"That was one hell of a thunder.." Le Fangling had to cover her ears to save them. She was afraid, if she did not do that, the intensity of sound might cause her internal bleeding.
The skeletal tree in front of them, where the lightning had struck was now ablaze in fire. Right at that moment, she heard a soft cry of a little child coming from somewhere.
"Is that you again?" She asked Nagina and tapped the wiggling tail.
"Nope, that's not me." Nagina probed her head out from the dress and scanned the area but to no avail. She could not sense any living creatures within the radius of 50 km, which was her limit.
"I can't seem to find any other being except you and me here." Nagina blinked her eyes twice and looked at Le Fangling.
"You..just go back inside." Averting her eyes from those dewy drop eyes, Le Fangling looked sideways and let out a slight cough.
She could not understand why and how the snakes could look as cute as her system did.
"I am scared….huhuhuhu…" The same cry echoed once again and this time it was more distinct than ever. But compared to before, it sounded much clearer and more scared.
Le Fangling could hear the quiver of the voice when the one who was asking for help cried.
She waited for a while to pinpoint the exact location and sharply turned towards the place where she thought was the source of sound.
"There!!" She pointed to the tree that was ablaze and dashed towards that place as fast as she could. Nagina too looked in front and squinted her eyes scanning the area for any sign of human life.
By the moment she had reached the skeletal tree, it had burnt down to the point ashes were starting to drop on the ground.
"Just how powerful the lightning was?" Le Fangling shook her head and jumped to one side to avoid the branch that was about to fall down right on top of her.
"Close call..."She wiped her non existent sweat and exclaimed.
The lightning had not only burnt the trees but even made a deep crater on the ground.
"Grwannyy…I am scwared…" A child voice came from behind the rock near the tree. This time it was much clearer.
Le Fangling looked at Nagina and gave a short snort.
'What?' Nagina hissed back.
'Didn't you say there was no one here?' She whispered silently so as not to scare the child behind the rock. Also with her index finger, she pointed at the place from where the sound was coming.
Nagina was pissed at the way she was being blamed for it but she knew it was her weakness to not be able to perceive the person behind the rock.
SO, she tried again to scan the rock but this time as well, the result she got was the same. There was no living thing behind the rock, let alone some small girl or what not.
Le Fangling avoided the crater as well and finally reached behind a rock. She leaned sideways to see who was the poor child that was crying for her granny!
A little girl of age 5 or 6 was crouched down on the floor as she wailed in fear. She was trembling slightly due to the cold from the water but mainly due to her fear.
She was wearing a brown robe that had a few stitches here and there matched with two cute hair buns on her head.
From where Le Fangling stood, the girl looked extremely poor and helpless making her heart feel a tinge of pain as she was reminded of her own life before she was reincarnated in this world.
"Hello..little girl…" Le Fangling slowly walked towards the girl and after stopping at a safe distance she called out the little girl.
As if hearing her call, the child raised her hand and stared at Le Fangling or more like stared through Le Fangling with her pure turquoise colored eyes that were glistening with tears.
She stopped to look at Le Fangling for a while then she suddenly sprang to her feet, full of energy.
"Grwannyy!!" With snots flying everywhere and her eyes filled to the brim with tears, the girl stood up and ran towards Le Fangling with all her might.
"..."
I am not your granny little girl! Le Fangling wanted to correct her but never the less she crouched down on the ground and spread her hands out to receive the girl in her arms.
"Come here little girl." She smiled at the cute girl with her plump cheeks.
Meanwhile, Nagina stared at the child running towards them with a nostalgic look but was quickly replaced with sharpness when she realized something.
She scanned the girl to analyze her but she only got error messages.
"Host, this…" Before she could even finish, the little girl had already approached them and went right thought them.
Le Fangling: "..."
She stood there with her open arms but it was empty. The little girl passed right through her like as if she was some kind of projection.
Or wait…But what if she was the real illusion? Le Fangling had experienced many things but this was her first time getting a shock to this extent.
"No, host..That is not possible." Nagina hissed at Le Fangling making her return back to her senses.
"It's more like we are the real ones and all we are seeing is the memory of some one else, more like…" her voice trailed off and she squirmed around until she fell on the ground and turned to look behind Le Fangling.
"Our answer is right there." Nagina gestured at Le Fangling to turn back and see the scene for herself.
In robotic motion, as if her bones were frozen, Le Fangling turned around and saw an old woman in her late eighties tightly hugging the girl from before.
"Gwanny…huhuhu…"The little girl hugged the old woman tightly and started to cry in relief. The old lady did not speak anything but patted her back slowly and comforted the little girl.
"It's fine..It's fine..I am here now, aren't I?" The old lady coaxed the little girl until she calmed down. She picked up the little girl and wrapped up her in a wrapper made up of water proof material and started walking down the hill.
She paused in her steps and turned back to look at the burning tree. Her eyes seems to pass right through them making Le Fangling feel a weird and unpleasant sensation.
"Should we follow them?" Nagina asked Le Fangling who nodded to her question and started following the duo at a constant speed.
"They are not humans….they are just fragments of memories from the real owner of the body." Nagina started to speak what she figured out.
"I know. I understood it was the real Le Fangling's memory when I saw those crystal clear eyes." Le Fangling heaved out a sigh and followed behind them.
"Do you think these memories are true?" Le Fangling asked looking at the desolate place.
"I think we will have to use our own judgment to perceive the things and know what is true and what is not." Nagina replied to Le Fangling.
Despite it being a little stuffy inside the dress, unconsciously she was sticking to Le Fangling. This place gave her a weird feeling, but she soon discarded the thought thinking it was just the result of some false and incorrect data.
"En." Le Fangling also agreed with her. She was not going to make her visit to this place a useless one.
They continued walking in silence observing the place they were at but they could not notice any living being apart from the two people in front of them.
After walking for a while, they reached a small cottage at the bottom of the hill and all four of them entered the house.
It was the perfect little house for two people with just the right amount of designs. Le Fangling admired the cuteness of the house and gave a smile.
She had just taken off her eyes from the girl and old woman duo but when she turned back to look at them, the grandmother was sitting on a hay stool and on her lap was the girl who was lying with her naked butt facing the elderly woman.
'????'
Question marks filled her face at this scene but she realized how wrong she was when she heard the loud crisp of the meat bun being slapped by the large hand of the grandma.
"Aishh..you little brat! How many times do I have to tell you to not come here all alone.." The old lady spanked the round little butt of the little girl thrice before she stopped and looked at the girl who was just clutching her dress and did not even complain.
"Why did you go there huh?" The grand mom demanded answers from the little girl who stubbornly shook her head.