This is the longest chapter of Dragon's Destiny so far, and it's probably my favorite as well. Especially the beginning and end. You'll see what I mean once you read it.

Thank you to everyone who's favorited, followed, and read. There's not much else to say here, so let's dive right in, shall we?

Current music: Ashes - Stellar

I'm sitting at a table in the library of the Sacred Heart Institute. The artificial lights are fixed so that they are only shining dimly, and the only nearby window showcases a starry sky. In other words, it's late at night.

On one end of the table is me, with a cold glass of water at my side. Danny sits at the other end, and he's drinking a can of Spindrift. As he considers his next move, my roommate scratches his chin.

"Danny, it's the opening" I mutter. "You're not supposed to think too many moves ahead."

My roommate snorts. "Well, Barrett, consider that the opening sets you up for the rest of the game. Maybe you would have won our last game if you'd thought a little harder about that."

I roll my eyes, though in a playful manner. "Jeez, what a BURN."

The game continues. I move my white knight toward the center of the board, remembering that old saying about how a knight on the rim was dim - its chances were very slim. Of course, in this game there is no such thing as a universal strategy - almost everything was situational.

I learn this lesson the hard way when Danny moves his black bishop to capture my other knight, a threat I didn't notice as I aimed to develop my pieces.

"Dammit," I muttered.

"Hey, at least we're not playing in a tournament" Danny remarks. "Then you'd have to keep your mouth shut the whole time, per the rules of the game."

"Thank Arceus for that."

Danny doesn't question my use of "Arceus" in place of "God." He knows about my interest in Pokémon, and what was more, questioning it was the job of the Institute's staff. They were the ones who enforced the rules of this quasi-theocracy, after all.

More moves were made, and it quickly became clear that things weren't trending my way. Despite my best efforts to maintain parity with Danny in terms of material captured, I'm losing more than he is. Additionally, an early check from my roommate had forced me to move my king, meaning that I'll never be able to castle. (Maybe that's just as well - the same bishop who'd captured my knight could plausibly threaten my king after such a move.)

Despite this, as my energy waned both physically and mentally, I know I can't resign this early. They always say you should never give up in chess unless it's truly hopeless, and for what it's worth, I subscribe to that belief. It's too bad that our parents, and society at large, gave up on us residents, but that's a subject for another day.

"Okay," Danny said eventually. "Check."

I move one of my pawns to capture the bishop that had just threatened my king. While Danny loses three points worth of material right there, I soon realize that the capture also comes with a downside for me. Namely, it gives me doubled pawns on the same file, which could easily be cut down by one of Danny's rooks (both of which remain in the game.)

Once my other knight's been taken, and Danny and I trade rooks, it becomes clear I was in dire straits. It didn't help that I was hardly an evening person - my stamina faded fast once dinner was over. With that depleted stamina, I need to find a way to win the game with only pawns.

Of course, pawns hold a special purpose in the game of chess. On their own, they are almost useless, but if they reach the other side of the board, you can promote them into a queen. That was my only hope.

However, that would require not just near-perfect play on my end, but Danny would also need to make a serious blunder or two. He still has a rook and bishop, after all, and more pawns than me. Danny would have to mess up hard to even have a chance of losing, and so long as I hold more than one pawn, he won't stalemate me by accident.

To make a long story short, it is all over once Danny promotes one of his pawns into a queen. Like laser beams, his queen and rook cut off whole sections of the board from my king, and the checkmate is forced quickly.

"Good game" I mouth, just like I've been taught to by all our social thinking groups.

Danny smiled. "Good game." To be fair, it's easy to smile when you just won a board game, let alone something far more consequential. Speaking of which…

"I wonder if chess is a metaphor for my life," I mutter.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, during the majority of this game, I was at your mercy. I only had pawns, after all, and I FELT like a pawn."

Danny narrows his eyes. "Don't overthink it, Barrett. Losing at chess isn't the end of the world."

"Well, no," I admit. "But we're pawns in life too. We're stuck here in the muck known as S.H.I.T., and we're at the mercy of the outside world. You might have been victorious in the game of chess, but we're all pawns in the game of life."

I snapped out of my slumber abruptly, realizing how absurd it was that I'd dreamt so vividly about playing chess with Danny Sham of all things.

For a moment, I couldn't remember where I was. But as I became aware of the fluffy futon beneath me, I recalled that it was in fact the home of Angela and Skipper. I was still in the village of Wildebush, still in the Garden of the Second Sun.

I no longer needed to wonder at all why the room was bright despite me feeling like I hadn't slept long enough. The sun always shines here. Night is a foreign concept in the inner world.

"Wake up, Barrett," Skipper told me.

I groaned a bit as I slowly sat up, opening my eyes a little wider. "But it's Saturday" I protested groggily, saying the day of the week like SAH-DURR-DURR. That just goes to show how out of it I was that morning.

"It doesn't matter whether it's the weekend or not," Skipper responded. "You need to buck up - did you have a nice dream last night that you didn't want to wake up from?"

I sighed. Normally, I either didn't remember my dreams, or didn't want to talk about them when morning came. This was a case of the latter - it seemed ridiculous to talk about being a pawn in my previous life.

But maybe I'm still a pawn here.

"I know Wednesday didn't go how you wanted," Skipper continued, "but that gives you no excuse not to try and make things better. Perk up, Barrett."

"I'll try" I moaned, slowly rising to my feet.

The flying lesson had not gone well, to put it mildly. No matter how hard I tried to catch the wind, the end result had been me flapping my arms like I sometimes had as a kid, looking ridiculous. Nothing had come of it in terms of aviation, and many laughs had been had at my expense. Needless to say, Thursday and Friday had been borderline unbearable.

But now it was Saturday, and Skipper sure seemed excited about something. As we entered the kitchen for breakfast, he was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet.

"You look thrilled" I mentioned.

Skipper smiled, flapping his arms as though they were wings. (Of course, in a way, they were.) "Of course I am!" he exclaimed.

"But why?" I wondered aloud. "Seems like just another Saturday to me."

"Because we're going fishing today!" Skipper exclaimed, opening his mouth widely enough that a dentist would have no trouble operating on it.

I frowned. "We?"

"Yes. You're invited!" Skipper exclaimed. "If you don't want to come, you don't have to, but I recommend you try!"

At first, I wanted to say no. I'd been fishing once with the Institute during one of the few occasions where they let us experience the great outdoors, and it hadn't been a fun experience. Whenever I wasn't accidentally getting the hook caught on my shirt, I was leaning over the pond waiting in vain for a nibble. That was fishing, after all - a whole lot of waiting.

But in this case, I realized that this was my chance to take the reins. Perhaps I would no longer be a pawn in whatever plan the universe had for me - if there was a plan at all, that is.

"I'll come" I said before I could talk myself out of it.

"Excellent!"

We sat around the table for a quick breakfast, during which time I asked Skipper if it would just be the two of us.

"No," he said. "I've got two friends coming with me, and they'll be very happy to meet you!"

"Great," I replied. Even I couldn't tell if I was being sarcastic or not - that's up to you.

Once we were finished eating and were working on the dishes, Skipper told me something else that resonated with me.

"You see," he announced in little more than a whisper, "my friends are a little…weird."

"Weird?" I blurted out. "Like, in a good way?"

How many times have people like me been described as "weird"? Maybe that's what Skipper means.

"That's for you to decide," Skipper responded. "I mean, don't get me wrong - they're wonderful, or else they wouldn't be my friends. But there are things about them that don't apply to others."

"What are you talking about?"

Skipper smiled. "Well, you shall see."

My housemate produced a backpack full of fruit, bread, and a few other supplies, such as knives to gut whatever we caught. We then bade Angela good-bye and made our way into the village of Wildebush. It was earlier in the morning than we went to school, but it had not ceased to amaze me how the village operated on days of 24 hours in the absence of darkness. Even if I was slowly adjusting to it myself!

Skipper led me to a house that looked like any of the others. If not for how deliberately the cerulean Charmander gazed into the window, I wouldn't have known there was anything special about it.

"This is where Lucy lives," he explained.

I didn't ask who Lucy was; judging by the context, she was clearly a friend of Skipper's.

"She might not see us," I said. "Maybe we should go to the fishing spot." In the back of my mind, I'll admit it: Part of the reason I said this was to avoid having to introduce myself to a stranger.

"Which means it's time to knock" Skipper asserted, climbing onto the porch and giving the door several raps.

"I'm coming!" a moderately high-pitched voice announced. "There's no need to knock, you know I'm always here!"

"If you weren't here" Skipper replied, "there'd be no reason to knock."

An icy blue Charizard walked to the front porch, smiling as she saw us. "Oh, it's you," she remarked.

"Yes, Lucy. I invited you on the fishing trip, remember?"

"Sure do," Lucy replied with a smile. Then, she turned to me, and my stomach turned upside down. "Who's this albino dragon?"

"Uh…" I trailed off.

Fortunately, Skipper did not hesitate nearly as much as me. "This is Barrett," he told her. "He's been living with me for the last two weeks."

"Oh, right! The newest villager!" Lucy exclaimed. "Well, except for any newborn babies, but who wants to deal with them?"

"Fair point. Anyway, Barrett, say hello to Lucy."

I recoiled at the way Skipper said that. I wasn't going to admit it to him, but it just seemed so…infantilizing to imply that I didn't know how to greet a stranger. Still, I did as I was told. "Hello, Lucy."

"Hello, Barrett," Lucy responded sweetly. "And Copper's coming too, right?"

Skipper nodded. Turning to me, he explained: "Copper's another one of my best friends. So I want you to make a good first impression on him, okay?"

Noted.

After this, Skipper told us to shake paws, an act that I always found impossibly awkward. Was I truly supposed to maintain eye contact during the whole process? Apparently so.

Anyway, Copper lived a stone's throw from Lucy, so it wasn't a terribly long walk to his house. It was, however, just enough time to wonder what Skipper had meant when he said she was weird.

The greeting went roughly the same as it had at Lucy's home. Copper was a maroon Charizard who walked out the door after a quick knock, and with whom I was expected to shake paws. During this route, I noticed that he didn't look me in the eye, making it easier for me to shake his paw while gazing at his cheek. (My eyes still felt strained by the end of the greeting.)

"It's nice to meet you, Barrett" Copper stated after our paw-shake was complete.

"Same" I muttered, trying not to gulp.

"Okay!" Skipper proclaimed. "We've got all our supplies, so let's head to the river!"

The trek to the river felt oddly familiar at first, and it wasn't long before I realized why this was: The route was indeed familiar in the sense that I'd been on it before. We were going to the same river that I'd bathed in during my first day in the inner world.

When we reached the river's edge, I felt my face grow hot. Though I obviously couldn't see it, I had to imagine I was blushing considerably, and there was little doubt that the other dragons in my group could notice.

"What's going on, Barrett?" Lucy asked me a minute later.

"Uh…" I trailed off, a horde of Butterfree in my stomach. "It's complicated."

"A long story, huh?" she replied. "Well, not to worry - we've got plenty of time."

I frowned, my stomach turning upside down. How can I possibly refuse to answer without it being a dead giveaway that it's a sore subject?

Really, it shouldn't have been such a touchy topic for me. After all, other dragons probably had trouble learning to fly as well. Perhaps many of them failed as spectacularly as I had that first day. And Skipper might not remember, even, what had happened, because it had been two weeks ago!

That's the thing about embarrassing moments - you always think others remember them far more than they really do.

Anyway, Barrett rescued me from having to spill the beans to Lucy. He placed the backpack on the ground, then removed a set of wooden fishing poles from it. They were exactly like the poles Danny and I had used on the fishing trip with the Institute.

Danny. Hard to believe I haven't seen you in two weeks…

Copper snorted. "They might as well call you The Thinker, because you look like you're daydreaming."

I glared at the maroon dragon. "Not funny" I complained.

Yes, it was best not to give bullies attention, but if Skipper saw Copper as a friend, the latter probably wasn't truly a bully. At least, that's what I wanted to think.

Anyway, there were bits of citrus, peaches, and mangoes to use as bait. All we had to do was dangle the rods in the water and wait for a bite, then win the tug of war, yank the rod upward, and claim our catch.

It's a bit weird that we're catching our fellow Pokémon, but whatever. Let's do this.

I nearly pricked myself with the hook as I placed the mango chunk on it, but I was ultimately able to avoid this fate, and then I dropped it in the river.

"And now, we wait," Skipper announced.

For the most part, very little happened during the next hour or two. We sat by the riverbank, watching those hundreds upon hundreds of multicolored fish, as well as Water-type Pokémon, swimming by. All of them seemed smart enough not to take the bait, because not a single tug was felt by any of us for at least sixty minutes (not that I was the best judge of time.)

Occasionally the other three made small talk, a practice that made me want to recoil. How was I supposed to participate in the give-and-take of a proper conversation when I knew very little about my companions?

Nonetheless, I was able to glean some things from the others' conversation, which, in the words of the staff at Sacred Heart, I placed in my "mind file" for each of them.

"So I assume you've been for a few flights the last week" Skipper said to Lucy. It was framed as a statement, not a question.

"Well, of course I have!" Lucy exclaimed happily. "I mean, I'm a dragon! I've got wings and the power of flight, so why wouldn't I take advantage of that?"
"I wonder what it's like to be stuck on the ground for life," Copper muttered. "Couldn't be me."

He might not have meant it this way, but Copper's words hit a little closer to home than I would have liked. The reason for this should be obvious.

"It would probably suck" Lucy admitted. "But I've noticed something special about my own wings. Whenever I fly high enough, to the point where even the pyramids and cities here look like toys, I can put on a boost of speed that makes me feel lighter than the air."

I frowned. "Doesn't flying already feel like you're lighter than the air?" Not that I'd know.

Lucy cleared her throat. "I suppose I should have said that it feels like you're part of the air. And I can fly really fast too, basically floating around at the speed of sound."

Where have I heard that line before?

"In any case," Copper muttered, "do you think we're doing something wrong? We haven't gotten any bites in over an hour."

"Nah, we've just been unlucky," Skipper asserted. "That's the thing about fishing - it's a game of patience more than anything else."

"But I've been patient!" Copper all but wailed, in a tone that for all the world reminded me of a little kid throwing a tantrum over not being given his favorite toy. In other words, it was the opposite of patience.

"And luck," Lucy added.

Seconds later, Lucy's rod started vibrating, and she stood up. It seemed like she'd hooked something!

"Good going, Lucy!" Skipper exclaimed.

"I…need…to…focus!" Lucy objected, tugging her rod left and right in an effort to reel in whatever she'd caught.

"Right."

Lucy ended up losing the purple fish she'd acquired - eventually it was able to swim away from the hook. When she looked at us, her face was caked with sweat and frustration. So far as I was concerned, though, she had little to complain about: Her luck was still far better than mine.

The mundane task of sitting by the river and waiting for more tugs continued. Despite the fine breeze that rustled its way through the vegetation, I was still sweating eventually. It was a muggy day after all, hardly a rarity in the jungle.

Finally, Copper caught a baby Magikarp. Unlike Lucy, he was able to reel it in and drop it in the grass, where it flopped around for a while before coming to rest next to a tree stump.

"There we go!" Skipper exclaimed. "We'll eat him for lunch - he'll go well on some toast!"

I frowned. "Don't we have to cook him first?" I asked, trying not to let my squeamishness enter my voice.

"Yes."

"But how are we going to start a fire? It's so humid here!"

Skipper winked at me. "We're dragons. Besides, fire represents life when you're in the wilderness. As they say, when your fire's gone, so are you."

Where have I heard that one before?

Following this, Lucy was able to catch two smaller yellow fish before Skipper declared that it was time for a lunch break. We set the three aquatic creatures we'd been able to procure on the tree stump.

Copper frowned. "Those fish are all so small. If we were selling them, we'd hardly make any money."

"Well, we're not selling them," Lucy replied proudly. "We're going to enjoy the fruits of our labor."

When the maroon dragon grumbled a bit, Skipper spoke up sharply.

"Copper, you can't have it both ways. If you want to sell the fish, then you shouldn't complain about how small they are."

Copper gave Skipper a wild-eyed, almost furious look. "I never said that!"

"Then let's just gut the fish," Skipper said.

"Okay then" Copper responded flatly. "Could you do that right now?"

"Nope, that's Barrett's job."

I frowned. "You want me…to gut the fish?"

"Why yes," Skipper told me. "I do. You need practice - it's your first time fishing with us, so you have to prove you can do it."

My stomach churned at the implication that I needed to prove myself to Skipper and his friends. If I failed, it would probably be a dead giveaway that I didn't belong in this world.

"Okay, I'll give it a shot," I said.

Skipper handed me a knife, and I knew I was in trouble from the outset. You see, the knife was quite sharp, and even as a human, the Institute had never trusted us with such sharp objects. As such, I'd never handled a knife like this, and having paws rather than hands didn't help matters.

But I knew I couldn't chicken out, so I scraped some of the Magikarp's scales off with a gentle touch. I was reasonably confident, at least, that this was the first step, and yet I could feel the impatience of the rest of the group. It hung in the air like an oppressive fog.

This sucks! Not only do I have to do it right, but I have to do it FAST!

I cut what must have been part of the gills out, as well as what might have been its stomach. I tried not to show any disgust, but it was hard not to squirm as I pulled some of the Magikarp's insides out of its body.

It wasn't just the sliminess or smell, but also the act of killing. Or rather, the knife motions that, if the fish weren't already dead, would have resulted in the end of that Magikarp's life. I could scarcely believe that I was inflicting such grievous harm on a fellow Pokémon.

You don't mind eating meat as a human, so…

I could not place what felt different. It just did.

Anyway, what felt like an eternity later, I set the complete filet down on the stump. It may have taken several minutes, but the finished product looked like a rush job. If my math homework had been this imperfect, I would have been told to do it again.

"Excellent" Skipper announced. "Barrett, you did your best."

He surely meant to praise me, but it came across like a parent reassuring their child that they gave it their all during a lost Little League game. Yet I didn't complain outwardly.

Lucy started a fire on a set of logs near the river, and we cooked the Magikarp along with the two smaller fish. We then made sandwiches with the bread Skipper's mother had baked for us and enjoyed some fruit with it.

Lunch was a very similar story to the fishing session that morning. The rest of the group talked to one another about matters related to school, or life in the village, or their love lives, or what have you. I was very much out of the loop here, so I sat alone, dipping my legs in the river.

Two weeks ago I "baptized" myself here. I gave myself over to the village of Wildebush, to my new life in the inner world. In that time…how many friends have I truly made? How different is my life, really, since I woke up at that shrine?

Of course it's different. I'm not just a pawn for the Sacred Heart Institute to mold into a regular member of society. I'm ME!

I tried to console myself with that during the meal, but again, it's hard not to feel excluded when nobody else is talking to you.

After lunch, we returned to the riverbank to catch a few more fish. As with that morning, nothing happened at first…but the key words are at first.

I felt a nibble on the bait, then a more powerful tug. Gritting my teeth, I exclaimed, "I've got something!"

"Wonderful!" Lucy announced. "Keep it hooked on tight!"

To an outsider, the way my body moved might have reminded one of a surfer dude trying to balance on his board after hitting one of the beach's greatest waves. I shifted my weight from side to side for a solid minute as the tugs on the rod grew more intense.

Unfortunately, things soon reached a point where it became clear that if I didn't let this Water-type go, I would get dragged into the water and make a fool out of myself. For this reason, I let up on the rod, and the Pokémon (which resembled a baby Mudkip) swam away.

I heaved a sigh. "Well, you can't catch 'em all, I suppose."

"No, you can't," Lucy acknowledged. "But life isn't about never making mistakes. It's about learning from the mistakes you do make."

Over the next few hours, there were several more nibbles on my rod (several, if I could count, meaning seven.) None of them led to any success, however, and the fish were staying on the hook for shorter and shorter periods of time. Sweat oozed off of me in the hot afternoon sun. Arceus, it was so hot - the shade of the vegetation was almost useless.

"You've got this, Barrett!" Skipper assured me a few times, but I wanted to snap back that I didn't have this.

Frustration was quick to set in, and I could feel my strength waning. The next creature that took the bait was going to drag me in within seconds - I just knew it. My only hope was to win the battle against it first.

It wasn't long before I felt yet another vibration of my rod, which I knew heralded a coming tug of war. I dug my heels in, prepared to hold the rod in my armpit like they did on that South Korean TV show. At least then I wouldn't lose my strength so fast.

Well, this creature might as well have been a giant rock. The force was immovable, but it was slowly but surely sweeping me off my feet. The fish must have been so big that it could not be fried by the fire we'd used to cook lunch. (Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Skipper with a wide mouth and Copper's eyes the size of dessert plates. Only later would I realize they knew something I didn't.)

Digging my feet further in and leaning back, I knew that my back was going to be strained very soon. If I didn't want to risk injury, I had to resist the urge to, well, resist.

I tried to let go of the rod, but that wasn't as easy as I'd thought it would be. I staggered forward, then went flying headfirst like an Olympic athlete doing the long jump.

SPLASH.

I hit the water hard, sinking a few feet before pushing my way back to the surface. Spitting out a small amount of water, I noticed that my rod had been snapped in half and that the hook had pierced a bit of my fur.

But I couldn't worry about that when I could barely swim forward. Something had wrapped itself around my right ankle and wouldn't let go.

My breath caught in my throat. What, exactly, was trying to drag me under, and why couldn't I slip my ankle out from beneath it?

"Swim for your life!" I heard Copper shout, which, if you ask me, was rather unnecessary.

I heard a loud hiss, and I realized even more powerfully that I needed to get away from whatever creature this was. Fortunately, a burst of strength (adrenaline?) entered my body, and I was able to swim just far enough to grab the opposite bank with one of my paws.

I climbed over the bank and rolled to the other side. For a brief moment I allowed myself to celebrate, but that celebration was short-lived when I heard an even louder hiss.

"Move it, Barrett!" Skipper bellowed. "He's right behind you!"

Naturally, I swiveled around so that I could face my foe. And as soon as I saw the creature in all its "glory", I recoiled.

A giant insect-like Pokémon with long green-and-gray pincers stood near the river's edge. One of those pincers, it seemed, had been the appendage coiled around my ankle, threatening to pull me under.

Its head, however, was possibly even more frightening. Its blue eyes resembled those of an overgrown fly, and the head itself was encircled in a giant bubble that looked very hard to pierce - like the helmet of a space suit.

"An Araquanid!" I mouthed, fear gripping my heart.

In response to being named, the Araquanid raised one of its pincers and dangled it over me, threatening to stab me in the heart with it. Luckily, this gave me plenty of time to dodge.

"Fight, Barrett, fight!" I heard Lucy exclaim. I'm sure she meant well, but it sounded almost like she was cheering me on in a playful boxing match, not a serious fight that had far higher stakes.

The Araquanid spat out webs left and right, and I knew without a doubt that if caught in one, I would become stuck and at the creature's mercy. I'd become a pawn in its game, whatever that "game" involved.

Well, I was able to avoid most of the webs. One of them caught my ankle, but with three free limbs it was easy enough to wriggle out of the trap.

But this wasn't sustainable. I wouldn't be able to run away from the attacks forever, simply because the Araquanid could just stand in one place and shoot webs at me. Meanwhile, I was already starting to tucker out. My legs and lungs both hurt after a few minutes.

In other words, I had to attack to change the equation.

"Use Dragon Breath!" I heard Lucy exclaim, but I didn't know how to do that. In fact, it occurred to me that I'd never used an offensive move against an enemy during my whole time as a Charmander.

Now was a good time to start!

Unfortunately, I spent a second too long thinking about how to breathe fire - did it require a special hatred toward the creature threatening me and my friends, or did it just happen naturally?

The next web fell over me like a blanket, pinning me to the ground.

"Fuck!" I shouted, twisting and turning in an effort to throw the silk off of me. However, that stuff is stronger than many give it credit for. If you don't think a spider's web is as durable as steel, you've never been trapped in one.

The Araquanid clicked its pincers, seemingly jeering at me. It was toying with me for a few moments; then, once it'd had its fill of that, it would go in for the kill!

No!, I panicked internally. This can't be the end!

The more I struggled, the more ensnared I became in the webbing. Soon I couldn't move my limbs at all, let alone pull the silk off me. I was a dead 'mon - was there even any point trying to fight?

"Fire!" Lucy shrieked.

Oh great, is a wildfire starting near us? But that doesn't make much sense - it's so humid!

"She means to use fire, you idiot!" Copper bellowed.

Oh. They're talking to me.

I was cornered. The Araquanid stood over me, clicking its pincers once more. They were slowly closing in, examining me like a set of scalpels over a surgery patient. But I was "under the knife" for a completely different reason, one that would kill me rather than help me.

My last hope was to use fire breath to get out of the web. But how would I do that when I couldn't think straight?

I had no choice. I envisioned a volcano spewing forth fire, flames, and ash. Volcanoes, after all, had immense power. They'd destroyed entire cities in ancient times, and even now, thousands of people could be forced to evacuate when they erupted. If volcanoes could destroy thousands of lives in a matter of hours, maybe one could save four lives this time. We could hope…

I let out a scream (though by this time, it was more of a wheeze), and a small ember left my lips. It wasn't much, but it was enough to break through my bondage, and I rolled out of the way of the Araquanid's pincers.

"Good!" Skipper shouted. "Now do it again on his head!"

Of course, I realized. This guy's a Water-type, so Fire should be super-effective, shouldn't it?

I stood my ground as the spider got closer. Within seconds, the Araquanid looked ready to pounce and devour me. Indeed, its hind legs were bending, a sign it was planning to do just that.

I would have one chance. Only one. And if it failed, me and my friends were dead. Game over.

The Araquanid leaped into the air, and I let out a panicked breath. For a split second, nothing happened.

But then…

Another small flame left my mouth, and while it wasn't much, it was enough to pierce the Araquanid's bubble and light the creature's face on fire. I stepped back, bracing myself for the explosion that was about to take place.

Within seconds, I was covered in the slime that had once been the Araquanid's body. "Yuck…" I muttered, sticking my tongue out at the sticky feeling of all that muck.

My fishing companions stood on the other side of the river, beckoning for me to swim over. They all looked really happy for some reason…like they were proud of me.

And then something happened. I don't know exactly how to describe the sensation, but it was rather like a mild tugging sensation against my back. I didn't think much of it, but Copper, Lucy, and Skipper seemed to think it was a big deal.

Why is that?

As I swam the width of the river, allowing the rushing water to wash away the gross residue of the Araquanid's carcass, I suddenly felt stronger. I knew why they were proud of me, of course - I'd defended myself against a predator, and actually managed to defeat it.

Once on the opposite bank, I noticed that my three companions were still smiling brightly. None of them said anything at first, possibly because the moment didn't require words.

A few moments later, a sort of warmth filled my body, flooding my veins like adrenaline. But it wasn't adrenaline either, because that would imply that I was scared, when nothing could be further from the truth. Maybe it was confidence?

"You did it, Barrett!" I heard Skipper exclaim.

"I…did it" I muttered aloud, scarcely believing my own words. "I did it."

There was a certain degree of pride within me, yes. But as I glanced around at my three companions, I realized that we were not merely companions, but friends. When you've just been fishing together, an outing that turned into a fight for your lives, there's some camaraderie that takes shape.

If I had the power to stop time, I would have done so right there. I would remain in that moment forever, a sort of secular heaven that didn't require any of the dogma propagated by the Sacred Heart Institute. I would've just stood there, basked in the glory of what had just happened - what I'd just made happen.

But then, if you'd believe this, it got better.

"You're proud of me, aren't you?" I said.

Skipper nodded.

"For saving you all?"

Lucy snorted. "You were saving yourself most of all. But you defended us too, so thank you for that."

Skipper winked. "It gets better, too. Go to the river's edge and look at your reflection."

I did as I was told, practically skipping along the way. Upon each impact with the ground, I noticed that I seemed to bounce higher than normal, as if gravity had suddenly become a fraction of its former self.

I bounded so powerfully that I nearly fell into the river, but I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw my reflection in the water.

Two feathered appendages stuck out of my back, extending a foot or two in either direction. My arm span was roughly the same as my height, but there was a new word for "arm span" now.

My heart felt weightless as I realized what I was looking at. No longer would I be a pawn in the universe's game - rather, I would be one with the universe. In other words…

"I've got wings!" I exclaimed triumphantly. "I can fly!"