"Five millenia?" Ran was puzzled. How can people fight for so long? He then thought about how his home had been completely wiped out with only a little amount of people remaining—all of it happening within the span of a single night.
But for five thousand years? While losing?
"How did you guys survive for that long?" Ran was curious… and blunt. Sure, go ahead and ask how his entire family hadn't been ruthlessly killed yet.
Bob can only smile awkwardly at the question.
"By running, mostly. We're nomads; as long as we keep moving, then they can't get all of us." There was a bit of a stammer in his voice as he spoke. There was no easy way of saying that his entire tribe were in a perpetual state of running away; or that a single night of respite could mean the death of every single tribesman.
"Actually, that's why I look like this. Not just me, everyone back home looks like this too."
He removed his hood to show his face.
His pale green skin.
His serpentine eyes.
His ears and sharpened hearing.
All of it.
"You mean…"
Ran had another realization upon seeing Bob's appearance.
After reading through the prologue of the book "The Northern & Southern Pits", he skimmed through some more of the book before being attracted to a particular section.
"We've… witnessed something there. Something terrible."
On the left-hand page of the book, a depiction of a serpent had been scrawled; it was messy and done roughly, almost as if whoever drew it did not have enough time to finish the figure.
This serpent was different from all the others, including the golden serpent, which was the antithesis of elegance and nobility.
No. This serpent, with its sickly green coloration, appeared to be the enemy of all living creatures.
Actually, its appearance was normal, almost average, relatively speaking.
But it was its eyes that had truly set it apart in Rans mind.
They were cold, so cold in fact, that Ran had felt his very soul shudder even though he hadn't even awakened at the time and had no way to directly connect with his soul. It felt as if it turned his heart to stone—it was probably a reflection of its own heart.
Its sclera was green, and its iris was also green in pigmentation; much like Bobs only he retained the human sclera.
Ran found it strange, how was the person who drew it able to make it so life-like, let alone have time to do that but not the rest? He supposed the only way would be if he saw it themselves, in person.
He then read the caption below:
"According to the surrounding species, "Buruburu", as they called it, is the infamous leader of Emerald grass snake tribe. He's a ruthless leader who led his tribe to attack several species to extinction and has attracted everyone's ire."
"But… it's worse than that. Everyone we've talked to has only said one thing about them: 'You'd best stay as far away from this place as possible; better yet, leave this hellhole forever and never come back. Lest they eat you too."
…
"You mean… the Emerald grass clan?" After collecting his thoughts, he asked Bob.
"You… know about them? They don't even go by that name anymore."
Bob's face started contorting little by little, the more he spoke about them.
"But, sure. Well, after being hunted by them for so long, we started evolving to look more and more like them. They look just like us, like me, except they have scales on certain parts of their bodies. That's also why we wear these."
He pointed towards his cloak.
"It's quite cool to be honest. In the pit, being covered in dark colors lets us camouflage, and with our eyes, we can, on occasion, fool some of them. Not only that, it's a really good insulator, so it also lets us hide from their infrared sight."
He boasted his families ingenuity for a bit before continuing:
"Well, I guess I should start at the beginning." He breathed in deeply to ready himself before continuing:
"Long ago, my Human tribe and the Emerald grass snake tribe were allies. They were the best of friends—treated each other like family. In a way, you can say they were a family. They went through everything together; the best… and the worst."
"Later on, the Emeralds tribe leader and the Humans tribe leader would have a offspring—"
"Do you mean 'Buruburu'," Ran cut him off.
The atmosphere went silent instantly, yet the next moment it was akin to fuse being lit on a stick of dynamite.
Hearing the name immediately made Bob go into a rage with his eyes bloodshot. It was as if it was a hypnotic trigger word and was capable of turning Bob into a completely different person. But, after seeing everyone taken aback, he calmed himself down by rubbing his ears. The warmth of friction spread throughout his head and he was no longer agitated.
He sighed heavily as he said, "I really, really suggest never saying that name; everyone in the tribe who has was soon taken. It's really like a curse; please refrain from doing it again, brother."
He sounded more and more concerned with every word and his facial expression said it all. Thus, Ran could only nod as he sympathized with this brother of his.
"Right as I was saying; due to unknown conditions, the mother – the human tribes leader – died during childbirth."
"Despite the death of the mother, the offspring managed to survive and was successfully delivered. It quickly shocked the whole alliance as they had discovered that it showed signs of awakening that very same day."
"Indeed it was so; able to use its soul from day one, it matured much faster than anticipated. Worse yet, its affinity was quite strange; it could not gain a sigil since it seemingly had a paralytic attributed soul. This was weird; the Emerald grass tribe had an affinity with the Emerald grass, so this was completely unlike what was expected."
"Because of this, it would often play pranks with its childhood friends and shock them or make them paralyzed. It was very troubled."
"Yet, it only went downhill from there. One day, one of the children went missing. Then another… and another. Soon, even the only tribe leader that was left, the father, went missing."
"But this was a mistake. After all the children went missing, everyone was vigilant and on guard. That night, one of the people patrolling and on the lookout heard a strange noise. It was coming from the tribe's leader's residence, so it paid no head at first, but the noises got louder and louder. Actually, they were in charge of guarding the area around the residence, so they were the only ones in the area at that time. It was curious and cautious, so it went to check it out."
"It approached the back of the house quietly and when it got there, it would receive the biggest shock it had ever had. Not just them, everyone would be shocked and everything would soon change."
"There, standing on a patch of emerald grass was it, the offspring. They had a contemptuous smile as they faced what was in front of them. Its father was what was floating in front of it. A glob of soul juice extended from the offsprings hand and completely covered the fathers body."
"It was a sickly yellowish-green color, it was almost like mucus. The father was completely incapcitated with his eyes rolled to the back of his head and his body was shivering. Soon, the fathers eyes turned lifeless for, at the time, unknown reasons and that's when the real horror started."
"After it killed its own fatner, its soul juice began acting like muscles as it began ripping apart the body limb from limb, organ from organ. When the chunks were small enough, it began acting almost like a throat with forwards and back motion and then the body was… consumed. Nothing was left."
"What!? You're saying he ate his own dad!?" Ran was completely astonished and almost puked on the spot. Ann as well was visibly uncomfortable and her hairs were standing on end. Fluffy was the most calm one, though she too was vigilant and seemed to scan the area for any potential attackers.
"Yep, that's exactly what it did. It ate him. After he was done, it slurped on its own juice as it seemed content and satisfied with its meal. It was at that moment that the guard knew exactly what had happened to all the missing children."
Yep, indeed, and at that moment, Ran also knew what happened to the children; which is why he immediately barfed up his dinner all over the floor. Luckily, none of it hit Fluffy. But it was strange, Ran seemed extra sensitive to this concept—cannibalism. It's probably just his overactive imagination; he's got a whole world in there anyway so it makes sense.
After cleaning everything up and everyone was settled, though Fluffy looked at Ran with some vigilance, they continued.
"You want me to continue," Bob asked Ran. His face was quite pale from barfing and it seemed to stay that way.
"Yeah, yeah, please continue."
Nonetheless, his curiosity got the better of him.