Chapter 28

Chapter 28: Chapter 28

’Do I really have to jinx myself all the time?’ Ingrid wondered inwardly, staring at Lysander like he didn’t know what she was talking about.

"W... what are you saying? I somehow don’t understand. Who am I? I’m just plain old and fat Ingrid, aren’t I?" Ingrid also let out a chuckle for proper effect, then she took two steps backwards, pointing towards the herbs, "The longer we stay here, the harder it’ll become for us to pick those up. We should start now before it gets too dark." Ingrid rushed over just to escape Lysander, however, before she could even take another step, a fair hand shot out to hold her wrists so tightly that she winced.

The hand brought her closer; so close that she could feel the warmth coming from Lysander’s body and then, something cold also wrapped around her waist. She looked down slightly, it was Lysander’s tail. He had changed to his snake form.

"Hey, this is unfair!" She protested, but didn’t struggle. Ingrid knew she wasn’t going to be able to win anyway, so why waste strength to struggle?

"Are you going to continue lying to me?"

’I wish I could but the way you’re staring at me now looks like you actually want to eat me raw.’

Lysander stared down at her, his dark hair brushing her forehead, his glowing violet eyes locking onto hers with terrifying precision. His thick, scales-paved tail tightened just enough around her waist to keep her grounded, the cool smoothness of his snake form contrasting violently with the rising heat of her mounting panic.

’Lorna! Lorna, help!’ Ingrid shrieked internally, sweating bullets. ’He’s onto us! What do I tell him?! Can I just say I was possessed by an ancient god of botany or something?!’

" Host, whatever you do, DO NOT reveal the existence of the System!" Lorna’s voice chimed in with urgency . "If an inhabitant of this world discovers the System, it could trigger an dimensional paradox, leading to immediate system termination, which means your soul gets deleted from existence! Keep lying! Lie like your life depends on it! Because it literally does!"

’Gee, thanks a lot for the overwhelming help, Lorna! You’re a real life-saver!’ Ingrid sarcastically snapped back in her mind, rolling her eyes internally. ’I’m being wrapped up like a human burrito by a giant snake-man with purple eyes, and your best advice is "just lie harder"? Fantastic!’

"You didn’t answer me, Ingrid," Lysander murmured, his low voice vibrating right against her chest. "First, you somehow knew about the herb that could cure my rot, and it’s something that I’ve been searching for for a very long time but you knew so easily about it and even knew exactly where it was located at. I travel long distances and yet, I was never able to find it."

He leaned in closer, his cloth veil brushing against her cheek. "Then, you navigated through te Whispering Ravine as if you had grown up here, completely avoiding the danger zones. And back at the tribe..." His violet eyes narrowed into sharp, dangerous slits. "You beat Falcon. The same Falcon who bullied you for months, the same bird you loved ever since you arrived here. You moved differently, you talked differently, and you don’t cower any longer."

His tail gave a small, deliberate coil around her waist, lifting her heels an inch off the dirt ground. "You have changed completely. So I will ask you one last time... who are you really?"

The pressure of his interrogation, combined with the tight grip of his snake tail and Lorna’s unhelpful panicking, finally snapped the last thread of Ingrid’s patience.

She had gone through hell and back over the past twenty-four hours! She had been chased by zombies, dissolved her clothes off, suffered through an insanely awkward herbal aphrodisiac ordeal, got dragged through the woods in a trashy wooden cart, and was currently being held hostage by a giant purple-eyed snake-guy, all while trying to help HIM!

"Oh, for heaven’s sake, stop asking me so many damn questions!" Ingrid suddenly exploded, her cheeks and neck flushing red as she stomped her foot against his tail.

Lysander blinked, visibly caught off guard by her sudden outburst.

"What do you want from me?!" Ingrid yelled at the top of her lungs, throwing her hands up in the air despite his grip. "Who am I?! I’m Ingrid! The same Ingrid who literally saved your ungrateful, poisoned life last night! Whatever power I have, or whatever I do from now on, why can’t you just accept it without drilling me like a police detective?!"

She glared at him with watery, furiously dramatic eyes, putting on the performance of her life to make him feel as guilty as humanly possible or rather... Beastly possible.

"I’m not going to kill anyone! I’m not going to hurt you or the tribe! So why are you interrogating me like I’m some kind of evil villain?!" She sniffled loudly, pressing a hand against her chest as if her heart was breaking into a million pieces. "I did all of this just to repay you! You helped me when Falcon attacked me, so I went through losing my clothes, ruining my dignity, almost getting eaten by swamp monsters, just to save you! And this is how you treat your savior?! By wrapping me up like a sausage and cross-examining me?!"

Lysander’s eyes widened in shock. His snake tail instinctively loosened around her waist, slipping backward an inch as if he had accidentally touched a hot stove. "Ingrid, I..."

"No! Don’t ’Ingrid’ me!" she cut him off, pointing a sharp, dramatic finger right at his covered nose. "You want an explanation? Fine! You want to know where I got this power?! The gods gave it to me! The ancient gods of the forest looked down at how pitifully I was being treated, took pity on me, and blessed me with sacred knowledge! Are you going to question the gods now, Lysander?! Are you?!"

Lysander opened his mouth, completely speechless. "The... the gods?" he repeated, sounding genuinely bewildered.

"Yes, the gods!" Ingrid huffed loudly, crossing her arms over her chest and puffing out her cheeks. "And as punishment for being an ungrateful, suspicious jerk who questions the blessed messenger of the gods, you are going to harvest every single one of those Star-Glow Lotuses ALL BY YOURSELF!"

She jabbed her finger toward the glowing blue valley. "And you better be careful! If you break a single stem or ruin a single petal, I will tell the gods to strike your beautiful snake tail with lightning!"

Without waiting for his response, Ingrid violently wriggled out of his loosened tail, spun around on her heel, and began stomping away toward the edge of the field like an angry toddler throwing a tantrum.

"Ingrid, wait..." Lysander started, reaching out a hand.

"Don’t talk to me!" she yelled back over her shoulder, stomping her foot down hard onto the dirt path. "I am going to sit over there and..."

Her foot caught directly under a massive, twisted tree root sticking out of the dirt. "WHOA!"

Ingrid’s body flew forward in a magnificent, ungraceful arc. She flailed her arms wildly in the air like a helicopter rotor, let out a high-pitched, tragic screech, and slammed face-first directly into a huge pile of soft, wet moss.

A cloud of tiny spores and green moss dust erupted into the air around her head. Silence descended over the valley for three long seconds.

Ingrid lay completely flat on her stomach, her face buried deep into the squishy moss, her limbs spread out like a squished frog.

From behind her, a low, quiet sound broke the silence. It started as a tiny vibration, followed by a faint, muffled chest rumble, before devolving into an undeniable, breathless chuckle.

Lysander was laughing. Ingrid slowly lifted her head from the moss, a clump of green dirt stuck directly onto her forehead and nose. She turned her head around, glaring daggers at him through her messy hair.

Lysander had retracted his snake tail, standing in his full human form among the glowing blue flowers. He had one hand pressed over his cloth veil, trying desperately to suppress his laughter, but his broad shoulders were shaking violently, and his purple eyes were crinkling at the corners with absolute, unfiltered amusement.

"Is something funny to you, snake boy?!" Ingrid barked, her voice muffled by the dirt.

Lysander cleared his throat, taking a deep breath to regain his composure, though his eyes were still gleaming with hilarity. "No. Not at all. The... the gods clearly have a marvelous sense of comedy."

"Shut up!" Ingrid groaned. Instead of getting up to brush herself off, she simply let her forehead drop back down into the cool, soft moss with a heavy thud, refusing to move a single muscle.

"That’s it. I’m done. I’m a permanent part of the forest floor now. Go pick your stupid twenty-gold-coin flowers and leave me to decay in peace."

Lysander let out another quiet, amused sigh, the corners of his veil twitching as he looked down at the dramatic lump lying on the ground. He walked towards her, picked her up without even struggling and used a finger to wipe away the moss on her nose.

Lysander noticed something. She really looked cute while angry.

"As you command, my blessed messenger."