—Sally—

  I yawned as the sun slowly slid from its midday position, my best guesstimate of the time leaving me certain that it was currently the midpoint of the afternoon—perfect for a nap.

  I was currently doing my best to resist the urge, because as much as the warm light tempted me towards slumber, there were still things to do. Well, that, and it would undermine my attempts to keep professional boundaries with Orion if I started napping whenever I felt like it—especially if I happened to be on his head.

  But I was beginning to realise just how boring stake-outs were. And being bored made me want to sleep.

  We were currently holed up inside the house across the street from Aylin's home—it only took a few minutes of listening to her loud screeches to figure that out. The abandoned home was incredibly dusty, and the musty smell left my nose teetering on the edge of sneezing every few minutes.

  I was currently sitting in one of the two chairs that had been dragged over to the window we were using to watch Aylin's front door. We had closed the wooden shutters, which was enough to hide us without fully obstructing our vision.

  However, the slow strangulation of boredom was becoming torturous. My body—I guess I did as well—wanted to do something. Go to sleep, practice magic, or just move around, anything but silently sit here for however many hours it takes for something interesting to happen. Or until we give up for the night I guess. I suppose there was that feast we could go investigate. And maybe have a few samples while we were there.

  Though, after around the first half an hour of mind-numbing waiting, I realised that there was something I could do that wouldn't alert anyone to our presence. But, I had been putting it off, no matter how important it might be for me—mostly because I found the idea of doing it uncomfortable. And I remembered how pointless my past, coerced attempts had felt.

  But given the immense risks of having [Wisdom] as a dump stat, I had resolved myself to at least try. Until I found an alternative.

  So, I closed my eyes, lay down in a comfortable position, and earnestly did my best to meditate. I only had faint memories of being instructed in it by an enthusiastic primary school teacher, but I did remember breathing, and not thinking being central parts of the process.

  And that's what I did. Breathe deeply in… and out… while pushing all thoughts to the back of my mind.

  …

  I managed to maintain it for a few minutes, until I began thinking about the last time I managed to get my [Wisdom] to go up. I did wonder if-

  Nope. No thinking. Just meditation.

  …

  Just keep breathing deeply…

  …

  But…

  I really couldn't help but think about what happened the last time I got a [Wisdom] point. Because that ‘+1’ hints that whatever I was thinking about the time was… correct? Which begged the question, what new thing did I learn about myself?

  What did I realise that was so profound, that the system itself recognised it?

  I mean there was that whole reckoning with my past and admitting that I wanted… things that should never see the light of day. But I'd already dealt with this exact same situation years ago. Well, the whole 'getting turned into a dragon' state of affairs was new.

  I huffed, then remembered that I was supposed to be meditating, and resumed my deep breathing. I pushed all unnecessary thoughts away as I redoubled my efforts to not get distracted.

  …

  Buuuut, there was one thing that had been bothering me since the incident. While I knew that these urges had surfaced because I lost a chunk of my brain responsible for self-control, were they the ones from my childhood, or did they come from this new body?

  Were these desires of just… abandoning convention and doing whatever I wanted, childish urges leftover from my first stint of childhood, or did they come from my draconic flesh? Because while I did struggle to remember much from before high-school, this felt distinctly different. More in line with my new adornment of scales.

  I wanted to move, jump, bite, take whatever I wanted, and let admirers adore my scales. It's an itch that I constantly wanted to scratch, and it took constant vigilance to not accidentally indulge it. Like with Orion's drunken praises. It was extremely agitating to realise that most of his praise came from a skill, and that none of it was genuine. How could they have been? When most of those words came from misunderstandings, feelings born from a week of being unable to communicate. They only reappeared because I misfired my magic.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Nothing at the foundation of the compliments was true, so it was a foregone conclusion that it would all eventually come crashing down on my head.

  Well, those animalistic feelings probably come with the body. But that unfortunately implies that with every percent my brain is integrated into this new form, things were going to get worse. I resolved myself to keep a close eye on my mental state the next time I saw the integration level of [Mental-Framework] change.

  If these new desires were draconic, wouldn’t it be fine to indulge them, right? Why shouldn't I let myself be more… genuine?

  It should be fine to follow the instruction manual that came with my body, to let its instincts tell me how to be a genuine dragon. But I was struggling to separate these new desires, ones that were strange for a human, but possibly normal for my new form, from the—freaky!—perversions that'd been dogging me for years.

  It was hard to find the line between what had been born from malformed connections in my original brain, and the healthy desires of my new one. If I didn't have the context of the situation, I thought they would have came from the same source, all coloured an equally off-putting shade of grey.

  Especially with my internal moral compass missing a few chunks, I was struggling to navigate the same path I would've taken before.

  Fuck! I really hate this shit. I know that I had to be a 'functioning member of society' for people to not treat me like an animal, or worse. I almost wished that I could return to how things were in those first few days, free from all of this human baggage.

  But then I’d get treated like shit. Because animals don't get human respect.

  I just wished that I could get the best of both worlds. The respect and civilised treatment a human got, while being allowed to just be… me. The inhuman, animalistic, dragon. Fuck, maybe even indulge in my more hedonistic desires as well. I would be much happier if it was possible for me to achieve all three at the same time.

  [[Wisdom] +1]

  A gentle nudge to my side broke me out of my perplexed shock—I had been frozen by the absurdity of getting another point of [Wisdom] from such a nonsensical thought. I opened my eyes and glared at Orion, who was pointing at the window. I resolved to get him back later for touching me when it wasn't strictly necessary—but first, I moved to get a look at what he found so interesting.

  I put my front claws on the windowsill as I lined up the side of my head with a gap in the blinds—unfortunately, my new noggin only allowed one eye a clear view of the outside street.

  It didn't take long to spot what had gotten Orion's attention. By the wall of Aylin's home, the Wendigo Walker was pressing itself against its stony surface. The monster was creeping closer to a window, hiding itself in the shadows of the building the best it could. It would've been completely invisible to us if we weren't directly across the street from it.

  No wonder so many people had fallen victim to it. All it had to do to catch its next meal was wait for somebody to walk by its side-street alone, and then snatch them like an angler.

  Orion picked up the bow by his side quietly, preparing to finally finish the monster once and for all. Though—and this has nothing to do with making sure I got more XP—could I use my [Talent] on his bow? Enchant it with whatever death-aligned [Soul] essence I got from my original [Talent]?

  I decided to leave it for now—the last thing I wanted to do was to accidentally [Charm] the Wendigo. That feels like the same sort of stupid that gets step-sisters stuck in household appliances.

  But just before Orion could place an arrow from his quiver onto his bow, the Wendigo knocked on the window's shutters. It was so out of left field, that both of us froze when we watched the cannibal politely rap the frame with grotesque knuckles, and patiently wait for a reply.

  A few seconds later, it opened, and Aylin's mother stuck her head out, looking entirely unsurprised to see a nine-foot tall, decaying, wolf-faced monster sitting outside her window.

  My mouth may or may not have fallen open when I saw the woman smile at it, looking the happiest I’d ever seen her. The smile doubled in intensity when the monster leaned close to her ear and whispered something unintelligible.

  "Damn it, I can't he-hear." I complained to myself with a whisper.

  "It just asked, 'how plump is she?'" Orion answered. I glanced at him in surprise, but instead of looking a gift-horse in the mouth, I rolled my talon at him as I excitedly gestured for him to continue.

  "She's almost there. Tonight." Orion quietly narrated the mother's reply. Was she… working with the monster? Why in the everliving fuck would she do that?

  "I can't wait until she's all fattened up… the taste will be so good." The Wendigo drooled, its wolfish mouth dripping black saliva.

  "Are you certain that it'll work?" The mother hissed back.

  "I've shown you the Path. Just follow it, and you'll get the same gift I got." The beast promised, staring off into the empty air above her head for a moment before refocusing on the skeletal woman. She only scowled in response, loudly slamming the shutters closed in its face.

  After being so rudely cut off, the monster only smiled in response, displaying a disgusting maw of teeth. I watched it reach upwards towards the roof, but jerked its paw back down into the shade abruptly.

  I had half a second to stare at the red scorch-mark on its skin before it fled, the enormous figure slipping back in-between the buildings far nimbler than it had any right to.

  "What the f-huck is wrong with th-his town?" I grumbled, exasperated by yet another twist. A completely unnecessary one for what should've been a simple [Quest].

  "I have no idea." Orion answered my rhetorical question—which only added to my frustration.

  "But… it's going to eat Aylin… tomorrow. And her mother is helping it happen." Orion mumbled to himself, and for the first time, I think I heard genuine rage in his voice. Was he protective of kids? Not the worst trait to have to deal with—though, if he got a bleeding heart for every orphan we came across, I'd have to revisit that opinion.

  Would he even want to bail the [Quest] anymore? I was keeping it open as an option in case of emergencies, but would he agree if it meant leaving a prepubescent child to die?

  But three priorities I had felt contradictory. How could I get the information needed to hunt or trap the monster and save Aylin? As well as making Orion want to stay and continue the [Quest] for now, while keeping him willing to abandon ship at a moment's notice? The last priority was there in case the situation became impossible to fix, because I don’t want Orion getting too attached if we needed to leave the town after possibly failing the [Quest].

  Which I know won’t happen. But it never hurt to have a backup plan.

  However, that contradictory issue was the inspiration that formed a lightning rod, allowing a bolt of genius to strike the moment I started to consider the problem. Wasn’t there a way for us to do all three at once?

  "Hey Or-ion, let's kidn-hap and interrogate Aylin!" I suggested, giving the dead-faced ranger my best smile.