Backing up felt like it might be too sudden a movement, and thus dangerous, in the face of an unexpectedly large and dangerous creature. So she instead stood stock-still, staring the Feathered Brine Serpent down and wracking her brain for a good way to get out of this predicament safely. At least it was not openly aggressive. Yet. It could definitely reach her from where Cyn stood if it wanted to, but even when Cyn broke eye contact to glance down the serpent’s body again it did not react.

  With the creature being so close now, Cyn was able to get a much better look at it. And what she saw was both confusing and concerning when combined with the result she got from Inspect. Its scales were worn-down, even missing in places, and she had an inkling that their dull color was not the color of a healthy creature. The tendrils extending from its head were only slightly darker than its scales, and appeared droopy, the feathery frills looking damaged or shriveled.

  It's sick. Cyn was pretty sure she knew why, too. The water in the lake was not salt water, and it definitely would not have the same properties as a deep ocean. The creature was far outside of its natural environment. “Poor noodle...” She wasn’t sure if the serpent could actually hear her, but in case it could Cyn used the tone of voice one would use on unfamiliar animals or scared children, a quiet coo.

  Curious. What kind of prey stares at a hunter with pity? The vaguely feminine voice, not Cyn’s own, flitted through Cyn’s thoughts and made her jerk in surprise. She wasn’t hearing it, at least not with her ears. Despite feeling as though the voice spoke directly into her head, it was extraordinarily different than the experience Cyn had with the Trial of Will, or even with the Cadaverous Puppet Bloom. The words were distinctly and clearly separate from her own mind, and she felt none of the discomfort she had begun to associate with mental manipulation. A form of telepathy that caught Cyn off guard, since she had assumed this was just another kind of beast.

  Not a creature intelligent enough to communicate with her. That made it far more dangerous.

  Thinking quickly on how she should respond to the serpent’s question, and keeping in mind that the creature was likely significantly higher level than she was, Cyn spoke carefully, “I meant no disrespect. I just wanted to catch a look at the creature I was told was in this lake, and I was surprised to find such a rare beauty so far from its home.” While her words were clear flattery, none of it was a lie. The massive serpent was beautiful. Even in its sickly state.

  I can hear your racing heart, Human. Its song betrays your fear even when your face does not. The serpent’s voice was a dangerous purr, sending a shiver down her spine, and Cyn felt the tempo of her ‘song’ rapidly increase as the Feathered Brine Serpent raised her head slowly above the surface of the water. The creature only stopped moving once her eyes were level with Cyn’s own, the scaled, serpentine snout almost within touching distance. The serpent’s tendrils did not hang down like Cyn would have expected as they left the water, and instead gently waved in the open air as if they were made of powerful muscle or simply defied gravity. Such weak prey displaying pity towards me is an intolerable insult.

  As the serpent’s indignant voice washed over her, the gentle waving of its tendrils grew faster. Starting as a mere pinprick at the tips, a white luminescence grew and seemed to dance across the feathered frills in a flashing pattern. With the growing light a pressure built behind Cyn’s eyes, quickly becoming uncomfortable. More concerningly, she could feel the group of Humans behind her, just inside the tree line, approaching at a steady pace. She could probably escape using Soul Slip once someone was close enough. But that would mean leaving everyone else to pay for her miscalculation, entranced as they were. While Cyn was not at all surprised that she would find her end in the mouth of a large creature - even before the System she probably would have gone out trying to pet something unadvisable - she really did not want to be responsible for the deaths of others.

  Protected by Mental Fortress, Cyn was able to look away from the mesmerizing display and meet the Feathered Brine Serpent’s eyes again. “Not pity. Sorrow. I saw your injuries, your sickness, and felt sad.” While the serpent’s reptilian face did not display emotion, she tilted her head slightly at Cyn’s words. Whether it was the words themselves, or her clear and unexpected resistance to enthrallment, Cyn was not sure. There was a few moments of silence, the Humans walking ever closer, before a quiet, tentative warble came from Cyn’s chest. Cyn’s and the serpent’s gazes flicked downward simultaneously, landing on the bubblegum-pink familiar. Spam was holding onto the edge of the pouch with both front feet, with its eyes barely visible as it peeked out.

  Curious... perhaps you are not prey. But the Humans are. Spam’s response to the serpent was to make a series of chirps and croaks as it pulled itself further up out of the pouch, sounding a little more annoyed. Then we make a deal, Voidling. I will give nothing without receiving in turn. And their lives are now mine to give or take.

  The Feathered Brine Serpent wasn’t wrong in that regard. The other Humans had reached the shore, and out of the corner of her eye Cyn could see their vacant stares to either side of her. It was completely implausible that any of them could move fast enough to get away if the serpent chose to strike. Whatever Spam was doing, Cyn would not interfere. She did find it interesting that the serpent addressed the familiar as ‘Voidling’, and, based on Cyn herself being addressed as ‘prey’ or ‘Human’, she took a guess that that was Spam’s species. She had not been able to see it’s species previously, only coming up as a question mark when she used Inspect on Spam. Rather than distract the frog by double checking right now, she instead filed that thought away for a later time.

  Spam and the serpent had a few more brief exchanges, though without context and only hearing half the conversation it was difficult for Cyn to tell exactly what was being discussed. It was only clear that the two of them were attempting to make some kind of bargain and it was stressing the familiar out. She did get an expected notification, letting her know she had leveled Creature Handler up to nine, but it gave little comfort as she dismissed it. Cyn’s anxiety did not ease the entire time, even when the Feathered Brine Serpent once again met her eyes and spoke. A deal is struck on your behalf, and the Voidling tells me I must communicate it to you since it cannot. You, Human, will return my egg to me before sundown. In return, I will release the others.

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  “Where is your egg?” If the serpent had just requested help, Cyn probably would have done it without needing much convincing. But why would a creature so much stronger than her need help?

  The tower. Should you return without it, I will consume you and any other Human foolish enough to come close to the water looking for you. If you think you can escape without fulfilling your half of the bargain... know that I can traverse the river. And the other Humans live quite close to the water, do they not?

  It felt as though ice had entered Cyn’s veins at the mention of the camp, spreading a frigid fear and guilt through her. As unintentional as it had been, she had put not only the people with her, but the entire raid party at risk. What chance did she have of succeeding if the serpent could not retrieve her own egg? All Cyn had wanted to do was take a look at the creature in the water. “I understand.”

  The serpent slowly pulled back its lips, revealing layered rows of needle-like teeth as it sank back down into the lake. As its long, serpentine body turned to glide away through the water, the luminescent display dimmed before flickering out entirely. The instant the lights were gone, a collective gasp came from the group around Cyn as everyone but her scrambled quickly back from the water’s edge. Cyn did not move, having locked her knees to keep standing at all. Her leg bones felt like gelatin, and she was pretty sure she would end up face-first in the water if she tried to move.

  Regardless, she would probably end up face-first in the water shortly from locking her knees and reducing blood flow.

  Before that could happen, though, Sam darted forward again to pick Cyn up and remove her from the shoreline. When he did not let go or stop moving after entering the trees, she quickly came to her senses and started to struggle. “Wait! Put me down, Sam. I have to go back.”

  The Berserker did not stop. If anything, he picked up enough speed that they started to pull away from the slower members of the group. “Like hell you do. Did you see that thing?”

  “Did you hear it? I need to go back, or it will attack the camp!” Unable to free herself physically without resorting to actually hurting Sam, Cyn used Soul Slip to move herself to Cirrus. She chose Cirrus because Cyn was not concerned about accidentally hurting the rogue in case they crashed into each other, which is exactly what happened when she suddenly appeared in front of him. He had been running a short distance behind the Berserker, and their off-center collision sent Cyn and Cirrus spinning in opposite directions and onto the ground.

  Having a great deal of practice recovering from Soul Slip related collisions, she was on her feet again before Sam managed to turn himself around. The Berserker glared at Cyn with frustration and began to walk towards her. She responded with a glare of her own, snapping, “Do not grab me again, Sam.”

  He instead stopped directly in front of Cyn, and jabbed her hard in the sternum with one finger. “We are going back to camp. You can tell Scott about what happened, he’ll know what to do.” Sam sounded serious, and as if he genuinely believed she would listen. It was kind of sad.

  “ You will go back to camp, and make sure everyone else gets there safely.” Despite her annoyance, Cyn took a deep breath and tried to speak more calmly. “I created a problem, I am going to fix it. Find Scott and tell him what happened, and that if I don’t come back, there’s probably going to be a large, angry, mind-fucking snake coming down the river. I don’t know how you prepare for that, but I’m sure he will figure it out.”

  Sam threw his hands up in frustration. “You can’t just go off on your own! If we go back to camp, I’m sure Hex or Dana would go with you.”

  “Or we would waste time trying to figure out other options and soothing over fears, when there is at least one solution I can start on now. I have a time limit, Sam. If Hex or Dana want to join me, they can catch up.” Cyn spun, making a beeline back towards the lake. This was going nowhere, and she did not feel there was any point in continuing to argue with him. The quiet and frightened faces watching them were also making her feel quite awkward.

  The Feathered Brine Serpent had scared the shit out of all of them, some were just a little better at hiding it than others. The creature was not frightening to Cyn in and of itself. The fear she felt was mostly due to being unable to see the level of something clearly hostile, and she found the experience much more tolerable than the Cadaverous Puppet Bloom had been. She was afraid, but not panicked. Even if she had ran from the serpent, she would have only gone far enough to feel safe.

  As foolish as it might seem to run off alone, Cyn wasn’t entirely stupid. She was well aware she was putting herself into direct danger. She also knew that there would be a great deal of time wasted if she did not get started immediately. Whatever was keeping the serpent out of the tower, it was unlikely to be just a strong creature or person. Not only was the structure dilapidated and likely vacant, but the raid party also stood no chance against any creature strong enough to keep the serpent out, so waiting for backup was useless.

  Most likely, the egg was just somewhere the big, aquatic snake could not get to, Cyn reasoned.

  As she approached the water, Cyn realized the encounter probably would have been particularly bad for Sam, who likely still had the Trial of Will fairly fresh on his mind. It wasn’t exactly the same, but losing control of his actions again was similar enough to probably freak out the big Berserker. The only other person who had admitted to facing that particular trial was Cirrus, but he had won by default due to being alone. Meaning everyone else had likely just had their first experience with direct mental manipulation. Cyn wasn’t sure if the serpent was better or worse for your first time. Probably better, because while you and your friends might die, at least you didn’t kill them.

  Stopping just short of the tiny waves that lapped against the shoreline of the lake, Cyn quickly took off her boots and stored them in her storage ring. She could take walking around with wet clothes for a while, but after the pool of blood in the Trial of Vitality she found out that walking around in wet leather boots was awful. She then pulled out a disgruntled and grumbling frog from its pouch, holding it up to eye level and giving it a Pet.

  “Let’s hope I can live up to that bargain you made. Ready to go for a swim?”