Chapter 72

 

I don’t know why we’re doing this. This is so fucking stupid. I don’t know why I agreed to doing this. I thought I was gambling with my life during the war with Midriver’s Finest but this is basically us teasing death to its face. 

 

But there’s something deep down inside of me that I can’t keep suppressed. The moment I heard Millson describing what the snake’s head and body looked like, he drew my attention. The moment he said the snake spoke to him, he grabbed my attention and proceeded to beat the shit out of it. From that point on, there was no going back. Bertrand had the same thought process as me and even though we both knew this was beyond idiotic, we wanted to get a look at that snake. 

 

Bertrand told Derriv he wanted to check out the mine and cavern but promised he wouldn’t actually enter the cavern. Judging by the way Derriv looked at the both of us as we left, I don’t think he quite believed him but he still let us go regardless. It didn’t take us long to reach the mine with Millson’s directions and when we got there, I didn’t see anything remarkable about the Mudrock Mine from the outside. It looked like any one of the countless unremarkable mines that lined Midriver’s outskirts and it was significantly smaller than the Wellock Company’s mine. It was hard to believe it housed a gigantic talking snake that loved gemstones, but we went in regardless. 

 

Every step in the Mudrock Mine I take, I can’t help but tremble. Half of the reason I’m trembling is due to mounting terror and the other half is due to uncontrollable excitement. What’s wrong with me? 

 

When we get to the cavern’s entrance, we come to a stop as we stare into the dark abyss from the mine tunnel. The mine and the cavern are completely silent and the only thing I can hear is the burning from the torches. Well, aside from my pounding heart. 

 

Moments pass as we continue staring into the darkness, trying to catch a glimpse of the creature. I realize I have to forcefully gulp down my saliva because I stopped doing it automatically at some point. When nothing happens after a few minutes, Bertrand nudges me aside and steps into the cavern first. Following right behind him, I have my hands grasped tightly around the handles of my axes. 

 

There’s a narrow downward slope that stretches from the cavern’s entrance all the way to the cavern floor. Before we even reach the floor, I can already see the gemstones on the ground reflecting the light from our torches and it nearly blinds me. When Millson said there were countless gemstones on the ground here, he meant it but even that isn't an accurate enough description. 

 

This… this is a fucking ocean of gemstones. I could literally swim through these gemstones like water. I’m honestly tempted to try it too. It would definitely be fun. Even Bertrand’s breathing has quickened as he glances around at all the gemstones surrounding us but we both know if we touch any of them, this mine will become our resting place. 

 

Suddenly, I hear something massive slithering through the ocean of gemstones, knocking them against each other and causing clattering noises. But the light from our torches isn’t enough to illuminate the entire cavern and we can only stare into the darkness, straining our eyes and holding our breaths. Bertrand and I point our torches toward the source of the sound but it isn’t until it makes a full circle around us that it finally comes into view as it wraps its body around a stone pillar in front of us. 

 

It’s exactly like Millson described. A humongous gray snake with a strange looking head. Its yellowed tusks look menacing under our torchlight. Its brown eyes stare at us in a childlike manner as if it’s wondering about these new toys entering its lair. It might even be longer and thicker than Millson described and it could undoubtedly swallow me whole without leaving a trace behind. 

 

When Bertrand sees the creature, he mutters under his breath, “... An elephant? How?” 

 

My curiosity gets the better of me and I can’t help but ask him in a low voice, “What’s an elephant?” 

 

Bertrand looks at me out of the corner of his eyes slowly while keeping his focus on the elephant. When he sees that the creature isn’t making any hostile moves, he says, “Huge animals native to the Western Wastes. Only saw a dead one’s head once mounted on a wall inside a noble’s house I was robbing. Heard he paid dozens of gold coins to have it taxidermied and then brought back to the kingdom. Living ones should be on the complete opposite side of the continent, not anywhere near here. But I never heard of them having the body of a snake though. It looks like an elephant but I don’t think it’s an elephant.” 

 

All of a sudden, the elephant snake stretched its neck towards us at a breakneck speed before stopping right in front of Bertrand. It seems Millson left out one important detail in his story. He never told us this creature was fast as all hells. Bertrand already dropped his torch and pulled out his sword instinctually in anticipation of the creature’s attack. 

 

But it never came. Instead, the elephant snake eyed Bertrand curiously for a moment before a pink vertical slit appeared on its face that slightly trembled as it said, “Elephant… delicious… give?” Shivers run down my spine at the creature’s voice. Millson left out another detail in that the elephant snake sounds incredibly similar to an adult male with a soft voice whispering. But it’s odd because even though the creature is a few feet away from me, it feels like it’s right next to my ear, whispering into it. It’s fucking creepy and I wish I never heard it speak. 

 

Bertrand still has his sword drawn and he’s ready to defend himself. When the elephant snake doesn’t move any closer to him and doesn’t look like it’s going to attack, he responds to the creature, “Was only saying you looked like an elephant to my little friend over there. I don’t have any elephants to offer to you. But if I do find any, I’ll be sure to bring you one. I’ll give you these silver coins I brought with me instead.” 

 

While still keeping his sword held high in his right hand, Bertrand slowly puts his left hand into his pocket and pulls out a few silver coins. He carefully kneels down and lays the coins down in front of the creature. The elephant snake lowers its massive head to look at the coins and seems to be content with the tribute. I swear I only blink for a second but when I open my eyes again, the creature’s head is right in front of my face. I’m trapped between the creature’s tusks on either side of me and the creature’s eyes are staring right into mine as it awaits for my tribute. 

 

I slowly grab the 2 silver coins I picked up from one of the scouts I killed yesterday from my back pocket and carefully lay them on the ground. The creature takes a moment to look at the coins but it raises its head to look me in the eyes with a disappointed expression and says, “More…” I can feel goosebumps breaking out all over my body at the creature’s dreadful voice. The problem is, I don’t have any more silver coins. All the money we had saved up, I spent on Schon and I only have 4 gold coins left from the Wellock caravan’s wages. I really don’t want to give it my gold coins. 

 

Seeing my panic, Bertrand tries to chime in by saying, “How about I offer you a few more silver coins for my little friend over there?”

 

The elephant snake doesn’t turn its eyes from me for even a second and only says, “You…” Fuck. Fine. My life’s more important than a few gold coins. I’ll be able to earn them back in no time. Grabbing a single gold coin from my coin pouch, I lay it down in front of the creature and wait for it to inspect the gold coin. For the first time since we entered the cavern, there’s a pleased look on the creature’s face as its eyes turn to crescents in satisfaction. 

 

The creature lifts its trunk high in the air as if it's cheering and a moment later, it slithers away from us, back into the darkness. The elephant snake doesn’t even touch the coins we offered it once but I think it’s safe to assume the coins have already become a part of its collection and if we try to take them back, it’ll massacre us. Bertrand puts his sword back in its sheath and grabs the torch he dropped before walking back up the slope. I followed right behind him and the moment we got back into the mining tunnel, I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding in. As we’re heading back to the mine entrance, Bertrand says to me, “The weirder, stranger things you come across now, the less thunderstruck you’ll be when you need to actually fight them.”

 

“Speaking of which, why didn’t Millson put in a request to the adventurers’ guild?”

 

“Mudrock’s in the middle of nowhere and the closest guild is weeks away. In cases like this where a monster terrorizes such a remote village, the usual recommendation The Guild gives is to move away. But you heard what Millson said, they’re too stuck in their old ways to live anywhere else. Besides, did you see that thing? I’m guessing you’ll need a whole platoon of top diamond ranked adventurers to subjugate it.”

 

“But what about all those gemstones?”

 

“What about them? You want to go back for them? Be my guest but I’m getting the fuck out of here. Money means nothing if you’re dead. Besides, we could always sell this information later if we wanted to or we could keep it our little secret and turn it into a lethal trap. Although I guess we won’t be staying in this region for too long. Oh well.”

 

When we finish talking, the silence gives me a moment to collect my thoughts. What a nerve wracking experience. Now that the previous giddiness I felt is gone, I’m able to look at things with a calmer eye now. The mining tunnel looks pretty damaged and there’s crushed stones all around which lines up with Millson telling us the snake can leave its cavern. How heavy is that thing?

 

As we’re walking out of the mine, I can feel my own breathing quicken out of my control. The Mudrock Mine doesn’t look anything like the Wellock Mine but I still can’t shake the growing trepidation inside me. I jump at every flickering shadow I see and I don’t know if my ears are playing a trick on me, but I swear I can hear the mine rumbling like moments before an earthquake hits. 

 

It’s been months since the mine collapse and the incident in the tunnel with Kayman but being inside another mine has brought me right back to that time. Back to that point in time when I was starving, thirsty, and accepted the fact I was going to die. I didn’t feel any of this when I was entering the mine because the creature occupied most of my thoughts. But now that the creature isn’t my focus anymore, those feelings from back then came flooding back in and it’s nearly drowning me. 

 

It’s getting more difficult to breathe each passing second and I can see Kayman’s corpse peeking at me in every flickering shadow we pass by. His cloudy white eyes watch my every movement, waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack me once my back is turned. I can feel countless eyes staring at me and I can’t withhold the apprehension I’m feeling as I have to stop and vomit. 

 

As I’m coughing violently from the remnants of my breakfast in my throat, I’m surprised to feel Bertrand roughly patting me on the back. Once I finish emptying my stomach, I wipe the filth from the corner of my mouth with the back of my hand. Bertrand offers me his waterskin and I take a mouthful to rinse my mouth out before I spit it back out, startled because his waterskin is filled with ale. He grins back at me and I take another mouthful, this time swallowing it down. The warm ale does wonders to let me regain control over myself. When I’m feeling better and I can’t see Kayman staring at me anymore, we keep moving and get out of the mine before long. 

 

It takes us a few hours but we regroup with the trade caravan on the main merchant road. Derriv’s group has already transported all the valuables back to the caravan and released Millson’s group while they were at it. Derriv will split the loot after we get to a town and sell it all off but we'll keep it in our wagons until then. When we first got back to the caravan’s outskirts, I found Derriv sitting on a rock, staring blankly into the distance. It looked like he was staring back towards where we came from, towards the west where Midriver was.