Reincarnated as a Haunted House - Part 1 - The Serpent Forest

Return of the Queen

Finn, inhabiting the body of the water salamander, could sense Moonlight's presence right beside him, but for some inexplicable reason, the salamander's heat sensors were malfunctioning. The lake's bottom, where he currently resided, was unexpectedly warmer than the surface, and Finn was detecting heat signatures from all directions. Consequently, he had no choice but to rely on his primary senses to perceive his surroundings.

"I asked, have you come to kill me or save me?" inquired the woman shrouded in darkness. The confined underwater space at the lake's bottom reverberated with a deep rumbling sound as if something colossal was moving along the rocky lakebed.

Amidst the slithering noises surrounding him and the eerie hiss accompanying the woman's words, Finn was now certain that this was the same creature whose enormous eyes he had glimpsed on his first day when he lowered the lanterns into the lake's depths.

"I'm definitely going to die," he thought frantically as his salamander body trembled with fear. Simultaneously, the transparent screen displayed his dwindling health points, intensifying his anxiety with each passing second.

In the midst of the darkness, the woman repeated her question with a louder and slower voice, "I asked, have you come to kill me or save me?" Her words were accompanied by the usual hissing and rumbling sounds, and this time, Finn felt something substantial brush against him.

Finn attempted to produce various sounds with his salamander mouth in an effort to communicate his intentions to the woman in the darkness. After a few moments, he received a response. "That's peculiar," remarked the woman. This time, the rumbling sounds ceased, but the hissing sound continued after she spoke. "You appear to resemble a creature from my forest, but you clearly cannot use the creature's speech."

Fear gnawed at Finn, and he began to believe that she was indeed going to end his life. However, to his astonishment, the woman proposed, "Let's switch on the lights." In the next moment, Finn observed a faint white orb materialize, gradually floating upward before coming to a halt at a certain height. Then, in the blink of an eye, the orb exploded. The resulting brilliance was so blinding that Finn had to tightly shut his eyes. Slowly, as he cautiously opened them, he witnessed the orb's transformation into a miniature sun, casting its radiant light over a considerable distance.

Now that the depths of the lake were visible, Finn could see numerous water salamanders, driller fish, and sonic lobsters swimming above the radiant light. None of them, however, dared to venture below the white orb. Then, Finn once again heard the woman's voice, "You see, all the lake's creatures are outside this bubble. In fact, they've never dared to enter it. Yet, you and this unconscious girl have breached the boundaries of this bubble. So, I will ask you once more, have you come to kill me or save me?"

This time, Finn heard the hissing sound dangerously close to him. He slowly lowered his head to get a better look at the woman but was startled to find a colossal snake's head right before his eyes. Its scales were deep, and blood-red, its eyes pitch black, and its head was so massive that it could easily accommodate an entire elephant within its jaws. The snake stared directly into Finn's salamander eyes, while Moonlight lay unconscious on the ground, completely unaware of the unfolding situation.

Finn trembled in fear as he stared into the snake's ominous black eyes, and as if to add to his terror, the snake opened its jaws wide. Convinced that he was about to be devoured, Finn shut his eyes tightly in dread. Surprisingly, the snake blew a stream of air. It was an unsettling experience, to say the least.

Surprised, Finn opened his eyes to find the snake still before him. Meanwhile, the snake conveyed, "Now you can speak with me," and slithered back to create some distance.

Finn found it difficult to believe that he could communicate through a salamander's body, yet he mustered the courage to say, "Hello," though his voice quivered with hesitation.