[Congratulations, George, your soul has bonded with Fafnir’s]

The boxed, floating text told him. It hovered inches above his face for a while before erupting into flames. He stared aimlessly at the starlit night sky, breathing heavily. What just happened? Was he going to be okay? 

He propped himself up on the charred grassfield. His face was slicked with sweat and his tunic soaked to the bone. 

‘I did the right thing right?’ He tried to convince himself.

His body was feverish, feeling both cold and hot at the same time. 

George got to his feet. His family must be worried sick by now if they heard everything that went down. How was he going to explain it to them?

How would he explain it to his parents that he had become a familiar? He didn’t know. But what he did know was that sitting here alone thinking about it won’t get him anywhere. But the problem was that he couldn’t see a thing past the clearing. 

“Dragon?” He managed to get out, his voice weak and hoarse.

“Dragon? What are you talking about?” His dad called out to him. 

Still recovering from shock, all George could do was stare blankly at his parents. It hadn’t even registered to him that he was supposed to feel relieved.

“What’s wrong son? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

His dad said, studying him with a worried expression on his face.

“My god George! What happened to you?” His mother came running frantically. 

She immediately held his face and measured his temperature.

“You’re burning up.”

George gently swatted her hand away. 

“It’s fine mom… I was just—”

“You was just what?!” She asked, her nose flaring up. George could just tell he was about to get an earful. But to his surprise, she calmed herself down last minute.

“I swear both you and your father are going to be the death of me. I thought you’d got lost or worse… and—and when I heard that terrible scream, I thought…” She paused, tears peaking at her eyes but she stifled it. “Sure, do whatever you want. Run off into the woods why don’t ya. It never occurred, it never crossed your mind that you had a mother at home who was worried sick. It doesn’t matter right? You’re grown, you can do whatever you want now, is that it?” She berated him harshly but George could only feel comforted by her scolding. He was just about to say something when he was suddenly slapped across the face and then immediately pulled into her warm embrace. 

“I’m sorr-” 

“Don’t you ever do that again!” She said as she held onto him. Squeezing him tight as if she was afraid he would evaporate into mist before her very eyes. George tried to squirm his way out. Being hugged like this by his mother at his big age… was embarrassing. But of course, that only made her squeeze him more. 

“You can let me go now.” He squeaked but she wasn’t budging. 

Meanwhile his two younger siblings were mimicking them, while suppressing their laughter. 

‘I’m going to end them.’ He thought to himself.

“Alright, alright, you can let him go now Joan. I think he’s had enough for one day.” His dad joined in with a smile plastered across his face which quickly disappeared when his mom turned on him and started slapping his arm repeatedly saying, “It’s your fault.” while he only defended with. “What? What did I do?”

The journey back home was uneventful and save for the fact that his younger brother, Ash’s constantly teased him about how he screamed like a girl. 

Thankfully, all of them brought torches which made navigating the dark forest easy.

George had never been so thankful for how warm their hut felt compared to the cold forest.

Mom prepared supper, her ears still red while the rest of them helped set the table. They sat across from each other, said grace and then ate a meager meal of warm bread and cold cheese and washed it all down with watered down beer, mom brewed two days ago.

George was allowed the special privilege of not having to help clean up because he was immediately sent to his room.

George guessed he was still recovering from the shock because he didn’t feel like himself, not once since the forest.

He didn’t know if he was hallucinating like crazy but he couldn’t have. The forest was still very charred but then was everything he experienced real?

“You’re painfully thick, George.” A clearly feminine voice rang out in his head. 

The painful headsplitting headache returned immediately. His nerves felt as if they were overcharged, static electricity ran through every inch of his body until suddenly he began to float, drifting across his room. George started frantically flailing about, trying to latch onto something. Something to prevent himself from falling into the sky!

His eyes widened. Him floating was the least of his worries. There, sitting cross-legged on his bed, eyeing him was himself. Except his eyes weren’t green. They were a deep shade of pigeon blood red. It sat there grinning at him. 

“I must say, in all my years of living, I have never met someone as foolish as you. George.” It said with his voice overlapped with a woman’s. 

“Like I said, George. You’re either incredibly stupid or extremely brave but we both know you’re the former.”

It said, struggling to stand upright. 

“It’s weird to be a human again.” It muttered to itself. It was growing accustomed to his body. Balling his hand into a fist and wiggling his toes.

It felt sickening, watching his own body move on its own. 

“Give my body back!” He screamed but no sound came out, instead his words appeared as floating text on a red screen.

Not George dismissed it as if it was swatting a fly. 

But then there was a knock at the door. It was his younger sister Anna. 

“Hey George? Mom sent me to check in on you.”

Not George stared at him, grinning from ear to ear as if they shared an inside joke. 

It then slapped Anna with full force. Sending the girl flying towards the wall. 

“NOOOO!” George screamed, his limbs moving wildly as he tried to swim over to them which proved to be next to impossible. No one had ever swam in the air before.

“YOU MONSTER! HOW DARE YOU!!” He screamed himself hoarse, straining every fiber of his neck but mockingly, his words only appeared as floating texts which Not George swatted away with ease. 

Through sheer willpower and determination, he forced himself over to Anna’s lifeless body.

“No, No, Please God No…” George said trying to grab his little sister but his incorporeal form wouldn’t let him.

But thankfully her chest started to rise and fall. She was breathing. Thank god she was breathing. 

Relief washed over George but anger still lingered. 

He swung at his own body but every attempt failed. 

“You get it now?” It spoke. “This is how it’s going to be from now on.” It said as if it were something trivial. 

Footsteps were now scurrying to his room.

“Please. Don’t hurt anyone else.” George pleaded. “Please, I’m begging you.”

Not George then held up its ears. “Say, please Lord Fafnir.”

George glared at it. His body shaking with anger. He bit his trembling lips and reluctantly said. 

“Please… Lord Fafnir.” Which left an awful bitter taste that made his stomach turn. 

“There you go.” It looked pleased with itself. 

“Of course, a benevolent lord such as myself would harken to the pleas of her subjects.”

She sneered, making her way to the window. 

“You’ll hate me no doubt but in time you’ll come to realize what an honor it is to serve me. I, a merciful lord, presented to a poor farmer boy like you, the opportunity to stand by my side and in addition, I’m going to spare your family. Rejoice. You who have been chosen by me. Lord Fafnir.” She said before stepping out through the window, yanking George along with her and landing with a heavy thud. She then quickly brushed it off, a fall which would have shattered George’s legs if he had attempted it. 

In the distance, he could hear his parent’s distressed voices but at least this way. They would be safe. Yeah. It’s better this way. 

Still, he wasn’t just going to let Fafnir get away with what she did while in his body. 

Someway somehow. He was going to make her pay.