The world untwisted before the snake man and I let out a sigh of relief, as did he.“And what is that, pray tell?” He asked, his tongue almost hissing.

I looked at the snake to make sure he wouldn’t try to kill me or something. “I have to inform my companions first.” I looked at my friends. “Hey.”

Boss groaned. “Have you finally stopped talking stupid? I think we’ve been here waiting an hour for you to finally hire this guy.” She... thought I was actually going to hire him?

Canary spoke up next. “And where did the hammer come from? It’s... felt...” His voice dropped to nearly be inaudible. “I’m catching your insanity, aren’t I?” Wait... they trying to tell me to cut this short. Probably.

Catastrophe tapped out a rhythm on the table with her talons. Though... looking at her, her leonine side seemed a little darker, and if I wasn’t mistaken, a few black hairs were interspersed in her fur. “Just. I... Tell me you are still planning on paying me, right?:

I looked back at the snake. “Gary, I would like to hire you to write to me when you discover other humans or something like that. In exchange, I will grant you the ability to use my island as a refuge place.” Like hell I would actually let him on the island without a good reason, but I figured that offering it would be a good idea.

“I think that can be arranged, but you should probably introduce me to your compatriots before we finalize the deal.” He smiled as if he wasn’t an incredibly powerful thing that could probably kill with his smile.

I nodded. “Oh yeah. Right, guys. This is Gary, though his proper name is Marty. I am going to call him Gary because Marty reminds me of hoverboards. He is... a cool guy and he will be writing us about things of interest.”

My zebra friend kept staring at Gary. “Still a snake. Can’t trust snakes.”

Boss glared at the zebra. “Why do all of you have such ridiculous hatred for something?”

Catastrophe blinked, pausing from eating her steak. “What do I hate?”

Boss pointed at me. “Ivan. You hate Ivan, remember?”

The griffon shrugged. “Right. I kinda forgot about that when he showed me all of those gems. And gave me full permission to pilot the ship.”

I cleared my throat. “Say hello to Gary?”

They looked at Marty for a moment. “Ok. He still looks more trustworthy than you do, so he can’t be that bad.” Canary mumbled. I shot him a glare.

Meaningful conversation all but died after that point.

I had survived contact with another human.

Just the thought of there being more overpowered snake things capable on contorting reality almost turned my stomach inside out. The sheer power he had thrown around like paper was still ringing through my ears and I was somewhat surprised that they didn't bleed once I got out of sight of him.

I was going to be sent, or rather, he was going to send something describing me to his boss. Maybe request an audience.

It terrified me. I wasn't in control of it. I needed to be in control.

We took up two rooms in the hotel, once more. Catastrophe and I in one room, Boss and Canary in the other. The arrangement made perfect sense at the time, as I had the tendency to talk in my sleep. Or so claimed Canary. I also apparently crept him out.

"You talk about... things..." Canary muttered, looking away. "You keep talking about things falling into place, things made of metal. Cars. Whatever cars are." He honestly looked more unnerved than I had ever seen him before.

So the semi permanent arrangements, as the griffon was unlikely to be able to understand whatever I mumbled, involved me sleeping in the same room as her. Language barriers were awesome like that.

I was on the floor, Catastrophe taking up the bed. She passed from the world of the awake rather quickly...

I... couldn't sleep. I could feel people. I was scared.

I could hear a conversation in the room across from us, barely muffled. Boss and Canary. Their voices raised to a fever pitch, the contents only coming as gibberish though I could hear every syllable. And the world was changing around me.

I felt myself seem to slip... slowly... out...

And suddenly. I was her.

Or rather, she was me.

She wasn't a dragon, wanting only the sweet taste of death upon her. She wasn't dying, or even wishing to be healed. She had her entire life ahead of her. She was her own person, not wanting for anything to change.

Somehow... what happened with the dragon happened in reverse. I felt an odd sensation of acute sadness and agony and then everything snapped back into perspective.

She was stronger than me. Far stronger than me. My aborted attempt to control her backfired horribly. So... horribly.

I felt a prick at a memory of back home.

And another.

Like needles in my head.

I felt like screaming.

My hooves moved without me willing to and I could hear her voice in my head, musing over what a strange dream she was having.

She whispered in my head.

I had never felt so violated. My entire body rang like a bell, and the cold certainty that she had seen inside of me and KNEW who I was pervaded my being. Despite it being rather warm in the room, I shivered like it was thirty below. I had failed.

Failure.

The air seemed to hum with the quiet feeling of my failure. The purity of everything seeped out like my soul was, feeling every nook and cranny and fault and detriment and slowly widening them.

I let it happen.

My mind felt dead. My soul might as well have been dead. The swimming spirits of those who had been forcibly inserted into my thoughts were silent and unmoving.

She knew. There was no way she couldn't know. I had felt her eyes upon my inner most sanctums of thought, felt her gaze burn hot upon my mind. Oh gods... She knew. She saw who I was.

She knew that I was nothing but a miserable little bully trapped in a zebra's body, leading a band of fools on a merry quest to try and keep them distracted. Oh god. I could feel her rummage about my mind.

I felt tears slip out of my eyes. I remember that quite clearly as I cried myself asleep, fully prepared to be killed the next day. I had deceived them.

Her eyes roved over my being, appraising comments...

"Hm... cute..." She cooed lightly over a memory of turning a few taunts against some idiots.

"Hm..." I could almost feel her lick her beak at the memory of hearing about Gareth's sister dying. I had had little response at the time. "Interesting..."

I was dead. Once she woke up...

Game over.

What was the point in trying to escape?

I, after a long time of trying not to think at all, collapsed into a teary sleep.