Reisinling

In previous episodes:

Spoiler

Our MC says goodbye to his brother. He is now facing another problem- hunger. After being unable to reach the mother snake, he decided to try finding food on his own… by following a “thought” signal from underground, expecting it to be coming from an overgrown worm. Instead, he finds a murderous undercone. Fortunately for him, it was damaged by mother, who caught him trying to sneak on the leaving brother. Unfortunately, it’s still 10x our MCs size. After a series of short standoffs, during which the usual mind tricks fail, MC manages to sneak on the underocne and stab one of its eyes out.

[collapse]

Honestly, I didn’t expect things to go this well. But you know what they say, when the opportunity shows itself, you have to sink your teeth into it. Yes, the taste of raw eyeball was something I could still feel on the tip of my tongue. Disgusting.

“Why didn’t you just run away” or “Why didn’t you just hide” you might ask? No way that thing wouldn’t catch me! And it seemed to have hundreds of senses capable of sensing snakes like me! Finally, I just couldn’t. Not moving, not doing something for even a second felt far more scary than just jumping into the face of danger. Literally.

And so, I had to find a way to either slow it down, or completely discourage the undercone from continuing the pursuit. 

(“Maybe it’s dead! We did inject some venom after all!”)

The sudden loss of control over my body and feeling of mind connection forming was enough to dispel these notions. I really hoped that I would just disconnect after failing to the ground...

<MY EYE! SNEAKY SNAKELING! SCRAWNY SNACK! I SHALL SMASH IT! PIERCE IT! It will be slowly eaten, after I stab it eyes, and then it tongue, and then it skin, piece by piece!>

The wave of anger suddenly turned cold with the realisation of new reality in front of it.. Reality that included vision from two working eyes.

<Again?! Tricks! What is… Wait. Red nose smart. That ugly big cone.. That red beak.. And blood in one eye… that is red nose!>

Shit! It got it!

<Then red nose is… the snake?!>

(“Sometimes being too stupid to doubt outrageous ideas, might be exactly what you need to succeed”)

<How snake move.. crawl? Crawl!I shall make you pay! >

Shit! Shit shit shit! Meditation, please save me! It’s Perfect time to advance don’t you think? Disconnect! I could feel it feeling my panic, which seemed to only fueled its natural-born enthusiasm towards carnage.

I tried sending the emotion of hesitating, of being scared.. But it didn’t work! Again! Stupid resistance skills!

But while my outside interference didn’t seem to do much to convince it not to do anything rash with my body, standing in front of a “cliff”, and having to be the one jumping down into a river was quite persuasive. Unfortunately, this idiot didn’t have a shroud of concern that it might die as well if my body dies with its mind inside, and fueled by its anger it clumsy crawled a bit closer… and closer… (“Nooo, stop!”) and finally...

We disconnected! YES! I nearly jumped in joy! Fortunately I’ve stopped myself on the edge. But even if I fell in, it wouldn’t matter! What an idiot! Out of all the things, it decided to try killing me by jumping into the water, forgetting that unlike it, most creatures on the surface can swim! (“source? University of Who cares! I win!”)

Turning my head around I could see the undercone.. Currently busy being back in its own body, and once again feeling pain from having its eye stabbed out. Perfect time to try…

Accidentally slipping, and falling into the river! Blublublub! 

I tried my best to get to the shore as fast as possible

(“No! We have to move away from here, and it can’t follow us on water! Do your best to swim!”)(“Can’t swimming lessons wait until some better time, when there is no thunderstorm afloat?”)

BLUBLUBLUB Really? Blublub I’m going to be thinking about some random shit Blublub while nearly blublublub drowning?!

Suddenly, I understood. There are times in life, when you hear something so often, that it becomes meaningless, even the deepest phrases becoming platitudes that you repeat your whole life, without realising, that they actually mean something! Without truly understanding! And believe me, this was the perfect time to finally GET the real depth of the phrase to “go with the flow”. (“We eel now?”) (“No, but we are not drowning at least!”)

BONK - a big stick hit me from behind. Wait, was that part of the bridge? (“Betrayal! No one expected it!“)

Blublublub

*Cough Cough* (except cuter than humans, because done by a small danger noodle)

I barely managed to get on the shore. This time, I swam down much farther than before, in the distance I could see the lake.

Unfortunately, on the other side in the distance I could see a red-topped undercone, frantically sniffing and sensing for its target. And me getting on shore betrayed my position.

“Ssssss!”

I’m afraid there is only one way out of this situation…the water way. (“We nearly drowned. Twice. And you want to go in again?”)(“I fear the water less, then I fear being eaten alive! Jump in before I realise how scared I am!”)

And so, into the river I go.

Blublublub Blublub Blubo

Bwaaaah! I’m here! - I thought , while landing on another shore.. This time a shore of a small “island” about.. 10m? From the shores of the lake. And by island, I mean a big lillypad-like thing.. Except it also seemed to be a tree? With a wooden trunk, barely sticking out of the water at the center.. Well, it doesn’t seem to have any teeth, so it doesn’t matter! What matters is that this time, the depth of water between the New Snekeeland and old continent, is too big for the undercone to just walk through. And as it was pretty obvious from its thoughts, I know they can’t swim! Safe!

After a while I could see the idiot back here, looking at me with an eye full of hatred.. It didn’t look good. Even my poison is going to start having an effect after being injected twice, and once time into a sensitive organ! Now, will you give up to heal yourself, or will you just wait and look at me like an idiot, until you die, and become my meal? That’s one way to make yourself great again- by becoming part of something greater, like me! Mwahahaha!

Oh are you going back? Well, so be it, there is no dishonor in avoiding fighting against someone better… Wait what are you doing to that tree?

Thump. Thump. Thump. Whoosh.

A sound of a tree falling could be heard…. 

Reisinling

Most votes said that there is no need for strong language warning, but you know what, if 21% thought it was needed, I will add it. I prefer to be safe and not have to think about it later, than to have someone disappointed later on.

I'm out visiting family for easter, so I decided to use this time to work on rewriting the lacking parts of Sithering through dreams, so that I can finally send them to editor, and finally have better version. Basically, no chapters until 15 april. See you soon!