Shelly uneasily shifted in her bed. Her memories of the times before she awoke in her cave were only becoming more and more unclear.

When she'd first woken up, they were quite clear and comprehensible. However, as time passed, they became fuzzy and nonsensical, and she found herself wondering if they were even real.

And then, Ms. Snake had gotten angry at her, which was a bit terrifying. Perhaps it was horrible of her to impose herself upon her, but what else could Shelly do? She had no home, little memories, and no survival skills whatsoever.

She felt a thump further down the cave, followed by some more rhythmic thumps. Shelly breathed a sigh of relief, happy that she didn't have to hide for her life again. She didn't want to repeat that experience.

Which was why, this whole time, she'd been practicing her magic nonstop. If she was going to be a liability, she would at least try to make her father proud and not be completely useless. If her father had ever been real, that was.

Existential questions aside, she watched with ill-concealed excitement as the titanic form of Ms. Snake popped up. Since Shelly had first met her, Ms. Snake had grown quite a bit bigger, but Shelly couldn't tell exactly how much, since Ms. Snake had a habit of sitting on her own coils, making it hard to judge her length accurately.

Ms. Snake took one look at Shelly with her yellow eyes and then beckoned her over with her head. Shelly hesitantly got up and approached, poking the big snake in the head with her finger.

She'd gotten a lot better with the telepathy spell if nothing else.

"Dear. It's time to move out. I found a good place, and I'm starting to get worried. There's a strange scarcity of prey around here, and it might mean some kind of predator moved in. Not me, mind you. And while I can easily just leave the area, you... can't." She immediately said the moment the connection was established.

Shelly blinked in confusion before nodding slowly. "O-okay. But... How can I get out? You said I'd die if I try to get out..."

"Indeed. However, I'm conveniently just big enough to do this." Ms. Snake said, and Shelly felt a terrible premonition.

Ms. Snake opened her jaws wide, and then, Shelly found a long tongue wrapping around her and bringing her into the giant mouth.

"Sit there for a couple of hours while I bring you to a better place. You can breathe water, yes?" A voice said in the panicked mind of Shelly. She could feel Ms. Snake dry and forked tongue gliding near her, and the razor-sharp teeth and fangs all around her made her hold onto said tongue as though her life depended on it.

It was creepy, scary, wet, and disgusting, but Shelly had no other choice but to hold on. She could feel Ms. Snake moving along the cave, and even though the huge snake was trying her best, Shelly was still thrown around a bit.

Then, they entered what Shelly assumed to be the ocean. The space where Shelly held on seemed to get just a bit smaller, and she could even feel a bit of creaking around her as the water pressure surrounded Ms. Snake.

For the next couple hours, Shelly desperately tried not to slip down into the dark abyss below. For as much as she liked Ms. Snake for helping her, she really had no desire to explore her insides.

The real problem, however, came when Ms. Snake began to swim directly upward. Then, Shelly had to fight even harder not to slip up and literally fall into her throat and stomach. Furthermore, she even had to be careful not to get prickled by the extremely poisonous fangs Ms. Snake sported.

Finally, after what felt like truly forever, Ms. Snake finally stopped. Then, light streamed into the dark cavern that had held Shelly prisoner for so long.

Shelly happily swam out, feeling the warm and welcoming water surround her. She breathed in, feeling it drown out her lungs. Thankfully, she had a solution.

Activating her race's ability, she shifted to her aquatic form, her legs gathering together into a tail, and gills appearing along her neck.

She stretched out her new limb, along with taking some careful breaths through her new gills. Transforming had always been something she found she could do with little effort, but it was still somewhat problematic since she always needed some time to adapt to either human form or aquatic form after shifting.

Ms. Snake was looking at her with her ever-present bored look, but Shelly knew her well enough now to tell she was at least interested. Suddenly, though, Ms. Snake looked away for some reason.

Shelly ignored her for the moment and instead chose to go frolicking around the area, getting amazed at all the brightly colored corals and fish.

Unbeknownst to her, our cute little murder snake was having an existential crisis. She had always been a fanatical cleanness nazi, and dirtiness or disorganization sent her insane. She wanted to tell the mermaid to take off her clothes since they were in the water now, however...

Well... Is there a need to say why exactly that would sound so many levels of wrong?