I decided to go with the truth in the end. I looked between my two new hopefully friends and shook my head. “I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. I don’t have any card or identification of any form if that is what you are asking. Sorry.” I waved my hands about a bit with nothing really to add. They just stared blankly at me for what felt like a whole minute before they looked at each other. The large man frowned and shrugged and the girl looked back to me.

“That is odd but not unheard of. Where were you born? Normally you would have received some form of identification before leaving the place of your birth. Some very far out places do not have access to the correct tap to create an access card though. But then you would have passed through an area that does have access and created one later.” She said all this as she rubbed a finger across her cheek. It was another question I didn’t really have an answer for but at least this time I could give the truth. Most of it at least.

“I was born very far away from here. I’m not even sure how far away actually.” That was a sad truth. Earth could be millions of light years or whatever away and I would have no way of knowing. That thought was killing me on the inside so I decided to push it away for later. I’m sure that’s great for mental health. “I haven’t come across anyplace that required any identification yet let alone had any means to make what you are talking about.” Also true but that’s only because this was my first day even on this world. Hopefully it was only my first day. I wasn’t sure how long I had spent zonked out after everything that had happened. More stuff to push into the back of my mind and let fester.

The girl hmmed to herself as she looked between me and the wagons and finally back towards the man. He was watching her but didn’t say anything as she slowly fixed her hat in place and gave him the most authoritative look I had ever seen a child capable of making. “It is decided then Daryl. He will come with us back to Torrence and have a card made there.” She clapped her hands together and brushed them dry as the big man, Daryl I assume, sighed and dropped his head.

“Yes Magister. You know that you will have to take responsibility for his personage and anything that happens in the meantime thought right?” she just nodded at his words before turning around and walking back to the bag she had left on the ground earlier. Daryl glanced up at me and gave a one sided shrug. “Well I guess you will be traveling with us for the next day until we reach the city. The little lady is too curious for her own nature.” He shook his head and turned before waving me to follow.

We all walked over to gather near where they had performed all that crazy magic before. The rest of the group kept a distance between us so it was just me, Daryl, and the girl in the circle of the torch. She finished packing up her small bag and lifted it to her shoulder as she turned to face me again.

“My apologies for not introducing myself earlier. I am Magister Lyria, scholar and student of the Torrence Mage Academy. My friend and body guard here is Daryl Isne, a well respected mercenary of the body class. The rest of our group,” she gestured to the four people who had been chanting earlier. “Are also of the Torrence Academy. They are all well practiced chanters of both fire and air. You of course met Thomas earlier.” She frowned a bit at this but continued. “He is also a mercenary but of lowly rank. He is in training to be both a body and mage mercenary but he yet lacks the required power to progress to what would be considered a Mage Blade. He was supposed to be learning from both the chanters here and Daryl but you can see his temperament.” She shook her head and then looked at me expectantly.

She sounded so prim and proper when she talked she was like a tiny little noble lady. It was cute. I was also incredibly confused about a few things she said. Body class mercenary? I mulled that over in my head for a minute and the only answer I could come up with was that he had no ability to use magic at all. It would make sense to separate those who could and couldn’t use magic into groups I guess. I shrugged those thoughts off since I figured if I asked her later she would answer it for me. She seemed like a tiny little teacher when she spoke. The only polite thing to do would be to introduce myself now so I did so.

“Hello Miss Lyria, Mister Isne. My name is Sseziah Tharo.” I tried to keep the shock I felt all inside as I gave them a small little bow. The name just rolled out of my mouth. It wasn’t mine but it felt like I had heard it all my life. The small little freaking out part of my brain gibbered out that here was more proof I was no longer who I used to be. I pointed out the fact that it was obvious to everyone I was no longer who used to be. I was never a snake person to begin with. Maybe with a new body I had been given a new name? What else had I been given?

They didn’t seem to notice my internal problems though, nor did they comment on the fact that my name was mostly one long hissing sound with a few extra letters thrown in for good measure. Every time I spoke I felt like I was spitting at people. More embarrassment to throw on the fire. Daryl looked over at Lyria who had a huge smile on her face and then looked back to me. He held his hand out to shake which I guess meant that I had passed some form of test.

I did have a problem though. I was holding my notched spear in one hand and the sword Thomas had so gently loaned to me in the other. Daryl saw where my eyes had gone and turned his handshake into a gimme motion. “Here I’ll take his blasted sword. I don’t want to have to hear him whine about losing another inscribed blade after last time.” I looked down at the sword in question and I could faintly make out something engraved on the blade. I handed it over to Daryl without question though since it was only right to return it.

He stuck the sword point first in the ground and we finally managed a handshake. “Just call me Daryl. I don’t really have any fancy titled attached so my first name is just fine.” He said with a huge grin. Lyria held out her hand next which I assumed meant she wanted a handshake as well.

“I am glad to know that my feeling was correct about you Mister Tharo.” I tilted my head as I looked down at her hoping that she would explain, which she did. “Demons, real ones that is, do not ascribe to a family name. They use a moniker that describes them. For example we know of demons with such names as Hroyarth Unmerciful or Dreom Venomclaw. The family name doesn’t exist since they do not actually have families such as we know them. The fact that you have such a proper sounding family name can be taken as proof that you are no demon. No demon would add even a fake family name since it would be a matter of pride if it were found out.”

It sounded like a whole bunch of bullshit to me. It’s like what some third rate villain would call themselves. I could just imagine some idiot running around calling himself the great Thunderpants or something incredibly stupid like that just to set himself apart. It sounded like demons were just really, really lame. Super glad I’m not one. Still a bit freaked out about being a completely different person though. Just going to keep pushing stuff to the back. Future me could deal with it.

Daryl held the torch up higher as he called out to the rest of the group. “Hey we are going to camp here through the night. Hope you all brought a tent otherwise you are sleeping on sand.” As he finished I saw Lyria pull her hat down over her face and shuffle over to hide behind my larger body. It seemed she wasn’t quite over her own flop. At least she wasn’t standing naked.

Daryl turned back to me with a frown as he inspected my weapons. “I hate to say this Mister Tharo but I would feel a lot better if you had stowed your weaponry somewhere else. It’s not that I don’t trust you, I’m just a very cautious person if you understand.” Yeah I understood. I looked down at the damaged spear in my hand and shrugged. I didn’t really feel safer with it anyway especially after remembering what had happened to the first person I had bit. I shuddered a bit internally but nodded my head at Daryl.

“Yeah I understand. It’s no problem really. This thing is damaged anyway and I never really learned how to use the bow.” I pulled said bow off my back and tossed both to the side and watched as they turned to sand and vanished into nothing. The arrows followed right after. I turned back to Daryl and Lyria but they were both staring at me in an odd way. “What’s wrong?” I felt like the little girl was about to look so hard she would cut me in half.

“I have never seen that kind of magic before. How was it done? I can still feel your aura tugging at the aether around us. It almost feels like you have created a magical tap for your own personal use but that cannot be possible.” She looked at me with wide eyes as her mouth ran away. I had trouble keeping up with most of what she said but I got enough to understand that what I had done wasn’t normal. I should have assumed it wasn’t normal but after seeing the magic she could do, it just didn’t seem all that fancy in comparison.

I shrugged again. I seemed to be doing that a lot recently. “I just do it. I don’t actually know any magic. Making things turn into nothing seems to be the only thing I can do. Nothing quite as amazing as what you did.” At my praise she seemed to preen a bit but then looked down and blushed. Since we were all standing in what was pretty much a sand pool of her own design I could guess why. Daryl let out a cough and shook his head.

“Questions can wait til the morning. I would like to be back in the city before midday. We should get to sleep now so we can start early.” Lyria crossed her arms and looked about to argue but when she opened her mouth all that came out was a huge yawn. I of course followed with my own yawn since that shit was crazy infectious. The slight hissing slithery sound wasn’t up to the cute level of her yawn but it made it obvious we were all tired. She frowned and pouted for a moment after but soon nodded and gave me one last look before turning and heading back to one of the wagons.

Daryl patted my arm with his free hand and chuckled. “She is going to grill you in the morning. Very curious for her age. She can’t stand not knowing something.” He gave me a friendly grin that I hoped I returned.

“She can grill me all she wants but I don’t think I’ll cook well. I’ve got no answers for her really either since the truth is that it just kind of happens.” He let out a laugh at my poor attempt at a joke and nodded.

“Aye it probably is as you say but give it half the day and she will have figured out all the mysteries about you.” He pressed his hand to his chin as he looked around. “I don’t actually have an extra tent.” He said apologetically. I figured out where he was going with that and held my hands up.

“That’s fine. This sand feels rather nice. I shouldn’t have a problem just camping out right here for the night.” I said as coiled myself up and sunk a little into the warm sand. It did feel really good I wasn’t lying. Like the softest bed I had ever felt in my life. I was probably bone tired which would make anything feel good too. Daryl gave me a long look before nodding and giving another chuckle.

“More snake than man in there eh? A lot of the kin are like that though. We still get some who come through and only eat raw meat.” He shuddered a bit but continued. “They are decent folk still but I wish sometimes they would eat somewhere a bit more private.” He took a quick look around, probably to make sure most of the people had gotten tents or bedding out and was gearing down for the night.

“I won’t ask you to take a watch shift, if that’s understandable. Again it’s not cus I don’t trust you,” he gave me a solid look to see if I understood and I gave him a nod back. “Just always careful. When you get a reputation and such like mine, you have to make sure you take care of it.” It made sense to me. I wouldn’t trust me if I had slithered out of the woods either. I was tired too so a night of sleep was something I was looking super forward too. He looked at me for a moment longer before he clapped me on the arm again. “Alright I’m off to start the watch. I’ll see you in the morning.” And with that, the circle of fire he was carrying slowly made its way to the wagons and then past them, presumably to start his watch.

After Daryl left, I took no time in burying myself mostly up to the arms in the warm sand. It just felt so damn good I couldn’t help but shudder in pleasure as warmth flooded my body. Before I even knew it, I was out.