My head hurts... I wonder why... Old-me just returned to [Purple Hat] and before I could do a thing I was thrust deep into Old-me's memories. Maybe we took a bit to long getting back, I am starving, but I need to finish reviewing these memories before... I am not too hungry for that at least. So from the beginning I guess.
I watch as Old-me is irritated at the lowered intelligence once more. But she seems to adapt better this time, even going so far as to adjusting my plan to fit the environment that I have only seen in memories. It is fine, the [Lagomorph] were more optional, hopefully we will gain enough to progress.
Glad Old-me took a moment to grab some [Grubs] this way we won't have to waste time catching more food.
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Alright, the water is calm again, no sign of the [Serpent] or the bird it had caught. Old-me walks along the edge of the water. I know it's bad to go deep in water for some instinctual reason. I am guessing [Arachnid Knowledge] is giving me that. However, just having the ends of my legs in the water, feels really really nice. I don't even thing Old-me realizes we are doing it. Just wading until we get closer to the cliff wall and the climb ahead of us.
Climbing, well, feels pretty normal, I only realize now it's not common. Very few creatures seem to be able to climb like spiders. My old old self has often used it to escape predators. Still, this surface is slightly wet, making it a little treacherous for me, and likely impossible for a different climber. All the damp does is slow Old-me down a bit... and bore me of course.
I'm gazing at the water hoping to get a glimpse of the serpent as we climb. Right now the water seems opaque. In the distance though, I see something more troubling. At first it looks like a fight between a few bugs, but I realize what it is just as the fight ends. [Un-ended] I see a bunch of them, they just ended a [Horned Beetle] half-way between the pond and the willow. That poor bug, but more concerning is that the [Un-ended] slowly scatter in every direction, including this way. Some of them are missing basically half their legs, but even then some of the ones moving this way are intact enough to be a threat.
I'm well up the wall, and almost into the cave when the first of them reach the waters edge, they were [Crickets] normally harmless bugs, but twelve of them just hopped onto the side of a small furred creature and ate it. I watch in horror, as they slowly start killing random creatures as they go. They are horrible broken things, and most are being injured or ended by the local residents... the small furred creature ended all but four before it ended it'self. A little bit of relief fills me as I realize that many are being ended. Still, the pond is half-way between the Willow and my [Purple Hat] I need to be aware of what the horde is doing.
I'm just shifting around the edge onto the cave wall proper when I see the [Serpent] slithering and swimming through the water, the dark scales almost blending in with the dark mud below. It's a beautiful as I remember, a lethal predator slipping through the water. Old me notices a few moments later, and we watch through our eight eyes as we climb deeper into the cave. We are hardly fast, but it appears the Serpent is in no hurry. Despite the long climb we reach the inside of the cave at around the same time.
Light doesn't reach here, but we are hardly the only living thing, I see some smaller bugs moving around, so odd plants, and some other creatures. Some are larger than me, but nothing would be worthy of being food for the Serpent. It silently slithers out of the water, and I realize that unlike the mud and marsh muck outside, in here has fine sand. It's covered in the marks of the slithering [Serpent], a bright contrast to the dark creature as it moves to it's nest.
It is an odd nest, many stones that seem to glint despite the lack of light. To me they are boulders, I could never move them, even the [Serpent] must have trouble, it does not budge them, instead slithering around the stones. I notice that the sand moves wrong, something is under it and the stones... it looks not unlike my [Purple Hat]. Yet it is different the fibers are certainly not silk.
Old -me comes to the same conclusion, we must touch it, see what the box says. So Old-me starts the slow climb down the wall. It seems we are a little less high than outside the cave, I am unsure why. As we climb down the [Serpent comes to a stop, coiled around the stones and atop the textile in a strange whorl. I disregard it at first, but it seems to be stretching out so it can touch every stone. At first I think they might be eggs, but both [Arachnid Knowledge] and [General Knowledge 1] disagree, though they give me nothing further.
Soon we step onto the sand. By now the [Serpent] has closed it's eyes and seems to resting. The bugs of the cave seem unimpressed, though I suspect that is just because of [Mindless] I creep out from the wall, and across the sand of the floor, then Old-me pauses behind a rock. To my surprise Old-me withdraws a grub and starts eating. I had not expected that, but looking at these as mere memories I still feel full. It's painfully stressful, and I dread something going wrong, but my fearless and dumb old-self starts moving a little after, creeping towards the [serpent] once again.
We arrive finally, and nothing has changed. I watch as the [Serpent] seem to rise and fall, breathing slowly. We slink a little closer, and reach out with a single leg to touch the textile and receive a box.
Utility- Survival Blanket [Cotton Muslin Swaddling Blanket] Craft: Skilled, +1 rank from [Lovingly Crafted] [Small] [Durable] [Soft] [Cotton Muslin] [Relic] This Survival Blanket is made of a durable Cotton weave,
-It is worn, and heavily damaged from age and use 4/12 Toughness
-It was crafted by a parent to wrap around their child
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
-The blanket is very soft, and is great at keeping something warm
-It is enchanted, but the enchantment is frayed and unidentifiable
-It is a [Divine] [Relic] of the minor rank
Serpent Watching Me [http://www.christophedia.com/Repository/Storypics/SWAH/Creature/SWAHsnakewatching]
The Eye is open!, A large slitted eye is just a small distance away. The [Serpent] is watching me.
I feel Old-me go very still, and almost run. The eye is massive, filling the view of half of my eyes. Almost glowing in the dim light of the cave.
Old-me twitches, taking a step back, and the head of the [Serpent] tilts just a little, just enough that it makes it clear that it isn't looking just generally in my direction, but actually at me.
Old me edges back slowly, one step, then eight, then eight again... but the head moves slowly, watching Old-me move. It could devour me at any moment, nowhere in this cave or outside is truely safe from something so much larger and faster than me. But Old-me is untouched as we withdraw. The [Serpent] blinks, and the sudden movement almost breaks the spell, but the head backwards, resting against one of the stones, almost lazily watching as we cross the pale sand to the wall and begin our assent.
It watches us rise, even when we are at the top of the cave I doubt we are out of danger, and it watches as Old-me climbs towards the cave mouth, the [Serpent] shrinking with every step... but that eye ever-watches from amidst those dark beautiful scales.
Finally we turn the bend, the eye and [Serpent] finally vanishing from sight. I feel Old-me untense slightly, and I wish I could warn my old self that at the speed it can travel, the [Serpent] could reach us even here... but I can't, so instead I watch in silence tense as my body makes it's way out of the cave. It had been boring coming in, but the looming threat means every moment I watch, looking for a sign that something is wrong, that perhaps I was followed.
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I finally start to feel safe as Old-me slips out of the mouth of the cave and descends to the dryer marshland below. I have never been so focused and my mind is reeling, but it has been ages and the [Serpent] never followed. I watched the water the entire time, and while it's scales help it blend into the dark mud under the waters surface, from this angle we would have seen it easily.
We skitter onto the marshland, and start to move away from the pond. We must have been a curiosity but not food. From our size difference that makes sense, I doubt I'm larger than it's smallest fang.
Owch, something hit me, sending me a distance away and into some mud. What was... ohh shoot, that is bad. I had forgotten about the [Unended] I had though them weak, and in too few numbers. My opinion has changed as I notice... I don't know the number, more than... more than twelve bugs of various shapes and size. Most are broken, some are long [Ended] an not even worthy of being considered food... but enough enough are intact. Enough have legs and jaws and intact bodies that Old-me is in trouble. I had been hit by, an [Unended] [Horned Beetle] just as large as the one I had ended. Yet this one was fully intact, only it's shambling scrambling limbs a hint to it's nature.
It is not the only one, I see two more [Horned Beetle] amongst the horde. Worse, I see a furred creature, far larger than any bug, it isn't the one the [Cricket] ended earlier, but it's just as big, missing one leg, and with a neck that looks broken and almost bitten off. It's slow, and in the moment I have been looking at it it ends several others of the Horde with a pointless attack. It could end me in a mere moment, without even noticing.
Normally when creatures could end me this fast they seem uncaring, but fortune is not with me, like the [Serpents] eye, this creatures is locked onto me, lumbering towards me with alarming speed. I am already too far from the wall, this is certain to be my end.
It reaches me and raises up a twisted mockery of a leg, and is bringing it down to crush and end me...
Then it's gone.
More accurate to say it's replaced with a solid wall of beautiful dark scales.
I'm drenched in water along with much of the horde, the spash washing us away from the impact before it even registered. It takes Old-me a moment longer, too busy scrambling to grab the ground for a second I thought water had gotten into my spiracle before it sealed, but I do not feel water moving inside me. Old-me staggers to our feet, and gives me a view.
The furred creature is... ended. It was not eaten, but instead is discarded in a twitching smear halfway inside a un-rotted broken branch. Meanwhile the [Serpent] is casually playing with the larger of the [Horned Beetles] just batting it around like it was nothing. I shudder partly in fear, partly in awe, but mostly because it tires and slams the bug into the ground so hard that it bursts apart and splashes those nearby almost as much as the water had.
Neither Old-me certainly didn't have the presence of mind to run away, and I am too awestruck to even notice, but I come to to realize that we are skittering away as fast as we can. Our spiracle unsealing and air rushing into the folds of our book right as we started to feel feeble. We don't... can't stop, so helpless I watch as the [Serpent] displays it's sheer unbridled power, the large numbers of the horde helpless against a force of nature. The [Un-ended] don't seem to notice, and instead are smashed with every moment, until they are mere marking left on the edge of the pond.
This scene is visible for what seems like ages, by the time the fury ends we are far from the battle. The horde had long since vanished so we never saw the last end. We only knew because the [Serpent] calmed, lazily coiling up as it surveyed the damage. It can't possibly see us from here, the only reason it's visible is the sheer size of the creature. Yet we hide from the incredible looming eye behind the first solid object, a small stone in this case.
We hears a distant hiss, and Old-me peeks around the rock. We see the [Serpent] uncoiling, and unhurried as it lazily slithering back inside the cave.
Old-me runs to the cliff, and starts climbing, nearly desperate as it starts looking for the smoke and the possible power the level promises... I couldn't agree more.