Waking up to the sound of... hmmm it is silent. Feeling something on top of me I wiggled my body a little bit to get free and saw leaves falling off of me.

Smiling at the cover Sahra made for me I tiredly rubbed my eyes with my tail and yawned.

*Yawn*

"Hisssss!"

Stretching my tired body I felt a sting near my neck.

Guess the wound isn´t fully healed even after a good night's sleep.

Curiously looking around I could see that there was a floating orb in the sky, that imitates the day and night cycle. Seeing the orb just shining dimly, I estimated that it is still early in the morning.

Turning my head to see where Sahra is, I could see a boulder next to me that radiated just the right amount of heat.

Interesting, so Sahra turns to a boulder when sleeping. Kinda cool.

Feeling the cold breeze of the morning wind on my grey scales I shivered and shamelessly slithered towards Sahra and snuggled close, to get some of that heat.

"Hissss" sighing in delight I enjoyed the warmth.

Ahhh so that is how Grian, my pet snake, felt like when laying on his heated stone plate all day. What an enjoyable life he has…

While enjoying the heat I didn´t notice Sahra already turned into her humanoid form lying on her side facing me.

...

Feeling something clutching onto her chest, Sahra woke up and activated her sensors. Seeing a little snake desperately trying to get warmth, she covered me with her hands and moved me over her heart.

The warmth of her body surrounded me, making me feel safe and sheltered. I haven´t felt so safe once in my two lives.

*dun-dun* *dun-dun* *dun-dun* *dun-dun*

Hear the strong rhythmic heartbeat of Sahra pounding in excitement, a small smile formed on my face. The sound is soothing my tired mind and drifted into nothingness once again. Staying there for a couple of minutes I finally wiggled out of my safe haven and looked into Sahras two black dots on her face with a smile.

Smiling back with flushed cheeks, she stood up and sat me on her shoulder and slumped the heavy backpack on her shoulders again.

I feel a little bit guilty about letting her carry all that stuff, but as a half a-meter-long snake I can´t really do anything to lessen her burden.

...

So here we are running through the forest till she stopped in front of a man-made building. It looked like an ancient Greek temple with 2 stone statues of busty women in rope clothing holding a bowel in front of the entranceway. It was made out of white marble and looked imposing in the clearing while surrounded by giant trees.

Walking towards the entrance I could smell a strong pungent stench of blood and rotting flesh. Looking at Sahra fearlessly walking inside my stomach turned at the site.

Dismembered body parts laying on the ground, organs splattered everywhere, and half-eaten human corpses being gnawed on by the giant rats that I encountered in the room with the pond. Only the sound of nagging and tearing of flesh could be heard in the dark hallway and the occasional screech sound. Sahra didn´t even spare a glance as she just walked straight ahead with silent steps, ignoring everything around us.

Surprisingly the Nagirus didn´t even look at us as they were too busy eating the remains of the humans.

Halfway through the dark hallway, I spotted a purple crystal in the clutches of a dead human near our path. Seeing if anyone is around it, I silently slithered from Sahras shoulder and snatched the blood-covered purple gem, but it was more difficult than expected, as postmortem rigidity already set in. So with all my might, I pulled the crystal out of it and it flew out of my mouth landing near a rat who was minding its own business.

Hearing the clanking sound of the crystal it turned around and sniffed the purple crystal, before screeching in delict and stretching its furry hands out to grab it.

Not wanting to let this fat rat steal my crystal I immediately lunched at him with an opened jaw and bit him mercilessly into his right eye while pouring as much poison as possible into it.

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

With a loud screech, it tried to push me away but got paralyzed by my poison and died shortly after.

*Ding*

[You killed a Nagirus!]

[You gained 56 Exp!]

Puh, that was easy!

Revenge felt so good...

Clutching the big crystal in my mouth I grinned in delight, just to instantly fade away as the red glowing eyes of tens of Nagirus stared at me. Even Sahra was looking at me with one palm on her face shook her head.

Oh no... now I am in deep shit...

Silence...

""""SCREEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!""""

Hundreds of screeches sounded at the same time as I too screamed inside my head in panic.

Slithering as fast as I could towards Sahra she quickly scoped me up and set me on her shoulder before clapping her hands together, producing a sand cloud covering us. This allowed us to gain more distance from the wave of ugly oversized rodents.

Running through the hallway we reached some stone stairs leading downwards in a giant spiral that was more than 100 meters deep and dimly lit with blue torches.

Still chasing us we ran downwards the monsters eagerly chaste us. They were so many of them that they pushed each other off the stairs, dropping down into the depths and splattered on the ground.

As we neared the bright exit way on the bottom of the spiral some managed to catch up and latch onto the backpack, rip a hole in it, dropping the goblin cores on the ground.

Seeing the many green gems they stopped in their tracks and fought each other over it.

Luckily, it distracted them long enough for Sahra to sprint through the doorway.

...

Immediately going through it a bright light assaulted my eyes.

Covering my eyes with my tail I slowly adjusted my eyes to the bright light.

Next to the sound of Sahra gasping for air, I could hear the gentle sound of the wind. The air here was 10 times fresher and tastier as in the jungle.

Looking at the new environment my jaw dropped.

It was like stepping into a completely new world.

I didn´t expect to see a giant plain of grass stretching out endlessly with clouds in the air and mountains in the distance.

WTF is going on here! How can such a giant place exist under a temple!?

"SCREE!"

The distance screech of the rodents pushed me out of my trance as Sahra already caught her breath and began to run again.

After 10 minutes of running, we stopped hearing the Nagirus, and Sahra dropped flat down on the grassy floor and breathed heavily as a slight warm breeze brushed past my grey scales.

Thinking back on what just happened I couldn´t help but laugh at what just happened.

"Sss sss sss sss!"

Sahra who was out of breath just looked at me confused but let out a similar laughing noise as we stare at the clouds above.

What an adventure...