolutely* certain this way is south?"

Willow's new big sister, Imperia, had a high-pitched voice that was usually nice to listen to.

It was a little less nice when she was complaining, though.

Willow sighed, "Unless we get a higher vantage point, it's really hard to figure out where the sun is with all the light reflecting on the water."

There was... way too much water in the swamps. Willow was pretty sure she kept direction, though. The previous night, she memorized where the north star was and marked it in the dirt by the campfire.

Imperia's small mouth curved up into a smirk, "Perhaps we can ask the trees?"

"You mean..." Willow furrowed her brows... "by looking at where the moss grows?"

Imperia grinned, "No, I mean literally asking the trees. It's what elves do."

"Oh," Willow pursed her lips. "Can... can you ask the trees for us, sis?"

"Nope. Sounds like you can't either?"

"Ehehe..." Willow giggled and shook her head, "Yeah. That'd be awesome if I could."

Imperia laughed, then sighed and shook her head. She was obviously worried.

Why wouldn't she be?

They'd be fine, though... not that Willow could tell her how she was so sure.

« System, can you display the progress of my current quest? »

⟬ Current quest: Escape the swamp. ⟭

⟬ Optional: Return to Thorne Village. Progress 22%. ⟭

As long as that percentage kept going up, they were going in the right direction.