Tale of Death

Chapter 30 - Further Exploration

It took a while longer than she expected but the serpent returned from the pathway after a few minutes of searching it— which informed her that there was a fork in the pathway up ahead.

This wasn't a bad sign though since forks in the pathways meant more ways to go and more possible ways that could lead her up and out of her.

The thing that would be bad for her right now; would be if there were no pathways at all— leaving her to have to dig her way out of this place.

Once the serpent returned she knew that she could take this pathway and did just that— beginning to walk along the narrower pathway and into an unexplored area of the caverns.

The stretch was long and had some jagged turns that injured her body when she tried to get past them, but eventually, she came across the fork in the road that the snake found earlier.

To be exact— it was three ways to go.

Shi sighed because this meant more time she would need to spend here waiting for the serpent to search each pathway before going down one.

This was going to take a lot of time, but she decided to go with this plan, so she was going to stick with it.

"Alright Serr, start with the first one. Go to the end and return when you reach a fork just like before. If it doesn't have a fork return before the link weakens too much." Shi ordered the serpent once more

She had to be more specific this time because she realized earlier that she wasn't being specific enough with the serpent. Because if there wasn't a fork in the pathway— it would've kept going till the link got too weak.

With the new command registered with the creature, it took off in search of the first pathway— with Shi waiting at the entrance just like she had before.

Surprisingly it didn't take as long as Shi thought it would before the serpent returned— the link didn't even weaken at all. When She saw the serpent she stood from her resting position and moved closer.

"Why did you return so early— was there a fork in the road?" She asked the serpent with interest; she knew the creature could understand her.

The creature couldn't speak, so instead, it shook its head to tell her that there wasn't any fork in the road. 'There is no fork, and it didn't keep going— that could only mean it's a dead end. That's one way off the list then.' She thought to herself as she looked back at the creature.

"Good, same thing for the next pathway. Let's get this over with quickly so i can get out of here. I'm starting to miss food." She said with a slight chuckle to no one in particular.

The snake didn't reply to her joke and instead followed her command faithfully and went into the second pathway— a pathway that was much wider than the previous one or even the one she just went down.

It took longer than the one before— as to be expected— but the serpent returned after a few minutes when she noticed the connection between them weakening. Meaning one thing; the pathway was long without any forks in it yet.

'This could be a good thing, but before i go down it, let's just make sure the last one doesn't have anything either.' Shi thought to herself— then ordered the serpent to do so, "One more time, go down the last pathway and follow the same order."

Just like all the times before, the serpent did as she asked however unlike that time— before the serpent could return she felt the connection between them spike— and a sense of irritation rushed into her mind.

It felt like nothing she had ever felt before. It wasn't like how one would normally feel emotions— where they just feel it— rather it felt more like she was being told that she should feel this emotion coming from the connection.