3 But nothing ever happens

After practising, I got the hang of walking in this new body; movement was still weird, mainly because I walked on four legs instead of two. Running was also impossible; my moves were still too awkward, and I would fall headfirst into the ground whenever I tried, but it would be less frequent with practice.

I had decided that the best course of action would be to find a river, with it I could follow it and probably find a village. If there are any villages here, this forest might span thousands of kilometres for all I know, with no town in it. It would probably be a long walk before I found a river, and it didn't help that my legs tired reasonably quickly as I wasn't used to walking long distances yet.

The idea that this place was the same as earth calmed me. In all the stories I used to read of other worlds, I'm happy that this isn't a world made of sand with giant worms, a bare waste with flying snakes or a world where creatures lived with the only goal to turn you into a living machine.

This place didn't seem that different from the earth. The trees were green, the flowers were vibrant as they should be, and birds were singing; at least, I hoped those sounds were from birds;

If I could only go back home, I might have been able to say goodbye to my mother. All the time I wasted doing nothing, if only I could have lived a little more. I didn't even get the chance to repay my mother for what she did; raising a kid alone is hard, especially for one like me.

A sudden sound shook me out of my thoughts, I could barely hear it, but it sounded like water raging down a stream. I moved towards the sound of the water, and when I reached it, I saw a beautiful stream of water. I was ecstatic; who would have thought I would find a river this fast?

I wanted to scream out of pure joy, but only a guttural growl came out of my mouth, which surprised me. Excitedly, I moved toward the stream, bent my head toward the water, and started drinking. It was a blissful feeling, the water running down my throat.

After drinking enough, I turned around and saw several wolf-like creatures looking at me. The wolf-like animals nor I made a move. They stared me down, looking for any sign of weakness, but I knew that if I ran away, it would be my death. When I looked at them, a voice in my head started saying, "food, food, food, food…" constantly repeating itself.

How am I going to get myself out of this mess? I don't think I could beat one of these wolves, let alone 3 of them; they were twice my size. The right-most wolf made the first move; it jumped towards me, opening its gaping maw, trying to take a good chunk of flesh out of me.

I could barely jump out of the way, even stumbling a bit, but the creature didn't give me any breathing room and jumped towards me again, the voices growing louder "food, food, food!". It attacked with its claws; I couldn't dodge his attack this time. The nails dug into my leg, and pain shot through my body.

I winced in pain as blood started trickling down my leg, the creature attacked again, and out of instinct, I opened my mouth. Before the animal could reach me, a burst of flames came out of my mouth, and I burned the wolf to cinders.

The other two wolf-like creatures saw this. They were terrified of the flames that had hit one of their brethren and at once turned their tails. "Run, run, run!" the voices said inside my head. I didn't understand where these voices came from and why they were talking to me, but when I couldn't see the wolfs anymore, the voices, for some reason, disappeared.

But that was the least on my mind. I had just breathed fire! Only one creature was covered in scales, had wings, and could breathe fire. Those creatures were dragons! That voice has turned me into a dragon! Or at least something that looks like one! Where has this voice sent me?

The creature I had hit with my fire breath had barely survived, it clung to whatever it had left of its measly life, and now it was whimpering on the ground. It could scarcely move; even if it survived today, it would surely die tomorrow because of all the injuries.

So, I did the only thing I could do, I needed food, and this creature wanted an end to its suffering. I walked toward the beast, put my sharp teeth around its neck, and bit down into its neck. I felt the creatures' muscles tense in my mouth; I felt a warm liquid fill my mouth, which had a metallic taste. Shortly after I had bit down, the creature died from blood loss.

But when it died, something odd happened. Gold particles started to move up from the creature and floated towards me. The particles flew into my chest, and I suddenly felt more powerful! It was an odd feeling. It didn't just feel like I got a boost in energy; it felt… more permanent.

I looked at the corpse of the creature. Its fur was completely charred. I used my claws to claw away the scorched coat, and to my surprise, the meat looked fine. There was some braised meat under the coat, but the rest of the flesh was still raw. I was hoping the meat was still edible because this might be the only thing to eat in the next couple of days. It would probably be safe to eat as I just killed it; at least, I hope so.

You know the feeling when you haven't eaten your favourite snack in some time? Eating this meat felt the same way. I couldn't stop myself from enjoying every single moment of it. After eating the creature, I noticed it was already getting dark. It was about time for me to find a spot where I could rest for the night. I couldn't lay down next to the wolf's corpse; it would attract predators, and I would not survive the night. I had to find another spot if I wanted to survive.

It didn't take long for me to find a place where I could spend the night. It was under an old tree where the roots had made a small den I could crawl into. It wasn't a spacious spot, but it was a perfect fit for my small size, and predators would have difficulty finding me.

𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲? 𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤? 𝐎𝐫 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠? 𝐎𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞? 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐲𝐨𝐮! 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬, 𝐈'𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 (𝐈'𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝟏𝟎% 𝐨𝐟 𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐫'𝐬 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭), 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬.

𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐈'𝐦 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮; 𝐈'𝐥𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐫 𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 $𝟏𝟎,𝟓𝟎; 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐫 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐰𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐫 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 (𝐈𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬). 𝐈 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠!

𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐫: 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞