(“Cowards!”)

(“Is that.. !”)

(“The grandmaster of the drunken snout shall show you, there is no need to fear nature! I’m the master of dao- the water way! I have reached peak understanding of six desires and seven emotions! I shall become one with it,and it shall let me pass!”)

(“No! It’s too risky! My calculations show that trying to swim through this stream has 99% chance of failure!”)

(“Silence! Behold the water path (true dao!)”)

And so, even though part of me was strongly against this behavior, it was decided- I shall move forward and swim through. The signal is getting weaker, and there is no time!

… getting into water was easier when getting in didn’t mean having to start with your head…

This water is really murky… I once again sent my tail on a sacrificial mission- to touch the torrent… 

And it wasn’t that cold at least! (“This behavior is unbecoming of the proud practitioner! We shall go and demonstrate our superiority!”). And so, a certain snake jumped right in..

*Blub blub!* “sssss! Ssssss!” (“I am one with you stream! Blub blub let me pass! Blub blub”) 

And merely managed to get out a few meters downstream! Damn, I really was about to become one with the ocean. Permanently.

“Cough.. Sss ssss cough!” 

(“You court death haughty stream I shall…”)

(“Yes, yes, Snerksess, let’s leave the 300 whips for later!”)

(“Thank god for the swimming skills and other fish skills! If we ever meet Guerorp again we should bring him a nice worm for saving our life. In a way”)

(“Finally! I really think it’s time to stop”)

(“Yes, I agree”)

(“Really?”)
(“Yes! It’s time to stop this foolishness, because it’s time for science!”)

(“But it’s too late already! We haven’t heard anything in a while, how do we know that creature is still here?”)

<Stupid water! Stupid! Flood tunnel! Bad! New tunnel! Block tunnel! Dig dig! Stupid! hungry! >

(“... it really couldn’t wait a moment, couldn’t you stupid mole-thingy?”)

(“Science shall commence! And by science we mean bridge building!”)

*** Undercone PoV ***

“Stupid boss. Stupid snakes. Stupid water. Yes. It was sent to search for snakelings, yes. Red-nose has good head he say. And big cone. Small body but big nose and cone whiskers!. Smell good, sense good! Useless fight! Want eat? Work! Find snakeling! “

“Red-nose wanted say no! But he couldn’t! Biggest cone looked angry, would think red-nose challenge him! And red-nose would die.. Or worse! “

“So it searched and searched.. Until it found trail! But it was close to water.. Water bad. Hides smell! Makes movement harder to distinguish! But finally he done it! Big cheer! Will get reward! Just peek…”

“What! Few snakelings! Most left already?! Only three remaining?! Boss angry! If more leave, boss eat red-nose! And red-nose doesn’t think inside of boss stomach nice! But he also hungry… maybe a small snack.. Yees.. it seems a young one is moving away.. Easy food? “

“Dig dig dig… Yes come here you… let’s start making acid.. Acid make eating easier! Faster go down… Come closer.. Closer.. “

*THUMP THUMP THUMP* *CHOMP*

Suddenly, after three quick thumps, a big snake head pierced through the tunnel, catching undercones tail.

“Abort! Abort! Waa! Pulling me! No, dig forward! Snake. Too. Stroooong! Goodbye tail!”

*Pooop* *Thump* - suddenly, the undercones tail separated from the rest of its body, the sudden release of tension making the snake fall backwards, while the cone got propelled forward

“Again red-nose loose tail! This tail still small, previous not grow big. If red nose never have time to grow, he never boss”

*THUMP* 

“YES DIG DIG DIG NO THINK DIG!”

“Red-nose nearly eaten! If red-nose wasn’t small cone he would be inside big jaw! Snake bite where bigger cone has stab-hands! Dig deep dig away!“

After a good 10 minutes of digging away from the unexpected hunter, red-nose could calm dawn. It still meant he moved forward, as coneheads always moved forward, unless they concentrated on stopping, but it was relatively slow

“Stupid water! Water bad! Go away! Flowing from surface hole snake make! Stupid snake! And now hungry! Search food hungry… but boss angry if red-nose late.”

“But I can feel snakeling close! Tasty… And red-nose hungry.. But if try to eat snakeling, big snake come again… ” *growlll* -imagine sound of multiple small rocks sadily hitting against each other - 

“.. too scared. Snake scary. Boss scary. Go to boss, then come back and eat stupid snake. Maybe not last to eat this time!.. Why more water?”

And just as the underdeveloped undercone was about to blow dust in relief, it found itself being attacked by sudden increase in water!

What it didn’t realise, was that the mother snake, realising it got away, tried diverting one of the temporary small water streams into undercones tunnel. The amount was enough to seep through the hastily built barrier! As if that wasn’t enough, the continuous rain started seeping through all around, whenever there was no rock to block it.

“More water! Tunnel soon fool? Tunnel collapse?! Hate water.. Must go out!.. No. Red-nose not stupid. This trap. Red-nose move away, when far away from big snake then go out!”

“Dig dig dig… stupid water.. Dig dig..”

“Rain bigger… makes noise, red-nose can’t hear what above… is big snake still following?”

*Dig Dig dig dig*

“Stupid water make whisker wet.. Also can’t feel what above.. Water make it harder to feel ground in front!”

Dig dig..

“Stupid water! Stupid! Flood tunnel! Bad! New tunnel! Block tunnel! Dig dig! Stupid hunger! “

Barely in time the undercone detected river in front of it. Normally such a close call would be impossible, but this time, due to the dampness on the ground, stress, and wetness of small hair covering the beak and helping with sensing the surroundings, the creature nearly drowned itself

“Hate water in tunel! Hate! Leave tunel! No snake here, sure! Go out now!”

Dig dig dig…

“Surface!” 

*BONK*

As a reward for barely surviving being flooded by a stream - a big branch, delivered straight to the face.

Reisinling

Yesterday there was a change to a similar series box which made my series get recommended to quite a few people, and I got 10 new readers, which is nice! Welcome! We are over 600 now