This was all so odd, from the tip of my tail, to my crimson skin, to my claws, to my…shit. I'm a demon. Definitely a textbook, or nearly textbook, demon. I reached up to feel my face with my hands. To my immense relief it felt human as I would expect. I did, however, have horns. Not small ones either. They sprouted out of my temples, and swept back along the sides of my head coming to points a hand's length above the back of my skull. My long black hair was a mess; full of bits of rock and ash. I felt short pointed ears pushing into it as I shook it out.
I should have been shocked. I should have freaked out. But while I was far from alright at the moment, my body was not one of my concerns. I felt hale and comfortable. The rocks didn't bother my feet and I didn't feel scratched or bruised from my tumble earlier. In my head, I was still Zarenna. I felt no strange urges. What would demonic urges even be like? It's not like I've met a demon. Aren't they supposed to be insane or at the very least destructive and malicious?
I definitely needed answers, so I tried to get my thoughts in order.
How am I a demon anyway? I'm still me! On top of figuring that out, I need food, water, and shelter. If there are people here, I need to find them—the island's not too big to check around.
I don't know where on Varra I am, either. If I could find out, I'd maybe be able to know how likely it'd be for a ship to pass close enough for me to signal them and get rescued. Once I see where the sun rises, I'll know a direction to look.
Still thinking about what I needed to do to survive, I descended into the jungle in the direction of the peninsula. The flora closed around me and the light from the moon failed to reach through the canopy, but I could still see quite well, albeit without much color. Even though the undergrowth was dense, I had no difficulty pushing through. I slashed through tangled branches with my claws; an action that felt increasingly natural. The ground sloped down sharply at first, and then more gently as I made my way deeper into the jungle. Soon, I found an animal path and began to follow it.
My thoughts started to wander in the silent stillness of the night. What if I do see people? I stopped in my tracks as the realization hit me. I'm a demon. A monster: kill or run away. I'm red and have too many limbs. I liked this body, but I was obviously not human, or elf, or dwarf, or beastkin, or any other species of person I've heard of. I'd need to lose a lot of features and change color, and even if I somehow had the magic for it, I wouldn't know the first thing about actually doing that. Even if I did, I knew the Church could detect me, at least I thought so. What if I run into people and it just causes more trouble? But I might need to find people to get off this island. Even if I didn't, there was no way I was just going to hide forever, even if it was possible.
Why should I have to hide myself? At my anger, I felt a shift of power within myself. Almost like I manipulated mana subconsciously. I focused on the feeling, and tapped into my own mana like I was barely able to do before all this. I got a flood in response, along with a surge of anger and rage at how I could be treated. Who are they to judge me? I'll show them! They'll be nothing but ash when I'm done!
A green glow from my sternal tattoo brought me out of my feelings and clarity started to return. I shook my head to get rid of the dark thoughts. I could feel my mana within me; a lake now compared to a bucket before. Tentatively, I tried to channel some into a small flame, something I could do before. I got a surge in response, but this time I steeled my mind against the flood of emotion. Anger pushed into my thoughts. Again, the tattoo glowed and my thoughts calmed. This time, I still maintained a steady stream of channeled mana and with a thought, a flame the size of my finger flickered into being at the tip of my finger.
What I conjured felt much hotter than my old flame and the center burned an odd bluish-green, although the edges were tinged in clashing crimson. The flickering light created a dizzying display of dancing shadows in the jungle around me. Mesmerized by the light show, I focused on the flame and willed more power into it, enlarging the burning wisp to the size of my fist before shrinking it back down. Absorbed as I was in my newfound magical prowess, I never saw the attack coming.
My world spun sideways before I landed face first in dirt. I could feel an immense form pinning me down. One of my arms was being crushed by a toothed vise, bone straining. Fury flooded through me. Rend and burn!
Mana surged into me and my body heated up rapidly. Still focused on controlling my mana and my emotions, I managed to stem the tide and gain control of most of the surge. But the delay cost me. With a snap, my hostage arm broke above the elbow and the vise pulled, trying to sever the limb. Large paws clawed into my sides and rent great gashes, narrowly missing my vital organs.
I still had fire. Pinned as I was, I still had free limbs. Two hands tilted toward the mass assaulting me. Jets of fire erupted from my palms and the vise released me with a roar. Acting on instinct, my tail swept around and slammed into the mass. My strength surprised me and the beast was thrown from my body. I could hear the snapping of brush as the beast crash landed near me. Claws raked across my arms and sides in the process, leaving more bloody gashes.
With surprising agility, I stood up and faced my attacker, eyes wide with rage and fear. Some kind of immense red and black cat stared back with glowing red eyes. What set this monster apart were the horns and glowing claws. In fact, its entire body seemed to glow with a dull amber light, focused mainly on the claws and teeth.
One arm hung limply from my side, but my sense of pain seemed almost numbed. Blood ran down my sides and legs, sizzling as it scorched the earth below. The beast got up and tensed into a crouch with incredible speed. I raised all of my good arms and focused on producing the hottest fire I could. The monster jumped. I let loose.
Fire and heat blinded me as a heavy mass crashed into me. I could see within my fire a glow like the creature, except mine was a deep crimson. The beast toppled me, but paid for its aggression as my fire burned into it. Fearing its claws and in a panic, I did what seemed natural: I headbutted it. Stars exploded in my vision, but several bones of the creature crunched on impact with my horns. The beast clawed back at me but moved to disengage after swiping more gashes into my abused torso. Blood ran hot down my sides and legs, staining and charring the dirt and undergrowth below me. My vision started to blur, and the pain from my broken arm started to slice through the numbness.
With a last surge of effort, I brought my tail around for another hit and sent the creature sprawling back into the trees. For a moment, I stared after it, unbelieving that my tail flung a creature twice my size half a dozen meters. The beast stood back up shakily and stared at me with glowing red eyes. It was clearly hurt and more than a little singed.
In agony and with darkness creeping in at the edges of my vision, I prepared another gout of fire, even as I felt mana exhaustion creep up into me. Instead of going for the kill, the injured beast turned and bounded silently away through the dense brush. In shock, I took a single step after it before I collapsed onto a knee. I mistakenly put my broken arm down to help push myself up and it buckled, white hot pain flooding my consciousness. I struggled for a moment before darkness closed around my vision and I passed out.