Professor Gemstone in the snake pit. (42)

Just like when he first crossed the interspace between realities, Ezera felt atrocious burns through his entire body and mind.

The moment they entered, he felt himself be lost in the in-between, torn apart, as though the scorching hot scalding him was calling him back... Or perhaps it was pushing hil away, deeper into the infinity between space.

If felt like an eternity.

He remembered himself when both he and Ilya emerged from the ether they had been thrusted into. He opened his eyes, regaining awareness as his feet reached the ground, and blinked. He squinted.

He couldn't see anything.

He was about to ask if Ilya had a better eyesight by pure chance when he felt something move.

No. Not something, he corrected himself as he stood guarded, careful not to let his breaths produce sounds. Everything was moving, around them.

He could hear different sounds. Slow, fast, lazy, and vivacious, predatory or casual... There was a similarity between all of those sounds.

It was the sound of slithering bodies slipping against the grounds and the walls.

There was a hiss.

Ezera's mind screamed at him. Danger! It said.

Ezera darted to the side, taking Ilya's hand to make him duck in turn. Just next to their heads, they heard the sound of something crashing against the wall.

That something was big. And it hissed ferociously.

Neither men wasted another second before the took off.

"Ilya, light the way!" Ezera whispered to his partner.

"But..."

"They can't see anything, and they already know where we are. If we can't locate all of them, we're going to die!"

Ezera only heard measured breaths after. Then, a soft murmur. Lum.

The path forward lit up slightly. They narrowly escaped a stone pillar. When they turned to the other side, Ezera almost stopped breathing. The light Ilya had cast was reflected dozens pairs of slit pupiled eyes.

Ilya drew on his arm, throwing the both of them into a thin crevasse in the wall before their agressor's claws could catch on their limbs.

The giant snake, white and scaled and big and feral, engulfed in the crack after them, his jaw closing a hair away from Ezera's skull. A putrid smell escaped from its mouth, strong and close.

They escaped, but the snake couldn't follow them. Both men ran to the end of the tunnel inside the wall. It was a dead-end. They waited, alert, as the ground shook under their feet every time the beast threw itself at the entrance of their hide-out.

For a few minutes, Ezera thought the cracks would give in. They did not.

The snake tired itself after about ten minutes of fruitless efforts, and they couldn't hear it anymore, only as it slipped away.

Ezera let himself fall against the wall. Once sitting on the rough rock ground, he let out a breathy laugh, the tension almost entirely seeping out of his shoulders.

"Say, Ilya. Do people regularly die the second they enter a dungeon?"

The man hummed, a preoccupied sound.

"The dungeons we wipe out are not generally this advanced."

"Fantastic. Do we need to wipe them all out?"

"I do not know."

Ezera thought for a minute, then shook his head.

"Our goal is to get in the depths of the dungeon. As long as we know where to go and how to go there, we might not need to kill them. But the moment we step out of here, we're going to get skewered," he groaned. "Those are the same monsters as the one we saw in the forest, right? Big bad snakes?"

Ilya nodded.

"A nocturnal drake. Exactly."

Ezera perked up.

"Nocturnal? Does it mean they all fall asleep during the day?"

"There is no day, here."

Ezera deflated. Of course.

"But they have to sleep at some point, right?"

"They have a fine hearing. Either the sounds we make our the scent of blood would wake them. Moreover, they have light-sensitive eyes. Even if you cannot see them..."

"...They would see us," Ezera finished that thought. "Do you know a spell to become invisible?"

Ezera remembered the first night in this world, where Izak had used the 'buff' stealth to escape the guards' attention. That would be even more useful than invisibility, because it would seem less suspicious to the drakes' instinct.

Ilya shook his head.

"I have insonorization," he offered, "as long as I can delimitate the zone physically."

Ezera sighed.

"But that can't be done," they both knew. "It's not that bad," he tried to cheer them up. "If it's about noise you don't need to concern yourself. I'm the most silent human in the whole world!"

That was most likely true, not simply an exageration. Once, Ezera approached a scaredy bird from behind, the thrush hadn't known what had come for it until Ezera had nudged it with his finger. He did the same with cats sometimes.

"Is there a way they wouldn't notice us?"

"I do not believe so. Even if we could find a way to coat ourselves in their scent, monsters are naturally attracted to firelight. It makes them bloodthirsty."

"Firelight?"

"Yes. All beings of this world are supposed to circulate it in their spiritual organism, except for monsters."

That explanation reminded Ezera of something. Yes, he might have heard something similar before, with Dereck or in the books.

"Do you think they would attack me?"

Ilya frowned at him.

"Why do you think they wouldn't."

Ezera smirked willingly.

"Well! I'm a being from another world! And I didn't receive a Grace upon arrival, so I guess I'm not one of the souls of your world. So?"

Ilya seemed to have some trouble digesting the information. Ezera thought that made sense. Just like another world filled with magic would be unexpected to an earthling, a being without firelight would seem just as alien to people of this world. They might never have thought about it.

"That's something I have only heard off in litterature scenarios," Ilya admitted, subtly bewildered.

Oh, nevermind, they had thought of it. Much like Helene's fantasy and science fiction novels.

"It might be a decent idea," Ilya concluded after some more thinking. "Perhaps we should wait to test it out when enough time has passed."

"Right, so that they can forget about us a bit," Ezera agreed.

He stretched, and closed his eyes afterward.

"Then," he said, "we might as well sleep."