Chapter 12 Snake Cave "How come I never knew you were so protective..."

"What are you thinking about?" the white python in front of her suddenly spoke, startling Catherine.

She thought he would quietly continue on his way to his destination.

"I sensed your emotions. How strange—after being afraid, you can still feel some pity." The python's tone was full of malice. "What are you pitying? Yourself? Heh heh..."

“Yes,” Catherine sighed, continuing the conversation with the white python, “I’m worried about my future, and I’m thinking about how to get you to spare my life.”

The white python gave a soft hum and shut its mouth.

Her compliant attitude made him abandon his malicious thoughts and lose interest.

For the remainder of the journey, the two tacitly remained silent. This continued until a faint, not-too-bright light shone through the cave ahead, and the sounds of revelry echoed throughout the cave and its surrounding passageways.

Catherine's heart began to race; she knew they had reached their destination.

The white python hadn't told her why it had brought her there, so she was constantly worried about what she was about to face.

The white python moved swiftly, giving her little time to calm down. It ducked in from the entrance, and a gentle light instantly enveloped them. Only then did Catherine realize that the underground cave was much larger than she had imagined.

The cave housed dozens of giant snakes, yet it still felt quite spacious. Looking up, countless small and medium-sized snakes clung to the cave walls, stretching into the unseen darkness.

"Xavier... hiss hiss hiss... you actually brought a human with you... hiss hiss hiss..."

Catherine saw a giant cobra slithering towards them at high speed. She couldn't understand what it was saying, but she could hear its chilling hissing.

The cobra slithered closer to her, its nostrils spewing out cold, moist air.

Catherine suppressed her urge to retreat. She wasn't sure of her situation yet, and she didn't want to provoke any of the wild beasts here beforehand.

And she was also gambling, betting that the white python wouldn't let him get close to her.

After all, wild animals have a strong possessiveness towards their prey. And as a "potential collectible," she should receive a higher level of treatment than the prey.

Just as the cobra was about to get close, the white python quickly retreated and hissed at him.

"Get out of my way! This is mine!"

Catherine quietly relaxed her body.

Fortunately, she made the right bet.

The cobra's pupils narrowed instantly, and his tone was filled with displeasure: "What's wrong, Xavier? I never knew you were so possessive of your food."

“This isn’t food, Arnold!” Xavier glanced at Catherine. “This is a collection I stole.”

"A collectible!"

"What! A collection?"

"Xavier actually has living artifacts?!"

"..."

The cave was no longer quiet because of Xavier's sudden remark.

Arnold snorted and lowered his head. The distance between the enormous snake head and Catherine instantly closed.

"This little thing? It doesn't look particularly special."

Xavier looked into Catherine's eyes, his snake-like pupils filled with a deep, infatuated gaze: "No! She's beautiful..."

After Xavier finished speaking, he paused for a moment. When he looked at Arnold again, his tone had calmed down, but it was full of disdain: "But with your aesthetic sense, I can't explain such profound things to you."

Arnold chuckled, rolled his eyes, and walked away.

Once Arnold moved aside, the other giant snakes in the cave all approached, eager to see Xavier's new collection.

This is Xavier's first living collection!

Catherine watched as the giant snakes around her drew ever closer, their raised heads almost completely blocking her view of the caves around her, and even the faint light from the surroundings slowly began to penetrate.

Catherine felt goosebumps involuntarily rise on her skin. It represented her uncontrollable fear.

It would be a lie to say she wasn't afraid of being surrounded and stared at by so many giant snakes.

However, given the previous example of the cobra, Catherine guessed that the white python wouldn't let her die easily. So she tried to remain calm and let the giant snakes examine her.

But… she carefully veered slightly to the side. The banded krait's nostrils were practically touching her skin! Wasn't that a little too close?

Although humans are also on the giant serpents' menu, there are many others below them in the Devil's Forest food chain.

Before coming to the Snake Cave, they had all filled their stomachs, so although human-like creatures were rare in the Devil's Forest, they were just a rare treat to them. And this little darling belonged to Xavier; judging from his expression just now, they knew they wouldn't be getting a piece of this treat today.

So people just look and smell, and the most outrageous thing they do is lick her skin. That's all.

But for Catherine, this was a real test of her nerves.

She finally understood why the silver fox hamsters kept at the Vatican reacted so strongly just from having their ears sucked.

Once they had seen enough, Xavier moved over and circled around Catherine.

“That’s good enough!” Xavier said threateningly.

However, anyone could hear a subtle hint of arrogance in his voice.

Humans are indeed rare in Devil's Forest, and most of them don't live long. Xavier has kept one of such good quality; no wonder he looks like this now.

Now that the owner of the treasure had spoken, the surrounding giant snakes dispersed. Catherine finally saw the faint light coming from the cave wall again.

She couldn't help but take a deep breath. Having just been surrounded by the giant snake, where air circulation was extremely difficult, she had almost suffocated before she even reached that point.

Of course, deep breathing also helped calm her racing heart.

As the surroundings gradually quieted down, Catherine looked over as if sensing something, and saw Xavier walking towards her.

"Nervous?" Xavier had clearly noticed her reaction and asked with ill intent.

Catherine clutched her chest, looked up at him, but didn't say anything.

Xavier's eyes darted around, his serpentine pupils catching Catherine's reaction. He could sense her anger, and understood that she didn't want to answer his questions at this moment.

Xavier's lips curled into a smile, an expression that would be considered amusement by humans. But before he could say anything more malicious, Catherine, reflected in her snake-like eyes, suddenly smiled gently.

"I was indeed nervous. But now that you're here, I'm not afraid anymore."

Xavier stopped laughing.

He was in a very bad mood. How could there be a human being like her? Fearful but not crying, and able to laugh even when angry.

And what did she mean by that?

Did he think he'd let her off the hook just because she said that? Impossible! He would never let go of any of the collectibles he had his eye on!

Xavier thought this, but his body moved even closer. His huge snake tail circled around Catherine, preventing any unsuspecting small snakes from getting in.

He did this to protect the integrity of the collection.

Xavier thought so.

Inside the snake cave, the snakes watched the strange human species for a while, then dispersed to await the arrival of the other giant snakes.

Catherine obediently hid within the circle drawn by Xavier's tail, eavesdropping on the giant snakes' conversation. Of course, she couldn't understand the beasts' language, but she could glean some meaning from their gestures and tone of voice.

She noticed that almost every giant snake brought one or two strange beasts with it when it entered. As soon as they came in, they would throw what they were carrying on their backs or in their hands onto an open space on the right.

Most of those strange beasts were already dead, but some were still alive, bound by chains or something similar, unable to move.

The open space, which started as a small patch, gradually grew into a small hill. The strange and unusual beasts piled up there were more numerous than any she had seen in the past two weeks in the Devil's Forest.

Catherine slowly realized that tonight's revelry in this snake pit seemed to be food-themed.

No wonder some of the giant snakes looked at her with such fervor when she and Xavier came in.

They clearly initially regarded her as a "dessert" brought by Xavier.

Catherine shrank back slightly, then instinctively moved a little further inside.

Xavier patted her tail gently, perhaps feeling uncomfortable because she was too close.

Catherine lay on Xavier's tail.

His tail coiled several times, covering most of her body except for half of her head. She looked out at the cave entrance like that.

The atmosphere in the snake pit had been quiet for a while. The strange beasts that served as their food no longer held any novelty for the giant snakes. The process had gradually become a tedious routine.

Until the arrival of the last giant serpent...

The atmosphere inside the cave suddenly heated up again, and the snakes let out a cheering hiss.

Simply because the food he brought was from a human species.

When Catherine saw the trembling brethren being carried by the giant snake, her brows furrowed.

It was a boy, who looked quite young, only twelve or thirteen years old. He was as innocent and youthful as the youngest brother in the nun's household who was teaching her.

The happy, sunny face in my memory gradually overlapped with the tearful, frightened face of the unfamiliar child in front of me.

He seemed to be gripped by panic. When he entered the cave and saw so many giant snakes, he was nearly scared out of his wits.

At this moment, he clearly had no idea what he was about to encounter.

Catherine instinctively closed her eyes.

She wasn't exactly a compassionate person. Those cheap trinkets had been completely used up during her years living in the slums.

But she still couldn't bear to see the boy's fate. It was out of sorrow for her fellow human beings, a feeling of shared grief like that of a rabbit mourning the death of a fox.

His fate today will surely be her fate later.

A note from the author:

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