Chapter 50

Snake Report: Day Whatever/Watching Humans Report: Official Day 4 continued

We're in deep.

Really deep.

Figuratively speaking, literally... It's like we've undergone an epic on par with Journey to the center of the Earth. We just fell at least fifty feet into some underground river, and I don't have a single clue where we ended up after that.

The current took us down further though. That's generally how rivers work. They run down-hill. Miss Paladin was somehow able to swim us through, half-dazed and covered in armor- though she lost her mace somewhere in the rapids. She dragged us on "shore" along a divot in the side of the waterways before collapsing.

I'm scared.

My magical barrier shoebox is fading off. I can see it, visibly flickering out of existence.

From what I managed to see before we fell of a cliff, Young Gandalf's dead.

He has to be.

Hiss...

He was really brave though.

Braver than hero-frog.

Braver than me.

I take back all the bad things I thought about him. He was a good guy. A real good guy. Even though I can't understand the language, I know he said something real proud right before the end.

No fear. I don't even understand how he did that, and I'm the guy who already died once. It was terrifying, but his death...

Miss Paladin's not taking it well. Not well at all.

Considering everything that's happened, I'm amazed she isn't hysterical. She's still holding composure somehow, but I don't know how.

No idea where we are, way, way way down in the darkest depths of this evil place, her friend is dead, and she's go absolutely not shot in hell of making it out alive. Yet, she's still holding it together.

Beside my fading box, she's unconscious now. Sleeping, I think.

Before that she was just crying.

One of those quiet sort of cries, where even though nobody can see it, the act was restrained. Like she's too strong to just break down and let it out. It's not the kind of thing you want to watch. It feels wrong: A moral taboo.

Watching someone cry is awful.

Hiss...

Well... there goes the last of my barrier. I'm free, it's completely gone. All that's left are those crystal pieces young Gandalf stuck on the corners, and the cloth Miss Paladin was carrying me around in.

If I wanted to, I could leave and go... I don't even know. There's water. There's this rock... there's more water. Unlike the rest of the caverns I've been in, I don't have any light. There's nothing growing here, no mushrooms, no crystals: just the natural ambiance of my scales.

Black water. surrounding a big rock.

I think we might be stranded.

Hissss...

...

Rock is fine, but water...

[Water element] [Water Manipulation I] - Ability to actively mold and shape water.

Hisssss...

Oh... this might take awhile.