26 Strange Noises (1/2)
The soft almost crying noise cut out immediately at his touch. Lineir was paralyzed like a tiny mouse was when looking into the eyes of a cat. He kept very still as if Mei could pounce at any time. His hand still on her head, Mei's eyes slowly came up from the ground and stared viciously into his. The intent was clear, and Lineir knew that his end was near.
”YOU DARE!!!!!!!!!”
Mei's small hands were reaching up with alarming speed towards his neck when Lineir's eyes opened and he found himself gagging on lingering stomach acid as his torn body flailed about in the stomach of the False Water Serpent.
”Oplained. He half expected Mei to call him out for complaining, but she was definitely mad at him and his thoughts were the only ones in his head.
”Come on, I was only trying to comfort you, it was an instinct! Mei-Mei you should be glad to have such a caring disciple, don't be angry.” It was useless though, all he got was silence. When he examined himself miraculously his burns were almost all healed. He shrugged and made his way to one of the gleaming streams of light in the wall of the stomach. Whatever had happened, it had definitely killed the False Water Serpent, not only was the head ripped clean off, leaving a large gaping hole at the top of the stomach where the neck should be, the whole body had been ripped apart with terrifying slash marks going all the way through the skin which was at least a meter thick. With a shudder, Lineir hopped out of the hole where the neck used to be onto a stony floor. The body of the serpent was too torn up, it could collapse at any moment and he doubted he'd survive that, forbidden techniques or not.
Tacka Tacka
The rocky floors were a soothing cold on his burned feet as they slapped on the hard surface. His clothes had been completely eaten away by acid in some places, it was amazing that he hadn't been digested.
”If my clothes are like this... then how tough is my body to have survived and to have actually healed once the stomach acids had drained out? What happened... I remember a roar... and then getting smacked around. I swore for a moment the red elemental energy was finally fusing. I must have imagined it...” He quickly circulated the energy in his Second Heart and ascertained that indeed, the only energies inside were clearly lightning and darkness.
”Where am I?”
In front of him the setting sun was shining and he realized he was on the precipice of a sheer cliff. The place he had come was a vast cavernous cave high the sky in which the headless body of the False Water Serpent lay, the incoming light illuminating terrifying wounds all along its length. Mei still refused to say anything and Lineir panicked for a moment. The sword! Where was the sword which was Mei's Final Heart. He frantically looked around and finally a familiar irate and tart voice came into his mind,
”Oh, finally looking for me? You won't be able to find me, I already turned back into liquid form and am currently inside your heart again. Until you've properly trained yourself you can keep your hands off of me!” She lapsed back into silence and Lineir sighed.
”This is definitely not my fault! I told you it was a reaction!!”
Stomping his way back to the corpse, he tried to figure out what could have caused all this to happen. The serpent had leapt out of the lake, that much was clear. It was falling after Lineir had entered the belly of the beast, but before it landed, it stopped. Something must have caught it in midair. For something to have caught it however, it must have been massive. Furthermore, it must have been able to fly. Lineir froze,
”Those goats...we never found any tracks. Whatever killed them was either really small... or it killed them from the sky!” He whipped his head from the corpse lying in the cave back outside to the bright sky and scanned the horizon furiously. Whatever had done this could be flying out there right now. Suddenly, a loud noise came from behind the corpse of the False Water Serpent.
SSSSShhhhhssssssss....
Lineir almost jumped off the edge of the cliff before he realized that whatever had done this couldn't possibly fit behind the corpse. The cave was too small.
”There's no way... it's just the wind. I need to find a way out of here before whatever did this comes back for the night!”