The snow outside the cave rustled, and an enormous black snake's head poked out. Black Snake glanced outside. Winter lay white everywhere, and the snow reflected a dazzling glare in the sunlight.
Black Snake quickly withdrew into the depths to continue hibernating.
Lately, Black Snake had been wondering whether these were dreams. Fragmentary images flashed past from time to time.
The images were indistinct, but Black Snake vaguely felt that the viewpoint was rather high, with human figures moving below.
All sorts of jumbled sounds often surfaced inside Black Snake's head in the mornings. There was something inexplicably familiar about this. Black Snake had been concentrating on figuring out how to grow four limbs, only to have those noises abruptly interrupt every train of thought. It was maddening.
These inexplicable symptoms grew worse over time, mostly in the mornings.
Black Snake simply tried ignoring the sounds and images and concentrating on the task at hand. Unexpectedly, the sense of smell gradually began acting up too.
Often, for no apparent reason, Black Snake smelled damp river water, carrying the scent of mud and sand.
The problem was that Black Snake only liked the food in the river, not its water. Every heavy rain washed all sorts of rubbish into it. Having grown up in the mountain forests, Black Snake was accustomed to rainwater and mountain mist, and found the smell of river water hard to get used to.
Fortunately, things grew considerably quieter at night.
Winter nights were simply too cold, so He Ning said the lessons would be suspended.
Every day, Black Snake pondered just how long the legs ought to be.
After roughly two full moons, Black Snake finally worked out a general idea. Shorter limbs would be better, allowing both swift running and unhindered slithering. Ideally, they should