Chapter 44

Snake Report: Day Whatever/Watching Humans Report: Official Day 5

Today- yet again, I came face to face with death.

As always: It was terrifying.

As always, my day began normally without any signs of approaching doom.

There's a trend here, I've noticed.

Hisss...

I woke up, curled into the perfect spiral on my stone carved sofa. I ate a few stockpiled mushrooms for breakfast, and then I spiraled up towards my furthermost level of progress, taking it upon myself to grind through into the odd newer-layers of stone.

It was easier than what I've been pressing through up until this point, softer in a way I think. The work wasn't that laborious, and as expected, I soon broke into another section of the dungeon. Right up and into a tunnel before I could even realize it.

And-

Nothing tried to kill me.

Shocking I suppose, but the day was still young.

How about that? There's a first time for everything, but I maintained perfect form, periscope-snake method. I viewed the tunnel I came out in, saw nothing in particular, bobbed back down and re-molded the floor.

After all the progress, I'd decided that was enough excitement for one day. Honestly, a new layer of the Dungeon, easily a few hundred feet up: That's a good sign in a way. I'm cutting right on through, no freaky magics or creatures have tried to stop operation [Earth Molding to the Heavens] so I'm still thinking with a positive outlook about it.

But that's the exact line of thinking which made me drop my guard.

When I returned in the presumed evening to watch the humans, only the Wizard was sitting by the weird fire, his back turned towards me and his eyes watching the ancient doorway to the far side of the room. His shoulders were slumped, his staff was laid down in a haphazard sort of way. Even from a distance, it was a look of defeat.

The second human was nowhere to be seen.

And I do mean nowhere.

The floor below was empty. Where there had been two, no there was only one.

Hisss...

You know, that's a bit of a scary situation, especially with the suddenness of it. They had both seemed capable, I'd only looked away for a few hours. It's not like I had any real obligation to look out for them, but in my mind, I had it fixed that they weren't going to die down here.

I'd tricked myself a bit, that it would all work out. The great human duo, defeating the odds in this terrible place! Heroes of combat and survival.

The Wizard slowly stood, picking up his staff with a heavy sigh as I watched. One hand the staff, the other hand... a Mace. That was definitely the Paladin woman's weapon.

No one in their right might would walk off unarmed down here.

But I guess it doesn't always work out. Watching the young-Gandolf figure in the distance, it was a really sad feeling. I could only imagine, running through a place like this would form strong bonds.

So she was really gone. After that impressive display of power against the Skeleton, something else had killed her. Maybe an ambush, or poison... It seemed such a waste.

Then the Wizard turned, suddenly. In an instant his posture shifted, his hand released the mace and fell to reinforce his staff as a huge burst of magic lashed out: At me.

It was a direct hit. I didn't even have time to let out my typical hiss of terror before I was frozen.

All I could do was stare in horror as two hands, blond hair, and a grim smile pulled themselves up onto my tiny balcony and looked deep into my soul.

It was the Paladin.

"__________" She said, white teeth revealed with a curling smile.

I couldn't understand a word, the language unfamiliar and strange: but I knew what she meant clear as day.

"Fooled you."