Rhea walked towards the border town forest. Although this particular town was a small town, however the forest was big and dense. She was sure there would be a lot of animals, and she was going to catch one today.
For some reason, Rhea's thought went back to last night when she saw that imposter's nakedness. She blushed to her root and quickly dismissed the image that flashed to her mind.
Damn that serpent for being shameless! She thought in her mind.
On her way to the forest, she ran into a few townfolks. Their gaze would subconsciously stopped on her when they noticed the road she was heading to. However, none of them tried to stop her.
The townfolks couldn't help but mumble among themselves. They'd all heard that the general's first wife was killed by an animal attack. And they all believed the animal resided in the forest, and no one had entered it ever since then. But here was his new wife going towards the danger everyone had been avoiding.
Rhea didn't pay heed to the pair of eyes on her, she entered the forest. She'd been here before, so nothing could possibly go wrong.
While searching for any edible wildlife in the dense forest, Rhea suddenly heard a rustling sound emanating from a thick bush ahead of her. Acting cautiously, she took a step back and waited silently, bracing herself for any eventuality.
As she watched with rapt attention, she noticed a gigantic serpent slithering out of the bushes, that serpent looked incredibly familiar, Rhea watched stunned as the serpent morphed into a young woman within moments right in front of her.
Without so much as glancing in Rhea's direction, the woman began walking purposefully towards the forest's exit pathway.
Nonetheless, Rhea noticed something, the lady seemed to have difficulties in walking, she was limping. Confused and dazed by the strange events unfolding before her, Rhea stood transfixed.
She stared at the woman's retreating back for a long time. Did this woman just shift before her eyes? Could it be possible that there were several demon serpents dwelling in this forest besides the imposter?
Rhea wanted to go after the lady, but then stopped. As she remembered she was here to hunt. Right now, nothing was more important than her food, not even her curiosity. She would come back to investigate that after finding her meat.
Rhea turned to the opposite direction where the lady had took, she walked deeper into the forest. Not long, her sensitive ears picked up a faint sound.
She walked to the direction of the sound, only to see a weird creature, two times her size, but the strange thing about it was it's appearance. It looked exactly like a goat, yet had extremely long legs and a long neck like that of a giraffe.
When she encountered it, the animal seemed to be feeding on grass with it's back turned to her. Rhea smiled in satisfaction, if she captured such a huge goat, it's meat would last her for all the days she'd be staying in this border town.
Though gigantic, what could a harmless grass eating creature possibly do to her? All she had to do was sneak from behind and stab her sword into it's flesh. Once it was weakened, then she could kill it. Rhea thought confidently.
Rhea began to take feathery steps towards the huge goat with her short sword raised in the air. This goat was really harmless, look at it's tailless butt. She thought and laughed internally.
Well...not until it sensed her movement and turned it's bulging black eyes to face her. Rhea's feet, which was about to touch the ground, hung in midair. Her eyes widened in shock as she noticed blood dripping from the huge goat's mouth.
Only then did she realized the creature wasn't eating grass, it was actually munching on a huge lump of flesh dripping blood. Looking down, she saw it was eating the flesh of a leopard.
Rhea's heart dropped to her stomach at the sight. But she couldn't help but also think; the humans here were vegetarians while the animals were non-vegetarian.
What an odd place.
The creature seemed annoyed at her disturbance or found her a much tastier meat, it let out a frighteningly roar baring it's long fangs at her.
Rhea began to walk backwards as she tried to assure the goat like beast, "Calm down goaty, carry on with your meal. I will go back and eat my vegetarian food." She said, however the creature seemed more annoyed and started to approach her.
"Oh no, this definitely ain't a goat, but a damn monster!" Rhea exclaimed as she turned on her heels and dashed into the forest, yet the creature was hot on her tail.
The creature's long leg gave it an advantage in speed as it mounded in large strides, however it's long neck gave Rhea an advantage as she could duck under thick bushes, but the creature seemed to have a sharp sense. It always sought out her hiding spot.
Rhea crawled out of her hiding when the creature almost crushed her in the bushes. She ran to another direction throwing curses at the creature.
"Didn't your ancestors teach you how to stick with eating grasses?! You damn creature went astray_ Ahh!"
She stepped on her front dress and tripped over, she stumbled to the ground and fell hard. Knowing the creature was still running towards her, she quickly attempted to stand up, but at the same time, it caught up to her.
It snorted and bared it's fangs at her. However, the creature didn't seem to want to attack her immediately, he took it's time in wanting to intimidate her. Walking slowly towards her.
With her short sword nearly pointed towards it, Rhea warned the creature, "Do not even consider making a meal out of me. If I lose my temper, you may not enjoy the consequences, my dear 'goaty'." As she stood up, she rolled up her sleeves and added, "I would advise you to count and reconsider before deciding on a course of action. You..."
Before Rhea could finish her threat, the creature suddenly began to back away in fear. Delighted with herself, Rhea gloated, "Come, attack me and I will show you how to become a vegetarian."
However, her confidence evaporated the moment she realized that the creature was not looking at her but behind her. With a growing sense of dread, Rhea spun around and was shocked to discover the source of the creature's terror.
"How did you get here, serpent?!"
It was the imposter.
Instead of answering her, Jurian remarked with an indifferent face, "It appears your intense desire for food has led you to seek a Pukleoff, a creature known for its carnivorous appetite."
"Pukleoff, so that's the name of this..." Rhea turned towards the spot the creature was, but it was no where in sight. She frowned, "Why is it afraid of you?"
"Let's get out of this place; it is unwise to dwell here and invite any other creatures with your idle chatter," he said indifferently, striding ahead without waiting for her.
Rhea, sensing that her further inquiries were unwelcome, abandoned her words and hastened to catch up with him. She had no desire to become prey for a non-vegetarian goat and would preferred to become a vegetarian by force if necessary.
While they made their way towards the exit, Rhea surveyed their surroundings with interest. As they passed a spot where a jagged branch lay on the earth, she stopped abruptly.
"Does this place not hold the memory of that intense quarrel we had?" she mused, pointing to the spot.
Jurian halted in his tracks, his brows knitting together as he surveyed the area. Though he said nothing, Rhea did not wait for his affirmation. Instead, her searching gaze settled on a particular spot.
Her expression brightened, "Good heavens, my pitchfork is still here!" She ran forward and picked it up from the ground.
She did a few practice moves with it, then playfully pointed it towards the imposter, "Hands In the air. You damned serpent almost swallowed this precious pitchfork of mine, If you don't give me back the stolen treasure, I will stab you in the heart!"
With a swift movement, Jurian deflected the pitchfork aimed at him and let out a cold snort. "Your meaningless pitchfork can only cause me a minor injury, why would I be scared of that? If you don't want to lose your limbs, I suggest you stop pointing things at me," he warned in a nonchalant manner.
Rhea's eyes immediately grew darker, as she ran her fingers along the pitchfork. "If memory serves me right, you cried out in agony when I pinned your tail to the ground," she said, smirking.
Jurian paid her no attention and continued to walk away. Rhea called out to him, urging him to stop. "Hold on there!" she shouted, running after him, but he ignored her calls.
--
Upon the arrival of nighttime, Rhea found herself once again unable to fall asleep. She lay on the bed with her eyes wide open, hearing the steady breaths of Jurian who was sleeping on the floor.
As she shifted her position to face him, she couldn't help but think; She'd always felt like something was odd about this man ever since they'd met. However, it was only now that she was able to understand the reason for it.
If it was true that he was a serpent, and was currently possessing the real Jurian's body. Why would he care so much about the real general's grandmother? And also, how did he come to know the real Jurian's daily life?
Commanding the soldiers, knowing everything about the old woman. And most importantly, why would a serpent soak in ice water?
He was so familiar with everything that it was almost like he had been pretending to be Jurian for many years.
Rhea would never forget that day she fought with that serpent in the forest. She'd wounded it so badly with her spikes and pitchfork, and it was evident that he'd been scared and even fled for it's life.
But today when she pointed her pitchfork at the imposter, he was so indifferent. He didn't even react.
Now that she thought about it; wasn't the serpent supposed to be injured even after shifting to a human? But this imposter had no injuries on his body even when she saw his nakedness yesterday.
All these only made everything clear that this imposter wasn't the serpent she fought that day. She was positive he was something else for a creature like that Pukleoff to flee at his presence.
Nonetheless, if this man wasn't the serpent, then why was he misleading the people's sight, and also claiming to be the serpent to her and the general to the people of Birhhan?
What did he do to the real Jurian?
If he doesn't have the stolen treasure, why would he take her to that cave with fire barriers?
The more she thought about it, the more she realized there was more to this man. He was hiding something enormous from everyone.
'Who are you, imposter? Why are you misleading everyone?'
It seemed she really had to be wary of this man and also investigate what his motives were...