POV ???

  ‘Hmm…I feel sluggish…that means…I woke earlier than I planned…what cau…hm? Goblins? Where there Goblins here when I went to sleep? I don’t remember…but…that wouldn’t have woken me up. The fox? He is still in the north. Hm….ah…I see…Orcs.

  ‘Have I slept so long that they have forgotten my existence? No…that shouldn’t be the case. I intended to sleep for at least 10 years and that hasn’t been the case since I am up early. So, it can’t have been that they forgot about me.

  ‘So. They simply forgot their place.’

  The large being began to move about, and eventually it lifted its large body off the lake floor and began to swim upwards.

  Rick and the others could clearly tell the lake was massive. Even calling it a lake was quite an understatement with just how large it was. The fact that it completely divided different sides of the forest from each other, causing anyone wanting to go to the other side to have to walk quite the distance.

  But of course, that was just the size anyone would be able to see. What most couldn’t see was the actual depth of the lake. It was well over 1000 feet deep. Something most couldn’t fathom unless they actually experienced it themselves. That is why it was no surprise that the lake was able to comfortably hold the body of the creature now leisurely swimming upwards.

  It was more than able to extend the entirety of its 150ft long body than continued to rise upwards.

  The beast was entirely covered in a deep shade of beautiful blue, azure scales that were reminiscent of the sky itself. From its elongated head that contained its light blue slit irises, and where a mouth filled with teeth sharp to limbs with ease, all the way down to end of its tail.

  It was a giant Serpent.

  And despite the depth of the lake and the water pressure that such a depth would have, it did nothing to impede the creature and a few short moments later, it’s head slow broke the through the top of the lake before the rest of its body soon followed as it continued to rise above the lake and up over the trees themselves before it stopped.

  Of course, it wasn’t hiding its body massive body at all, which meant it could be seen from the quite the distance.

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  That distance of course fell within the range of the Goblins who weren’t that far from the lake in the first place.

  Both Tars’ and Dal’s squads have been staying at the village instead of taking turns to go out recently since they wanted to be ready to move as a group should Rick need them. In fact, they were all strongly considering heading in the direction of the plains anyway. Jaba knew those strange Goblins who showed up were far stronger than them, and part of him felt like they were trustworthy enough, but another part of him wanted to bring the whole village to the plains to support Rick.

  So, it wasn’t a surprising thing that there were a lot of Goblins out and about the village at the moment. Some of them were training, while others were working on the building projects Wala and Dran were headlining. There were even a few who were getting ready to head to the rabbit farm.

  Of course, that was until one of the Goblins screamed out in absolute horror.

  “AHHHHHH!!!”

  All of the Goblins in the village stopped what they were doing and ran towards the screaming Goblin only to see what it was also seeing.

  A few of them even got weak in the knees and collapsed to the ground that very moment.

  Jaba himself eventually noticed and finally laid eyes on the body of the massive Serpent in the distance.

  “GET IN THE CAVE, GET IN THE CAVE!! NOW!! GET IN THE CAVE!! HELP THOSE WHO CAN’T MOVE!! KIDA SHOOT THE FLARE”

  Jaba even as his knees threatened to collapse themselves, continued to scream at all his brethren to gather and run into the cave. More than a few of the weaker Goblins collapsed out of fear and had to be carried in a hurry to the cave.

  Kida, while frantic, of course still did as asked and conjured a small fireball that she shot into the sky.

  This was something implemented by Rick to alert any Goblins who weren’t in the immediate area that something happened, and they needed to return immediately.

  In this situation it was the scouts who needed to see the flare, but it was almost pointless since they were already sprinting with everything they had back to the cave.

  In only a few minutes, the once small yet busy village and the nearby areas became abandoned and devoid of any Goblins for the first time in a very long time. Once Jaba realized that all Goblins were accounted for, he and the strongest of them moved a large and thick wooden wall-like structure in front of the cave entrance to close it, then a few large pieces of stone left over from dead golems were stacked behind it.

  The entire village of Goblins were now shaken beyond reason as they hunkered down inside the cave. Afraid for their lives.

  Of course, no one knew with 100% certainty if this was the monster that Rick said slept inside the lake but the chances of it being so was high.

  Jaba in particular sat in silence as he absorbed this fact.

  They had been living so close to danger this entire time.

  Just looking at the beast evoked a sort of primal fear in all of them that simply couldn’t be controlled.

  ….

  Of course, the Serpent watched all of this happen silently as it found it all a little amusing.

  “Are you going to stop scaring them?”

  The massive Serpent looked down to see a fox standing calmly as it looked up towards him.

  “Fox.” A deep rumbling face echoed in the area as the Serpent finally spoke for the first time since waking up.

  “Snake.”