She woke up, panting, with a pounding headache from a terrible nightmare of similar nature.

  Pain everywhere, clawing at her, invisible, intangible. She remembered trying to fight, flee, or submit, but no matter what she did, the pain would not stop, would not go away, and against all odds, she would not die, extending her torture until the dream finally came to an end.

  She got up and tried to lick away the phantom pain from wounds she knew weren't there while contemplating her circumstances.

  She did not remember when, but she used to have brothers and sisters in that barren and smelly box. All of them adopted by bipedal packs, each one a different one, until she was the only one left in the box.

  She remembered growing impatient and trying to escape, even back then, but the smooth, sky-colored walls were unclimbable, and she could not pounce high enough to reach the top yet. Her malnourished, deformed body was still growing, although she always had been the small one, the runt of the litter, lacking the proper fur and muscle definition for her age.

  Though she entertained the idea that what she lacked physically, she compensated in the brain department. And so she tried her best to get adopted. She acted playful, gave the bipeds puppy eyes, and even licked the smaller ones' foul-smelling hands to get the benevolent giants good grace.

  But in the end, only her was left alone, and only her caretaker would come, give her treats and a good pet once a day. Although she could tell, she was doing so for every single one of them as this biped was by far the smelliest, although the nicer kind of smell. So although she could not see them, she knew there were other dogs close by, as well as cats, birds, and other reptiles. For those she could not hear, she could smell on her caretaker.

  Yet she knew her circumstances were not normal cause the caretaker smelled worried, and it worsened by the day. She did not know what would happen to her exactly, but she knew she needed to get adopted fast or else...

  She shivered at the wild idea of her dream becoming true, strengthening her resolution:

  She would find her loving pack of bipeds and live happily ever after. Today was the day! Cause it had to be.

  Wait! What?

  She could not believe her eyes as a different shade of blue had entered her vision while clouds of white smoke formed patterns she could understand better than she ever did of her brothers and sisters cues. Forget about the pain. An entirely new world of possibilities opened up to her, and for the first time in forever, she felt genuinely excited.

  She tilted her head in confusion. Sure, she was curious. But she could not forget her predicament and long-term goal. 'Would it help me get my own loving pack of bipeds?' She thought, trying to direct it to the blue thing, although she already figured it could read her mind.

  She was sold at the word 'help,' although she did not completely understand the logic behind it. And so she gladfully approved, her tongue hanging in anticipation.

  Another dark blue window appeared with more and more patterns appeared before her eyes, and while she understood the meaning of any single one, she was unable to make sense of those big chunks of patterns and shrugged it off, concentrating on the last one.

  'Did she want to discover what her magic could do, whatever magic was?' She entertained the idea before confirming her decision. She wanted to know more.

  And this time, it was the light windows that showed up. She liked that one better as it communicates in a more straightforward and engaging pattern, so she immediately agreed.

  She felt immediately overwhelmed by the excessive amount of information that appeared before her eyes on the new darker screen and shook her head, willing it to disappear, as a new complementary lighter blue one commented:

  That was supposed not to be much. How long should the screen usually have been?

  She yawned as the novelty of reading started to wear off, and she wasn't in the mood anymore to learn more. At least until she got to nap and get some good exercise too. And so, she made sure to convey the feeling properly to the somewhat less boring lighter screen, which immediately responded in kind

  And then, with a clicking sound. All the windows went out before the screen disappeared entirely. And so she was alone in the dirty sky-blue box once again. She didn't know what to think of it. She did not know what she expected or what to expect now she knew.

  Magic sound as much pain as language to learn, and she did not get the impression the system would let her learn it as quickly and efficiently this time around. She would probably have to earn it but did not feel all the more motivated to do so.

  That light blue screen told her that her innate talent would help her get a pack. But this did not seem to apply to magic or that MAGUS thing as a whole. Sure, she got that feeling that magic was what she made of it. But she didn't know. Could magic give her food and a softer bed? Or maybe someone to play with? Or perhaps a way to escape her box so she could stretch her legs?

  She was, after all, a dog of simpler needs. And magic seems to be anything but simple.