Oh my goodness gracious, I am going to hurl day-old fish.

  Soaring through the sky, his heart pounded against his broad, scaly chest as his wings expanded and stretched as he flew. The man, Heron—as he’d come to know from watching this human the past few months—was clutching onto his spinal scales for dear life as they broke through the horizon.

  He didn’t have a name. He wasn’t given one.

  Though he would refer to himself as the great destroyer of lands and future conqueror of the universe, it was more of a title than a name.

  His first memory was when he had first hatched. He had no recollection prior to that. But he knew he was alone since the first day he awoke. He managed to survive on his own, taught himself magic, and watched everything closely. Knowledge was power and power led to survival. He was proud to have seen so much from so far without ever having to step foot onto other planets.

  This is unbelievable, am I leaving this place to visit the world I’ve only seen with my powers?

  He was getting the jitters, his nostrils flared and the flames in his throat were barely quenched. Flapping his wings, he flew higher and higher with the man screaming on his back. He wanted to scream too, but he couldn’t let himself lose composure. How undignified it would be if he were to show how he really felt.

  Absolutely scared shit-less.

  This isn’t terrifying. I couldn’t possibly be terrified. I am meant for greatness. To be the conqueror of the universe!

  He was quaking inside.

  But that didn’t stop him from taking the opportunity when it arose. This was his chance. His moment to obtain glory. A cornerstone to the achievement he wished to obtain. He wanted a meal, a meal that only Heron could make with the creature called ‘cows’. And once he was full, then he would continue to plot his grand planning.

  He was going to become the conqueror of the universe and everyone would bow to him.

  This plotting had begun when he had just been a tiny thing. The size of a sapling, when he had his first vision of another world. It had come to him on one fine, warm day. One world after another, it had been shown to him in a vision. He had watched with shining eyes and in the depths of his chest had burned with excitement. He didn’t understand what he saw. He saw snippets of the worlds beyond. Whether it was these places called markets or homes, fields and fields of things called flowers, and when the sky was gray but the world was white. And all he knew was that…

  He wanted that. He wanted it all. So he’d make it his.

  For countless years, he had no idea where to begin. He wasn’t scared or anything, he just physically shook when he tried to take off on his own. Like his wings refused to cooperate, and his legs froze. Must have been the wind or some kind of weird condition.

  And then this man—Heron—had appeared.

  He didn’t understand why and it wasn’t like he had a choice. When this man had appeared, he had turned into a small ball of white. A fluffy little creature. A twitchy nose, soft fur, and short jumpy legs. He had hidden in the bushes, watching the man from afar. He’d never seen such a creature in-dragon. He’d always seen in through his visions, and the visions were not always pleasant.

  With his new bunny tail between his legs, he had only approached the man as an intimidation tactic. He had ferociously hopped into the clearing, bared his teeth as he viciously tore at the grass. Then he’d stayed close to assert dominance, showing the man who was the boss around this place. And while grass wasn’t fun to eat, he had to eat something. Normally he hunted the fish from the lake but that wasn’t an option in his rabbit form.

  As the days went by, then weeks, then months, his heart became more settled and unperturbed as he had watched this man use magic in the most peculiar and odd fashion. From summoning food to building a house, the fellow never used magic for more grandiose purposes. It was always used in a way that was required and not because of greed or insatiable want. The man was unlike any magic user that he had seen in his vision before.

  And he wanted this human.

  The last few days had been troubling. In the past few months since the man’s arrival, he had an impossible time of returning to his dragon form. He had thought the rabbit form was just a quirk of his; normally it would come and go, usually with new experiences. But this time, it had gone on for a lot longer than he had expected. And he had no idea how to turn back. But eventually, when his heart had settled, his form returned to normal.

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  He wondered if there would be a time he wouldn’t turn back, but that hadn’t happened yet so he hadn’t worried.

  Now, as he flew through the sky and into the atmosphere, he flew onwards into a land that he’d seen from his visions. He would get this man his cows, as it was a step towards conquering the universe. Can’t win without a full belly after all.

  As they approached the planet, his spine crawled, and it wasn’t because Heron was holding on and his voice lost in the vacuum of space. No, his spine crawled for a different reason. He’d never traveled to another planet before, this was his first time venturing outside the planet of where he had grown up from. The pit of his stomach sank as he felt the flames in his chest burn.

  No, he wasn’t going to turn back now. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t.

  I think I’m going to be sick.

  Heron was convinced that he was dreaming the craziest dream he’d ever had in his life. And the only reason he didn’t feel like he was dreaming because of how freaking cold it was in outer space.

  Dream reason one: He was reincarnated into another world that was basically the equivalence of a dirt island in a video game and he was essentially stranded and left to fend for himself by the isekai god. No starter pack, no friendly NPC, and no OP MC powers.

  Dream reason two: A dragon landed in his potato field, read his mind, spoke to him via telepathy, and also didn’t eat him. Then proceeded to give Heron terms and conditions to conquer the universe together but also made him the dragon’s underling and dragon-napped him into the sky.

  Dream reason three: Now they were flying through outer space like it was a typical Tuesday and they were just on their way to fetch a latte. As if there was nothing wrong with the entire picture of a dragon offering to obtain a cow for Heron.

  All while Heron was still in his goddamn undies.

  No, he hadn’t had time to put on his office clothes. He was basically yanked onto the dragon’s back by some unknown force and before he had a chance to react, he was already flying through the sky without a chance to reject the notion. He had been dragon-napped and there was no one out there to save him.

  He had been so convinced he was going to die the second they broke through the horizon and past what he would consider normal flying optics. But he didn’t and was still alive. They’d shot through the atmosphere and burst past clouds and everything Heron would consider normal until they were clearly in outer space.

  And once they were in space, Heron had breathed a sigh of relief.

  Because well, he could breathe. That was excellent news that his lungs didn’t just collapse under the weight of the impossible. Wasn’t space supposed to be anti-oxygen or something? But no, clearly not in this weird universe he had reincarnated into since he was breathing just fine while in a place that probably wasn’t supposed to have oxygen.

  This world’s ‘outer space’ wasn’t quite like what Heron was used to seeing.

  From his first life—before he had isekai’d—his world had its own ‘outer space’ and its own solar system and science logic. It’s not like he had ever gone into his original ‘outer space’ from his world—he wasn’t an astronaut or filthy rich—but he knew what it was supposed to look like from photos and videos. Lots of empty space, planets far and few in-between, probably a weird feeling of no gravity, and the fact that people wore suits so that they could breathe if they weren’t in rocket ships.

  And now Heron was riding a dragon through what felt like a normal jet-pack joyride.

  Not that he'd ever ridden a dragon before or anything for that matter in the sky. He was a bit too much of a coward to go skydiving or do anything adventurous that was in the air. The absolute best case scenario of what would happen after skydiving is, well, being alive. Which is what everyone was doing when their feet remained planted to the ground. Therefore, low risk, very high reward of not being adventurous.

  Heron did not want to fly around and find out what would happen if he were to fall off in this space.

  Besides the utter terror of possibly dying, Heron found the scenery incredible even while screaming off the top of his lungs as he rode a dragon through ‘space’. Instead of it being black like how he would expect, it was easy to see and overwhelming to process. While he didn’t understand how or why, from the planet he had been on, he hadn’t seen any surrounding planets. But now that he was flying through space, he could see everything just fine.

  It was mind-boggling for Heron to witness the evidence of countless planets from this dragon’s-eye view.

  There was no time for him to process over the grandiose realization that it was highly unlikely for him to be alone in this universe when there were just… so many worlds out there. While his tiny planet was clearly uninhabited besides him and this white dragon, what about all these planets?

  With that thought in mind, Heron gripped onto the dragon’s white scales as they began to descend rapidly onto a large planet below them. With the wind punching his face, he held on for dear life as they plummeted into the new planet below. It hadn’t even been more than ten minutes since they had left their planet, it was unbelievable how close they were to this place. Not to mention they had passed by countless other planets as well. He had no clue how fast the dragon was flying but it was only just slow enough for him to hold on and not to have a heart attack.

  Or there was something else keeping Heron tethered to the white dragon.

  Heron could see the land clearly now as they dropped closer and closer to the leveled land. Large mountains, green plains, forests and trees and greenery. It was a very green planet with pastures for as far as the eye could see. As they descended lower and lower, Heron got a better look at the figures in the distance. Just less than a hundred meters away, he could see the black and white creatures.

  Cows. Many cows. So many cows. Too many cows to count.

  I don’t feel so good.

  …Huh?

  POOF.

  Heron’s heart stopped. His eyes widened as incoherent words spilled out of his mouth as his lungs screamed. The dragon he had just been riding on? Suddenly gone. Completely poofed into thin air. He no longer had a joyride and in his arms was a soft, little white rabbit that burrowed its head into his arms.

  And they were still falling out of the sky.