"Rivi," I took a steadying breath. "Can you…be my master?"
Ever since I had died and entered the dungeon I had felt myself changing—rapidly, disorientatingly, not just in the fact that I'd become a skeleton or that my living form was a girl, but in who I was, in what I wanted from the world.
I had wanted to be special, to be unique, to be strong and all-powerful, and to make a difference in the world. But everything that had happened since my death flew in the face of that. I was just a small fish in a big ocean, and more than anything, I was coming to realize, I was scared. Scared of never measuring up, of never amounting to anything.
And if that was the way things were going to be, if I truly wasn't special, wasn't the one, wasn't anything more than a stray who had been taken in by a new owner, then I just wanted to bury my head in Rivi's soft chest and have her hold me until the sun came up. I didn't know where the feelings in my chest came from, but Rivi felt suddenly like a port in the storm that I didn't want to give up, couldn't give up.
I looked at the dragon girl with pleading eyes, desperate for any sign of a reaction.
"Ray, I…" For the first time in our conversation she looked genuinely taken aback. A different, more genuine side suddenly showing underneath her bubbliness.
I shook my head. "Don't call me that. It's…" I looked lost into the middle distance for a moment. "Not my name anymore."
"Then what should I call you?" A light touch on my arm, her voice sweet, soft, genuine.
I felt my heart begin to pound in my chest. I closed my eyes, and curled my toes, feeling squeamish about what I was about to say. "I want you to decide…mistress." I chickened out from saying 'master' at the last moment, but my meaning hadn't changed.
I looked at her searchingly. Her black eyes that before had seemed so reflective, so shallow, now seemed to open up in endless wells of abyss. I stared at them, mesmerized.
She blinked, her brain working before a cheeky grin crossed her face. "Silvie. How 'bout that. Like it?" She raised a hand and petted me on the head.
"Mm," I nodded, suddenly feeling quite docile. "That works."
"So you want me to be your master, huh?" she grinned, putting her hands on her hips. "Well, I can't say you're the first Night Mistress to have the idea, but such things shouldn't be decided lightly. Come on, let's go back to my floor where you can rest and get your head on straight before rushing into anything."
"But…" I put my hands together, looking up at her with doe eyes. "If you've named me, doesn't that already mean…?" A part of me died inside when I heard myself say that. Where the hell did all this flirty energy come from? Somehow in this girl's presence I didn't feel totally in control of myself.
"Oh shush," she ruffled my hair again. "You're not a beast to be tamed so lightly. Come on, let's get out of here before Fencer shows up."
"And what makes you think I'm not already here?" A playful voice came from above them. In the crook of one of the trees a brown-skinned, well-muscled girl sat, one leg dangling from the branch.
"Oh please," Rivi stuck her tongue out at the girl in the tree. "You weren't there a second ago, and we both know it."
"In my domain," the girl began, but her form vanished immediately, replaced by another figure, still brown-skinned and well-muscled, but now more androgynous, who appeared right in front of Riviera. "Distance hardly matters." The second figure finished.
"So?" Rivi stuck her face in the androgynous figure's face. "Are you here to make trouble, or are you just saying goodbye. My girl here's had a hard day, and doesn't need any more prodding from you, Fencer." Rivi poked the figure's chest then wrapped an arm around my waist and I flushed red. My head was still buzzing with uncontrollable emotions. I felt something strange and red-hot stirring in my chest, thrumming with energy.
"Don't worry," Fencer tilted their head, disappearing and then reappearing a little ways away in the male form I had first met them in. "I'm not here to hurt your new pet. After all, you're saving me a great deal of explanations. I only…" They flashed a predatory grin. "Came to say goodbye."
"Ah, well, goodbye." Rivi turned towards me, her hand shifting to my shoulder as she prepared to do something.
"And…" Rivi stopped, turning back towards Fencer, annoyed. "To tell you…" Fencer continued drawing it out, as Rivi stood there impatiently. "That the sisters are willing to be most lenient in this matter." Their gaze turned to me as they spoke the last sentence, indicating I was likely the matter in question.
Rivi frowned. "Why would they…?" She shook her head with a sigh, "Never mind." She turned back to me and grinned. "Come on Silvie." She scooped me up in her arms.
Rufi who had been trailing around us, not making much of a fuss, immediately chirped at the sudden development and leapt up into my lap.
"Good!" Rivi grinned at Rufi. "Wouldn't want to leave you behind."
"What are you—?" I started to say before Rivi bent her knees then launched herself into the air with the speed of a rocket.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHAHAHAH!!" My stomach leapt as we shot up through the jungle canopy at utterly inhuman speeds. I looked down to see the ground rapidly getting further and further away as we rose into the air.
Black wings unfurled from Riviera's back, long and majestic as our upward ascent began to slow and for one brief moment our ascent reached its zenith and we began to fall. I thought for a terrifying moment as I watched her wings unfurling that they would shoot us forwards at terrifying speed just like she had had when she first ran into me, but instead with a graceful beat we began to gently glide over the sun-tanned jungle.