“Get back!”

Olivia yanked on Chester’s reins, nearly tumbling forward before large and scaly crashed through the trees, landing a few yards away from the group. The loud boom that followed was the sound of dirt being upturned.

That had been way too close. Olivia was sure she had seen a flash of fang white flying past. Thank goodness Ju had gotten her kids back in the now talisman-free wagon, with a very spooked Gipp in tow. Olivia doubted the parrot would try to take off in a small space with the curtains drawn, but she still asked the siblings to keep an eye on him.

A good thing, too, since Olivia could see the curtains being pulled back a little. No doubt Ping wanted to get his first glimpse of a cultivator's fight against a monster.

“Was it part of the plan to bring it back our way?” Olivia shouted at the approaching five, no six that was a person slung over the saddle of a speckled gray that Xue Huanfu was leading on the ground.

Xue Quirong pulled up alongside Olivia and her passengers, dismounting his blade. “It wasn’t, and the Yao wasn’t even a li from us when we came upon it.”

Not even a third of a mile? How had something this big remained hidden? The trees aren’t thick enough for that!

“So, you guys have a way to contact your sect or any other cultivators? Or do you plan to finish it before it does us in?”

Olivia wasn’t sure if she saw Quirong suddenly flinch. She did notice the quick look sent to Huanfu, who was busily getting the unconscious man, dressed as a guard, off the other horse with the other’s help. At the same time, Ju had dismounted from the wagon to give the man a once over, some sort of kit in her hand.

Ju had said she had some medicinal skill. Hopefully, it’ll be enough.

“We,” Quirong’s voice pulled her back as the other boy kept a watch on the still form, “don’t have any signals. We used them a few days ago and haven’t had a chance to restock.”

On the one hand, Olivia wanted to berate the teen for not packing extra or bothering to make a pitstop. On the other, something about Quirong’s posture was setting off warnings in her head.

The only time I’ve seen anyone that fidgety is when Jacob got into the cookie jar and tried to play innocent, even with the crumbs around his mouth.

Olivia opened her mouth to speak, only for the form lying across the road to twitch.

Right. The giant monster now, fidgety teen later.

The giant mass shifted, pulling its length close as a broad head with dark eyes rose above, a forked tongue flickering out as the neck bent to a coil, ready to strike.

Great, definitely a snake. Just our luck to – wait a minute, I know that pattern.

Cream or beige background, brown rhombus outlined with black running down its dorsal before becoming rings at the tail.

And for the topping, the tail hovering beside its head, dried scales rattling as it shook the appendage.

Oh, you have got to be –

“What’s a rattlesnake doing here?” Olivia hadn’t meant to shriek, but given that she was seeing one of her worst nightmares right in front of her and scaled to giant, she couldn’t bring herself to feel embarrassed.

Chester backed up without prompt, showing how much he hated the situation. Olivia didn't doubt that he wished the venomous snake was a suitable size to pound into the dirt.

Talk about a situation reversal. 

"You know what that is, Miss Ada?" Quirong asked.

"Ambush predator with a venomous bite," Olivia explained. If that guy they had brought back had been bitten by that, we're going to be in trouble. "Going by that pattern, it has to be a Western Diamondback. They only live in my homeland, so I'm surprised to see one here."

Surprised and a little hopeful. If a snake from where she lived had ended up here, then that meant that her sudden arrival wasn't a fluke on the universe's part. Something here brought things, including animals and people, into this world.

Still doesn't help me find a way home, but at least I know that it wasn't part of some grand scheme or anything like that.