After tunneling out of the ground and into my territory, I began slithering around and wondering what I should do next, Should I wait then go back to the river? but what if that mostly hairless thing is still there? so many thought and question but no-one to answer them.

I looked around my home and decided that I would wait for a few days until that thing leaves, but while I wait I guess I could do some house cleaning... territory cleaning?... territory maintenance?... whatever the correct term for that is.

I moved around and berried some berries that were rotting on the ground, then an idea came to me. I forced the berries to grow into an abnormally large bush with extra leaves, I may not get much nutrients from eating fruit but having more and bigger thicker bushes means that more prey could be attracted and I could hide under bushes to ambush them.

Look at me, thinking like a professional snake. I berried more berries around the place and now its like this is my own tiny forest... "I am the Ent of my own forest!" I shout to no-one in particular.

After growing the bushes, I made some more big stones because I wanted to improve my wall. It currently stood around a meter and a half tall as well as a foot thick. I had just started moving roots when another idea came to me, this idea was crazy and would be very time consuming, but that's what I need, something to distract me while I wait for the thing to leave, I immediately got to work creating many big stones.

[One week later]

So I got a little carried away when it came to my task, I was just going to expand my territory's wall by a couple meters but I started to think big. I looked up at the 4 meter tall stone and root wall and whistled to myself... I found out I can whistle after going back to the river and ran into the furless thing.

It was whistling to itself while using what looks like a sting with spider silk and a shiny claw attached to the silk, weird right? but anyways, I liked how it sounded and began copying.

I think it got freaked out by the weird mix of hissing and whistling, oh sorry I got carried away by my own thoughts again... I came back and decided to put more effort and time into making the wall the best it could be.

I was originally planning to create the wall in-between already existing trees when I had a revelation, trees are very big plants and I can grow plants very quickly, not only that but it turns I have better control over plants I have grown from seeds since they're already filled with my Magic power... was there a proper term?... oh yeah, Mana.

I got to work making some small trees, growing them to full size would take too much mana, I made a ring of seventeen trees and over one and a half days grew them to half their full size of around ten or so meters.

In-between these trees I placed 5 six meter tall stones shaped like huge bricks or columns, I made sure they were placed firmly in the ground so they wont topple over.

I moved the new roots from my trees to surround and cover these huge blocks further cementing them in place... during this period I level up to lv2 and I'm now 2 meters long.

Don't worry I'm still cute, but now I have some power to protect myself. I could also start taking on bigger prey, so I made sure the gaps within the skeleton of the wall [The roots] are big enough for rabbits to get through.

Why haven't I filled in the gaps with other rocks and stuff? easy, because this wall won't only be for defense but beauty... the wall currently has two layers, the inner and outer layers.

each layer consist of smaller stone cubes, the tree roots and lastly clay which I found by the river. The spaces between these two layers and between the support columns will be filled with mana rich soil and then once I grow all seventeen trees to their full size of twenty meters, I will begin project petal.

But... I have only finished the layers and is still working on the right sized gaps, can't have any wolves sneaking in or Ouroboros forbid mongooses, I shuddered at the thought of having one of those things near me, let alone having one be near me and I don't know.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The roots have been twisted and used to made the gaps, acting as little tunnels because I can't make the dirt to dense or the flowers will have problems taking root.

Later after finishing the gaps and filling the hollow spaces with dirt, I went about the long and tedious task of maxing out all my trees.

Just like that and another two weeks passed, meaning its almost been a month since I began my wall. I leveled up twice and can now say I am 3 meter long and the fourth level didn't add to my size but my wings.

I got two tiny wings back there now, but they still can't support me... anyways, I've gotten better with my [Ground Magic], I can do more powerful and complex things while using less and less mana.

Filling the thing with dirt and maxing out the trees were the real big problems I had, The trees as they got bigger sapped up more and more mana and I needed the soil in the wall to be rich with the stuff, another unforeseen yet kind of obvious problem was properly claiming my territory.

I didn't know how to do that, the way the wolves mark their turf is by peeing everywhere, but that seems unsanitary and I don't want to smell my pee everywhere I go... wait... I'm a monster... I don't produce waste... how did I not realize that?.

Anyways I'm getting off topic, after asking the screen... oh sorry, I'm being informed it's called the system or whatever, it says that an oil like substance is made on my skin... scales?... feather?... an oil is made on the surface that dries up and releases a lingering scent onto everything surrounding.

It is made passively so I just need to slither around and brush up against walls and stay still in important areas for the smell to be stronger, why does this sound like cat behavior minus spraying? I mean I do hiss and have fangs? but I don't have legs, but I am all tail.

Hmm... cats, I don't know why, but I just like cats and their attitude. I met one while hunting the other day, I didn't try and eat him and he didn't attack, I don't know how it happened but I ended up hunting together and eating with them.

He tried to act all tough and like he didn't enjoy our short time together, but I can see that he loved every second of it. Maybe once I'm done, I could have him stay with me... one day... I wonder if normal Coatls and Lynxes get along as well as we did.

Anyways lets get to other problems I faced while trying to finish the wall... we'll get back to that cat stuff another time.

During the periods I had to wait for my mana to recharge, I explored the area and discovered two new plants for my wall garden. The first are widow vines, a green and blue plant that grows on trees and cave ceilings with spade shaped leaves, if this stuff brushes against your bare skin, it makes the area go numb and then escalate to the area becoming overly sensitive.

The other is strangling moss, this dark green moss is found on the base of trees and by rivers, this moss gets its name from the fact its feeds on small insects and has a symbiotic relationship with the plants their attached to, they feed on whatever their host plant considers a danger... insects to be specific.

The reason I put widow vines on the wall and tree is to tell the big monsters that this is my home while the smaller creatures can get through with ease, also the more I level up, the more poisons and toxins don't affect me, it makes sense since my species is supposed to live in toxic and dangerous environments.

The moss is to keep my garden free of those pesky beetles and ants... basically just pest control. The flowers I made are not natural by any means, I used regulars plants and fungi as the base models and twisted them to my desire.

Glowing mushrooms of various colors, shapes and sizes. Flowers with unusual yet pleasant smells and patterns and bushes with never before seen berries and fruit. Even the trees have strange fruit on them, from a distance my domain looks like an imposing stone wall taken back by nature.

A beautiful garden of strange fruit sits a top the wall acting as a bait to any small creature seeking food and rest, but be aware as the owner of these mysterious gardens would eat you up without a second thought sorry I lost myself in my slightly villainous and cute monologue.

The inside of my domain has seen many changes, stone plates lay around the area for me to rest on and the bushes and other plants inside grow flowers with the colors orange, green and indigo. I did this so its harder to spot me while hiding, I grew the bush a top my mound to the size of a small tree and used its roots to make an unseen protective dome, I even went through the trouble of making the stem and roots of the bush tougher.

The inside of my mound has not changed a lot, I'll probably fix it up after my next trip. The inside hasn't changed but I did do some digging and reached the river and the cave were the moss was found, with the help of some very dense stone and nearby tree roots.

I now have tunnels running to my areas of interest, not only has my territory expanded greatly, but my area of influence is bigger and less risky to travel through.

Now brings us to my current task, I'm finally heading to the river since that furless beast left a few days ago and I've been itching to try some of those fish in the water.

Now lets get going to a new experience, I slithered down my tunnel towards the lake with a grin across my feather covered face.

-[End of Chapter]-