Chapter 38: Jump Right Into The Fire

"Hey, tell me how old I am once again." Le Fangling heard what the man from Le family named as Le Zuan said and asked Nagina to confirm her age.

"You are currently 16 years old and you turned 16 exactly one month ago on this very day." Nagina searched her data base and presented the information on the screen in front of them.

"I knew it, haha..I knew these jerks were here for her." Le Fangling sneered as she looked at the situation in front of her. Her guess had somehow come true about these people coming to take her from her grand mother.

"But what could have happened for such a strong girl such as her to be bullied to that weakened state and to drive her to her death?" Le Fangling wondered about this but without any luck.

She did not have enough information about her.

Crack….

There was a cracking sound that came from above her head making Le Fangling and Nagina both to check it out.

"Are we changing places once again?" Le Fangling wondered aloud looking at the tiny swirl of air and misty black aura around the tiny hole.

As soon as she spoke, there was distortion in the space just like before which grew bigger and bigger until she could feel herself getting sucked in.

A black hole appeared in the middle of nowhere in the air followed by the crack in the dimension surrounding it.

"Hold on tight little snake, we are going on one nasty ride." Le Fangling cried to Nagina but her voice soon got drowned by the violent gushing of the air towards the portal.

'I know I have to hold on to you even without you telling me to do so.' Nagina hissed as she coiled herself around Le Fangling tightly.

Le Fangling could feel herself bring pulled by a heavy force but this time she resigned herself to it without fighting it back.

Before she was completely covered away by the darkness, she saw from the corner of her eyes the original Le Fangling look at their direction.

"Can she see us?" She wondered but…

'She couldn't have seen me..there is no way..this is just a reply of memory after all.' She shook off the thoughts in her mind.

"This is juts a dream and they are just figures from the past." Le Fangling closed her eyes as she got enveloped by the misty black aura.

Letting out a sigh she waited for her back to hit the ground like it always did whenever she transported form one place to the other.

…

"Oww…." Le Fangling let out a cry when she relay hit the ground again when she fell out of the portal and to make matter worse, this time she fell down on a really stony ground.

She even had a feeling that the stones managed to make a hole on her dress.

"We are back at the house?" She exclaimed in surprise looking at the familiar house they had gone to on their first memory.

"Anyone home?" She asked but got no reply. The whole area was filled with silence and even the air seemed to be still.

'This silence feels way too eerie…' She rubbed her arms as she tried to sort out the discomfort in her heart.

"But since we appeared here, it means that she is going to bring them here to meet her grand mom right?" Le Fangling made a guess as she looked around hoping to see sign of the old lady or any living being near her.

"Hmm…so that means, she took them back with her to meet her grand mom after all." Le Fangling had not even finished speaking when suddenly she heard a loud ear splitting scream from somewhere.

.

"What happened?" Le Fangling turned around to the direction from where the scream came and to her horror she saw a pool of fire engulfing whole of the village.

"What what what?? Where did this come from?" Le Fangling pointed at the village in front of them.

Black smokes were rising from the very few houses that were scattered here and there on the rough and dried up ground. There was occasional scream and shouts of help but all of them were silenced within a few seconds.

"I know this is a serious situation but this place kinda looks like it's in festival time with all this fire." She gestured towards the village that was now colored in bright shade of vibrant red, orange and yellow fire.

The white and black mist that kept on escaping from the sea of fire to the sky before disappearing in to the clouds made it look much livelier.

"Festival?" Nagina looked at her with a concerned face. People were dying and she was calling it festival made her sound like a total evil guy.

"Ahh don't mind me…I am just..never mind.." Sensing the staring gaze of Nagina, le Fangling cleared her throat and averted her eyes from those dark shiny eyes.

"It's not like I can even do anything by feeling sad and panicked about it." She shrugged her shoulder and made her intention clear for being apathetic to this situation.

Using emotions used way too much energy and so she would rather turn a blind eyes to suffering of people that she can not change and save herself from the energy loss and trauma.

"Grandma!!!"

Both Le Fangling and Nagina turned to look at the entrance of the house and saw the real Le Fangling running towards the house, her face filled with horrified expression.

"Granny!!" She screamed at the top of her lungs and entered the house in a dash. Even from where they were they could clearly see the thin layer of sweat on her forehead.

"What about the two guys who were coming with her?" Le Fangling was dumbfounded to see only her coming in to the house.

"Grandma, where are you?" She called her granny at the top of her voice but to no avail.

She entered the house and came out in 1 minute. Without thinking anything else, she dashed right out of the house just like how she had come.

The soulless expression on her face was more than enough for Le Fangling to figure out that she had not found her grandma inside there.

"All these fires and chaos.." Le Fangling got thinking when she recalled what she had overheard before.

"Wait….Please don't tell me its bandits at this time?" She exclaimed with surprise and looked at Nagina who simply nodded her head.

"This is way too big of a coincidence!!"

"That's what I think too." Nagina hissed.

She sniffed the air and almost immediately hid under the dress of Le Fangling. As a snake, her senses had gotten extremely snake like and she was sensitive to fire and smell of smoke.

But there was something else that was bothering her more than that. She could feel the scales on her body tingling.

"But something else is about to happen here right?" Le Fangling recalled about how this place was located in border between the human realm and the formless realm.

"The formless!! Are they here?" She exclaimed with her eyes wide open.

She did not know what they were but she trusted her gut feeling. All this chaos and there was no way the creatures of dark were not going to come to feast on it.

Without waiting for Nagina to answer, she was ready to head there herself.

"Let's follow her." Le Fangling decided to run after the girl who was now running towards the burning village like a thundering storm.

When they were slightly near from the center part of the village, Le Fangling abruptly stopped as she felt Nagina trying to hide herself within her dress.

"What's wrong?" She asked while still chasing after Le Fangling who showed no sign of stopping.

"It's hot!! Way too hot!!" She stated.

"Right, we are still affected by the inanimate objects here." Le Fangling nodded and decided to take a step back for now.

"Ehh..what are you doing?" She tried to catch hold of Le Fangling but before she could even grasp her. the real Le Fangling jumped inside the sea of fire calling out her granny's name.