It was black everywhere. I was walking, somehow, on legs, a pair of wings sprouting from my shoulders. Skipping in a single spotlight, I was alone in this world. All of a sudden, I heard a mighty roar; I turned around to see a huge Minotaur-like pig creature kick me, sending me flying into the darkness. I tried to flee in vain, as its huge strides caught me in seconds and it threw me repeatedly into the air, battering my body. With one final swing, it sent my world into darkness.

My eyes were closed. I felt a sharp, stabbing pain in my chest, where a pair of hooves were hammering me into the floor as if I were a nail.

"GET UP!" Leo, my Pigasus familiar, yelled into my ears, which I instinctively covered.

"Why so early?" I groaned, rolling over and letting the pain move to the side of my rib cage. Night still claimed the sky, which I could see clearly from our out door camp. It was chilly in our little clearing, the forest oaks stretching their fingers up so that we had a clear view of the low moon. I looked down. Still no feet, I thought, giving my red, black and yellow snake tail a prod. It sat there, in place of my legs, curled around our camp.

"Stop procrastinating, Rinire! Just get up already!" Leo nagged, hopping off me and flapping his wings irritably. I pushed up onto one arm, and put my wolf skin blanket into the large bum bag I took with me on my travels to Ragni. Leo, my familiar, was a pig. He looked more like a cow though, and had two ginormous wings protruding from his shoulder blades.

I yawned. Leonard had just finished doing whatever he was doing, and he looked as awake as a hummingbird, while I looked more like a sloth. Standing up, I slithered lazily over to him.

"Need a boost?" I yawned. I doubted he could spread out his wings with all the trees around. "This is a small clearing. You sure that you'll be able to take off?"

A gust of cold wind hit us, and penetrated my scales, a good day for flight.

"Go on then, but be quick," he replied, wrapping his wings around his slim pig body. "I don't think I could even spread my wings out in here."

I picked him up and held him to my shoulder, before hurling him as hard as I could into the air. The moment he was above tree height, his wings spread and he caught a draft. After circling for a bit, he started flying in a single direction, and I slithered off in pursuit.