They just started over the branch when Sammy suddenly grabbed Azure to stop her. They exchanged silent glances, and then Sammy pointed at what she just barely noticed.

  Just underneath the branch, wrapped around the huge tree trunk itself, was a giant snake, its colors and even its texture like that of the tree, making it nigh impossible to notice. Only some faint, strange aura caused Sammy to see it at all. When one focused enough, the eyes at least were clear, and the rest could finally come into focus. Its head was pointed right at them.

  Azure stifled a gasp when she finally managed to make it out.

  Sammy, stunned still and froze for the second time in a matter of a few minutes, did her patented, always effective response in that sort of scenario. She held up her hand and said, “Hi.”

  As silly as it might seem, she was instinctively invoking [Diplomacy] in the process.

  The snake remained still and stared for a long moment. Then it flicked its forked tongue once.

  If she had been anyone else in that moment, she might’ve thought nothing of it and decided to try backing up and going around the thing. Or maybe attacking preemptively.

  But Sammy had interacted with a certain snake before that flicked its tongue, and something very subtle in that flick tipped her off.

  So she conjured the spell to understand and speak languages. And then she said, “Sorry, I didn’t catch that — could you repeat?” Meanwhile, her eyes glanced around for felines. The coast was thankfully clear.

  The giant snake had its head twitch slightly. It flicked its tongue again. “I said, ‘Hello, Two-Legs, but you can’t understand me anyway.’ Is that false, now?”

  Sammy nodded, and couldn’t help smiling in relief. Meanwhile, Azure squinted her eyes between them and then began casting her own comprehension spell. Finally, Sammy cleared her throat. “False, yes. I can understand you.”

  The snake writhed slightly. “How lovely. Two-Legs never think to talk to snakes at all. But then, I admit I was probably going to eat you.”

  “Oh. I, uh… I see. I’m sure that makes sense. So… what about now? Can you maybe not eat me? Please?”

  “Are you sure? Bah. How could I refuse a polite request from a civilized person? As you wish, Two-Legs.”

  “I really appreciate that. So, I take it that ‘Two-Legs’ types, as you put it, are rare here?”

  “It works!” Azure exclaimed, grinning. “It fucking worked this time. I can understand the snake!”

  Sammy patted Azure’s back to congratulate her. “That’s great!”

  The snake flicked its tongue rapidly. “You two are rather cute. Perhaps try not to be? Cuteness is especially appetizing.”

  “Sorry,” Azure said awkwardly, her eyes shifting around. Then she managed a mean scowl to direct at the snake. “Better?”

  “Marginally. I suppose it's unavoidable. At least I can barely taste you in the air. Anyhow. Two-Legs are rare, yes. Rare and brief.”

  “Right,” Sammy agreed. “I’m sure they get promptly mutilated and eaten.”

  “Yes. And then — usually — transformed.”

  “Pardon? What do you mean, transformed?”

  “The monstrous hybrid felines, often but not always Four-Legs, are former Two-Legs who came here as Seekers. If you are devoured by them in their endless hunger for bloody flesh, you will be digested partially but regurgitated as one of them, trapped here forever as an immortal beast.”

  “Holy righteous shit, that’s horrifying.” And I’d bet it’ll affect a deity, too. Yeesh.

  “And I thought hairballs were gross,” Azure muttered.

  “Snake, out of curiosity, what happens if, uh… you eat a Two-Legs?”

  The giant tree snake seemed to flick its tongue like a shrug. “Aren’t you familiar with snakes? You’re crushed, suffocated, very deadified, and slowly digested.”

  “No regurgitation?”

  “Bones, perhaps. Hmm. Are you asking if I am one of those cursed monsters? How insulting.” The snake hissed.

  “I apologize. Please forgive my ignorance.”

  “Well, I suppose tolerating confusion from a culture clash is reasonable. You are forgiven. But are you truly certain you don’t want me to eat you? Your other fate seems worse from my perspective.”

  “Is there really no other option, then?”

  “I’m afraid not. Unless you’d prefer the killer flowers, but that death is painfully slow. Yes. This place is a death trap for your kind. Sorry to break that to you.”

  “I knew those flowers were trouble! Anyway, I’d really prefer not to be eaten by anything at all. Truthfully, we are seeking out the mistress, here. The Lady of the Moon.”

  “Of course you are. One of the traps, though new Seekers have been rarer and rarer to my perspective.”

  “Is there anything you can advise me to… Seek and Find? It’s very important that I speak with her.”

  “Speak, only? Do you not seek immortality from her?”

  “Not at all. I already have that, actually. I am a goddess, not a mortal.”

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  “You are? You’re certain that’s not some sort of Two-Legs hallucination or delusion of grandeur? It’s really common, I hear.”

  Sammy chuckled but shook her head firmly. “I’m very certain. I subsist off of the worship of mortals.”

  “Most curious. Tragic, that you come here. Well. I suppose it is possible she may receive you, then, though I wouldn’t bet on it. She’s one of those ‘introverts.’ Not keen on guests.”

  “Whatever you could tell me, however you can help, you’d have my eternal gratitude.”

  “Oh ho! Is that so? Friendship, then, as a goddess to the Nameless Crawling Upon Their Bellies? We have so few. Less even than one.”

  “Absolutely!”

  “I accept on our behalf.”

  That did something. An echo could be felt through reality, as she made an agreement.

  Shit. Something was missing, though, like a cherry to complete the sundae. Or a nail in a coffin. A saving grace?

  “To whom do I speak?” The snake asked.

  Sammy wasn’t sure she wanted to answer truthfully. She could pull an Odysseus, after all. ‘Nobody’ would get her out of it. Maybe.

  I question what Rallindin did with this. I can’t ferret it out at all right now. Does what I do here even matter? It’s a simulation. But why not go for gold? This one’s for you, Ozzy.

  She eyed the giant snake and answered, “You speak to the Goddess of Fate, Light, and Magic.”

  The ‘cherry of reality’ certainly dropped. Finality was clear.

  With a solemn tongue, the snake flicked, “So be it. When you are low in the dirt with the boot crushing you beneath, defeat looming like the spite of all things, you will not be forgotten by those who bore it already. Oh, new sister, the fangs of who were friendless wait and lurk in the sand to strike.”

  Sammy was awed. “What you say sounds important. Epic, even. I’m not sure I did anything to deserve it.”

  “Be uncertain how, but be sure that. Goddess of Fate! You are one who can break cosmic curses and lift the low to higher standing! Silly.”

  “She is often silly, it’s true,” Azure commented.

  “Yes. Who else would trust a snake but the greatest of fools? The time for talk is ending, though. We will help you firstly to give you safe passage through our informal territory. It is thus at all because the beasts will not traverse it. Can you guess the direction?”

  “Down,” Sammy said immediately. “Lower.”

  “That’s right. Into the dark and the mold with you. There you can go where’er else you desire, coming up from the depths.”

  “And where do I go once there?”

  A feline suddenly came into view. Its head was cocking around rapidly.

  The snake noticed too, glancing at it, then back, to flick an insistent tongue. “Stop your utterances. They hear. Go. The answer to your question is fleeting. Seek it yourself. Observe as we do, from the low places. As for this creature, I’ll take it down with me.” A pause, as the others were dismayed. “I mean literally, not figuratively! I’ll jump it and we’ll fall, and then it will bite and claw just to get away back to its habitat. Go! It comes.”

  Sure enough, the feline seemed to be stalking, hopping from branch to branch in their direction.

  As quietly as they could, Sammy and Azure began angling downward, dropping from branch to branch, and doing a controlled slide to another tree via a big, slimy vine (definitely still protected from the icky stuff by auras).

  At one point, they looked back up, as the feline had finally gotten precisely where they had been, and it was sniffing around copiously.

  Well, despite the scent suppression, there are plenty of ‘distinctive’ smells left in that general area.

  Like a silent lightning bolt, the giant snake came down on it and immediately entangled the beast. They tumbled. One snarl got out before it was silenced with a thick snake body constricting and closing over a feline maw. Its flight capabilities entirely disabled, they both fell hard and fast down a gap into the darkness.

  Not wanting to squander the snake’s efforts, Sammy took an angle of descent far away from that vicinity. Other beasts might’ve heard the snarl and come to investigate, and they certainly didn’t want to bump into the feline when it inevitably retreated back up.

  It got very gradually thicker, grimier, and darker as they made their way down. The moldy smell got stronger and stronger. Gee, why didn’t I think of this before? Oh right, it’s gross, nasty, and completely uninviting! On the plus side, they both had excellent night vision, which was especially important as there was no way they were going to use a light source.

  “We can do this, right?” Azure popped into her head as they endured the environment. “Good, yes. Don’t want to disturb the peace. I was going to say, this is the weirdest simulation so far. It's longer, and I swear, it feels… more real.”

  “It does. I think we’re past the kiddy pool. And, I believe we’ve already run through the mid-test, Azure. Buckle up.”

  She was confused. “Don’t we have three fast-forwards? And the third is some endpoint shit with the Entropy Iteration or something?”

  “You’re thinking of the normal past life visions. The Ozra stuff never went to the end. All we really saw was the beginning. The point here… it’s not snapshots of understanding at all. Its periods of challenge. I doubt there is any structural pattern. Unless… unless the general focus is the middle here, and the third Challenge Room is the end. Which suddenly makes it spookier.”

  “You’re not wrong. But I still expected a fast-forward.”

  Sammy paused and looked around. A lot of what they were traversing toward was fallen, dead debris, in certain sections lodging into a huge mass of caught material, likely of shaky footing. The slug-things were common. Looking at them, Sammy suddenly felt queasy.

  Are they somehow former mortals? The shape… it’s almost-... it could’ve been a human.

  Shivering, Sammy turned away, dead set on avoiding those things at all costs. In the distance, further down, she thought she saw some sort of giant, glowing mushrooms. One of a growing laundry list of things probably best avoided.

  A wall of seeming life, but… is it actually? And why? To keep people away? This person we seek worries me. What will they be like on Calrenazzod? I haven’t met them. That much I am clear on.

  “Azure, I…” Sammy felt like her lover was going to balk at her revealed intuition. Sammy balked, honestly. “I’m sorry. But this person we face is cruel. One of the least convertible compared to the rest of you, and here we are, before I softened her up even slightly. She made this place to punish and cause suffering for anyone who dared to approach her. I think we are going to live through the ‘fast-forward.’ They were stuck here. Stuck here with answers coming slowly in a vast, dangerous wilderness.”

  “Oh, wonderful. Just wonderful. I’ll never wear silver again!”

  She's a liar. If the accessory fits the outfit, she is a slave to it.

  Next Chapter...

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