Before I met her, the forest was quiet, just like always. Only the usual scurry of small prey. I had been wandering for weeks, following the faint pull of a spirit stone buried somewhere deep under the mountain ridge. Collecting stones had become a habit, maybe even an obsession. Or maybe it was Ryn's habit. It's hard to tell which thoughts belong to me anymore.
I don't remember exactly when the split happened. It was back when I was still a young snake hatchling, and all I knew then was that spirit stones make you stronger. The one I found that day was smaller than most, but it glowed like it had a mind of its own. The colors shifted like bright liquid neon light. I remember thinking it felt wrong, maybe dangerous. But I touched it anyway.
Temptation always starts with sight, then touch, and if you're unlucky, taste. Before I could think, I had taken it. I still remember the first feeling before everything went dark. It was a clean, sharp snap that wasn't painful at first, but then came the pain. It wasn't a clean break. It felt like something inside me cracked and refused to close. My body didn't change much, but my mind did. I wasn't whole anymore, and I wasn't alone. It wasn't just a voice. It had intent. That was Ryn.
"You are me, I am you," that was his first word. His tone felt lazy, amused, mocking.
"You're dramatic as ever," he added later, teasing. "You didn't die. You just evolved. Be grateful."
"Grateful?" I was angry , confused and everything just felt ridiculous. "For having someone constantly talk in my head?"
Even now, he still says things like that. Sometimes it's advice, sometimes it's mockery. Either way, it works. I remember falling to my knees, shifting between beast and human forms, unable to settle. My fingers dug into the dirt as the energy crawled through me. It burned like fire and ice together.
And while I gasped, Ryn laughed. It wasn't my laugh, but I heard it. Since then, he's been there, always talking, always calm. When I fight, he whispers what to do, where to strike, when to dodge. Still, I haven't lost a fight since he showed up. Even when my strength fails, he takes over. Maybe that's why I keep him around. I don't know how to get rid of him, or how to make us whole again.
His favorite line when I get frustrated is always the same:
"I'm you. You're me. You can't get rid of me, and I can't get rid of you."
The morning I met Aria, I'd just fought off a group of scavenger beasts. Low-level, barely worth the effort. Their bodies turned to ash like all weak creatures do. I sat on a rock for a while, watching the blood soak into the ground, then followed the water scent trails to a nearby stream. I found a good spot high up in a tree, where nothing could sense me if I kept my intent down. I liked it that way, quiet, still, and distant.
"You're bored," Ryn said. "I told you, you need something to shake you up."
"I don't need anyone," I muttered.
He chuckled. "You'll see. What's meant to be always finds a way."
I ignored him and looked out through the thinning mist. Morning light was starting to break through the trees. That's when I saw her.
She was kneeling by the stream, washing her hair. White hair, an unusually fragile build. My first thought was, weak. Her movements were deliberate, like someone used to doing things alone. I didn't know what kind of female she was. No one came this deep into the forest alone. All I knew was that she didn't belong here.
"She's not from around here," Ryn murmured. "Look at her hands, they're too clean for a gatherer."
I didn't respond. She was humming softly, talking to herself about something.
"You gonna stare all day or bite?" Ryn teased.
"Not yet."
I don't know what made me curious, but I decided to test her. I slid down from the tree, moving slow through the grass. The sound made her freeze. Then she looked right at me for some time before grinning. That grin threw me off more than her scent or her voice.
"Oh, this one's trouble," Ryn laughed.
He wasn't wrong.
"If I'm staying here," she said suddenly, "I need protection. You'll do."
I frowned. "What?"
"You heard me. You're my mate now. At least until I find somewhere safe."
"Did she just—?"
"Yes."
"Oh, I like her already."
"She's insane."
She wasn't smiling this time. Her face was serious, eyes steady, not innocent, not naïve. I'd seen fear, greed, hunger, but not this. She wasn't trying to own me. She was trying to survive.
"You don't even know what that means," I said.
"I don't care. It means no one can touch me. You're strong, right? Then you're mine."
I thought about hissing, showing my fangs, reminding her what I was. But something in her eyes stopped me. There was desperation there, and something I couldn't quite point out. It was fierce, and I couldn't tell which one was real.
Leaving her and ignoring her was the plan, but she suddenly changed from the portrayed innocence of a naïve, sheltered girl I saw to something else. It made me even more curious than Ryn.
And it all happened fast. She started talking before I could think, about my scales, my tail, whether I was a statue, my name, where I came from. Every time I stayed quiet, she filled the silence herself.
I told myself I was just curious. Then Ryn said,
"You could say no."
"I should."
"But you won't."
And he was right. I said fine. First in my head, then out loud. Told her okay, but it didn't mean I accepted it. She said she'd explain later, after I helped wash her hair.
I should've left, but I didn't. I watched her instead, wondering how far she'd test my patience, and why I was letting her.
When she smiled and said, "Good. Then we have a deal, Kai," hearing my name in her voice felt strange, like a sound I hadn't realized I missed.
Later, when the sun dropped low, we gathered fruit together. Well, she gathered, and I mostly watched or picked the tallest ones. She kept mixing the names up, calling them the wrong things, blaming me for it somehow. I should've been annoyed, but I wasn't.
She laughed at her own mistakes, talked about things I didn't know—"school tests," "apples," "second life." None of it made sense, but she said it like it did. And when she smiled, the forest didn't feel so empty anymore.
"You're staring again," Ryn said.
"She's odd."
"You mean interesting."
"Annoying."
"Keep lying to yourself. It's fun."
I ignored him. She talked enough for both of us. When she called me cute, I almost missed it.
"Cold doesn't need to talk," I told her at some point in the conversation.
"I know. That's why it's funny," she said, smirking.
I flicked my tail. "You talk too much."
"Maybe. But someone has to make up for your silence."
Ryn hummed. "She's got you figured out already."
She sat by the stream again, brushing her hair, calling me a statue. I almost smiled. Almost.
"You want to," Ryn said.
"Want to what?"
"Smile."
"Shut up."
Aria looked at me and said, "You're hopeless, Kai."
Now there were two voices talking to me, hers and Ryn's. It was exhausting, but not unpleasant. When she said, "Didn't expect you to be refreshing. Snake and all," I didn't know what to say.
Refreshing. No one had ever called me that before.
"You have a way with words," I told her.
She shrugged. "I just thought you'd be cold like winter, not like morning dew or midnight spring."
I blinked, unsure how to respond. She walked ahead, humming that broken, unknown little tune again. Ryn hummed a random song along in my head.
"You've already decided, haven't you?"
"Decided what?"
"That she's yours."
I didn't answer. I figured if I was curious about her, I had to know what made me drawn and curious.
When I told her we should move before nightfall, she grinned and shouted, "Slow down, you're gliding, not walking!"
And for the first time in years, I almost laughed. Almost, didn't.
Would you like me to keep the comma-based style consistent for future chapters too? It gives the story a smoother internal monologue flow, especially for first-person POVs like Kai's.