Snek is a Good Boy [a Worm Crackfic]

[Rmajere]

Always happy to see this. New age welcomes in the next age , the dragon age.

 

[macdjord]

I am deeply jealous of New Wave......hearth dragons should be real, and its a crime against humanity that they aren't.

Click to shrink...

I've wanted a firelizard since the first time I read Dragonsong...

 

[Ack]

Snek is a Good Boy

Part Twenty-Nine: Dragon Fever

[A/N: This chapter commissioned by Fizzfaldt and beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]

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♦ Topic: A Funny Thing Happened at the Bar Last Night
In: Boards ► United States ► Northeastern US ► Brockton Bay ► Cape Shenanigans

Brocktonite03 (Original Poster) (Veteran Member)
Posted On Jun 12th 2011:
Me and a few of my buddies went drinking down on the docks last night. Yes, technically I was buzzed by the end of the night, but I sure as hell wasn't so sloshed I was seeing things. I was waiting for my better half to come pick me up, when a couple of guys wearing all black plus balaclavas came running out of the alley alongside the bar. They stopped real fast when Manpower (yeah, THAT Manpower) jumped off the roof of the building next door and landed in front of them.
The dumbasses were looking to knock over the bar and make off with the night's takings.
Then three more guys came out of the alley, and this time it was Brandish who stopped them. Swear to God, hand on heart, I was front and center for a New Wave takedown. It was glorious!
One guy tried to duck past Brandish, and I thought for sure she was gonna skewer him with her energy blade thing (I always thought that was supposed to be gold, not silver. Anyway) but she didn't. Nope, she hauled off and slugged him so hard in the jaw that his feet left the ground and he flew back about ten feet. I mean, when did Brandish get a Brute rating?
And then, Flashbang appeared. *Everyone* saw Flashbang. He was, like, *glowing* like someone was shining a floodlight on him. And he had a thing on his shoulder that looked like ... well, like a little tiny dragon, all orange and gold like a sunrise. And Brandish had a silver one hovering over her head.
I swear, I had a few drinks inside me, but I wasn't that drunk. I know what I saw. Here's some [footage] I took.
When the hell did New Wave get pet dragons?

(Showing page 1 of 273)

►BrickFrog
Replied On Jun 12th 2011:
That can't be real.
Can it?

►GstringGirl
Replied On Jun 12th 2011:
They do look very pretty.
Can haz pet dragon?

►Clockblocker (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied On Jun 12th 2011:
Okay, thanks a bunch for that. Vista just saw the footage someone put online and her excited squeal rattled ALL the windows (and we're underground).

►Vista (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied On Jun 12th 2011:
Don't care. Those dragons are too cute!

►XxVoid_CowboyxX
Replied On Jun 12th 2011:
I'm with BrickFrog. They can't be real. Or at least, they're not natural. All vertebrate life on Earth goes on a quadripedal body pattern. Those 'dragons' have four limbs plus two wings, and the wings are too small to fly properly with at that size. Something's hinky. I call shenanigans.

►Vista (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied On Jun 12th 2011:
Maybe you didn't hear me the first time. Don't care. Dragons!

►TheRealBrandish (Verified Cape) (Cape Wife) (New Wave Member)
Replied On Jun 12th 2011:
Alright, time for an official announcement.
Yesterday, New Wave responded to an invitation from Snek to visit his world. We traveled there, and encountered not only [actual] [dragons] but smaller versions, called 'hearth-dragons'. As you can see, they are [cute] and [inquisitive] and can bond with people, to the mutual benefit of both parties.
Three hearth-dragons came back with us to Earth Bet. Mine is called [Argent], Flashbang's is called [Snap], and Panacea's is called [Twilight].
I will stress: hearth-dragons are not animals, and they are most assuredly not stupid. Although they are from a world where mythology trumps over science, they are thoroughly enjoying their new home (and can go back to visit at any time if they wish, with Snek's assistance).
Panacea has assured me that they carry no dangerous bacteria or viruses, and nothing we have will affect them. They are very playful and outgoing, and enjoy meeting new people. We will even be taking them on patrol with us to meet the public.
Again: they are not animals, they are not dangerous, they are not pets, and they are here willingly. Come and say hi sometime.

►Bagrat (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Replied On Jun 12th 2011:
Well ... crap.
I was just scouring the footage frame by frame to see if I could spot the trickery when Brandish's post dropped.
Real dragons. Actual real dragons. And the scale ...
Okay, yeah, the internet wins today. I'm done.

►XxVoid_CowboyxX
Replied On Jun 12th 2011:
Um.
So ... I was right, but I was wrong?
Not from Earth Bet, but actual dragons.
Four limbs, check. Wings, check. Able to fly with wings that are too small, check. Actual. Freaking. Dragons.
Those big ones are BIG.
Ahahaha wow.
And Vista's right, the little ones are too cute. Especially the orange one that posed for the camera (how did you get it to do that, anyway?)
So, um, how does one go about acquiring an invite from Snek to visit his world?
Asking for a friend.

​

End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 271, 272, 273

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<><>​

Director Emily Piggot, PRT ENE

"Report."

Emily leaned back in her chair and watched as Psyche, once known as Tattletale, gathered her thoughts. At least part of that was an act, Emily figured, but it didn't bother her. The girl had been instrumental in Coil's downfall, as well as the brief capture of the Travellers before they vanished from her holding cells (and Earth Bet), so she was welcome to her little quirks.

As far as Emily knew, the rest of the Undersiders had left town, which was also perfectly fine with her. They'd never been overly troublesome, but at some point they would have earned a spot on the PRT's radar. Letting some other city deal with them (minus their Thinker) was slightly less problematic than making room for them in the holding cells.

After Coil's capture, Psyche had been downright cooperative when it came to showing Armsmaster where the rest of Coil's caches were, as well as the safety codes on his computer in the base. It was true that she had been a supervillain, but she was also a known friend of Snek's, so Emily was willing to bend the rules more than a little to accommodate her as a probationary Ward. Psyche seemed willing to keep her nose clean (maybe having Snek as a friend was contingent on not breaking the rules?) so everyone got what they wanted.

Emily liked win-win situations; she encountered them rarely enough that she truly appreciated them when they did show up.

"So, I've been through all the footage and pictures of these 'hearth-dragons', as they call 'em," Psyche began. "Armsmaster rated it all one hundred percent genuine, per Dragon. It's what they say it is. Actual, smart little critters that look like someone took fantasy dragons and applied a strong layer of cuteness to them. The mention of 'bonding' suggests that there's some kind of emotional link after a while, stronger than you get with an ordinary pet."

Emily had never had a pet of any description, but she'd seen how some people got with them. "Like a Master effect?" she ventured, sitting forward again.

Psyche frowned. "Brandish's phrasing indicates that there's something going on. She's more kindly disposed toward them than I'd expect her to be. But neither is she advocating that everyone get one and join the cult of the hearth-dragon. Not that she needs to encourage anyone: a full two-thirds of the comments in that thread are about how adorable they look."

This is where they got down to the nitty-gritty. "Are hearth-dragons a threat?"

"On balance … I don't think so." Psyche no doubt saw Emily's sour expression, which didn't need esoteric Thinker powers to decipher. "If you'll allow me to present my reasoning?"

"Please do." Emily tried not to be curt but when she asked a question, she expected a definitive answer, especially if it was about whether something was a threat.

Psyche cleared her throat. "First: they're from Snek's world. I personally trust Snek, without reservation. I doubt very much that he or his Master would allow a potentially dangerous species to come through into Earth Bet. Second: out of eight members, only three of New Wave have hearth-dragons, and the rest of them don't seem to have a problem with that. Third: Brandish has always been prickly and hard to deal with. This latest post suggests that she's lightened up a little, without totally changing her personality. I'm wondering if the 'mutual benefit' aspect involves enabling the human part of the bond to get rid of toxic mental baggage, so they just plain become a nicer person."

Emily eyed Psyche suspiciously, but neither by intonation nor flick of eye did the girl suggest that she might be thinking Emily could do with a hearth-dragon of her own. She would've had to possess superhuman willpower to not to be doing that exact thing, but as long as she didn't show it, Emily didn't have to take notice of it. Besides, as Psyche had pointed out, they were very cute, and apparently quite personable.

"I see." She rubbed her chin. "Is there anything else you've gleaned about them?"

"Actually, yes." Psyche pulled out her phone and showed Emily a series of photos, portraying dragons—large and small—in front of a landscape that could've come out of any fantasy movie, finishing up with a close-up of one that looked like the gold-and-salmon one, which had been perched on Flashbang's shoulder.

Emily examined them closely. All the images were nicely framed, and she'd actually seen a couple of them before, but apart from the fact that they portrayed creatures utterly unknown to science, she could see nothing unremarkable about them. "What am I looking for?"

Psyche flicked through to the last one. "According to Flashbang, these pictures were all taken by this one, Snap. Not only are they highly empathetic, but they're also capable of learning to use technology. Flashbang has actually started a photo-blog for Snap, and it's picking up followers by the hour."

"Let me see those again." Emily looked closely at the images as Psyche scrolled through them once more. Her first impression had not been amiss: the pictures were quite nice. She'd taken worse ones herself. "Tell me, is this a good thing or a bad thing?"

Once again, Psyche looked undecided. "Well, it's definitely a thing. Hearth-dragons aren't as smart as humans … well, not in the same way that humans are, anyway. They'd probably get bored with complicated math and they're effectively non-verbal, but their emotional intelligence is far higher than ours and they do have forepaws that can be used as hands."

Emily pursed her lips, looking over the photos again. She got bored with complicated math, too; the implication that being able to form whole sentences was the only thing that made her superior to hearth-dragons didn't exactly fill her with joy. "Give me the bottom line, here."

"Overall, I think they're a good thing." Psyche took a deep breath and side-eyed Emily. "They're smart and affectionate, and they like people. If they can take a cape like Brandish and smooth off some of her sharper edges, then imagine the impact worldwide if the cape aggression index was turned downward even by ten percent."

While Emily could imagine it, and liked what she saw, it seemed too good to be true. "What if it's an idiosyncratic reaction? We don't know that it's a regular thing … do we?"

"Well, Flashbang suffers from clinical depression. During that fight, he stood taller and took more initiative than he has in years. I think proximity to Snap actually helps him mentally and emotionally, just like Argent helps Brandish." Psyche spread her hands. "It's just two data points, but they're both positive."

"Last question." Looking across her desk at Psyche, Emily tilted her head. "If you were given the opportunity to form a bond with a hearth-dragon, would you?"

From the way the girl blinked in surprise, this was the first question she hadn't anticipated ahead of time. "Um … yeah, actually, I think I would. I know I've got baggage, and cuddle therapy with a cute little dragon looks a lot more attractive than all the other ways to get past it."

"Understood. Thank you for your report. Dismissed."

As the door closed behind Psyche, Emily leaned back in her chair once more, thinking hard. The report and subsequent discussion had been illuminating; while she still wasn't one hundred percent set on her course, she could see the way forward more clearly now.

Let's just hope it doesn't blow up in my face.

<><>​

Garotte

Sveta looked wistfully at the cute little dragons in the photo-blog again. The picture of Panacea cuddling the dark purple one was almost too cute for words, and she couldn't even hate the healer for having something she didn't. Panacea's expression while holding Twilight was that of someone who'd found the missing piece in their life, and Sveta could never begrudge someone of that kind of happiness.

I wish I could find it myself.

Oh, who am I kidding? If I had someone in my life, or even a hearth-dragon, my tentacles would only crush them, and then I'd have nothing and nobody again.

As far as she could tell, hearth-dragons were extremely tactile. They enjoyed being next to the people they were bonded to, either perched on their shoulders or snuggled up to them in some fashion. This would be fatal for any hearth-dragon in her vicinity, because her tentacles were also extremely tactile in nature, in that they would seek out and crush any strange object within their range.

Her wistful comment online came back to haunt her now. She had even less chance to 'haz' a hearth-dragon than every other person who had responded to the post, by many orders of magnitude. Despair welled up in her heart: not just the angst of someone who will never achieve a coveted goal (and who never even had a chance at it) but the bone-deep knowledge (if she'd had bones) that nothing else of that nature would ever come her way. It was just the way things were.

I'm why I can't have good things. Yay for me.

The words were bitter on her tongue, even though she didn't speak them out loud. She began to silently cry, hating that she couldn't even get through something like this without being so weak. Black bile, she knew, was oozing out through her tear ducts, which did nothing to improve matters in the slightest.

I just wish someone would save me from this shit like Snek saved all those people in Savannah.

Drenched in misery, locked into her own private world of unhappiness within the very real secure cell, she only became aware that something had changed when some of her tentacles stirred.

"Hello, tentacle girl," a hissing voice came from behind her. "Ssnek iss here to ssave you."

What? Startled, she spun around, to see a large portal interrupting a section of the wall opposite. Protruding from the portal was the now-familiar head of the world's best-known snake. Against all odds, he was smiling at her.

"No!" she gasped. "You can't be here! You've got to get away!"

Snek didn't move from the spot. "Tentacle girl called for help," he said patiently, even as her tentacles struck and wrapped around his head. "Ssnek hass come to help. Doess tentacle girl want to be ssaved?"

Sveta stared. He was much larger than anyone her tentacles had maimed or killed before, but that shouldn't be an issue. The tendrils which were the bane of her life were strong enough to bend steel in their implacable grasp. But although they were wrapped around his head and neck and she could tell that they were trying very hard to squeeze the life out of him, he didn't seem to be aware of their efforts. Most incongruously, the stylish fedora that adorned the middle of his broad head wasn't even being crushed or dented by the two tentacles that lay over the top of it.

"I …" she began, aware that he'd asked the question and not wanting to come across as rude by failing to answer in good time. (Though 'rude' really wasn't a good descriptor for it, when her treacherous body was simultaneously attempting to murder him). "Can you save me? If you take me out of here, then my tentacles will just start killing people again." Perhaps the worst part of it was when she got hungry and her tentacles shoved anything and everything with nutritional value at her mouth; if she'd just been killing people, that veered hard into nightmare territory really quickly.

"Ssnek will not let that happen, tentacle girl." The gigantic serpent maintained the same imperturbable air and polite tone that he had since he'd intruded on her cell. "Ssnek will take tentacle girl to Masster. He will fixx. Masster knowss how to fixx anything."

Reading online, Sveta had encountered hints of Snek's Master, but knew absolutely nothing beyond that. Whoever or whatever this Master might be, she decided that if they could fix her problems, then they'd have to be a downright miracle worker.

On second thought, they had theoretically been behind Snek chowing down on both Leviathan and the Simurgh, and if that didn't count as a miracle, there wasn't much that did.

"Okay," she decided. Screw it, it's not like my life can get any worse than this. "Go ahead. Just keep me far enough away from him that I don't hurt him, alright?"

"Ssnek doess not believe that will be a problem." And then the gigantic snake did the impossible … again. She hadn't really registered that he was talking despite the multitude of tentacles binding his jaws shut, but now he just … opened them. Her tentacles were forced to let go, flailing wildly as even their prodigious strength was overcome with ridiculous ease.

From out of his mouth emerged a long pink tongue; unlike what she'd heard about ordinary snakes, this one subdivided several times, making it into a serviceable analogue to a hand. As the branches of the tongue closed around her head and a large bunch of her tentacles, she had a sudden thought: oh hey, so that's what it's like for other people. Her tentacles struggled against the grasp, but in total vain. (That was also something she'd been on the other side of, far too many times).

And then she was drawn irresistibly into that gaping maw, past the extremely impressive teeth, and into the gullet. This part of the experience was new; while her tentacles had killed many people, they'd never forced her to eat anyone alive (not that she was exactly capable of it, of course).

In the blackness of Snek's throat, she couldn't see a thing. But all the same, she somehow managed to register being shoved sideways into a space that was blacker than black. Within that space, there was no space. There was no time. There was nothing, not even her—

<><>​

The Magician's Apprentice

"Ssnek hass brought tentacle girl to be fixxed, Masster." Snek beamed proudly.

Riley knew he liked helping people, and there was a ton of people on Earth Bet who needed helping at any hour of night or day. But at the same time, he always seemed to locate the ones for whom a taxi ride home and a loan to tide them over until payday just wouldn't cover things. He was good at finding the interesting cases, the ones that occasionally caused the boss to raise one shaggy eyebrow.

Riley wasn't sure who 'tentacle girl' referred to, but it promised to be one of the good ones. She wondered if it was one of her old victims (she couldn't actually remember giving anyone tentacles, but that didn't mean she hadn't). If it was, she was going to make a point of apologising profusely after the person had all their bits and pieces back in the right order.

"So I see, Snek." The boss made a few gestures, settling a protective sphere in place. "Kindly place her in there, please."

"Yess, Masster." Snek's impressively agile tongue dipped back into his mouth and retrieved what looked like a tangled bundle of ropes from what he called his 'no-eat placce', depositing it deftly into the protective sphere. It woke up half a second too late—spending time in that weird space usually had that effect—and lashed out at the sphere, to no good effect. In the middle of it all was an anxious female face with the unmistakeable inverted omega of Cauldron tattooed on one cheekbone.

Riley blinked in mildly surprised recognition. "Huh, that's Garrotte. Case fifty-three. Vial situation, like Noelle and her friends were, and Paige." I should've known that's what Snek meant by 'tentacle girl'.

"Indeed," the boss observed. "The evil that men do to one another in the name of good is an abyss without end. This will be an interesting one for the collection."

"What are we gonna do for her body?" asked Riley, because she was pretty sure the boss wasn't going to leave Garotte as just a disembodied face. Knowing what was coming next, she headed over to the shelf to collect the extraction tongs and an appropriately enchanted jar.

"I believe a type-three construct body will suffice at first," he mused, accepting the tools with a nod of thanks. "Once Ms Sveta has had a chance to come to terms with her new situation, she will then be able to make the final choice for herself."

"Gotcha." Riley headed off to grab one of the type threes. Technically, she knew how the procedure went to stuff someone's mind into one of these, but she'd never actually seen it done (and was pretty damn sure she wasn't up to the job herself). But the boss totally had it in hand.

This was gonna be educational, the best kind of fun.



End of Part Twenty-Nine

 

[silentorphan]

Huh, that's Garrotte.

Click to shrink...

Huh, that's spellcheck. Should be only one r, I think?

 

[meloa789]

I have this image of a hearth-dragon using PHO for a few minutes, and then losing its innocence immediately in my mind.

 

[Rmajere]

Thank you, this story always makes my day better.

In the words of sveta" Can haz dragon?"

 

[Ack]

Huh, that's spellcheck. Should be only one r, I think?

Click to shrink...

She rrrrolls her arrrrs.

(Will fix)

 

[Ack]

Snek is a Good Boy

Part Thirty: Sveta

[A/N: This chapter commissioned by @Fizzfaldt and beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]

Garotte

Sveta swam through odd dreams, like a tropical fish in an unlikely aquarium. Vistas of places she'd never been, populated with people she'd never met, came and went around her. A monster bigger than the sun tried to eat the world, but a burst of black lightning shattered it into a thousand fragments then dissolved the pieces into glowing ash.

Her return to consciousness had much the same flavour of unreality. When she finally surfaced into the light, there was no sensation of eyelids opening, merely going from not seeing her surroundings to seeing them. A transition, like flipping a light switch.

Neither was she breathing, she noticed after a few seconds. Her mouth opened and she gulped in air, wondering what had gone wrong with her body. Then she noticed that she actually had a body, which derailed her thought processes yet again. It was lying down on a surface that was minimally padded: either a low bench or a high bed.

Finally, she registered the people standing on either side of her. One was a tweenage girl wearing brass-bound goggles pushed up on her forehead, with blonde hair tied back in a businesslike ponytail.

The other was a whole different kettle of lobsters; tall, with a commanding attitude, he had greying hair and a long beard, along with a tall pointed hat, robes and a gnarled wooden staff that seemed to be standing alongside him of its own accord. Sveta had never met Myrddin, but from news footage and publicity photos, the leader of the Chicago branch of the Protectorate seemed to carry off the 'wizard' theme pretty well.

This guy killed it.

When he spoke, his voice was deep and resonant. "Good evening, Sveta of another Earth beyond Bet. I am the Master of the Castle and while you are my guest, you have nothing to fear. How do you feel?"

"Um." Sveta realised that she hadn't exhaled until she spoke. It was almost like she didn't have to breathe. "I feel … fine, actually." Sitting up, she noted that she was wearing a knee-length tunic made of off-white linen. Reaching up, she felt the top of her head and discovered that she was entirely bald. Her skin felt funny, too. Then she looked at her hand and received the next major shock. The fingers bore no nails and the skin itself looked more like carved grain-free wood, even though it flexed and moved as fluidly as any hand should. "What happened to my hand? What happened to me?"

"Okay, from the top," the blonde girl began. "Snek brought you here. You remember that bit? Oh, by the way, my name's Riley. Hi."

As Sveta turned to look at her, memory started to trickle back. She recalled being captured by the gigantic snake's multibranched tongue, then stuffed into a hole inside its throat before everything went away. "Snek, I remember. Not much after."

Riley nodded, as though she'd been fully expecting that. "Well, when you got here, your body wasn't really good for much. It was mostly taken over by an interdimensional parasite that just used you as a vehicle to kill people. So the boss there pulled out the parasite and stored it away where it can't hurt anyone, then we decanted you into a construct body to wake up in, so we could have a talk without all those irritating murder-tentacles trying to rip us to pieces. Any questions?"

Sveta had many, but they were mainly along the lines of 'you did what?' rather than anything constructive. The explanation was basically one she'd expect from a Tinker, but from what she was seeing around her, this was no Tinker lab that she'd ever heard of. Also, the Master of the Castle (she had absolutely heard the capitals slotting into place as he spoke), aka 'the boss', seemed to be closely associated with Snek, which put him way above every other Tinker everywhere.

"Ah … just a couple," she said carefully, deciding to stick with the most pressing ones. "What's a construct body? I mean, what do I need to know about it? And where's my old body? Am I … am I dead?"

"You are alive, within the construct body," the Master of the Castle reassured her. "Your former vessel is in suspension, neither living nor dead. The choice for that will come when we end the suspension. Should you wish to be returned to it, that can be achieved. However, even with the parasite removed, it will be a poor kind of existence. You may choose instead to remain within the construct body where you will require neither sustenance nor sleep, but neither will you be able to enjoy any but the most rudimentary of human pursuits. Alternately, I can generate a living body that suits your needs and place your soul-pattern within it. It is entirely your option."

She didn't want to ask the question, but it came out anyway. "Why are you doing all this for me? I've hurt people. I've killed people."

"I am aware," he replied with an austere smile. "But that is neither in your nature nor in your future. You presented an intriguing distraction, and I did not have a parasite of your precise type in my collection. Besides, Snek brought you to me, and I wish to encourage him to continue doing so."

"Oh." She wasn't quite sure how she felt about being described as an 'intriguing distraction', but it had to be better than being seen as a dangerous monster. It was definitely better than being a dangerous monster, by any stretch of the imagination. "So … what do I need to do?"

He raised one shaggy eyebrow. "You have two choices to make. The first is which body you will continue on with, and the second is which world you will do so in. I have already outlined your options for the first decision, and Riley will explain the options for the second decision. You may take as long as you wish to make up your mind. Let me know when you have done so."

The conversation clearly over, the Master of the Castle turned and put out his hand. His staff drifted sideways into it, and he strode away toward the centre of the enormous laboratory (or workshop; she couldn't tell the difference) in which she had found herself. She got the impression that he wasn't so much ignoring her as he was returning his focus to a larger task.

"Yeah, the boss is kinda like that," Riley commented, even though Sveta hadn't said anything. "Don't make the mistake of thinking he doesn't care, because he does, but what he cares about is bigger than you or me."

"I think I got that, yes." Sveta slid off the bed and stood up. While she hadn't performed that particular motion in a very long time, it seemed the construct body (whatever that actually meant) was capable of taking over and making sure she didn't fall flat on her face. "Where even is this place?"

The question was well founded. Within the cathedral-sized room, there was a multi-level series of retorts and flasks and other apparently-scientific apparatus, though she wasn't sure what the glowing crystals were about, or the glassware that was apparently hovering in midair. Along one wall was a series of shelves, populated in part by large bottles within which odd misty forms wafted from side to side. Another shelf set supported a number of internally-illuminated spherical objects; Sveta wasn't sure what they were, but she was equally certain that she didn't want to mess with them. Overhead, hanging there as though placed as an afterthought, was a taxidermized creature like a large crocodile with great multicoloured bat-like wings.

"Well, you're in the Castle, of course." Riley grinned at Sveta's sour expression. "This is the boss's world. Not Bet, or any of the ones that they've discovered. Basically, your average fantasy world, but without much in the way of weird humanoid races. We've got dragons though, so there's that."

Sveta nodded at the creature suspended from the roof-line above. "Yeah, I saw that already. So that thing's real, and not just an ornament of some kind?"

"Oh, that's a drake, not a true dragon." Riley spread her hands apart, somewhat farther than shoulder-width. "You've probably seen hearth-dragons on the news? Well, this is where they come from. True dragons are a whole lot bigger than drakes, and they're nice to hang out with. Drakes would just want to eat you."

"Ah." Sveta's head was starting to swim from all the new information she was taking on. "So, um, the Master of the Castle said there were different worlds I could choose from?"

"Right, right." Riley raised one finger. "There's Earth Bet. You probably know that the best. At least, the politics and language and stuff." Another finger raised. "Then there's this world. Relatively low-tech, but with quite a bit of magic to bridge the gap. We've got a solid awareness of hygiene and basic intelligent medical practice, so we don't have plagues decimating the population every other year, and infant and childbirth mortality is about what it is in first-world nations back on Bet."

Sveta peered at her suspiciously. "Wait. Are you not from here? I thought you were, but now you're giving me the idea that you're not."

"Oh, no." Riley chuckled and shook her head. "Born on Bet, but I got inconvenient powers and ended up in really bad company, until Snek rescued me. The boss cleared the shit out of my head but let me keep my powers, so I help him out wherever I can."

Sveta got the impression she was being deliberately obscure and thought about calling her out on it, but decided not to. "I see. So, is this a good world to live on?"

"So long as you're not addicted to takeout food." Riley grinned. "Or the internet. Jobs here are a lot more hands-on. No computers, no automation. Stuff gets made by artisans or by magic. We haven't had the Industrial Revolution here yet, and I doubt we ever will."

"Hmm." Sveta was still undecided. "What's the other options? Or are this world and Bet the only two I get?"

Riley shook her head. "Heck, no. There's also your original world. Now I know you don't actually remember it, but if you want, the boss can pull the cover off those memories. He hasn't done it already because apparently some of them are a bit traumatic and I suggested that we give you a bit of time to get your head settled before we gave you more stuff to worry about."

"Oh." The girl definitely had a point. "Um, while I'm thinking about it, is it possible for me to see some of these dragons? Because I only saw photos of the hearth-dragons online, and even then they looked like the cutest things ever."

"Heh, they're definitely cute." Riley hooked her head toward one of the doorways leading out of the room. "Follow me. We've asked them to stay outside while you were recovering so you didn't get distracted, but as soon as you come out with me, they'll know that's over. Word of warning: they're very sociable and very inquisitive."

"I'll take your word for it." Sveta wasn't sure what to expect as she followed Riley through a passageway that let out onto a large broad balcony. The first thing she registered after the brilliant blue sky, was just how high up they were. There was a town far down below at the foot of the mountain, and the buildings were tiny. Dragging her eyes up to the horizon, she felt as though she could see forever.

And that was when she saw her first dragon. Swooping through the air, some distance away, it was still huge. She could see the sun glinting off its wide-spread wings, and the draconic grin on its muzzle as it pulled a snap-roll then glided in for a landing on a broad ledge of rock, where others of its kind were already resting.

"Whoaaa …" she whispered, staring at the sight. They were immense, they were entirely outside her experience, but most of all, they were majestic. "That's amazing."

"Yeah, that's the Dragonmark," Riley confirmed. "They like to hang near the Castle and make sure nobody breaks the law in a really egregious way around here. Sometimes I go flying with them."

"Flying?" Sveta stared at Riley, then at the dragons. "You can fly with them?"

"Sure. They love showing off, and being told how pretty they are." Riley paused. "And here comes the onslaught. Brace yourself."

Sveta turned to look, just in time to see half a dozen hearth-dragons land on the balcony rail, staring at her with undisguised interest. More flew up and around her, their scales coloured all the hues of the rainbow and a few others besides, before they found their perches. Riley had two on her shoulders by the time they'd all settled.

Sveta could hear them chirping and squawking among themselves, but it didn't sound like random noise. "Are they talking to each other?"

"They're hella smart, and they understand most of what we say," Riley explained. "They're also really empathetic, so what you're hearing is about one-tenth of what they're saying."

"Oh. Oh, I see." Sveta paused, looking at the concentrated cuteness all around her. Her heart, or whatever passed for one in this artificial body, went out to them. "Can I … can I hold one?"

"If they don't mind, sure." Riley shrugged; this caused the ones perching on her shoulders to shift their weight and flare their wings slightly for balance, but they didn't otherwise move. One chirped reprovingly, and she reached up to stroke its neck, which it leaned into. "Pick one and say hi."

"Alright." Sveta found herself torn as she looked around. Some were red and gold, others were brilliant sky-blue or silver or green, but the one that caught her eye was the delicate blue-green of sea-foam, which she recalled from the few dreams that she'd had of her time before being Garotte. Holding out her hand, she looked into its—into her—eyes. "Hello. Aren't you a cutie?"

Letting out a definitive chirp that as much as said, 'why yes, I am a cutie, thank you for noticing', the hearth-dragon spread her wings and made it to Sveta's hand in a single wing-beat. Wonderingly, she brought the dragon close to her and stroked the wings with her other hand. The scales were silk-smooth to her touch; from the way the little dragon pushed her head up under Sveta's chin, she was enjoying the attention.

"Yes, yes, you guys are just as cute too." Riley was sitting on the balcony floor by now, giving skritches to all the hearth-dragons surrounding her. "Don't be jealous, you know how this goes."

Standing on the balcony in the warming sunlight, with chirping, frolicking hearth-dragons all around her while holding another one in her arms, and watching their vastly oversized cousins swoop and dive at each other in the distance, Sveta could have been excused for assuming she was still dreaming. But this had none of the detached quality of a dream. Every bit of it, from the rumbles of pleasure coming from the blue-green hearth-dragon she was cuddling, to the pure sharp clean smell of the air at this altitude, to the feel of the hearth-dragon's scales against her cheek, told her that it was reality.

For far too long, she had lived a nightmare, but now she had finally woken up.

<><>​

The Wizard's Apprentice

By the time Riley walked back into the boss's work room with Sveta (the blue-green hearth-dragon riding on her shoulder) Snek had woken from his nap and was helping move one of the larger pieces of equipment to where it was needed. No doubt the boss could levitate the stuff if he really needed to, but it was a good idea to limit the amount of unnecessary magic floating around. Besides, Snek enjoyed helping, and he was good at the brute-force stuff.

The boss looked around from what he was doing and nodded to the both of them. "You have made a decision?" he asked. He knew the answer, of course. The boss always knew what was going on. It was just polite to let people think they knew something he didn't.

"I think so, yes," Sveta said. She reached up without looking and stroked the hearth-dragon's neck. Riley grinned privately; she could pick out a bonding in progress from a hundred yards, and this one was definitely happening. "But before we do it, could I please see my old body, and what you took out of me? I think you called it a parasite?"

"Certainly. Riley, if you could fetch the bottle, please?"

"Sure thing, boss." Riley headed to the collections shelf and took down the latest enchanted bottle, then carried it over to the examination table and placed it there for Sveta's perusal. Within, the wispy form of the parasite drifted around, searching for a way out of its confinement. None of them had found one, and none ever would. Peering closely, Riley was almost certain she could see suggestions of the filmy tendrils that Sveta's original body yet sported.

"So this is … was … my power?" asked Sveta, staring into the bottle. "It took over my entire life, killed hundreds of people, but you've trapped it in a bottle like a laboratory specimen?"

"It is precisely that, for me." The boss's tone was matter-of-fact.

Sveta's teeth bared and she made a rude gesture toward the bottle. "Screw you," she said fiercely. "You made my life a living hell. See how you like being a prisoner."

The boss appeared not to notice, turning toward where Snek was returning with his burden. He gestured at a place next to the table. "Put it there, please, Snek."

"Yess, Masster." Riley knew that Snek's speech wasn't entirely dependent on his mouth being free, but it was still amusing to listen to him talk while placing a large brass-and-crystal container on the floor. A good three feet across, it contained the face-with-tendrils that had been Sveta's body for so long. Eyes closed and tendrils drifting gently in the fluid that kept it in stasis, the face looked at peace.

Sveta looked closely at it, the unblinking gaze of the construct body taking in every detail. "So, if I asked to be put back in that, I wouldn't have my powers, so … what would happen? I wouldn't be forced to kill people anymore?"

"You would not, that's true," the boss confirmed. "However, a good deal of your strength and durability was afforded you by the parasite infecting your body, mainly so that it could continue to inflict itself on others. You would be slow, soft and easily injured, and anyone could take revenge on you for the ills done to others in your previous life. Creating and maintaining a normal life for yourself would be difficult if not impossible."

"Okay, yeah, I got that." Sveta nodded to herself, as though she'd just marked off something she needed to do on an invisible clipboard. "So, what does giving me a new body involve?"

"Interestingly enough, you are not the first person from your world to require at least some work to become capable of existing within society." The boss turned to Snek. "Kindly fetch the other container, if you please."

"Yess, Masster." The gigantic snake slithered away.

Riley did her best to hide the grin on her face. She'd worked alongside the boss on this one and was justifiably proud of the results. While Sveta wasn't someone she'd victimised in the past, it was still a rush to be able to use her talents to fix someone who needed help in the worst way.

"And had you decided which world you were going to?" asked the boss while they were waiting.

"Riley said you could give me back my memories of where I originally came from," Sveta ventured. "Once I know about that, I'll know where I want to go."

"Indeed." The boss barely gestured, and his vocal command was no more than a muttered phrase, but Riley saw the magic flaring in her goggles. From the way Sveta's head came up, she was also aware of its effects for another reason altogether.

"Oh," she said softly. "Wow. Okay, yeah, I get it. I know where I want to go."

At this moment, Snek returned. The container was not unlike a coffin in size and shape, and indeed contained a body, but was made of the same brass and crystal as the smaller container. This time, the body was that of an adult woman, bearing Sveta's features along with short blonde hair. As with Sveta's original body, she drifted within the supporting fluid, timeless and preserved.

Again, Sveta stared through the crystalline pane at the features within. "And you made this for me … when?" she asked at last.

"Before you woke up," Riley explained. "It wasn't hard. A little bit of genetic material, a little bit of elbow grease, a little bit of magic, and voila."

Sveta shook her head slowly. "I never believed in magic until now, but I am seriously beginning to doubt that stance."

Riley grinned. "Probably a good idea. So, where do you think you would like to go?"

Taking a deep breath (even though the construct body didn't need air), Sveta looked at Riley and then at the boss. "Do you happen to have fishing villages on this world?"

The boss's smile was indulgent. "Many."

<><>​

A Coastal Fishing Village, Several Leagues Away

Karol bundled up the last of his fishing nets and stowed them away for later use. He shaded his eyes and looked out over the ocean, the corners of his eyes crinkling with the smile as he saw the last of the stragglers beating into harbour against the growing land breeze. "About time," he said out loud.

"We're suffering and you know it," his brother Bron said, hearkening back to an earlier argument. "We really need a third set of hands while we're out there. And not some lubber who doesn't know his starboard from a sheetbend."

"Can't make a paddle from a piece of paper," Karol reminded him. "Help is hard to find all over." He went to say something else, but the look on Bron's face set him aback. His brother, hard to faze at the best of times, was staring open-mouthed at something behind Karol.

"Dragon," croaked Bron.

Karol turned, half-expecting a prank, but indeed it was a dragon. With powerful wing-beats, it was coming in for a landing on the patch of bare ground where the fishing boats were usually hauled up onto in order to avoid the worst of the winter storms. He'd seen them before, but high up and going somewhere else; this close, and on the ground, it was astonishingly large. Just its head was bigger than his entire fishing boat.

Once it landed, it lowered its head close to the ground. With a growing sense of unreality, Karol watched a slender woman slide down to the ground, then give the immense creature a hug, although her arms reached no distance at all around that sizeable neck. She wore hard-wearing fishermen's clothing and had a leather satchel over her shoulder, but the most striking detail about her was the ocean-foam hearth-dragon that swooped in to land on her other shoulder.

A moment later, the dragon took off again, its tremendous wingbeats gusting air against Karol's face and making his coat flap briefly. The woman looked around, then strode over to where he and Bron stood speechless. "Hello," she said politely, in slightly accented but perfectly understandable speech. "I am Sveta Reborn."

Several facts tumbled through Karol's mind as the hearth-dragon surveyed them curiously. She was surely bonded to the little creature, and that meant immediate good luck for any crew that took her on. Moreover, she was in favour with true dragons, and no doubt the Master of the Castle, to arrive in such a fashion, bearing such a name. Once word got around about Sveta Reborn, none would bother her in an untoward fashion, if they valued their life and limb.

"I bid you a fair eventide," he managed. "I am Karol Spindrift, and this is my brother Bron. What brings you to our humble village?"

She jerked her chin upward slightly. "I was actually hoping to find work, if there was any going about."

Bron shared a glance with Karol. "Do you know how to fish, and to sail a boat?" he asked. These things had to be asked, after all.

A smile crossed Sveta Reborn's lips as she looked out at the boats rocking gently at their moorings. "Once upon a time, when I was younger, I sailed and fished most every day. I'm sure it'll come back to me."

That was good enough for Karol. He put out his hand to clasp hers. "Then welcome aboard."



End of Part Thirty

 

[NavigatorNobilis]

Unexpected, but wholesome.

If I smash my laptop to the ground and demand another, would that be gauche?

 

[Wintercat]

Far sweeter fate for Sveta than many other stories have offered, a delightful chapter and I am glad to have read that. Thank you for another fun chapter, and looking forward to seeing any future continuation as well. Snek is a good boy indeed, but the world holds many wonderful aspects to it there it seems.

It was fun to return to read this story again, two chapters since I last dropped in to read, and it was a delight to check them both out.

 

[Zhen_Electric]

Unexpected, but wholesome.

If I smash my laptop to the ground and demand another, would that be gauche?

Click to shrink...

No, it would just be expensive to replace.

 

[meloa789]

This was really heartwarming.

 

[Mastersgt]

I have a bad memory(which comes in handy with re-reading old favorites) so I have probably said this before. But I think the author making a spin-off of this story following the "Master of the Castle" would be great... Maybe he started as an Isekai/reincarnator with the Celestial Grimoire?

 

[Ack]

I have a bad memory(which comes in handy with re-reading old favorites) so I have probably said this before. But I think the author making a spin-off of this story following the "Master of the Castle" would be great... Maybe he started as an Isekai/reincarnator with the Celestial Grimoire?

Click to shrink...

Feel free to write an omake of this.

 

[theonebutcher]

Headcanon: Snek started his life in the chamber of Secrets.