63 Will of wisp

Living with sensitive eyes all her life, will o wisp doesn't bothered her much and shr took her chances to ask for a direction from 'it' to her family. It took her to her mother and the odd part was none of them noticed that she was gone for sometime. It was one of the things that bugged her out even until now.

"I'll get to the bottom of this." She said with a conviction. Iiana followed the orb and found herself hiking up a hill. Sometime she tripped herself and sometimes she would prick her skin with a thorn. If it wasn't for lush and thick trees, she would've fly instead. Afraid of losing sight of it from above the trees, she opt To walk by her feet instead. Quite exhausting consequences but her curiosity far out-weight it.

It was after walking for ten minutes that they reach to the mouth of a cave. Iiana stare at the entrance with a worried look, thinking all kind of scary crawlers might hide inside of it. The orb as if waiting for her to make a decision, stop for a while before turning in circle and slowly, entering the cave.

"Well... here goes nothing.." she took out a small light orbs to light up her path, making sure she is fifty meters away from the will o' wisp, in order not to spooked it away. The caved was diverged into several canals that act like a maze. That worried Iiana more. She took out her nail polished that she had recently purchased earlier this morning out of her boredom getting grounded, and paint it a little on the side wall. This made her nodded in satisfaction.

One thing story books had taught her, is how to be smart. She remember the story book about how the little girl put a bread crumbs on the path but it got eaten. And as a child that time, I thought how stupid she was. Food get eaten, and putting it on the path? A lot of things can happen.

When one leave a mark, leave it where it's hidden and undisturbed from everyone except oneself.

She move briskly then, still holding the nail polish. It was then she felt her arm band starts to slither down and went to wrap around her waist. It become a... belt-tail?

"Are you a unicorn snake?" Asked Iiana. The snake eyes gave her a brief dry look before gazing back to the front.

"Not talking or can't talk?"

It was then the tail swish and smack her butt that she yelp. She rubs her butt and look at the snake head.

"I was just asking and this is what I get, a smack. Great." She mumbled angrily. Still rubbing her butt, she moved and follow the retreating form of the orb.

While following the orb, her thoughts would linger to the snake. It was the first time sjnce she had this armband that it had changed into living thing. She said its a living thing because she could very much feel the warmth emitted from the snake around her waist, warmer than the snake at earth she had touched before.

The focus and sharp eyes on the snake was enough to proved that it is an indeed living and intelligent being. is it some kind of a spirit? Or maybe a cursed beast turned to weapons? She tried to shuffle her memories about all the books she had read but couldn't come up with anything. In the end, she gave up. The snake doesn't or couldn't talk, so it wasn't like she's going to get any answer soon.

****************

How long had they walked? An Hour or two? Maybe. But gods know, how treacherous the path was. They had to slip through a crack of the cave, crawl under a small hold and right now, they came out from the opening of the cave right to another bigger cave with a huge waterfall.

"What's next? A magma?" She look at the orb that was dipping inside the water couple of time leisurely, like its taking a bath.

"That is one hell of oddball. Pun intended" Comment Iiana while looking at the will o wisp. the snake gave her another dry look. She began to wonder if the snake is broken somehow and only know how to show that sarcastic expression.

"Wait..."

"Is it me, or is that orb glowing even brighter than before?" I narrowed my eyes on it, seeing the lacklustre orb earlier began to glow even brighter and the blue colour became more obvious and vivid. That water must contain something, thought Iiana. She jump off from the cliff of the opening cave down below where the water pooled. And activate her flying at last minute, inches away from the surface. She dipped her finger inside and and suddenly felt like she was overwhelmed by a torrent of energy stored inside the whole water body. It was as if the whole thing was a giant whirlpool of mana. She instantly retracted her finger, because it made her suddenly light headed. She doesn't know how to process the mana to be her own and her body was acting like a vacuum with a turn off button. Anyone with a half brain could figure out that too much a good thing might destroy you. Who knows what'll happened if she was to suck all of the mana in one go? She might end up exploding, yep. Not going to take the chances.

When the orb glow and enter through the waterfall, Iiana bite her lips. She eyed the giant waterfall, and knew the force of it would be hundred times worse than the small waterfall she'd been to.

She look down at the snake. The snake gave her ANOTHER dry look. It open its mouth as if sighing. Before turning itself into something that it already seen inside it's owner mind.