The Snake Report Book II - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Snake Report:

Man, look at go.

Sliding over sand, and rocks, and things.

Normally, I’d be burning my mana away, building out a shelter. Expanding things, solidify the walls into so denser stone, get so furniture in place…

Instead, I’m slithering out into the great unknown.

It’s almost… fun.

Not to say I’m not still completely paranoid that so monster is going to co out of the blue and try to devour , but this way less stressful than I expected it to be.

Almost therapeutic, really.

I’ve only panicked and set two boulders on fire so far.

Old habits die hard.

Feels good to move.

Ssss… I did not expect sitting around and being lazy to bug so much.

Maybe it wasn’t the sitting around, so much as the inability to make progress. Even when I was in a bad spot before, I was never completely out of options. There was always sothing I could be doing.

Practicing magic, or building sothing…

I’m going to need to co up with so work arounds.

Without [Voice of Gaia] or my [Spirit Attendants] in working order… If we run into humans, it’s going to be tricky.

I won’t be able to talk to them.

Imra being an Elf, I’m not sure they’re going to want to talk anyways.

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Could be difficult situation.

Plus, I’ve been thinking back to what happened, before we woke up here.

Obviously, sothing went wrong.

mory is still jumbled, but I rember the Elven Chief. The blood ritual was clearly enacted with so sort of plan. Imra seed to know sothing about it. She ntioned “binding” , sohow.

So, I think whatever he was trying to do, was working.

He definitely had us trapped, towards the end. I know I tried to get at him with Earth magic, but then that stupid orb cut right off, and nothing I tried to do was working to break us out.

But he didn’t just kill .

I have to assu that if he’d wanted dead, he could have just done that. So, he probably wanted sothing else…

I guess it was a good thing the swordsman showed up.

Sa ti, maybe it wasn’t?

I an, that guy killed pretty much everyone who didn’t have the common sense to run away. Buckets of extra blood poured on top of magic apparently fueled by blood.

Might explain why I keep rembering “boom.”

Boom.

What the heck.

Like that’s supposed to help.

It’s weird, I just can’t rember what happened at the end.

Knocked out?

Good thing I’ve been testing [Heal] so much, because I hear that’s super bad for a person.

Ssss…

What’s worse though, is that the harder I think back to what happened, the more creeped out I get. That awful nightmare feeling keeps slipping back into my head.

Screams… fire… laughter.

Laughter.

Terrible laughter.

I can’t rember what happened, exactly. Not the sounds or the sights, but instead: I rember the fear.

The sa fear I had when I woke up: a shiver that runs down my spine. Ties my stomach in a knot and makes want to try and escape.

Irrational terror.

I’m practiced in that sort of thing. People, creatures, mushrooms, rocks: every possible example I can co up with, have been trying to murder non-stop since I reincarnated. Paranoia is my day to day, minute to minute.

But this is… intense.

After dying once and coming back, I’ve thought myself a little less intimidated by existential dread.

Apparently not.

I’m getting freaked out just thinking about it.

Sowhere in the back of my mind, I think I know exactly what happened, and I just don’t want-

No.

No, gotta change the subject.

Focus on sothing else.

Sothing else…

Ordinarily, I would just play with Earth Magic. That was my go-to thod of distraction, but that’s out.

Water Magic?

No, soil is too dry.

Healing magic?

I an… I guess?

The spell goes off, regardless of whether I actually need to [Heal] or not…

[Heal]

Yeah, my belly feels a bit better.

Maybe I had a little sand burn?

[Heal]

No difference, that ti.

[Heal]

Actually, now my head sort of hurts.

[Heal]

Sssss!

Ow.

What the heck? It was doing this yesterday, too.

Like a migraine, but not…

Must be so residual ss leftover from that stupid ritual-mishap.

Hey, I wonder if I get a headache, does Imra get one too?

There’s a thought.

Ah, well, timing is good. I’m almost there.

The mysterious shape on the horizon is revealed at last.

It’s what I thought.

Looks like soone left a wagon out here.