Forest of Misfortune

Darkness was all he saw.

Darkness was all he felt.

A feeling he hasn't felt before, at least not in a long time.

Loneliness: it attempted to consume him, as he sat in what he would assume was an afterlife of sorts. How he was supposed to deal with his own emotions, he did not know.

The never ended darkness gave his mind room to think about nothing but thoughts.

[System Notice: Soul transportation commencing]

He thought about growing up in the Crypt.

The never-ending training, the occasional torture, the years of isolation that left him to communicate with only himself.

God forbid he ever messed up during training. Months of abuse to make up for his failures.

The resentment he received from other organization members because they assumed that he was privileged and was being fed with a diamond spoon.

He was sure, looking back, they would have never wanted his 'privilege' after knowing what it took to be the youngest prodigy, they would have remained mediocre with pride.

[System Notice: Soul transportation complete]

The darkness around me felt more real than before. Is he dying? How could he die a second time? Is it just the darkness slowly consuming him? Did it matter?

Not really, there was nothing left for him, he had died.

[System Notice: Transformation commencing]

The voices were back, the ones who had always come to comfort him. But they were spewing nonsense, this and that about transporting and transforming. He always thought the voices would at least stay sane enough to enable his descent into madness. Looks like they would both suffer as collateral.

[System Notice: Transformation complete]

Strangely enough, he heard a heartbeat now. It beat steadily and powerfully. Whatever was the source of this heartbeat, it was mighty, majestic, scary. Something was slumbering near him.

He even had the faintest feeling of motion...

Like, if he tried hard enough, he could inch in a direction. Limited locomotion but it was there. He didn't understand anything going on anymore.

[System Notice: Assimilation commencing]

However, he had nothing but the darkness to comfort his flurry of negative emotions, but comfort they did.

He let the darkness envelope and snuggle with him. He let it permeate throughout whatever form he inhabited. He let the darkness do away with his problems. The family he never had.

[System Notice: Assimilation complete]

Whether time passed slowly or quickly, Ciar was unsure, he had let himself go to the darkness, he let everything go to the darkness.

But in the midst of his act of drowning in misery and shame, he heard a voice.

[System Notice: Growth complete]

Growth, what does tha-

*crack*

{What was that sound? A crack? What's breaking? My sanity?}

*crack*

Ciar saw a faint light that pierced through the darkness like a blade of energy. However, that was not the end of it as the light began to spread in a circle around him. With each cracking sound, his newfound reality was breaking. Whatever brought him into these peaceful lands felt like his time was up.

*crack* *crack* *crack*

Ciar watched in dread as the cracks in the dimension spread, horrified at what would happen when they met on the other side.

Yet when they did, the top of the dimension of darkness fell off, giving way to a beautiful night sky. Just looking at the myriad of stars and heavenly objects caught Ciar's breath.

[System Notice: Birth complete]

There was the voice again. He could understand what the voice was saying, but comprehending it was an entirely different story.

{What did it mean growth and birth, was he growing? Being born? A reincarnation of sorts? Reincarnation was an actual thing?}

Before he could decide on whether or not he had truly lost it, he heard...

[System Notice: Activating bodily functions]

Suddenly the most intense feeling of hunger Ciar has ever experienced shot through him with a vengeance. He felt like he could devour solar systems and still wouldn't be satisfied.

As the hunger ripped through him, he didn't know what to do. How could he fix hunger when he had no idea where he was, or even what he was.

[System Notice: Seeking sustenance]

Ciar's body began to move on its own. Turning towards the edge of his encasement of darkness, he began to greedily devour the boundary between the outside world and his sanctuary.

[System Notice: Sustenance Obtained]

Ciar just laid there as the soft, luscious grass, caressed his skin and lulled him into what he hoped was sleep and not the jaws of death again.

[System Notice: Adequate Rest Obtained]

Birds chirping, sunshine beaming, wind blowing. Wherever Ciar was, it was gorgeous. He awoke in a clearing, beautiful green trees surrounding the small clearing. Dense forests could be seen all around, yet it somehow looked inviting...

Besides the trees and chirping, there were no signs of life. It was just him.

Ciar tried standing up to take note of his situation and figure out where he was, only to find out his two legs were M.I.A.

Looking down, they were replaced by two ash black, scaly forelegs. Sharp claws protruded out of, what he would assume, were paws of some sort. The back side of his new 'legs' was colored ash gray, with the same scale appearance consistent throughout his entire body?

Intriguing, is all he could think. Has his head also changed? He studied himself intently, too curious to panic. What was the point in panicking anyway? He doubted he could change anything.

The color pallet remained consistent just as he thought, however at the end of his slender but muscular body was a tail. A long tail, in comparison with his body at least, tipped off with a diamond shaped end that looked dangerously sharp. Plus, two hind legs to match his front ones. It was confusing to say the least.

{What am I?}

[System Message: The host is a western styled Shadow Dragon. Born of the late Shadow Monarch, in the Forest of Misfortune, the host was left in the forest to be hidden from harm until hatching. Now that the host has hatched, its main objective is to survive.]

{A Shadow Dragon? Shadow Monarch? Forest of Misfortune?}

These were a lot of unfamiliar names to Ciar, save for the western styled dragon. He'd taken a lot of missions that head out west and had caught glimpses of these types of dragons. However, seeing one on print and being one, were two different things.

{My next question would be, where am I?}

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The voice said something about being in the Forest of Misfortune, but why would his dragon father/mother leave him here if he's meant to survive.

{Survive from what exactly? Is someone hunting him? Or is something, hunting him.}

Ciar assumed two things; either the dragon parent left him here as a test of sorts, or whatever was hunting him, was so dangerous that the dragon couldn't properly protect him and dropped him here as a last resort.

But that would imply that this, Forest of Misfortune, is very dangerous...

He decided he should interrogate the voice in order to get adequate information on his current situation.

"Uh, mysterious voice, where am I?" I questioned tentatively.

[System Message: Host is in the Forest of Misfortune]

[System Message: Host is capable of telepathically communicating with the system]

{Oh, I wasn't aware of that. Wait, system? What does that mean exactly?}

[System Message: The system is implemented into the Host's soul and is here to assist you until you die]

{That's cool and all, but could you drop the whole 'system message' thing?}

[The system has adjusted]

{Thanks, what exactly do you mean when you say, survive}

[ Host must survive the infamous Forest of Misfortune to be strong enough to return to the Shadow Monarch]

Interesting information that Ciar will have to ponder upon later, however, he must adapt to this new body of his.

Ciar spent 20 minutes working on walking, 30 minutes on running and around an hour working abrupt speed and directional changes, increasing his survivability in this unknown area.

Although this fast of an adaptation generally wouldn't be possible, his assassin training and highly talented mind allowed for some shortcuts.

Ciar crept his way toward the wood line, making so little noise it surprised him.

He figured his overly large paws would make moving covertly exceptionally difficult, but he was wrong. The padding on his paws actually made him quieter than he ever could be as a human and if he wasn't mistaken, it looked like there were small shadows gathering under his paws whenever he took a step.

Upon making it to the line of dense trees, he took a sniff and narrowed his eyes to attempt at spotting any movement.

Despite the dense canopy obscuring the forest floor, his enhanced eyes penetrated darkness with ease. He found a bush to hide in and waited, listened, observed.

Around 45 minutes passed when a small, unassuming rabbit emerged from a burrow.

{Dinner}

Ciar crouched low to the ground as he made his way toward the rabbit, halting when he was within 20 feet.

{The rabbit just left its burrow, still cautious of its surroundings}

10 minutes had gone by when the rabbit worked up the courage to wander away from its home, a fatal mistake.

As Ciar followed the rabbit, a sound resounded behind him, and he froze. Only to find out it was his tail that had swept the forest floor, but the rabbit had already been alerted.

It desperately looked around to find the source of the noise, too subtle to pinpoint where it came from.

Uncertain on how it should handle this, the rabbit decided to slowly make his way back home, in the direction of Ciar.

As the rabbit was getting closer and closer, Ciar crouched lower and lower, praying the wind didn't blow in his direction.

Once the rabbit was within 2 feet of Ciar, he lunged at the rabbits neck as best as he could for a baby who just hatched 2 hours ago.

But he realized he had underestimated the rabbit deeply. He took precautions since this forest was supposedly dangerous and anything that could live here might be a threat, how much a threat? He didn't know, but he found out when the rabbit jumped backwards, and he missed it's throat by inches.

{I didn't know rabbits were capable of backwards movement... I should've gotten out more as a human.}

His incompetence showed as the rabbit landed and jumped forward as well, completely taking Ciar off-guard.

{The rabbit isn't running?}

The answer to his question became obvious as the rabbit kicked him in his jaw, and oh boy did it hurt.

Ignoring the pain in his jaw, Ciar grabbed the rabbit by its right foot before it could retract it.

Biting down as hard as he could he was able to break skin and then bone, a wonderful realization.

{I might have cried if I couldn't damage this thing}

[Host is incapable of shedding tears]

{...}

Vowing to deal with the snarky system later, Ciar used the airborne disadvantage of the rabbit to swipe with his left paw and push the rabbit onto the ground.

Applying as much of his weight onto the rabbit as he could, Ciar attempted to bite its neck, only to be met with a kick to the chest.

Ciar grabbed the rabbit's feet again, a little difficult due to the anatomy of his paws, then used his backward falling momentum to throw the rabbit into the air, eliminating all of its options of attack.

After landing on his back, Ciar scrambled back onto his legs and looked up at the rabbit, which after rising around 15 feet, began to start feeling again.

With the rabbit diving face first at the ground, it was an easy target for Ciar. Waiting on the rabbit to get within range, he prepared the best jump he could muster in his condition.

Once the rabbit was only 10 feet in the air, Ciar jumped, meeting the rabbit in the and clamping down on its neck while biting as hard as he could. Upon hearing and feeling a snap, he realized he won.

Without letting go of the rabbit's neck, he hurried to the burrow he saw it come out of and squeezed his way in.

What he found were baby rabbits roaming around, freezing upon seeing him.

{Hey System-thing, can I breathe fire?}

[Yes]

{And how do I go about doing that?}

[Open your mouth and breathe out with intent of releasing fire]

{Alright, shouldn't be too different than releasing killing intent}

Ciar planted his feet and opened his mouth, praying something came out so he wouldn't look stupid.

Just when he was contemplating killing himself due to embarrassment, flames erupted from his maw, scorching the inside of the burrow, cooking all of the baby kittens alive.

Once he situated the corpses and cooked the parent bunny a little, although breathing fire can be draining if done over extended periods of time, he decided he was going to figure this system out a little bit.

{Hey System}

[Yes?]

{What else can you do?}