He raised his head to survey his surroundings and flicked his tongue.
The memories of last night remained vivid and unforgettable.
He vaguely sensed that the inexplicable attack had something to do with the dazzling light that had fallen from the heavens, though he knew nothing of the deeper cause. At that moment, he missed his old home at Giant Rock halfway up the mountain terribly. There, he could breathe in the rain essence in peace, without worrying about inexplicable attacks descending on him.
He could no longer remember why he had come down the mountain in the first place. Perhaps it had been to hunt and fill his belly.
He slid down the small hill and continued back along the riverbank. He would return to the little basin first, then decide what to do.
Passing a valley, he spotted two deer in the distance.
Unless he lay in ambush and caught them by surprise, Black Snake knew he could never catch them. He ignored them and continued searching for prey within his abilities.
Occasionally, he thought of the mysterious man who could control his body heat. The man was powerful and, like Chi Ke, adept at calling out complicated sounds.
Holding his head high, he cut swiftly through wave after wave of grass. Every so often, he paused, flicking his tongue repeatedly to search for nearby threats.
The midday sun blazed fiercely.
The constant travel had drained Black Snake considerably. He caught a few frogs to fill his belly and rested.
He resumed his journey in the evening. After baking all day, the grassland gave off damp heat. Mosquitoes and gnats circled low to the ground, clustering into balls like clumps of gray fog.
Black Snake had to maintain a very fast pace. The slightest pause brought flies and other insects settling on his body.
The mountain was far more comfortable. Fresh mountain breezes circulated and brushed past, leaving mosquitoes no chance to linger-not like this riverbank, with its humid, stifling smell of wormwood.
He could not remember how long he had traveled before he returned to the little basin beneath the moonlight.
Life flourished here, and that very abundance drew many fierce beasts to prowl nearby, including the great black snake.
The brief flooding had only made the wild grass more lush and dense. As he looked around, scattered fragments of memory silently pieced themselves together, then crashed into alignment with the scene before him. This familiar meadow was somewhere he had been before.
It seemed...
His gaze turned toward the dim outline of the distant mountain. There was a peculiar stone pillar in that mountain, and Black Snake suspected it was alive.
The idea of a living stone stirred no emotion in him, as though everything in the world ought to be this way.
He flicked his tongue and decided to linger here for a few days.
He needed to store enough fat before the rainy season arrived, because he would have to spend the entire season at Giant Rock, breathing in the wonderful rain essence.
Ignoring the knobbly things, he hastily picked up a few frogs in his jaws to take the edge off his hunger.
Black Snake knew perfectly well that frogs could hardly fill his belly. Seeing numerous fish shadows where a ditch emptied into the river, he silently slid his enormous body into the water.
The river was not particularly full. Under ordinary conditions, pebble beds lined both sides, and in many places wild boars could run across without swimming. Other bends, however, were an inky green, too deep to see the bottom.
After several failed hunts, Black Snake gradually mastered the technique.
His sight was almost useless, and his heat sensing failed as well. Fortunately, he still had his keen sensitivity to vibrations. The opening and closing of fish gills and the swishing of tail fins produced minute disturbances. He filtered and analyzed these to lock onto a target, then struck without warning.
Black Snake had no interest in identifying fish species. Anything large enough was worth hunting.
Through the river water, sand and silt churned among the aquatic plants, spreading faint clouds of murk. Now and then, a fish's silvery belly flashed past.
The fish were large and fat, and easier to digest.
Carp weighing fifteen or twenty pounds had practically no natural enemies in this river. They had never expected a great black snake over twenty feet long to appear. It was utterly unreasonable...
Black Snake began hunting like mad.
After wreaking havoc in the water, he went on to wreak havoc on shore. Late at night, he swam to the opposite bank to search for bird nests.
The fledglings that could not yet fly were tender and soft. Sometimes, however, he broke branches while climbing trees. The flaw in this otherwise fine plan was that the effort far outweighed the reward.
On the night of the full moon.
While resting, Black Snake sank into worry. He wondered whether, without the nourishment of rain essence, he would still be able to sustain his ever-growing body.
He had no idea how to retain the rain essence, nor the slightest understanding of what leakage was.
Gazing at the hazy full moon, he found sleep impossible to resist.
Black Snake forced himself to hold out a little longer, then helplessly coiled up and fell asleep amid the rustling chirps of crickets and the distant cries of night birds.
His consciousness left his body as usual and entered that familiar gray, dim perspective. Black Snake carefully examined himself.
He saw cool essence slowly seeping from his body. Yet both the speed of its loss and its concentration seemed much lower than before. Wisps of thin mist hovered close to the grass. That unintentional leakage had actually created a domain of mist around him.
Thankfully, the leakage had lessened. He felt as though a weight had lifted from him.
At least, from now on, he would not have to worry about waking up one day as a dried snake husk.
He had seen a dried snake husk two days earlier.
A snake had died of some unknown cause. Ants and flies had eaten all its flesh, leaving only a shriveled skin draped loosely over its skeleton. After baking beneath the fierce sun, it had become extraordinarily light.
Black Snake tried to find the reason for his improvement. Only two things had happened to him recently.
He had swallowed a piece of strange meat of unknown origin, and suffered dazzling light and a thunderous attack.
He could not determine which had brought about the change. The strange meat was hard to find, while enduring that lightning and thunder seemed easier.
He decided to try it when the rainy season arrived.
Since nothing was wrong with his body, he began gazing at the moon and breathing in its cool, moist essence.
Switching to heat sensing, he looked toward the pitch-black mountain and located the faint, dim glow of the stone pillar. It was different from him, and from foxes and weasels.
It seemed unable to move.
After two indifferent glances, he withdrew his gaze, unwilling to pay it much attention, and focused on breathing in the cool, moist essence emanating from the full moon.
Days and nights slipped quietly past in hunting and rest...
After repeated immersions in water and basking in sunlight, his scales gleamed with a glossy black sheen.
The wind brought a trace of dampness. Black Snake raised his head, receiving the signal that the rainy season was approaching. It was time to return to the mountain, breathe in the wonderful rain essence, and use lightning and thunder to address the leaking mist.
He set off at once, winding across the meadow and crushing the wild grass beneath him.
Instinctively, he followed his old route, heading toward the mountain first to look at the silent stone pillar. Otherwise, he always felt his journey home was missing something.
The rampant grass obscured the exact route, but as long as his general direction was right, that would do.
After correcting his course several times, Black Snake arrived before the mysterious stone pillar.
He did nothing.
After silently watching for a while, he turned toward his old home and slithered away. The hot, muggy weather was ideal for traveling. He barreled into the mountain, too indifferent to bother even when he encountered his own kind, simply crushing his way straight past with his enormous body.
He found a clear little stream in a mountain gully. Gently flicking his tongue, he recognized the taste from his memories. Following the stream into the mountain would bring him back to the familiar Giant Rock.
The mountain stream was colder than the river, so Black Snake avoided entering it whenever possible. Once he found the little path, the going became easier.
Unsurprisingly, he caught the scent of unfamiliar humans on the path. They were probably two-legged beasts from elsewhere, searching for "Snake Brother" and calling to one another.
Thinking of their calls, Black Snake felt he should keep learning from "Snake Brother." He must not give up easily. If he persevered, there would always be
a day when he learned.
For instance, he now remembered that "Snake Brother" was his name.
Rounding a bend, he was lucky enough to discover an injured fawn. It had probably fallen from somewhere high. After killing and swallowing it, he rested.
The morning light was faint, and the mountain's shadow still shrouded the area.
Coiled in the woods, Black Snake raised his head. His forked tongue detected something unusual, and his heat sensing revealed four living heat sources approaching.
Three of the larger heat sources were adults; the smaller one was a young child.
He liked hunting young creatures best, since they were easy to swallow and digest. Unfortunately, he had eaten his fill yesterday and was not hungry now, so he could only abandon the idea.
The people entering the mountain had no idea they had just brushed shoulders with disaster.