I woke upside down.
That was the first problem.
The second was that I had no idea where I was.
The third and by far the most serious was that I had six legs.
I clung to a painted cinder-block wall near the ceiling and stared down at a dorm room through vision that seemed to have been assembled by someone who hated focus.
Motion arrived cleanly.
Shapes arrived in pieces.
Fine detail dissolved whenever I tried to hold it.
Two beds.
Two desks.
A window with pale curtains.
Clothes draped over a chair.
A half-open textbook.
A sleeping woman.
And me.
Tiny.
Winged.
Attached to the wall by six delicate legs that did not feel remotely human.
I tried to inhale sharply.
My body answered through openings along my sides.
No lungs.
No mouth in the way I remembered mouths.
Instead, something long and needle-thin extended from my face.
A proboscis.
I stared at it.
Then at my legs.
Then at the transparent wings folded over my back.
No.
Absolutely not.
My last clear memory was being human.
Twenty-five.
Male.
Tired.
I had been sitting in front of a computer far too late at night.
Coffee cooling beside one hand.
A bright screen.
A deadline that had seemed important enough to postpone sleep, food, and every promise I had made about leaving work at a reasonable hour.
Then Nothing.
Now I was on a dorm-room wall with a needle for a face.
I attempted to scream.
A thin buzz came out.
The sleeping woman shifted beneath her blanket.
I froze.
Apparently my new voice was also an excellent way to announce my location to creatures several million times my size.
The woman settled again.
I remained motionless until the silence stopped feeling temporary.
Then pale blue text appeared across my vision.
— Adaptive Evolution Codex initializing.
— I did not move.
This was partly caution.
Mostly shock.
The text continued.
— Host consciousness stabilized.
Current biological form identified.
Name: Plenteaful Species: Mosquito Evolutionary Stage: Ordinary Mosquito Evolution Energy: 0 — I stared at the species line.
Mosquito.
Not metaphorical mosquito.
Not insulting-description mosquito.
Actual mosquito.
The Codex continued as if it were delivering routine account information.
— Core function: Host may obtain Evolution Energy through biological feeding and may analyze unusual organisms for compatible adaptive traits.
Primary restriction: Host lineage is permanently anchored to MOSQUITO.
Donor organisms may contribute compatible biological functions.
Donor organisms may not replace host species.
— That was oddly specific.
Before I could decide whether permanent mosquito lineage was reassuring or horrifying, another line appeared.
— APEX OBJECTIVE: DOMINION DRAGON Route status: UNAVAILABLE — I stared.
Mosquito.
Dragon.
The distance between those concepts seemed administratively irresponsible.
“Codex,” I thought.
No response.
“Are you broken?” — No system fault detected.
— Exactly what a broken system would say.
I asked how a mosquito became a dragon.
— Insufficient evolutionary development.
Route information unavailable.
— Useful.
I thought very hard about the interface disappearing.
It vanished.
At least I possessed one functioning ability.
Closing menus.
A powerful beginning.
Then hunger hit.
Not human hunger.
Not the slow ache of missing lunch.
This was immediate and physical, a need threaded through a body built to locate food before thought could interfere.
Sugar.
Moisture.
Something richer.
My senses changed when I focused.
Warm air drifted through the room.
Carbon dioxide moved from the sleeping woman in slow clouds.
Heat gathered at exposed skin.
Beneath that skin, blood moved.
I could feel the pulse without touching her.
The realization horrified me for approximately one second.
Then the scent reached me.
Sweet.
Warm.
Dense with something my mosquito instincts did not understand and desperately wanted.
The woman lay on her side with one arm outside the blanket.
Pale skin.
Dark hair spread across the pillow.
A faint pulse at her wrist.
My attention locked onto it.
The Codex reappeared.
— Unusual biological energy detected.
Potential evolutionary relevance: EXTREME — Extreme.
Wonderful.
I had been a mosquito for perhaps six minutes and had already located premium supernatural blood.
This second life might be salvageable.
Another warning followed.
— High-grade biological source exceeds current safe consumption threshold.
Recommended intake: Minimal.
— Minimal.
Of course.
I was not reckless.
I had survived twenty-five years as a human, most of them with access to warning labels.
I understood restraint.
One tiny sip.
That was all.
I released the wall.
Flight happened instinctively.
Badly.
My wings activated with a sharp whine, and I dropped several inches before correcting.
The room became air pressure and momentum.
Every draft mattered.
Every wingbeat had consequences.
I crossed in an uneven arc, nearly struck the desk lamp, recovered, then approached the bed from above.
The woman did not wake.
Good.
I descended toward her wrist.
The scent intensified until it seemed to fill my entire body.
Her pulse felt enormous a river moving behind a thin wall.
I landed.
Her skin was warmer than the room.
My proboscis lowered.
Her fingers moved.
I froze.
Nothing else happened.
She remained asleep.
I leaned forward.
The woman’s hand snapped through the air.
She never touched me.
She did not need to.
The pressure from the sleeping swat struck like a wall.
My wings folded.
The room turned into motion without direction, and I crossed half of it in less than a second.
I hit the cinder block beside the window.
Tink.
Pain flashed through my entire body.
I fell.
One wing caught air at the last possible moment.
Instead of reaching the floor, I slammed into the curtain and clung to the fabric with every leg I possessed.
The Codex appeared.
— Minor-to-moderate structural trauma detected.
Host condition: Stable — Stable.
That was not how stable felt.
The woman shifted in bed.
Her eyes opened.
Gray-blue.
Cold.
Alert far too quickly for someone who had been asleep.
She looked toward the wall where I had struck, then toward the curtain.
Toward me.
I became perfectly still.
Mosquito.
Ordinary.
No thoughts.
No dragon menu.
Nothing suspicious.
She watched the fold for several seconds.
Then her eyes closed again.
I did not move for a very long time.
My first conclusion in this new life was simple.
I had chosen the final boss as my first meal.