NOVEL WEB [Arc I] Chapter 49 – dancing in the rain
As I watched my brother leave, I felt wistful… I would like to have friends again. And family. (“But we do!”) Yeah but it’s not the same! I do care about them in a way.. But we can’t slither about our problems! Or even interact with me in this state! And it seems those bonds among the snakes are less permanent than what I’m used to.
Being Isekaid.. It's hard. The everyday part of it at least. (“Stop being negative! Find something else to think about!”)(“Like what? Our current condition?”) **Grrrowl** Well, hungry stomach rumbles to the rescue, let’s be irritated while thinking about finding food instead!
Where is mother! We shall inform her of our discontent! It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a young child in possession of an empty stomach, must be in want of a good temper tantrum! (“No, just no”)(“Shame. Shame on you”) (“You bring dishonor to my english literature teacher”). She is not here again! What is keeping her occupied all the time recently? And going outside in this weather?
I slithered away, ashamed of my wordplay, getting closer to the edge of the nest- the thought of finding nutrition by myself more appealing with every passing second. It was truly pouring, the heavy rain already forming small rivers, flowing into the lake. I haven’t seen a rainstorm like this in my previous life! But then I had lived in the dry part of the states. But wouldn’t this be too extreme, even for florida? These raindrops are the size of my head! Oh wait, I’m a small snek now. They still seem bigger than what I would find normal, but it doesn’t seem too unreasonable.
Actually, isn’t this dangerous? Can I even go out without dying due to blunt force trauma?
I put the tip of my tail out to test the waters (“huehue”), the poor appendage quickly becoming the most battered part of my body, and OUCH!
“Sssss!” I said in protest. Well okay, we shouldn’t be dramatic, it wasn’t that bad. Look, it didn’t even activate the skill that shall not be named! (“I like when you ignore me.. sss”)
Discouraged, and feeling the ennui typical of rainy days, I just looked outside. If we ignore the inconvenience, (which was much easier to ignore while in the middle of modern civilisation, with paved roads instead of mud, and central heating, and light and ...), I can’t help but appreciate the beauty of nature. Leaves seem much more saturated in color now, the more dense trees seemingly completely blocking the raindrops, concentrating the water into small waterfalls falling near their trunk or outside their crown instead.
<Water. Bad.>
Well, not really, water is a necessary part of the ecosystem, without it the forest would wither!
<Food. Search. Hungry.>
(“We could try travelling close to the trunk line, and on top of roots”)
(“We could also do nothing!”)
<Snakeling close.. Tasty… eat snakeling!>
I mean my brother does seem to be a snake hunk… wait what?! (“Deja vu!”)
<“More water in tunnels! Have to go out!”>
It’s the underground creature again! (“Maybe it’s an underground earworm, that helps decompose dead snakes?”)(“Yeah, knowing this world it will be ten times our size, and it will help us become dead first”)
(“Or.. it might be a potential food source!”)
What? This seems to be a snake eating creature and I’m supposed to go, and present myself to it?
(“A worthy trial! Noodle artist cannot grow without worthy challenges!”)
(“A suicide move, we can just wait for parental help, it’s not as if anyone has ever died of hunger. Oh wait..”)
(“Or we can just wait for the weather to get better”)
[HUNT. EAT. SURVIVE]
Suddenly, a new voice appeared. It did come from within me.. But it wasn’t.. Me? A kind of instinct and.. And I just started slithering forward.
I’m totally not being manipulated by my body okay, it was totally fully intellectual decision! (“Dodge!”) Ouch!
I activated my drunken arts, trying my best to dodge falling droplets, while following the weak trail of thoughts coming from underground. It did seem to be panicking about water, so I should be able to surprise it when it’s breaching the surface!
Left! Right! left! Ouch! Faster! Continuing the slaloming slither, as close to the tree trunks as possible, I can feel the movement and dodging related skills growing as fast as I’m moving forward! Fortunately it seems travelling through the ground is not as fast as flying or swimming, so even with my erratic movements I’m managing to keep up..
“Ha! You will never escape me! Nothing can defeat the drunken snout! Nothing!” (“Great. It’s a flag”)(“Flags have no scientific proof! It’s unreasonable to believe in them!”)(“Is it also true in this world?”)
- Literally 10 min later -
(“Flags are not real, they cannot hurt you! Look, I’m the smart one! Well, what is this?!”)(“Oh, fiddlesticks”)
In front of me was a newly formed stream- carrying water from who knows where, wanting to join the lake. The current is quite rapid and mudy.. Not something I should risk swimming through. Especially when I haven’t swam in this body before. What now?
(“We should go back! We are quite a distance from the nest, it’s dangerous!”)
(“But we followed for so long.. It has to go out of its tunnel soon!”)
