A Strange Imp?

John peeled back his upper libs to bare his gums and teeth in an expression of involuntary disgust. There was a downside to having super dragon smell, after all.

"Hey you, you're finally awake," came a raspy voice.

"And you need a shower." John coughed a small dragon cough and peered at the location of the voice. It came from a small humanoid figure. Two thirds the size of a man, though a little hard to tell because he was sitting.

With John's night vision, he could tell that the creature had large, pointy pale blue ears and a paunchy build with a slight gut. Noticeably muscled arms and legs, though. He had a big, pointed nose and a slight smile baring sharp fang. Roughly healed scars littered his body, crossing over one of his blue pupiled eyes and across his bare chest.

"A goblin?" wondered John. All his vocalizations were combinations of low growls, grunts, teeth clicks, and other not very humanoid communication methods, so he doubted the goblin could understand him.

"Goblin? Bleh, do not compare me to such drivel. No, I am an imp," said the former goblin now correctly identified as imp.

"You…you can understand me!?" said John in surprise.

"Shh. Quiet now, they might be able to hear us." The imp raised a claw tipped finger to his cracked and dry lips. "And yes, I can understand you. You are a dragon, no? Dragonspeak reaches everyone unless you do not want it to."

"Oh, huh, I did not know that," said John. Well, looked like he did not have to waste time learning new languages at least.

"And sorry about the smell." The imp tugged his head forward, showing that his neck was attached to the metal wall behind him via a chain. "But moving is hard enough as is. Let alone cleaning myself."

"Yeah, sorry about that comment," said John as he peered at the imp's obviously forced captivity. There was no wonder that he had not been able to clean himself. "That was a little insensitive. Just figured you didn't understand me."

"I know, I know, and I understand," said the imp in hushed whispers. "And the crew here does clean this place. Just roughly. A hose down with water is all we will get."

"Second day here and I'm already a prisoner, huh." John looked around himself, twisting his head here and there and trying to gauge where he was. He looked to be in a metal box about eight meters by eight meters in dimension, and there did not seem to be any discernable way out.

The metal walls were thick and solid, strong enough that John could never hope to break through them with his current level of strength.

John spoke to Mel in his head. 'Mel, what happened?'

[You consumed a Neuralizer, a parasitic creature that takes root within other beings and lulls them into an eternal sleep. However, a dragon's stomach is unsurpassed in its capacity to digest anything, whether they be rocks, metals, or other creatures.

Toxins that enter your body through digestion will be broken down regardless of how strong they are, though as your body is still quite weak, it has taken five hours for you to fully digest the potent Neuralizer's poison and keep you awake.

Yet for this struggle, you are now rewarded with immunity to Nueralizer venom]

'Five whole hours? Damn, and this is a moving U.F.O, too. I must be way far from the nest,' said John as he focused, trying to get his innate internal compass to show him where the nest was.

He knew the general direction, but the feeling of the nest was faint enough where he had little idea about specific directions anymore.

'This is bad, Mel. I still don't have my magical energy even though I slept so long too,' said John as he tried to emanate magical energy. Faint golden light flickered around his scales like a sputtering lightbulb before fading away.

[Your body has been unable to rest and recover mana for it was occupied neutralizing the Nueralizer's poison]

'Hmm. Do you know who or what captured me, Mel?' asked John.

[No.

From your vision, I know that a dwarven engineered ship has taken you, but a dragon such as myself has never wondered much about the Lower Races such as the Dwarves, Humans, Elves, and Werefolk.

That they even dare to harm a Great Offspring such as you is a sin of the highest order that must be punished with complete and utter annihilation]

'Okay, let's think about annihilation when I'm actually out of here. And huh, so this is a Dwarven ship,' noted John, understanding that now most of the classical fantasy races were part of this new world.

He sighed in relief, feeling as well that he still had his precious family jewels, because who ever heard of Dwarves taking them? His reincarnated chance at romance with beautiful elves and cat girls was still a go!

But that was not what he should have been thinking about. He needed to find a way to escape.

'Mel, I have enough essence to evolve to the Wyrmling stage. I remember from before that Molting refreshed my magical energy. It's still the same for my other stages, right?'

[Correct]

'Aright then, I'll just evolve, cast my fifth-tier magic, and blast a hole in this ship,' said John.

"You are thinking of something, are you not?" said the imp as he eyed John carefully. "Are you thinking about how to escape? You should consult me first, then."

"What? Are you a mind reader?" said John.

"No, I just know when people are thinking hard. I do not think hard very often. Hence, I get into a situation like this. But my daughters are much smarter than I am, and I learned to tell by reading their faces, heh," said the imp.

"Daughters? Are they here? Did anything happen to them?" asked John with concern. The imp was chained up here and all alone. If he had a family, had they been taken too?

"My daughters are dead. As is my mate. I can tell you are going to offer your condolences. No need," said the imp with a shake of his head and a hardy smile. "They have been gone for many years now. I have processed their loss already.

But still, you, my friend, are a dragon, and yet, so…understanding. Never a dragon did I know that thought about anyone other than themselves."

"Well….lets just say family means a lot to me," said John. "And you're right. You and I are both stuck in the same bad situation, and you've been here longer than me.

You know what's happening? How to escape?"

The imp nodded slightly, the chain around his neck blocking his range of motion. "This is a crew of Outlaws. Sorry individuals who broke laws on their home worlds and were exiled. They gather in small crews, traveling through the void between worlds, and commit all manner of crime.

Bleh. Useless lot, most of them.

Killing and taking and doing whatever they please. They took me because I knew where a treasure they wanted was, and they took you to sell you off to the nearest magical quack who wants to dissect you."

"Dissect? Okay, now we have GOT to get out of here. Fast, too," said John. "Look here, I can cast a powerful fifth tier spell. It should be able to break us out of here."

"Does the spell have some wind up? Some time you need to gather magical energy?" said the imp.

"No-, wait," said John. He thought about this for a few seconds and realized if he wanted to use {Ray of Light}, he needed to Molt first to restore his mana, and that took some time and no doubt emitted mana. "Yes, yes it does. Do they have a way to track what we do?"

"Nueralizer poison breaks down in the presence of light," said the imp. "So they have closed this holding cell off. They cannot look in for now, but I cannot guarantee they will not do so at random intervals, if only to check you are still asleep.

There are sensors, however, that will alert them if they detect too much magical energy here." The imp pointed a claw to various little golf ball sized blue spheres embedded in the walls.

John made a motion to grab one of them, and the imp immediately spoke out. "Breaking them or touching them too will alert the sensors."

"Got it," said John. He could also wait for his mana to naturally recharge. "If we wait a few hours, I can cast the spell immediately too."

"This spell of yours, is it highly destructive?" asked the imp.

"Yeah. Very much so," said John.

"Can you control its output?

"No, not really."

"Bleh." The imp put a hand to his chin in contemplation. "Well, bleh for me, not so bleh for you. This ship is quite high in the air, and it will not land for some time. If you destroy it, everyone will fall, and you have wings but me-,"

The imp turned around slightly to show two stubs of flesh protruding from his back. Wings that had been sliced off.

"I have been clipped," said the imp.

"That looks awful," said John. "If we can get this crew some payback, I'll be glad to help you."

"Heh, it did not hurt so much. Our wings feel little pain," said the imp. "But thank you for the concern. I was going to say, good dragon, the reason why this ship will not land for some time is because I have led them to the site of a great treasure I am searching for.

Of course, a false location, but they know not that yet.

I was going to offer that in exchange for saving me along with yourself, I would gladly lead you to the treasure. But it seemed you were willing to help me regardless."

"I still want that treasure now that you've brought it up," said John, his treasure sense and hoarding addiction starting to flare up. Not that he would not have said this had he been fully human, either.

He considered himself someone who tried to do the right thing but doing the right thing while getting paid for it was a double dip bonus he could not pass up on.

"Oh, of course," said the imp. "If I wanted to hide the treasure from you, I would never have mentioned it.

Still, I am again surprised at your kindness. It is touching and rare. Bright. The realm of Hyperia and its many worlds would do much, much better with more of your kind."

"I don't know about that. I don't think I'm any special," said John. "Just someone that tries to do what he can when it counts."

"Heh, and you do not know how rare a mindset like that is? That you can think beyond your own needs? Regardless, idle chatter can wait for when we are on the hunt for a Mythic treasure among the greatest known to Hyperia," said the imp as he closed his fist with determination, flashing a bright smile.

His energy was infectious, and it touched John. "A journey for a badass treasure sounds right up my alley. Alright then, how do you propose we get out without blowing the ship up?" said John.

"Why waste such a nice, convenient ship?" The imp smiled. "The plan is simple. No blowing things up. Instead, we take out the crew and take the ship, that is what we do."