Chapter 521:
Yet Another Encounter?
“CIEL, I REALLY DON’T THINK we can go this way.”
Mrrrow?
This was the sixth day after we said goodbye to the dorya. Ciel had guided us through the forest for a while, until we all came to a halt. Standing before us was a steep cliff that towered overhead. Ciel was looking up at it…and I was terrified by the prospect that the adandara wanted us to scale it. I tried imagining it, and it just didn’t seem possible. No matter how hard we tried, I just knew we’d get exhausted before we reached the top.
“Ciel, sorry, but are you lost?” my father asked.
Ciel’s tail angrily hit the ground, stirring up a cloud of dirt.
“Hack! Hack! Sorry, but there’s just no way we can scale this cliff.”
Mew!
Ciel indignantly yipped back and looked up at the cliff again.
Ciel has been obsessed with the top of that cliff ever since we got to it… Is something up there?
“Maybe there’s something up at the top?” Zinal suggested, staring up at the top of the cliff.
Then, with a little grunt, Zinal changed his mood on a dime. My father and Fische both grabbed their sword hilts. I was a little nervous about the way they were all acting, but a cautious glance at the top of the cliff revealed that there was indeed something up there. After a while, whatever it was rose its body high on the clifftop.
Wait, that shadow…and that magic energy…
“Ah!”
The giant creature pitched forward from the cliff.
“What the—?!”
The moment they saw it, Fische and Zinal unsheathed their swords. However, my father’s fear instantly vanished.
“It’s Snakey!”
Fische and Zinal both grunted in surprise, but I ignored them and waved at my old friend. And the Snakeys on the clifftop waved their bodies left and right in sync with my hand.
Whoa, it brought friends!
“It’s more than just one. How many are up there?” my father marveled.
From my view at ground level, it looked like there were four serpents…and one smaller one?
“So we meet again,” my father said. I clapped my hands and smiled back.
Hearing a loud sigh beside us, I looked to see Zinal had sheathed his sword again. I made a face, shocked that he had even drawn it to begin with, and he smiled sheepishly back. “I didn’t realize it was the serpents.”
Apparently, he couldn’t tell it was them from their silhouettes alone, and I had to admit it was difficult to tell from the distance. But since they had a shadow and magic energy I knew well, I could easily identify the serpents even from the ground.
“Well, um, I’ve felt their magic energy before, so I recognized them,” I explained.
“Their magic, eh? Ah…are these the serpents that gave us a ride?”
Perhaps finally sensing their magic energy, Zinal happily waved to the serpents on the clifftop, who waved more wildly in reply. Fische was also merrily waving.
“I guess we’re supposed to go up there, then,” I said.
Since we couldn’t scale the cliff, we would probably take a detour.
“Wait, I think they’re coming down,” my father said.
I quickly looked up to see the serpents pitching downward.
“Don’t tell me they’re all just going to slither down? Will they be okay?” I worried.
I didn’t think their giant bodies could take such a steep fall.
“They seem to think it’s safe, so it probably is,” my father said.
I nodded in agreement, but my heart beat more wildly with worry. The serpents were wobbling right and left as they pitched forward and looked very unstable. The sight was anything but reassuring. As I stared intently at them, a serpent completely launched itself off the clifftop. I squeezed my eyes shut in terror.
“Wow…they’re just slithering straight down.”
When I heard Zinal’s voice, I cautiously pried an eye open. “Oh!”
Then I saw the row of serpents slithering straight down from the clifftop. Their little bodies grew bigger and bigger the closer they got.
“They won’t crash into us, right?” Fische murmured, worriedly side-eyeing the serpents.
They were indeed zooming down the cliff at an alarming speed. We stumbled a few feet backward and watched as the row of serpents flew one by one into the treetops.
“Whoa!” Zinal yelped in my ear.
My eyes darted toward the trees as I heard one rustling…than another from them. After a while, the serpents emerged from between the trees. I sighed in relief at the sight and ran over to them.
“Hey, guys, are you okay?”
The seven serpents craned their long necks at me. Maybe they hadn’t understood.
“That’s probably how they normally travel,” my father said.
I thought back to the way they’d looked when they came down from the cliff. They hadn’t looked at all worried; if anything, they’d looked bored.
“Okay. Well, it sure gave me a heart attack watching them.”
“I can understand that,” my father sympathized. “Zinal? Fische?”
I looked over at the pair, whose butts had both hit the ground.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
Zinal had a gleeful smile on his face, which confused me.
“Nothing… It’s just, first I was stunned because I thought we have to climb up a cliff, then the monsters freaked me out, and then just when I figured out they were serpents and caught my breath, they freaked me out again by coming down so quickly… Kee-hee! Ah ha ha ha!”
He had a point. We had experienced quite the emotional journey.
“Yeah, I haven’t been this frazzled in a while,” Fische said.
My father nodded in agreement.
Frazzled? Aw man, I was so distracted by the serpents, I totally missed it! Fische and Zinal being frazzled must’ve really been a sight to behold!
“Oh, Miss Ivy, why, pray tell, do you look so upset?” Zinal asked politely.
I nervously shook my head, “Upset? Me? Nope. I’m not… Hee hee!”
A suppressed chuckle filled Zinal’s face.
Come on, he could at least have the decency to let me see him frazzled. He’s seen me frazzled plenty of times.
Fische sighed. “Boy, there really never is a dull moment with you guys.”
My father smiled. “I feel like I’m looking at my past self.”
That confused me. I didn’t think I’d ever seen my father frazzled before. When had that happened?
“Teryuuu.”
“Ooh! You think so, too, Flame? Well, yes, you really did help me out a lot back then,” my father said.
“Teryu, teryuuu.”
I frowned thoughtfully at their conversation. Seriously, what were they talking about? I had no idea.
I felt a shadow looming over me and looked up to see a serpent’s face. I reached up and tickled its nose, and its eyes narrowed happily to little slits. The serpents seemed to really like having their noses touched, because they always looked so cozy when I did. Meanwhile, Zinal and Fische stared blankly at us.
“I know I said this before, but they really do seem taken with you.”
Zinal stood up and walked over to us, and the serpent stretched its face toward him. Zinal reached out and petted its nose. When the other serpents saw this, they all quickly slithered over to Fische.
“Whoa, easy! One at a time, please!”
And with that, the herd of serpents started massaging Zinal and Fische with their slithers.
“Huh, I’ve never seen them do that,” my father remarked.
Neither had I. They usually were so polite and waited their turn. What had come over them?
“Maybe it’s because they took their swords out?” I asked.
The serpents reacted a little. My father and I saw this, but Zinal and Fische were too busy being played with to notice.
My father chuckled. “Well, they’ll probably work it out of their system if we leave them be.”
I giggled, “Sure thing. Thanks, Ciel.”
When I thanked the adandara for alerting us to the serpents, I got a happy tail-wag in reply.
Still, I’m surprised how often our paths seem to cross… Maybe the serpents are also traveling to the royal capital.