Sikta awoke to the sounds of birds twittering.

“Ughh.”

He groaned and pushed himself off the ground, where there was now a depression in the grass from his face. He blew some pieces of grass out of his mouth and sat in a cross-legged position. Looking around, he appeared to be in a forest. Sunlight beamed down on him from above, partially blocked by branches and leaves.

“Fuck.”

His head dropped into his waiting hands, and he brushed his brown hair back.

“Was I fucking drugged?”

Sikta had no idea where he was. All he remembered was some trippy tunnel that he was falling down. Also pain? But looking at his body showed no signs of any injury, so perhaps it was just the drugs.

But who would drug him, how, and why? He didn't remember drinking anything. Perhaps he had accidentally touched some kind of mushroom? But what kind of mushroom produces that kind of trip on skin contact?

Clicking his tongue, Sikta ignored the questions for now. He was thirsty. Also hungry. Reaching into his back pocket for his phone, he was alarmed when his hand touched his ass.

“Fuck!”

He looked around on the ground for his phone. But he couldn't find it. He must have dropped it somewhere. Although, he had miraculously held onto his new glass clock. Taking the clock out of its bag revealed the glass to be cracked, and the gears inside mangled.

“Well, shit. That's 70 bucks down the drain.”

Putting the clock back in the bag, he turned in a random direction and began to walk. Having no sense of where he was, he had to rely on lady luck to guide him.

…

“Fuck lady luck.”

Sikta had been walking for hours! In that time, he didn't see even a hint of civilization. No roads. No airplanes in the sky. Not even any garbage! Either he had somehow teleported to the middle of nowhere, or someone had driven and dumped him. And seeing as how teleportation was impossible, he was betting on someone fucking with him.

“Wait…”

This wasn't one of those man-hunt things, was it? There wasn't a bunch of rich people hiding in the trees with guns, ready to mount his head on their wall, was there?

Looking up and seeing no gold chains swinging about, he shook his head.

“Ridiculous. As if someone would be hunting me.”

Just then, a tree up ahead to his right shook. Sikta hurried to hide behind a tree, leaving just one eye to view the shaking tree.

As he waited, something slowly slithered down from the crown of the tree, revealing its form. The thing was long and hard. Hard as in its scales looked like gemstones. And long as in like a noodle. In fact, many people would call the creature before him a noodle. But Sikta would slap those people in their faces if he could. This thing was no noodle. It looked more like a cylinder of death.

The snake was green in colour, blending in with the leaves. It was also huge! The thing was 10 meters, at least! The snake's scales were also weirdly tough looking, like individual diamond shields running up and down its body. But the weirdest feature had to be the colourful rainbow feathers on the snake's head. As far as he knew, snakes did not have feathers!

“Holy shit, rainbow snake.”

The snake whipped its head around and stared at Sikta. He covered his mouth and tried to stay still, hoping the snake would ignore him.

But the gig was up. The snake opened its mouth and roared at him. Roared.

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“Where the fuck am I!?”

Snakes do NOT roar! They hiss!

He turned around and began running as the snake gave chase. It was surprisingly quick, weaving between trees. Sikta had always thought of snakes as slow-moving, but this one certainly wasn't.

Hazarding a look behind him, he could see that the snake was catching up. Turning back around, he was just in time to see the tree ahead of him as he smacked into it.

His head bounced off the bark and his vision swam for a moment as he hugged the tree in an effort to remain upright.

Hearing branches cracking close behind, he threw himself to the side. Just in time, too. The snake had launched itself at him, but instead of getting a mouth full of his delicious self, it instead got a mouthful of wood as it bit into the tree. To his shock, the snake's bite went straight through the tree, tearing off a large chunk.

Sikta picked himself up off the ground and continued running as he threw the snake behind him the bird.

“Fuck you, mutant snake!”

The snake gave a rage-filled roar that shook the leaves and gave chase.

As Sikta ran, he made sure to look ahead of him this time, making sure not to have any other run-ins. Unfortunately, he once again ran into something. Or more like someone ran into Him.

Sikta fell to the ground across from a silver-haired boy wearing an intricately patterned light green robe with a silver sash tied around his waist.

“Oh my god, another human!”

It was a miracle! Sikta was beginning to think the only thing left on the planet were him and mutant snakes.

The boy looked up at him in confusion, but their gaze soon snapped to attention on the snake.

“A baby wind serpent!”

The boy took off running at a furious pace. Sikta followed suit. But the boy was fast. Olympic runner fast. Soon enough, the boy was out of sight and things were looking grim.

Sikta was losing energy, fast! He was panting hard and felt like barfing. It seemed that this was the end. The snake would eat him, and only one other person would know about what happened. Although… What was that boy doing in this forest?

Was that boy the kidnapper?! Oh well. It wouldn't matter soon enough. He could hear the snake fast approaching, his own pace slowing significantly.

But then, the silver-haired boy reappeared.

“What are you doing!?”

The boy grabbed Sikta in a princess carry and began sprinting, although at a reduced pace. With the extra added weight, the snake was now also gaining on the boy.

“What is a mortal like you doing in this forest?”

But Sikta didn't have the time to talk to this kid about why that was weird, so he kept it to the bare minimum.

“I… You didn't… Kidnap me?”

Sikta managed to string a few words together between gasping for air.

“What?! No I didn't kidnap you!”

“Oh.”

Just as Sikta was beginning to think this kid had the strength of a bear and the stamina of one too, the boy began to slow down and his breathing became laboured.

“Uhhh. You good?”

“Just... A little further.”

As the snake began to close within striking distance, the trees suddenly cleared. Sikta could see a small wooden village in the middle of cultivated fields.

And then he was airborne.

Sikta landed heavily on the dirt and hit his tailbone.

“Ouch!”

Taking a look behind him, the snake had ahold of the boy's arm while the rest of its length began to wrap around his body.

“Oh shit! Uh. Uh. Fuck! What do I do?”

Deciding to at least try and help the boy who saved his life, Sikta grabbed a stick lying near him and charged the snake. He swung, and the stick bounced off the snake's scales like rubber.

“Well, poop.”

Just as he made to dash to the village for help, a woman appeared. She wore the same colour robe as the boy, but she had a green sash to match the robe. In her hair, she wore a blue pin that held her black hair in a tight bun. Her eyes were a green similar to the boys, green like the robes.

And she was hot!

The woman did something weird with her hands and muttered something under her breath. Then a cloud of green dust appeared and covered the snake.

Sikta was fairly confused about how green dust was supposed to help, or where it even came from. But as he looked at the snake, he could see it becoming weaker and weaker as its grip loosened. And the green dust began to spread across the snake faster and faster.

Soon, the snake fell limp and released its hold on the boy. They both fell to the ground in a heap of green, the snake looking like a dead moss version of itself, and the boy unconscious, but thankfully still breathing.

Sikta sat on the ground and wiped his brow. His hand came away wet with sweat.

“Who are you?”

“Huh?”

Sikta looked up to see the woman standing over him. There was an angry look in her eyes, and her fists were clenched.

“Uhmm. I’m Sikta. Nice to meet you?”

The woman's eyes narrowed to slits.

“Haha.”

That nervous laugh was the last thing he remembered