Ophidia

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO (The cave of serpents and why it was entered.)

    After entering the cave Mupo wondered why his body wouldn't listen to him. He tried stopping and

turning around but it wasn't working. "What is going on, why can't I move ?" He said as he walked

through the cave. "What did you do to me ?!" He yelled as he got further away from the entrance.

It became darker and cooler as he kept moving. The blend of darkness and the cold was unsettling

for him. He then started hearing some soft hissing and a terrible smell greeted his nostrils. "This

place is worse than I imagined."

    Mupo then touched his leg."What did he do to me? And why did it hurt so much? Maybe it was that

thing he stabbing me with." He thought." That dagger, I could have sworn I've seen it somewhere

before.....but where did I see it?" His train of thought was disturbed by the cave suddenly becoming

bright inside.

    When his eyes adjusted to the light, he could see a what appeared to be a tree,with it's leaves each

emitting a bright white light."That explains the random burst of light." He mumbled. The tree stood on

a small hill and surrounding the hill were thousands of snakes consisting of Pythons, Mambas, Cobras,

Taipans and Vipers.

    Each type of serpent was slithering in one circle. With the Cobras slithering furthest from the

tree,followed by the Vipers, then the Taipans, then the Mambas and the Pythons slithering closest to

the tree."I wonder why the order is so random." He thought." If they're all surrounding the tree how is

one supposed to manage to pass? "

    When he looked back at the tree he saw a giant serpent wrapped around it. "How did I not notice

that before? " he thought. It was the same size and colour as the sea serpent, they only differed in

eye colour, this one had giant red eyes that appeared to be rubies.

He had finally reached where the circle of snakes was formed." Wait wait how am I supposed to

pass, I'll end up stepping on one of these and that won't end well. " he thought. He tried his hardest to

turn around and he actually managed, but then he ended up turning back around and moving towards

the circle.

    As he walked, he could do nothing but close his eyes and hope for the best. He then stepped where

the snakes were slithering and continued walking. When he stepped, all he could feel was the ground.

But he didn't understand why until he opened his eyes.

    The snakes had made some sort of path for him and they stopped slithering just to create the

path. "Wow.....talk about a warm welcome." He said as he reluctantly walked towards the tree. The tree

had multiple fruits that looked like black peaches with smoke coming out of it.

    "I thought there's only supposed to be one of them....or maybe I'm only supposed to get one. " he

thought. He then walked onto the hill and plucked one of them. The snakes started acting crazy. They

started hissing loud and stopped slithering in the order in which they were doing it.

    "Thief!"

    "Let's poison him! "

    "Let's squeeze him! "

    "Let's bite him!" He heard them speak."Woah what in Ophidia is going on here?! " he thought. The

snakes then all started crowding behind the tree,Leaving the way to the exit clear.

    "Run! Njoka!" Said the giant serpent wrapped around the tree. "You cannot reason with them. "

    "Don't have to tell me twice." He then bolted for the exit of the cave.

    As he ran he started wondering why his body listened to him that time and why he was only able to

understand the big one. All of a sudden he heard hissing coming from behind him and when he looked

back, they was a wave of snakes chasing after him, with Black Mambas taking the lead.

He ran even faster." This would have been easier for Jack or Jenka. " he thought. "Even Wolani. " he

moved as quick as his legs could carry him. A few Black Mambas had started catching up to him. One

of them leaped out and tried to sink it's fangs into his leg,but he made it out of the cave in the knick

of time.

    When exited the cave, he wasn't able to run again. But that wasn't his main concern he just

wanted to make sure that the snakes were long gone. Luckily they were not able to leave the cave so

Mupo was safe.

Now that he had time to catch his breath, he was completely confused. "But why? Why did they

attack me? And why did they leave a path for me if they were just going to attack me anyway? " he

thought.

    "Ohh good, you're back." Said Naxis, still seated on the rock playing with the dagger in his hands.

Mupo looked at it again and tried his best to remember where he saw it from. Alas, he wasn't able to

recall where. "Well then....hand it over."

    Mupo resisted to give him, but his resistance seemed to cause him pain." I said...give it to me." He

still didn't budge. Naxis looked at the dagger with a baffled look on his face. "Your will......it's strong."

Naxis then squeezed the hilt of the dagger and Mupo unwillingly handed him the fruit.

    "That wasn't so hard now was it." He said.

    "What do you want with that?" Mupo asked him, with anger filled in his eyes.

    "Well since you helped me out....I'll tell you anyways....See I need this fruit to kill every last

Ophidian, Male or female, old or young. It doesn't matter....you all deserve to die."

    "Why would you do such a thing?"

    "This place belongs to the Slitheranes. You Ophidians took it from the Slitheranes and even had

the audacity name it after you. You almost killed all of the Slitheranes and forced them to live on an

island away from the rest of Ophidia. It's not even considered part of Ophidia." He grasped his dagger

even tighter. "No one has had the courage to settle the score, not until I stepped up. I'm going to

make things right again and with the power of this fruit, I'll reach my goal and the light will shine on

the Slitheranes once more."