I turned towards Caelian, who was leaning against the tree, watching me with worry. He looked genuinely concerned about me, which made what I was going to say next even harder. But I just had to know.

“Ok, let’s all calm down now.” I started and sat cross-legged on the grass. “Please, sit. I want to ask you a few questions.”

“Of course!” Caelian happily plopped down before me, tail and scales gone between one blink and the next and horns at a slightly different angle. Stupid 3D rendering inconsistencies.

“Alright then. Question number one: Do you not feel it even a little strange how you just… knew… I am the one? Like, if someone else came into that cave eventually and freed you, wouldn’t they be the one?”

“Ethan…” he tried to move towards me, but I put up a hand, gesturing for him to stay seated. “Since I laid eyes on you, I knew that…”

“Yes, yes.” I interrupted the over-cliché dialogue before it revved up and the sax came back. “But is this like a dragon feature? Do you all know your fated one instantly when you lay eyes on them? Why did you ask who goes there, then? Did you not already know it was me, your fate, etcetera etcetera?”

“I…” he hesitated, frowning. “No, dragons don’t have this ‘feature’ you speak of. I just…”

He looked up at me, confused.

“I just knew, I guess.”

“OK. Food for thought. Question number two: You say you were sealed in that cave for centuries, right?”

“Indeed.” he looked down and sighed wistfully. “I was trapped under the evil spell, preventing me from shifting into my humanoid form and binding me to that dark place. You freed me from centuries of torture.”

“Cool. Question number three: You said you were the last of the Black dragons. Are there other types of dragons flying around somewhere or what?”

“Not that I know of.” He frowned again, not seeing where I was going with this. “I am the last of my kind. Have been before I have been bound.”

“Great. Question number four: If you are the last of the dragons and spent the last few centuries buried under a seal in that cave, whose fresh dragon footprints did I track to find you then? Is there another giant lizard mucking about the woods? A T-rex perhaps?”

“I…” Caelian looked at me with astonished horror. “I… I don’t think so? If they were dragon footprints, then… but I haven’t left the cave… I…”

I felt vindicated at his stupor. Whoever wrote this stupid script clearly needed a reason for Ethan to find the cave, but the whole ‘last of his kind’ trope was too hard to resist and not put in here. Creating a logical fallacy. Caelian looked like his brain was going to cook as he kept muttering to himself random words and phrases, trying to figure this puzzle out.

At least the male lead wasn’t stupid: When shown clear inconsistencies, he at least listened to me.

As I was indulging in my own smugness, I saw the sky flicker. Like an old TV getting interference. It happened a few seconds later, but now it was everywhere but around Caelian and me.

“Holy shit! Did you see that?!” I exclaimed, jumping to my feet.

“See what?” Caelian looked up at me, utterly confused.

I pointed at the fracturing picture around us

“You are not seeing this at all?”

As he shook his head, a sense of dread came over me for the umpteenth time that day. If I was inside a short reel, then maybe making the male lead question the mechanics of the plot was… breaking the system? Could I go back if I break it fully? Or would I die alongside it?

Shit. It was too risky to try it here, mid-story, before the climax even hit. Maybe I should move the plot along and get more details of this system first before I completely fuck with it.

“It’s nothing. Welp, about time we went to find this Heart of the Forest, yeah? Come on! Stay within five paces, you hear.” I rattled out and pulled Caelian to his feet.

Still frowning, he nodded solemnly and trudged along after me as we returned to our campsite.