Lucas POV
After walking through the narrow tunnel, my eyes widened as we stepped into a vast, open space. But what truly left shocked was the sight before us.
A thick, dark snake sprawled across the other side of the path, blocking the way. And it was staring right at us.
Was this Vince’s long-lost brother? I an, the body was similar dark, massive, intimidating—but the eyes were yellow, not Vince’s color at all. Nope, this beast was definitely not Vincent’s bro. Still, I couldn’t help but think of my own brothers. I missed them.
I glanced at Damon, Oceanus, and Simon. Damon looked tense, his usual cool completely gone. "That’s an ancient beast," he muttered. "But he’s not a beastman."
Maybe this snake does know Vince. After all, Vincent is the Feral King! And I say it again: Feral King!Don’t underestimate him. With that in mind, I stepped forward confidently. Suddenly snake’s yellow eyes tracked , hissing as I approached.
"Lucas, are you out of your mind?" Damon grabbed my arm, his voice filled with irritation and anger. Typical Damon.
Oceanus just gave that lazy smile of his. It’s annoying how calm and pretty he always looks in situations like this.
"Relax, Damon!" I said, shaking his arm off. "I know what I’m doing." He looked stunned, but I just smirked and walked closer to the snake, who still had those sharp eyes locked on . I grinned back.
"Shh..." I whispered, inching forward. The snake didn’t even flinch or try to attack . I don’t know what Vincent would’ve done, but he probably would’ve devoured this guy without a second thought.
"Hey... snaky," I said, feeling a weird sense of friendship toward the Snake. I tried to pat its head, but it snapped at , almost taking my hand off. Thankfully, I dodged just in ti and instead, decided to give it a big hug around the head. That’s right—a hug. Because why not?
"Don’t attack , buddy. Do you know Vincent? I’m his friend." The snake just stared at , but I felt like we were connecting on so weird level.
"Vincent’s the Feral King, you know? Thanks to him, snakes aren’t considered feral anymore. If you want, you can co visit or even stay at Venomcrest Tribe." The snake blinked, and I felt oddly proud as it obediently shifted its massive body, giving us just enough space to pass.
"See? I told you," I called back to Damon, grinning smugly. But when I looked up, there was no one standing there.
I spun around. "Where did they go?" Turns out, they had already walked inside while I was having my heart-to-heart with the snake.
"Lucas, that snake was poisonless," Simon shouted from ahead, sounding almost embarrassed for . "And you woke him up from hibernation. He’s weak right now!"
I turned back to the snake, my pride deflating.
"Oh... uh... thanks, I guess," I muttered to it before sprinting to catch up with the others.
As I jogged to catch up with the others, I could still hear Simon muttering sothing under his breath he was in his eagle form now because he was rank eight beast he can talk in his beast form.
"You know, Lucas," Simon said as I ca alongside him, his eagle form towering over , "you’re the only guy I know who hugs a snake and thanks it for not killing you. It was literally asleep. You could’ve just... walked by."
I gave him a sideways glance. "Hey, it’s called diplomacy, Simon. You should try it soti."
Simon rolled his eagle eyes, which, by the way, looks even more ridiculous when you’re in bird form. "Yeah, diplomacy. That’s what hugging a venomless snake is called now. I’ll rember that next ti we face a threat."
"Good! I’m glad you’re learning from my genius ways," I replied, puffing up my chest in mock pride.
Simon just shook his head. "If this is what you call genius, I don’t even want to know what dumb looks like."
Oceanus, who had been walking ahead, chid in with a lazy grin. "It’s not every day you see soone sweet-talk a snake, Simon. Let the Wolf have his mont."
"I wasn’t sweet-talking. I was negotiating," I corrected him, but Oceanus just waved it off, his laid-back attitude almost frustrating.
We continued walking through the stone cave, the path narrowing at tis, then widening unexpectedly. The walls were etched with strange symbols and weird carvings of animals, disasters, and—what was that?—a tornado hitting a village.
"I swear, every ti we walk through one of these ancient places, I feel like we’re walking straight into a trap," Simon grumbled, his large talons clacking on the stone floor. "You ever wonder why no one else ever cos here? Maybe because it’s dangerous."
"Nah," I shrugged. "They probably just don’t have the guts for it. Unlike us—heroes of our ti."
"Right, heroes. The kind who wake up hibernating beasts and call it a victory," Simon muttered.
I ignored him, mostly because I didn’t have a witty coback, and we kept moving. The cave was getting colder, and I could hear water trickling up ahead. Damon was leading the way, his expression serious. I figured he was still a little mad about almost getting bitten by the snake.
"Hey, Damon, lighten up!" I called out. "At least we didn’t get eaten. That’s a win!"
Damon didn’t even turn around. "Focus, Lucas. We’re almost there."
As we reached the end of the cave, it opened up into a huge, open space, but it wasn’t just any space—it was weird. The ground was covered with a thin layer of water, reflecting the glowing plants and shimring crystals hanging from the cave walls like so kind of enchanted pond. It was eerily quiet, save for the faint sound of rippling water under our feet.
"Well, this is different," Simon muttered, his claws splashing lightly in the water.
"Look over there," Damon said, pointing ahead. In the middle of the watery expanse stood sothing... odd. It looked like a large, round stone structure, and atop it were two massive wings.
The wings were spread wide, like they were about to take off, but they didn’t seem to belong to any creature.
I squinted at it. "Is that... is that supposed to be so kind of guardian? Or maybe... a giant bird statue?"
Simon rolled his eyes. "Because nothing says ’ancient guardian’ like a birdbath with wings on it."
"Hey, it could be a lot worse," I shot back. "At least it’s not another snake."
Oceanus stepped forward, studying the structure with a thoughtful expression. "It looks like so kind of chanism," he said, his hand tracing the air as if he was ntally calculating sothing. "Maybe it’s a gate or a portal of so sort."
"Always the optimist," Simon grumbled, flicking so water off his talons.
"So, what do we do?" I asked, taking a few steps toward the round thing. "Do we press a button? Say a magic word?"
Damon stopped with a hand on my shoulder. "No. We wait. This place is full of ancient magic. If little thing in danger, this thing might be connected to her sohow. We don’t rush in without thinking."
"Who said anything about rushing?" I shrugged. "I’m just... investigating."
"Sure, Lucas. And next, you’ll want to hug the giant stone wings to see if they respond to your diplomatic charm," Simon snarked, already knowing what I was probably thinking.
"I was considering it, yes."
Simon face-pald with his wing.
Ignoring Simon, I stared at the strange winged structure, sothing in my gut telling this was the key to reaching Kyra. Whatever this thing was, I had a feeling it wasn’t just decoration. There was a purpose here, and we were about to figure it out—whether by brains, brawn, or, yes, even hugging.
Suddenly I saw Oceanus expression beco more serious as he looked at wings his webbed hand touched wing his expression suddenly changed.
"we need to put wings of ancient Beastn In size of those" He said expressionslessly "And We need put wings here which this chanism absorve and this gate will only open once" He said And I looked at Damon shocked.
Wasn’t Damon have that wings.
"Then I am sorry to look like we’re not able to get world key"
His webbed fingers lightly traced the outline of the wings, his face now devoid of its usual lazy smile. He turned to us with a look that made my stomach drop.
"We need the wings of an ancient Beastn," he said flatly. "These wings will be absorbed by the chanism, and the gate will open, but only once."
I felt a chill run down my spine as his words hung in the air. I blinked a few tis, processing what he just said.
My eyes imdiately darted to Damon, who stood frozen, his face locked in deep thought.
Simon, however, didn’t miss a beat. "Well, looks like this is the end of our little adventure," he said, tossing a sad look. "Guess we’ll have to make do without the world key, huh?"
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