Well, not all of them. They left one guard on watch, the source of the intense stare from before. Still, their camouflage is truly well done, even now, without my mind sight, I would be unable to detect them. There does seem to be some kind of mental related effect as well, as whenever I try to look at the reeds, I feel this urge to look at something else instead.
Fortunately, I don’t have to see them for my plan to work. I’m just a simple snek orphan! (“Mother will come back! I am not an orphan! “) Don’t mind me! Playing in the noon sun! Ouch! Hot! I jumped, after burning my tail, and fell off. Those stones do get really hot in this weather.
The little skit of mine (“Totally planned”) (“Baited!”) made the other side loose most of their wariness towards me. I could feel them swimming away, and moving their attention towards the center of the lake. Perfect. Let’s get closer….
(“Wait”) (“Hurry!”)
The feeling of pain made my mind calm down a bit. Do I really want to do this? What If I lose control of my body once again, but this time permanently? What if I get inside their mind, only to be devoured by a figment of their nightmare plagued imagination? Not only that, what if dying inside the thought-world causes some kind of brain-death or paralysis? Even worse, I could become a helpless spectator of someone else's life, either getting stuck inside their mind, or watching a random fish control my body, helpless, even the signal of the senses slowly being cut off, until I’m semi consciously stuck inside eternal darkness, waiting, both hopeful and fearful, of their eventual demise. It would be worse than any prison!
(“So it’s better to stay and wait for my death?”)
(“So it’s better to stay shut in inside an egg?”)
(“So it’s better to accidentally damage those around?”)
… All I’ve learned until now implies the simple truth of this world- I get stronger, or I die. And not a peaceful death bed death, no, I would most likely be eaten alive by something. Basing my actions on naive hope would be foolish, I have to act.
Why does my life have to be so sour? (“Doesn’t matter”)(“No time to cry”). Yeah, when life gives you etc. etc. Let’s just hope it’s not my brain that will get squished to make this lemonade.
Still, it’s reasonable to be cautious. During the previous.. Connections, I had to get quite close for a link to form, but after it has been made, it could survive quite significant increase in distance. And I don’t want to “catch” too many fish at the same time, no idea what would happen if a whole school suddenly found itself packed like sardines inside my head.
Fortunately, there seemed to be one sleeping mind, whose waves reached further than the rest. I suspect it is one of the smarter fish I heard yesterday. Them being intelligent makes it a bit more risky (“what about using easy targets to train?”) but still.. They are asleep. And they seemed to be the type that values brawn over the intelligence anyways… There is no time to be lost! Let’s try it! …Just very carefully.
And so, instead of running head first towards adventure, I moved only a few stones closer, and observed.
As I mentioned before, minds did not form clear cut spheres, they were like small seas, with thought-waves undulating, low and high tides corresponding to owners energy, and occasional storms, making the head contents billow out aggressively. My goal should be to wait on the edge, until a more energetic wave sends me afloat.
After nothing happened for a while, I came slightly closer. Once again, waiting. The sun pleasantly warmed my skin, though I could feel some kind of internal discontent. Did the fact I spend most of my life until now as a nocturnal snake cause me to become more attuned to shadows?
And as usual, the moment I lost my concentration, I was suddenly hit by outside thoughts.
“Oh yes, that tail… so thick”
(“Abort, abort!”) (“A man of culture, I see”)(“Only through experiencing hardships, can one grow!”)
The distance still too big, even with me willing, no permanent connection was formed. We were getting closer to the target (“of SBI (Snake Bureau of Investigation) investigation”).
So I got even closer.
“You cheating bastard! How could you do this to me?!”
We have the signal, I repeat, the Fish Telenovela channel is on!
Fish drama, heh
Thx for the chap.
We are in for a drama it seem xD
thank
Welcom
Just a personal thing but 25 chapters in still arc 1
It's mostly a result of switching to shorter chapters. They do make it easier for me to write (it's easier to move my ass and decide to spend ~1h to write about 2 pages of text, rather than planning on writing 8 pages over 2-3 days). Do you think it would be better to start naming chapters something like Chapter 20 part 1, chapter 20 part 2 etc?
@Reisinling no, i think it’s fine but i find that separating the arcs a bit sooner would compliment your writing style because it’s getting a little off track and confusing and needs a little breather
@melbisbelbis Hmm I see your point. The evolution of the skill would have been a decent point for ending the first arc I guess... wanted to go with 1 arc = 1 shedding, but it does seem to take too long. But this time I promise we are close to the end :D I will take this into consideration, starting arc 2