The robed man searched high and low for the missing serpent, lighting up seemingly every corner with the fire under his control. The flames cast long dancing shadows across the stone floor, creating an ominous scene of a hunter searching for its prey.

Charlie had been watching the robed man use his left hand to control the flying balls of flame, but what drew his attention the most had been the metal-tipped cane in his right. Charlie didn't know what it's purpose was, as he highly doubted a man who could wield fire such as this to need a physical weapon, but it had to have a purpose.

As the man moved, so did Charlie, shadowing every step taken and always keeping just out of sight - and at a respectable distance. There was no room for error here, and it was frustrating. The man either somehow knew that Charlie was still here, or had an unending fervor in routing out the unwelcome serpent.

They had been at this dance for what felt like an hour, yet the man didn't seem to tire.

That was until a second person stepped through the cracked wall - the robed woman. She watched the robed man search for Charlie for a while before announcing her presence, seemingly amused by the man's antics.

The two briefly spoke, with the man suddenly becoming very animated in his body language as he, more than likely, explained the situation. It wasn't hard to discern, having been a human before helped Charlie piece it together.

When the woman laughed, it was like a large bucket of water had poured over the man, even the flames under his control were doused by her mirth. Whatever she had said, clearly made the man give up his search as the two leisurely walked towards the nearest mass of worms soon after.

Relief.

Charlie could feel his body droop down, the stress of the last few hours had caught up with him, but Charlie didn't let himself get carried away. One wrong move could still spell his death if he were not careful, so he picked himself back up.

Charlie continued watching the two with great interest, his curiosity had been wearing down on him this entire time and finally he had a moment to satisfy the growing itch. The man approached the worms, and finally Charlie saw what the purpose of the cane had been.

With a flick of his right wrist, Charlie saw the metal tip light up with a blue light. Hundreds of wispy lights shot off the tip, hitting the worms center - they then stilled for a moment before dropping what they were doing entirely.

Like a conductor of an orchestra, the man commanded the large den of worms with grace. With every flick of his wrist, a new command must have been issued as the worms would collect and move in the same direction he pointed in. The ones high up and deep in the walls had returned and joined the growing masses.

After the worms had finally collected in the middle of the room, the tip of the cane took on a different sheen - it glowed a dark grey colour, just like the skin of the worms themselves. With the new command, the large collection of worms all turned and moved towards the ominous pedestal in the back of the room.

The man turned to the woman and bowed gracefully, turning the caned hand away from himself and towards the pedestal. The woman looked at him, laughed, and walked ahead - the man smirked and quickly followed.

The two walked up behind the pedestal and Charlie saw his chance to escape. Both of their backs were turned and the worms continued to make enough sound to drown out his movements... But...

Charlie couldn't pull himself away from the scene - he had to see what would happen next. What wonders would they perform now that they had an audience of worms, Charlie couldn't wait to find out.

The woman approached the pedestal of stone and placed both hands on its surface. For a moment, nothing happened, but then the shadows, they thickened. Like a velvet drape, the shadows collected and drenched the two humans in a waterfall of darkness, before spilling out like an ocean and drowned the worms below.

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The darkness poured out in all directions in a torrent of shadowy waves, consuming all in its path. Fear shot through Charlie's being, but before he could quell his curiosity and flee, the dark washed over him.

Panic racked through his body, but it was quickly doused by a strange stirring deep in his being. His body reacted to the ocean of shadow - [Devour] had awoken.

It's fire burned fiercely, clearly aroused by the humans unleashing the mysterious and unknown power over the cave.

That power, it craved it.

Charlie had gotten accustomed to [Devour]'s behaviour, rearing it's ravenous head when coming into contact with something that met the {Challenge}'s requirements - and with how intense the reaction had been, Charlie knew this was something special.

Yet, Charlie could do nothing about the growing hunger inside him, the pedestal was far beyond his reach and the two people would waste no time in killing him.

The two humans conversed among each other as they continued to point at each one of the worms. They didn't seem to be issuing any commands, as the worms continued to stand still like statues, but it didn't seem pointless either.

With his curiosity burning and [Devour] gnawing on his mind, Charlie couldn't stay here any longer. If he allowed for either to win, it would spell his doom. Instead, Charlie decided to seize the moment and made way towards the cracked wall. If possible, he wanted to escape while they were still distracted by the eerily still army of worm statues.

The greater the distance between the dark pedestal and Charlie, the thinner the shadows became. At the precipice of the carved out room and right before the exit, the dark shade had almost faded to nothing. The size of the room clearly had been taken into account for whatever the purpose of the dark pedestal had been - and as much as Charlie wanted to unravel this mystery, his life came first.

After exiting the dim light of the carved room, Charlie slithered into the totally encompassing darkness of the lightless hallway and was about to make his way back to the stone bricked room, but...

There was another weak scent, somewhere in the distance.

Something approached.

The breeze leaving the room had been too strong to pick out the nuances over the powerful and fresh earthy scents, but it was there.

Charlie quickly turned on his tail and made his way to a different corner of the room, where the thickened shadow remained thin. Hiding amongst the rubble, Charlie let his heart settle for a moment before he spotted another robed human emerge from the cracked wall. From where he stood, Charlie couldn't tell what gender they were, but if the clothing was anything to go by, they were a man.

Long robes with the same pattern as the two that stood by the dark pedestal, his head covered by a long hood that reached his lower back.

Fuck.

Once again, his only way out had been blocked by humans - and this one didn't seem willing to step into the pooled shadow, deciding to remain at the very fringes of its reach.

Charlie was cornered. There was no way out now - the only way left was to go deeper into the carved room, and he really didn't want to continue down the path with even more, and potentially deadlier, unknown dangers.

Yet what Charlie desired rarely matched with what was required of him - so he pressed on. The duo at the pedestal were still preoccupied by their mysterious task and had not reacted to the presence of the new man - there was still a chance of escaping unseen.

Among the stone walls there was a cleanly carved out hallway nearby, but it had been out in the open, so slipping by unseen would be difficult. If they simply turned their head when Charlie would attempt his escape, he would have been found and, likely, killed on sight. Either Charlie needed a distraction, or a miracle.

Unable to produce miracles, Charlie settled on coming up with a distraction. It was pitifully easy to grab a person's attention, especially if they had already been on high alert, the difficulty came in creating meaningful misdirection long enough to escape.

Lacking the tools Charlie would have had in his previous life, he was forced to become creative. Whatever the two were doing didn't look like it would end soon, so Charlie spent some time in coming up with a simple, and hopefully an effective plan.

It was truly simple, but Charlie worried that lacking arms would make this feat a pipe dream. With his tail, Charlie collected two small stones and carefully placed them close-by. The humans were still busy with their dark and mysterious jobs, so there was no time better than the present.

With a quick flick, Charlie threw the first stone across the carved room and made sure to arc its trajectory above the humans sight. Before the first stone could even get half way across the room, Charlie threw the second stone in a different direction and bolted towards the open stone hallway.

The first stone fell and all three humans quickly quietened, turning in the direction of the noise, when suddenly another sound came from somewhere nearby. The two at the pedestal were alarmed for a moment, raising their hands for a brief moment before a dozen flames were summoned by the man, while the woman summoned lightning that wrapped around her arm.

Charlie didn't get to see what the third human did, but it didn't matter.

He had successfully slithered into the carved hallway.