It was interesting to watch the dust of former humans just float up and vanish in the air. Its like how my feelings are right now. Vanished. Gone. Nonexistent. I flicked my tongue in and out as I thought about everything that just happened. I should feel something. Horror is the primary feeling I suppose. Just guessing though since I don’t really feel that. I just feel...

Disinterested? Like everything that happened was just a minor inconvenience into my day.I really am a monster. That thought wasn’t even frightening though. It answered the question I was going to ask anyway. Who am I now? What do I do about that? Is it even a problem? I looked down at the sword I was holding as fresh crimson dripped to the ground. I turned it back and forth in the light of the sun as I thought about myself.

I was attacked and I defended myself. It wasn’t a justification. It was a truth. I didn’t need to justify anything. Why try to rationalize what happened when nothing will change what actually happened. Murder. A lot of it. I did it. So I am a monster now. That’s fine. Is it better to be able to defend yourself or not? I had never been in a real fight before in my life. Some stupid kid things in school but those aren’t really anything. Does it make me a monster to protect myself?

These guys didn’t even put up a fight anyway. That thought actually made me feel a little bad. I am a monster and a bully. I didn’t even break a sweat while doing my deadly deed. Did I even sweat anymore? I have no answers. I looked around and noticed that I was in a field alone now. The piles of clothes and weapons and detritus showing where the bodies landed but that was it. I have a few choices to make now.

I lifted my borrowed weapon up to my face and looked it over. It is a shitty sword. I’m no judge of weaponry but it just felt cheap. I wiggled it around a bit and sighed. I looked over the piles of crap left behind to see if there was maybe a shiny nugget in the piles of shit but I didn’t really see anything better. I rubbed my hand across my face as I made a decision. I had been put somewhere that I was ill suited to deal with and turned into a slithering nightmare at the same time. I was even naked. I ran my hand down my bare chest and shook my head. There really was only one option.

Looting the dead was actually easier since there was no bodies left. I was sure I would have felt something bad if I would have had to look at the corpses but it was just piles of junk and I could deal with that. I had finally started to feel something after this whole mess but it was mostly embarrassment that I was naked and a bit of confusion at what I had become. I decided to keep myself busy so I didn’t have to start feeling anything about what I had done. Busy hands empty mind.

I frowned my snake lips as I held a pouch I had found in one of the piles. It jingled happily as I shook it. I knew it had money in it. It looked way too much like what any fantasy world would have as a money pouch. I pulled the string and poured the coins into my hand. It was indeed money. Poorly made money by the looks of it. Each piece of metal was cast into a small bar which was interesting. I was expecting the normal coins. Circular or mostly round but these were like small little bricks or ingots. Yurel really had stuck me on some other world.

I knew he had from the moment I realized what I was but for some reason just seeing the money pushed it up to the front of my mind. I’m really not in Kansas anymore. That thought sent me into laughter and damn was that scary. Some evil villain laughter added in with hissing. It just made me laugh harder. I realized a little late that everything had just caught up to me and this was probably a panic attack of some form.

It took me a lot longer than I expected to put myself back together and stop laughing. I decided to ignore pretty much just everything and go with what was happening. I don’t think I’m really stable anymore. Oddly that thought doesn’t really bother me as much as it should. I didn’t feel like a crazy murderer. I also didn’t feel like being a giant ass snake was so bad. That’s how I know my mind has slid sideways. None of that is normal. Busy hands.

I started putting the piles of shit into a bag I found. I am broke and naked don’t judge me. Although broke no more it seems after I collected a few more of the coin pouches. I wasn’t sure what anything was worth or anything at all really but I figured I could at least buy pants. I paused for a second as I thought of that. I can’t wear pants. I inspected my lower body critically. No legs means no pants. Maybe just a single pant leg? Or just a big shirt? My snake body was just as thick as my chest really and it only got thinner at the end. I must be like a thousand pounds of snake muscle alone.

I went back to robbing the dead. They were my dead I could do what I wanted with their stuff. After I had the first bag filled I realized that it would take man more before I had anything. The bag I was holding was just full of random crap. Mabe if I just took what I could sell or something it would fit. It would also be heavy. I looked around and tried to figure out what would be worth keeping but I just had no idea what was worth money and what was shit. I sighed and just wished I could toss it all somewhere and be done with it.

I tied the end of the bag I was holding and decided to just leave it on the ground. I flicked my tongue out unhappily as I dropped the bag. The bag hit the ground with a thump. It also seemed to come apart at the seams and dust flew everywhere before the bag and all its contents were lost to the wind. I looked between my hands and the ground and back to my hands. It’s like I had the damn Midas touch. Instead of gold though I turned things to dead.

I blinked as I realized something. The shitty sword was still in one piece. I turned around and studied where I had left it stuck in the ground. I slithered over and wrapped my hand around the hilt and pulled it free of the dirt. I lifted it up to my chest and then dropped it. It made a sad ringing noise as it hit the ground and lay there. I glared at the sword as it lay there unmoving. Out of all the things that decided to not just vanish, my hitherto murder weapon and all around poorly made piece of equipment stayed in one piece.

I finally snorted and picked up the sword again. Maybe it’s magical or something. That would be a fucking riot. I looked it over closely and just decided that even if it was magical I didn’t want it. I honestly wished it would have exploded just like everything else. I tossed the sword to the side as I went to move towards the next stack of crap. I paused when I realized something. I didn’t hear it hit the ground.

I felt the flow of the grains against my hand. It wasn’t dust it was sand. The sword had barely left my hand before it turned into a river of sand that flowed through the air around me and vanished. So while I was gifted with the huge monstrosity that was my body I was also given a super power it seemed. Turning things to sand. Fan fucking tastic. I decided that next time I saw Yurel I would see if it worked on a god.

After a bit of trial and error with some items I borrowed from their previous owners I made a few interesting discoveries. I could hold items and drop them and move them around just fine. I could also turn it into sand if I wanted. It was rather cool to watch as I tossed a leather bad into the air and it just... broke apart and disappeared. It was also super surreal. I didn’t question it. That way leads to madness. If I wasn’t already mad.

I spent a bit longer that I realized grinding everything down into nothing and when I looked down there were only a few things left. I kept a small bag that I put the money into and wrapped a leather strap around my body where I was pretty sure my hips were. If I had hips. I assumed they were hips since I had something a little bit lower that turned out to be exactly what I was expecting. Just wasn’t expecting it to have its own hidey hole. No questions.

I examined the remaining weapons that I hadn’t poofed. I had a spear and a bow. The spear seemed easy. Just point the tip where you want to poke and then poke. The bow on the other hand I was more worried about. I had never even seen a real bow before and now I was holding one. My hairy friend didn’t seem to have a problem with it though. I can figure it out. I pulled the quiver across the other side of my hips and the bow across my back and picked up the spear.

It was while I was standing back up with my new spear in hand that it hit me. I killed people. A lot of people. My vision wavered and I leaned on the spear as I panted. What happened? I don’t want to kill people. I don’t want to be a monster. Why is this happening to me? I tried to suck in my air, I tried to think but my vision was going black around the edges as my body started to shiver. Not my body, this horrible monster of a form I was pushed into. I let out one hissing yell before I shifted over and hit the ground again.