Chapter 4:

A Way Out

Serpentes


…It has been a while since I heard that voice in my head, but I'm sure I wasn't the only one. My siblings are stuck in the same position as I am. It feels like it's still ringing in my head.

A voice with clear instructions directed at us by none other than our Mother. She had continued moving through the cave after telling us to follow.

She told us this without making a sound and those words, Nel, Kal and Saf. She looked at each of us separately while telling us these words. Nel is what she called me, Kal to my energetic sibling and Saf to my shy sibling.

Mother stops and turns around when she see's that were confused and not following her. She motions with her tail to follow her. I start moving, but my siblings are still in a confused state. Mother reiterates 'Follow' and while still gesturing for us to follow. She too looks confused at over slow responses.

She then closes the distance between us and says "Understand?", to which I respond with a nod and my siblings follow suit. A big smile appeared on her face, which was really surprising since this was the first time I had seen her excited. She scooped the three of us up on her head and started moving, though it was a bit difficult to ride now that were a bit bigger.

As we made our way through the new path we found Father who had been making sure the path was safe enough for us to continue going. Mother let us down and we continued our Journey.

The path we had found ourselves in was much brighter, while it was narrow it had quite a few of those large bright crystals. This area was filled with small Insectas and didn't have anything as big as us.

After reaching a place with multiple paths, Father goes down one of the paths, holding his tail up to tell us to wait here.

So… Mother can just transmit her thoughts to us; is she the reason the reason I know and understand most of the things I see? Can Father also do this? If this is how Mother and Father communicated with each other, then its no wonder they often just nod to each other.

While I was lost in thought my sibling, 'Kal' Mother called was sneaking up on one of the Insectas that inhabited this place. He sneaked up behind it and got close enough to bite it. Waiting till his target was completely still he strikes!!! with his tail…

The Insecta upon being hit by such a weak tail, skittered away into a tiny hole in the wall. For Kal the difference in what had just perceived and what he thought he would have, was so great that he got stuck in a frozen state.

You have teeth, you've used them to bite and eat this whole time, use them. Our tails aren't like Father's they barely weight anything at all. Mother taps Kal on the forehead and snaps him out and gets his attention. She then picks up a large rock almost as big as her head with her Jaw. Cracks appear on the rock and after a few seconds she crushes the rock into two.

Kal starts hitting one of the broken rock remains, he's pretty persistent. Mother picks up the other part of the rock with her tail this time and squeezes it so hard that it crumbles into much smaller stones. Her demonstration catches Kal's attention for a few seconds, after which he goes back to hitting the rock hit his tail.

Saf, interested in this exercise tried what mother showed with one of the smaller stones. She presses the stone with all her might; nothing happens but she keeps trying.

While the two of them were doing this, an Insecta skittering along the wall caught my attention. This one was pretty different, unlike the others it had more than six legs, they were uncountable in number and moved in a rhythmic fashion. It had a thin body and was much longer than all of the other Insectas.

They come in all shapes and sizes huh, these Insectas don't have a class like Lepus and the Canine. From what I understand thanks to the words in my head they're a part of the "Insecta Kingdom", the difference between them and Classes is that they can look pretty different from each other. I try and sneak up on the Insecta, but it simply crawls up a wall and disappears into a crevice. They are also really good and climbing walls and even the ceilings of the cave.

Father comes back from one of the paths and points to the area he came from. He makes an weird oval-like shape in front of Mother and Mother simply nods back at him. Father starts by leading the way,

"Follow", Mother tells us while pushing us along with her tail. We follow who's going pretty slow and cautiously, the path is pretty narrow at some parts, its no wonder only Insectas reside here.

While travelling through this place Father always looked a bit tense and always had his eyes straight ahead. He wasn't like his playful self, come to think of it he's been pretty serious for the last few days even before the cave shook.

The path gradually widens and I see rays of light shining on a wall in front of us, Father and Mother also notice and adopt a slower and quieter pace. I see the light source far at the end of the path, the light too bright for me to gauge the distance to it.

Father readies his tail as I notice the footprints from the creatures chasing us earlier. Mother gets next to Father as we approach an area of more space. Peeking around the wall Father remains alert, but finds nothing but footprints, several footprints. Some of them were huge. How can this many large creatures live together in this cave?

Mother hisses as we hear noise from the light source in the wall, Father hides us behind him with his tail as three creatures entered from the light; all taller than Father they stood on two legs and had two more appendages.

"?out cleared been had area this thought I"

".rate I F and E Grade snakes two just It's ,path narrow that from probably They're"

"?Vipers"

"Boas be might ,scales the from tell can You ,Nah"

The three creatures, part of the "Humanoid Family" grabbed their weapons and adopted a fighting stance. Father shows of his Fangs to try and intimidate them, but gets no response other than a few wide eyes.

Father readies his tail behind him and swings it with great force right in front of the three humans, smashing right into the wall. I don't think I'll ever get used to the impact of that.

The humans take multiple steps back and seem panicked, then one of them says:

"Serpentes Gladius."

-june-
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Glaiviator
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Serpentes


Glaiviator
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