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I had no doubts that the dragon could see in the dark. Its pupil dilated as it focused its gaze on me. I froze for a moment and hoped that, like most lizards, the dragons could only see moving objects… then I remembered lizards could see just fine as long as they themselves move and bolted out of the cave.

I half-expected the dragon to stop me, but when I looked from the mouth of the cave, from where I could still see the dragon\'s eye in the dark, I found that it didn\'t move from its spot. Was I so below its notice that it ignored me? Hmmm…

This was puzzling. If I were in its place, I wouldn\'t have let any critter to get into my lair and shit in the corners. Could it be that the dragon was weakened by something too much to move? I decided to get back and look at it again.

The dragon didn\'t move at all, except for taking a deep breath. I examined it, searching for a sign of wound or an illness, but there didn\'t seem to be any.

Then, a disembodied, but definitely coming from the dragon, voice almost made me bolt again. It sounded melodic and could\'ve belonged to a beautiful woman—but there certainly wasn\'t any in the vicinity..

"What a rarity it is to meet a kinfolk. What a strange creature you are inhabiting, kin. I\'ve never seen one like that in my life, nor did my ancestors. It reminds me of a bugman, but they had neither wings, nor eyes, nor hair…" the voice trailed off.

I decided it belonged to the dragon, after all. Its breathing pattern didn\'t change, but it turned its head towards me and now stared at me with both eyes, which were placed forward, like on a dog, and not on the sides, like on a horse.

But how could a dragon talk? They were just as mindless as any other monsters. Anyone would tell you that. Unless, of course, it wasn\'t a dragon talking but a being possessing him. A being the likes of which lived and thrived on possessing monsters…

A draining curse. Damn, now that dragon was definitely off-limits for me. One Pest was more than enough—though if Pest had a voice like this dragon, he\'d certainly be much less annoying. Too bad I didn\'t think that he might be able to change it. Now, if he\'d suddenly switched his voice to something so drastically different, it would only creep me out.

Well, the dragon wasn\'t so wrong about me being possessed, but it didn\'t know the entire story. I decided to play along for now, since it looked friendly.

"How did you know I was your kin?" I asked, making a step closer. I was still ready to bolt at a first sign of danger.

"I could feel the magic coming from you. A spell to delay the work of a poison… There aren\'t many venomous creatures in these mountains bigger than insects. Only mantichoras, but if you were stung by one, how come you aren\'t possessing it now?"

"It died first. So, who are you?"

The dragon let out a laughter that sounded like chiming bells. "Ah, I forgot about simple etiquette. My name is Marianna Jesebelle Turia Regis. As you can see, I have a pleasant life here, possessing dragons. This one is heavily drained by now, but soon every dragon in the area will gather to fight for their mates. I will fly too, and my host will die under claws of a rival, and the cycle will continue. And what is your name, and what is that creature you possess?"

"My name is…" I paused. Did all draining curses have these long names? I remembered that Pest\'s actual name was something long and lame, too. Maybe I should introduce myself with it instead of my own…

While I thought, Marianna misinterpreted my silence. "You don\'t have a name yet? Ahh, you must be a young one. Why won\'t I help you come up with one? How about… Henry?"

The mystery of names of the draining curses became clear. Their names were so bad because they came up with them by themselves, and didn\'t seem to use common sense while doing so.

"I have a name! It\'s Voren. And this creature is a mutant of some sort. I like its versatility and I decided to keep it."

It came to my mind that Marianna, who clearly lived on the mountain for a while, should know which monsters around have poison resistance. And she certainly knew some magic, too. I wouldn\'t want to raise any suspicions about my true nature. Or who knew, she might decide to eat me out of spite. Though… I would have to kill HER in order for her to possess me, so the danger of her stealing my body was pretty low.

Still, I asked Pest, \'What would happen if someone with a draining curse killed someone with another draining curse? Would that someone have two?\'

\'Two curses can\'t coexist in one creature. Two is too much! They will drain each other until one of them dies. If you kill that dragon, Marianna will probably just suck me dry in a moment!\'

Yep, I certainly wasn\'t going to kill the dragon.

"A mutant? Lucky you. Or unlucky, since you are poisoned. There\'s no cure from a mantichora\'s venom except for human magic."

"What about our magic? I don\'t know enough to heal myself, but maybe you do?"

"I never had a reason to explore spells against poison. You will have to give up this host, it seems to me, Voren."

I tsked in disappointment. "Then I want to find one that would be impervious to mantichora venom. I don\'t want to go through this again. Maybe you know something about monsters like these, Marianna?"

The dragon slowly blinked. "Monsters who are impervious to venom? A rare thing, just as rare as mantichoras. But yes, I think I remember one, Voren…"