The moment Nora slithered away from Ethan she felt truly alone for the first time. Before her birth she was part of her father’s domain, no more than a spirit, a wandering soul, but she was one of millions, now her own being, without the comfort of a sibling or her new companion, Ethan.

  Making her way through the muddy swamp felt weird for her, while she wasn’t really cold due to her connection with Ethan she still felt a shiver run over her white scales. She felt the connection with her partner vanish but her mind was made up. After all she was still a predator and her level was high enough that she only had to worry about hordes of enemies. With growing confidence she slithered her way through mud and water, exploring the world she only saw from above so far.

  Confidence was crushed, in an instant, while the start of her journey was good it soon turned to shit. Literally a hundred meters further down her path a horde of zombie beavers attacked her. Those vicious beasts didn’t look intimidating at all, that was from above, now their long rotten teeth, the foul smelling fur and their flat club like tails would return in her nightmares. She managed to kill two of them with her fangs, their milky eye the perfect target to inject her venom, once it injected it would literally crack a skull open, the ice it was infused with made the brain expand and die.

  Slithering through the mud she even burrowed into it and tried to escape that way but once the beavers found her, digging her out became a matter of seconds. For a moment she was close to calling Ethan to her side but her pride rejected the idea completely. Once she slipped through the enemies she baited them around in circles, their undead bodies not very quick compared to her.

  She managed to slither her way back to the dead tree and climbed its branches, the stupid beavers not even intelligent enough to look up or they might have spotted her. Now stuck she thought about her next plan of action. While Ethan had the ideas and experiment she had instincts and a better understanding of her own abilities. She just needed to use them properly.

  What followed was experiments that she would have never thought about before, why when you had a comfortable place to stay like around her partner’s arm? She gathered poison in her own mouth and moved over the branches, like raindrops that let it drip on the beavers heads, then become quiet docile under her tree once no enemy was in sight. Most of them died that way but she felt like a cheat, even if that was the last thing that should matter in a survival situation.

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  Still she climbed down and fought the last five beavers with tails and fangs, slapping them around or biting into their exposed weak points like eyes, armpits and the back of their knees. During her fight she noticed some things. She really liked to stay close to solid ground, her size steadily increased and the creaking of the branches made her realize how big she might get over time. Secondly, she enjoyed using the ice element of Ethan to kill enemies, it felt like the right kind of venom to her. So maybe she should align herself more closely to his path? Make it their path instead.

  Once enough time passed she wanted to return to Ethan and discuss things, their weak connection guided her towards him and on the way she still managed to kill multiple enemies, some lone zombies or small groups. Now she even could spit her venom at enemies, her aim was a bit off but it worked most of the time. Her body got more comfortable with moving around, her venom felt more potent now that she finally used it. Everything felt good, until the connection grew stronger and she knew Ethan was in pain.

  Slithering as fast as she could she saw the…thing…dig its claws into Ethan’s back, his pain was like a hot wire that wrapped around her mind. The energy that invaded Ethan made her sick, she was glad he was so strong. She coiled up and waited, she knew Ethan could beat this thing, she would just be in the way.

  What followed was a display of magic she hasn’t seen before, not because it was big magical attacks but it showed Ethan’s improvement since he received her egg. The chains wrapping around the zombies, his use of ambushes and traps to fight the beast. How he evaded and baited instead of running away.

  The death of the beast came swift, the rest of the zombies were no problem and then she watched him kill the other human. She felt his cold detachment over their connection and knew she was responsible for that, both of them influencing each other all the time. She looked at his back as he walked away, his mind so muddled from the fight and the pain he didn’t even notice their connection.

  Nora didn’t hesitate and turned around, moving away from him while making her decision.

  *Update* Path chosen - [The Path of Frostscale Serpent]

  [Adapted to icy environments, frostscale serpents have a body covered in white and blue scale, resembling glistening ice. They’re capable of breathing icy winds and can create blizzards to immobilize and blind foes.]

  She would improve too, for herself and for Ethan.