“Little human, why do you attempt to impersonate the front feet of a tiger? Don’t you know there are no tigers this far north?”

  By sheer force of will I did not scream. I pulled out my camp chair and sat on it, looking at the fist sized head of the serpent who had just spoken to me.

  I know next to nothing about snakes, but this one must be mythically powerful or I was tripping.

  The snake looked like it belonged in a hallucination, its scales were mithril colored, which if I haven’t said before is a shimmering silver with the faintest blue, yellow and pink iridescence. The yellow was mostly in the reticulation markings.

  I decided to answer and hope I was not hallucinating. “I was relying on the humans who may be following me to ignore random cat tracks.”

  “I thought that might be it.” The serpent shifted, slithering up the boulder shielding my little camp, coiling itself and hanging down in what somehow seemed a more threatening posture. “Oh. Calm down.”

  Maybe it could smell my spike of alarm.

  “I only eat rodents, rabbits and the occasional chicken.” The serpent moved again, coiling to settle its chin on the stone.

  “I have never injured a snake, but I have been led to believe I ought to be wary of snake bites.”

  The hissing laugh was somehow comforting. “Fair. A lesser viper would definitely be better skewered on that toothpick you carry. Lucky for you I am a greater python. Let us make a pact, little human, a parlay pact of non aggression.”

  “I accept your request. We will not harm one another.”

  “For the length of this discussion, or for longer?”

  “As far as I am concerned, far longer. I don’t like to hurt things smart enough to talk to me.”

  “An enlightened attitude. Don’t take it too far. Kill those that try to harm you, especially the two legged kind.”

  I nodded regally. “Excellent advice.” I sighed and relaxed.

  “There are no two legged hunters on your trail. You lost them where it looks like you climbed a tree you never scaled.”

  “You went down my back trail?”

  “Hmm… after I had found you near here. I was curious. The humans have been at war again. Humans are ridiculous creatures, killing for ideas rather than food.”

  “I tend to agree. Thank you for the information.”

  “A gift of goodwill.”

  The silence stretched for a long moment. After a while I realized the snake was waiting for me to offer information for good will. “The human war will most certainly last a few more years.”

  “More food for the ecosystem.”

  I nodded. “I am fleeing the faction who oppose the faction my mother was raised in.”

  “Ah. I do somewhat understand politics. The sixth tier and above beasts have our own sorts of politics.”

  “I don’t have a level or tier yet. I’m too young. I won’t even awaken my system for five more years.”

  “Practically a baby. I somehow thought you were just short.”

  “Yeah. I’m seven, we awaken our system at twelve and reach our majority at fourteen. Give or take.” I was supposed to marry Trevor at fourteen. I still had the document that said the wedding was canceled. Hopefully I would never need it.

  “I have been at tier seven for roughly two thousand years.”

  “A nice, long lifetime.”

  The snake nodded slightly. “Long, but never long enough.”

  “Do… you…” I began carefully, weighing every word. “Perhaps have a task only a tiny human could handle?”

  “Not… ssssssssss. I did have a cause for approaching. Yes I do have an issue with a certain cave in this mound. Yes I had intended to recruit you, but that was before I knew that you were a hatchling.”

  “Is it dangerous?”

  “You did climb up here on your own. It’s… I have already defeated the little horrors on guard. But there is also a pattern and a series of levers. Forget it. Come back when you’re leveled a bit. I will still be nearby, protecting the treasure which may bring me enlightenment.”

  “I’m good with puzzles and levers.” I said, now desperately wanting to see this cave in what really did seem to be a massive stone wall.

  “There is a thing inside that I want. I cannot promise there will be anything else, but if there is, the one tasty smelling mana object is all I want.”

  I nodded. “Let me stow my gear and we can go immediately. I swear on our pact that you can have the thing or things that are pulling you there.”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  “You know that if you go back on your word that you forfeit the pact and I will kill you for your betrayal?”

  “That is exactly what I meant by swearing on the pact.”

  “Good. It is important to remember that any hatchling will have gaps in their understanding of proper etiquette.”

  I cleared my camp very quickly. I didn’t have to take the tent apart to store it.

  “Let’s go.” I said. “Please remember the limits of my movements.”

  “I have worked with humans before.”

  The path the serpent took qualified as a nice footpath. We went along the wall, down a ramp whose paving stones had long since been encrusted with dirt and debris.

  We arrived at an open doorway. If we were in a cultivation world I would immediately believe I had stumbled upon an inheritance site. Back on Earth I might expect it to be a bunker, maybe the scary level 4 disease laboratory that turned out to be the origin of the zombie apocalypse. Here… well… there had been ‘horrors’ inside. Mad scientist lair?

  “Wait here. I will do a sweep and make sure nothing has entered since I was last here.”

  That made sense.

  My new friend was back in about ten minutes. I had set my stool with my back to the wall and was watching the forest.

  “Many things fall from above. If I wanted to sneak up on you I would do it from above, you don’t look up often enough.”

  “You did sneak up on me.” I teased.

  “And you were completely unaware of me until I spoke. I’m starting to think I would be neglectful if I didn’t escort you back to other humans.”

  “I’m supposed to go to Melanor.” I admitted. “That old bird person place.”

  “Ah. There are many closer humans.”

  “Those ones might be looking for me.” I reminded… him, her, it, them? “What pronouns should I use? Are you male, female, neutral or plural?”

  The serpent raised its head to look into my eye.

  “I am male, although I cannot see how it matters to you. We are breeding incompatible.”

  “I thought all tier six beasts could shift their form.”

  “You mean make themselves look like humans? Of course I can, and other animals too. You don’t think I was born this color, do you? Why would I want to look human?”

  “To pull levers in a puzzle to get at something tasty?”

  He grumbled.

  “What was that?”

  “I tried. I couldn’t figure it out.”

  “Oh. Let’s not get our hopes up that I can do it then.”

  “Sssss.”

  We entered the cavernous space.

  “Do you mind if I use a lantern?”

  “Suit yourself. It will not hurt my vision.”

  I pulled out a mana lamp. I turned it on.

  He reacted as if he was looking for an attack. “Oh. Humph. Maybe it did effect my perception.” He sounded grumpy. “I apologize for the aggressive posture.”

  I was quite amused, because I didn’t think for a nanosecond that he would attack me. His level meant he would look before he struck.

  “Forgiven without reservation. I will attempt to be more straightforward when I intend to use mana based objects.”

  “I think I was just surprised. That must be quite a good spatial object. I do not feel any mana crystals inside.”

  “There are quite a few. Would you like one? A gesture of goodwill if you want it.”

  “I… ssssss… could not take such a treasure from a hatchling.”

  “My aunt gave it to me. She is- was in a position to collect many such things.”

  I set one of the most potent crystals I had on the floor carefully and walked away from it, holding my lantern up to the wall.

  I think I was expecting religious iconography, and there was some, but it was graffitied over older drawings. Drawings that looked suspiciously similar to something I recognized… from… from chemistry class? No way. The closer I got the more detail I could see in each atom. They were drawn with all their protons and electrons. It was wild. The work was so tiny. It was like someone had etched it with a pin.

  “This way.” He hissed. The crystal was gone from the floor.

  Don’t get me wrong, I had no idea what molecules were drawn on the walls. I could tell it wasn’t water, and it wasn’t a crystalline formation. I followed the snake.

  The room we were in had clearly been an office at some time in the past.There was a broken chair and a safe on the wall. At one time the safe had a picture hanging in front of it but the slab of rock the picture was etched on was open like a door.

  The snake slithered up to the safe and pointed at a series of levers with his nose.

  The safe was also atom themed. There was a large water molecule on the face. Each lever had ten random numbers on the ten possible positions. There was a caption at the top with symbols I immediately guessed would be atomic names, even though the letters and language were unfamiliar.

  “Oh.” I straightened and immediately began looking around the room for anything resembling a periodic table.

  I almost missed it. The elements were arranged in a spiral with two symbols for each atomic number. One with a symbol that looked like the rune for mana, one with a symbol that looked like mundane.

  The transition metals were just crammed together with tiny writing.

  I sagged in relief. I pulled out a large sheet of paper and stuck it to the wall with some removable gum that worked like that blue stuff that I used to hang posters in college. I used a black wax stick- one of the ‘crayons’ mother gave me shortly after I met Aunt Glory.

  I moved the paper, gummy bits and all to the back of the safe’s picture door. I found the symbols, matched up the levers and turned the crank.

  The ancient safe slid open as if it was recently oiled. I stowed my rubbing and stood back to let my new friend inspect the contents.

  Something shiny caught my eye across the room. It was the ‘bone’ of one of the weird little goblins that were smashed to bits all around. Not golems, robots with goblin skins.

  “I have a bad feeling about this.” I murmured the quote in English.

  “Huh? I’m done. Anything else there is yours.” He moved well away to let me look.

  Suspiciously, the first thing I saw was my mana crystal, the one I tried to give him.

  There were some old books. I felt a chill run up my neck when I pulled the first one out. A bit of light just above the cover shone light on some words in the same script as the limbo labyrinth choices.

  SOME KNOWLEDGE IS FORBIDDEN ON THIS WORLD. IF YOU OPEN THIS BOOK YOU WILL BE EXPELLED FROM THIS WORLD.

  I moved it to an empty spot, probably the spot where my snake friend had lifted whatever he’d wanted.

  The second book had the same message. The third and final book had no otherworldly writing. It was leather bound and contained a lot of rune combinations. I stored that immediately.

  There were some ancient coins, each imprinted with a water molecule on one side and a face on the other.

  Behind the books was a small latched case. I almost missed it. I pulled it out.

  THIS IS A SECRET OBJECT, OFTEN FORBIDDEN, SINCE YOU ALREADY KNOW WHAT IT IS, YOU MAY KEEP IT. IF YOU TRY TO ‘SCIENCE’ WITH IT, YOU WILL GO MAD.

  I opened the case and almost laughed out loud. A microscope. Of course. I shook my head and put it away. Maybe I could use it for crafting or something. Microscopic runes?

  There was just one more thing, something that looked like a jewelry box, that had a large orb inside. There was no message so I took that too.

  “Anything worth your time?”

  “Maybe. There are two books we should destroy if we can.”

  “Stand back. No. Better go all the way out of the structure.”

  I went. I heard a distressing explosion, followed by cracking stone and falling debris. I was afraid for my new friend, but I didn’t need to be. He looked dusty, but no worse for wear.

  He was laughing as he joined me. I sat on the ground, also giggling.