5 Unexpected...

I let that sink in for a moment as I listened to the chatter of the spirits begin to pick up, from silence to cacophony. Dozens of voices from soft to hangry began to discuss the snakes. They wanted anything to break the boredom that they had been stuck in for so very long. Being a disembodied spirit stuck in the spirit world must be boring. Moving from place to place in an endless tide and march for all of eternity. How long before the monotony gets you? How long before you are dying for anything to be different. " Lyla, Is it boring to be a spirit?" I asked looking around at the dark empty space of the room around me.

She was very quiet for a little while, " it certainly is, I have been a spirit for about 4 times longer than I have been alive. Let me tell you, once you become one it's great. you can float, you get to talk to all your old friends, and get in touch with everyone. then one day you realize that there really isn't much to do as a spirit. I'm currently working on getting spirit-sight up and running. That should shed some light in here for you. The spirits are luminous after all. " I couldn't help but think that she changed the subject awfully quick, but I let it go. I could feel her relaxing when I did.

it didn't take long before I was greeted with the beautiful swirling galaxy of the spirit world. Spirits were drifting all over this room. Some were even floating in miniature milky ways. I could finally see why the room sounded like a loud cafeteria. I couldn't begin to estimate the number of spirits in here.

Lyla had the answers though, got to hand it to her though. Information is her business, and she does it well. " There are 700 spirits in this room not including you, me, or dave. You should probably customize his serpent if you are going to keep track of him in the future. Also..." She said pausing for dramatic effect as a small emoji-Esque orb appeared in the top lefthand corner of my hud. " Now you can see my face!" Certainly was a development.

It was so much better to see the little emoji change based on her mood when she was talking, rather than guessing her emotions based on the sound of her voice. I was pleased. " That's awesome Lyla. " I said encouraging her again. So far my impression of her was similar to a highly capable individual. It was clear that in combat she couldn't really offer any help, and I still couldn't grasp her motivations for being her either.

I could hear one particular group of rather sassy spirits talking. They sounded like they were pretty close to me. " Lyla, can we focus on the spirit sight issue? I need to be albe to see these gentlefolk if im gonna sell these snakes for power. " The impatience in my voice marking the urgency of the situation.

Suddenly I was in a different world. Little balls of light akin to stars were everywhere swirling through the air. Some spun in miniature in disks looking like a galaxy. Others phased in and out of the walls. Some would fly up to the roof, then slowly float down to the floor. Only a few were gathered around my snakes examining them. I shooed them back a little, " Alright ladies and gents who would like to take the first spin?", I wanted to get this ball rolling.

A little orb floated over to me and a video box with an avatar pulled up on my hud. It was a dapper-looking frog in a suit. His British voice definitely differentiated him from the rest. " Excuse me, I'd like to take one of your flying danger noodles for a spin. " His little orb beamed a ball of light towards me and into my chest.

Lyla appeared on my hud again, " Alright, I've started tracking a list of spirits who have paid for a ride, When the time is up they will eject and a new spirit will be transported into the snake. ALSO when you look at the snake you should be able to see their chosen name. " as the frog orb entered the snakes head and it began its typical writhing I saw Dapperfrog42 pop up in blue writing above its head.

" So a chosen name is a gamer tag huh? are all these spirits humans?" I thought to myself with no intrusions, I couldn't be surprised by that though, the real world was getting a little turvy.

It didn't take long though for the snake to sit up and take off into the air, Dave joined it and they flew in tandem for a while doing little tricks. It felt much safer knowing that there were 2 snakes in the air at this point. I walked over to one of the little galaxies and stuck my finger in the center. so they were all swirling around it. They must have enjoyed the attention as they all began to react and swirl down my arm a bit. A cascade of tiny hellos bombarded me as I saw various little screens pop up showing the avatars of the passing spirits faster than I was able to read their names. I greeted them with soft but quick hellos back, and some of them even sent a little energy my way for it.

It seemed that there was no limit to how many avatars spirits could take on. some were male, some female, some were animals some were robots, some were aliens. It was the ultimate release of creativity and expression.

Finally, another spirit drifted over to me, " Excuse me, can I take a spin in one of your snakes?" Said the voice of a little boy. I looked in the direction-finding a pink orb and the avatar of a stuffed teddy bear in a boy tie. His chosen name was teddy9k.

I was a little taken aback that this soft fluffy character wanted to take a ride in a weapon but I wasn't going to say anything if he was willing to pay the fee. " Sure, just pay the fee and I will grant you access. " I said thinking that he wouldn't want to do this for that long. He sent his energy and soon all my snakes were flying through the air doing tricks and spiraling around each other. " Hey Lyla, is there any way to list like a menu or something?" I asked.

" Already done boss, the prices that you recorded are already posted. Now make sure that you do something fun with these two so that you can draw in more customers. " I began moving towards the door of the room looking to explore more of the apparent temple that I found myself in.

the room I was in was a small chamber with an embedded statue of some god in the wall, there was one exit so my choices were obvious. I stepped over the two skeletons and opened the door to the hallway to greet the new... Downward arc of a sword. It smacked into my arm with a crack, shattering some of my ceramic, and the yellow indicator of my hud began to flash red.

My arm had just taken a critical hit and was now useless to me, I didn't feel any pain though. Just unsettling numb unresponsiveness where my arm should have been. I fled backwards barely avoiding the blad again only to be startled by a Roar from behind me approaching fast, a death metal throat scream barreled past my face as I noticed Teddy's snake slam fangs out into the skeletons face catching it off guard with enough force that they both went tumbling down. There were a sickening crunch and a sizzle. I watched in shock as teddy sat up on the ribcage of his first kill.

Dapperfrogs proper English popped into my ear, "seems that teddy has no chill. "