Fifth part of the prologue, and the final one in the backlog, which means future uploads will be a bit more... sporadic. I'll do my best to make these at least weekly, so keep an eye out.

Stuck to walk through a strange forest alongside a big dragon lady… I still didn't quite know how to wrap my head around that. Her way of talking just kind of… forced me into being content with it, but as a result I remained somewhat confused and in disbelief for the whole journey. I did at least manage to strike a chat, even though it's kind of strange to talk with someone whose mouth doesn't move when they talk, and they don't need to turn around to you when they do… though she still did some of the time.

-Do you know how big this forest is? It feels like we've been walking for a while
-Oh yes, these woods are quite enormous, and are cursed in a way too.
-Cursed? What do you mean?
-Well, they're specifically made so that no one can make it through, be it by distance alone or just confusing someone to make them end up back where they started.
-You seem to know your way around pretty well.
-Well, saying no one means mostly humans, though they’re pretty confusing for an inexperienced explorer too.
-That’s… really specific.
-You have much to learn. When we finally get settled somewhere I’m sure you’ll find something new at every glance. It might get a little overwhelming, though by now it seems to be a pretty familiar feeling to you~.

She looked back at me and gave me a light smile, what a tease. It already made me wonder though, just what was waiting for me outside of this forest? If humans don’t make it through this forest then what other creatures lie beyond? Has everyone been living in a world of lies? So many questions, there was much history behind this for sure, for a moment it made me a little excited, actually. The sudden anxiety came back to me soon after. We were going into as much of an unknown as you could get. “Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to you, fragile little thing.” She reassured and teased once again “Well… thanks I suppose. I still can’t get over it, what should I be calling you? I can’t just go ‘dragon’ every time, it doesn’t feel right.” I explained after trying to indeed find a way to call her something other than what she actually is. “How about you give me a name then, mm?” That made me stop in place for a moment, I wasn’t even able to muster out a mere “What?” out of confusion. I suppose it would make sense to make it easier for me but… I’m terrible with names, and a dragon should have a very unique one, no? I didn’t really feel worthy of naming a dragon, but I did my best to think about it. All I really knew were human names, and one that kept sticking around in my head was “Kate?”, I asked a little reluctantly. Something interesting happened though, it made her stop in place for a moment, turning around to look at me with her eyes’ colour brightening and… getting a faint glow to them. Was that supposed to be a blush, or something like that? “Well, I suppose I really did find the right one… I mean-, yes, I like that name, really” She stammered… Can you even do that with telepathy? Guess this is what learning would feel like when we got to… wherever we were going.

“We might be getting close to the edge of this forest, maybe you’d like to rest before you take on the new world?” She asked. We have been walking for a decent while, at least from what it felt like, starting off in the morning it was now just about afternoon, judging by the sun. “Oh, sure I suppose, I can feel my legs a little. I don’t tend to take many walks.” I said and took a look around. I wanted to find a tree to lean against but we seemed to be in quite an opening. I started walking in what felt like the closest set of trees, but I was then stopped by Kate “Hey, where are you going? You know you could just… sit down right here.” She said as she sat down herself, patting the ground next to her. I could see the amusement on her face as everything suddenly felt… really, really warm, I was probably as red as a tomato for a moment there. I nodded though and came up closer. It was still really intimidating with how tall she was, but I sat down next to her. I heard the ground shuffle behind me, and looking back I noticed that she moved her tail up behind me “No need to be shy, you can lean back” she said with a soft tone and a nod. I would do so, leaning against the tail, effectively more lying down than sitting. She unfurled her wing just a little to cover my eyes from the sun, which was an awfully nice gesture. Did she want something from me? I still didn’t know what was the deal with her looking for me like that but, I decided to just sigh out and… empty my mind for a while. I closed my eyes and relaxed, her tail proving surprisingly nice to lean into.