“Venomous…” Quirong turned back to the group hovering over the unconscious man. “Jielan-gege, does the man we found have puncture wounds?”

“Wouldn’t it be kind of obvious?” Olivia asked. Like a giant hole that you can see through obvious?

“Not really.” Quirong turned back to the giant snake, whose tail was still rattling and neck coiled. “Yao attack on two fronts: Physical and spiritual. Most deaths are physical, but the attacks on the spirit are made by those who have been around for a while. And those Yao can heal the wounds they inflict just enough so that no one knows that a victim was injured until they were screaming in agony or dead.”

“All the easier to gather yin energy to become stronger,” Yixan said, coming up alongside Chester’s right. Looking up at Olivia, he added, “Miss Ada, you are familiar with this snake species, correct?”

“More than I wish I wasn’t,” Olivia grimaced. She doubted a shot from her pistol would take the giant snake out. Considering that it had only been temporarily stunned when it impacted the earth after its impromptu flight, trying to put metal in its head would likely only work in angering it.

“Then, is it normal to do whatever it is doing?”

Olivia raised a dark eyebrow. “The threatening posture or the tail rattling?”

“Er, both?”

“Oh yeah,” Olivia pulled Chester back a step to keep the Arabian far away from danger as possible without setting the snake off. “If they feel threatened, rattlesnakes adopt that pose and start rattling their tail. It’s a warning that says, ‘I’m dangerous. Stay away, or you’ll get bit.’ Believe me when I say no one wants to get bit by a rattlesnake.”

Yixan swallowed. “Are they as bad as cobras?”

“That I wouldn’t know. I’m not a herpetologist.”

And I’m just going to hold off on freaking out that there are cobras here. Until we get out of this mess.

Something must have shown on her face since Quirong asked very innocently, “Do you not like snakes, Miss Ada.”

“Only the venomous ones,” Olivia ran a hand through her hair. “And it’s not that I don’t like them; I’d just rather not be in the same vicinity as them.”

“You might have to get up close to this one.” Jielan came up with a concerned look on his face.

“You find a wound, Jielan-gege?” Quirong asked.

Jielan shook his head. “There was no wound, but Xiawen sensed foreign qi in the man’s body; we think it’s the snake’s venom. Xiawen is doing his best to hinder its progress, but….”

Looking over her shoulder, Olivia could see the last two members of the cultivators bent over the man’s body, a strange blue light hovering between them. Ju was hovering close to Xiawen, hands not quite touching, and Olivia could see the shaking even at that distance.

One night of rest hadn’t done enough to replenish the boys’ stamina. Even the three standing next to Chester used whatever energy they had left to stay upright, stifling whatever yawns tried to come up.

When we get out of this, those five are taking a nap. Preferably with a full stomach.

“Well, I hope you have ideas,” Olivia turned back to the still rattling snake. “Because unless you have a large enough bowl, I don’t think getting that venom will be easy.”

Jielan didn’t sigh, but that huff of air escaping him was close.

“I have a question. Just how long can that snake make that noise?” Yixan asked.

“A couple of hours at least.” Olivia gave the boy a bemused look, trying not to laugh at the trio's shocked expressions. “Why do you ask? Is it bothering you?”

“No.” The way the older boy was rubbing his head, Olivia didn’t believe Yixan. “Yao are supposed to be smart, or smarter than the animals they were formed from, but all that noise is going to alert any cultivators –”

The rattling stopped.

“Oh geez!” Olivia yanked on leather, pulling Chester from what she hoped was the edge of the snake’s striking range. The boys quickly followed, with Jielan steadying Quirong when the smaller boy had briefly stumbled.

Here’s hoping we’re far enough away, but I’ve always been bad at guessing lengths, so who knows how far it can -

Tongue flicking, a deep hiss erupted from the giant head.

Olivia could feel an eyebrow twitch. “Oh, like that’s any better.” At least it wasn’t trying to strike.

“Hóng Shān says thank you.”

“Min, I doubt that is what it’s –” Olivia blinked as what Min had just said registered. Twisting around, Olivia let out a “Huh?” well aware her expression was shared among the group.

“Hóng Shān says thank you,” Min repeated, the curtain pulled back but not sticking her head out of the wagon. Tilting her head, the young girl added, “Can you not hear her?”

 Don’t bang head. Don’t bang head. Not until we get out of this.

Turning back to the three standing near her, Olivia hissed out, “Okay, seriously, since when is hearing monsters normal?”

“It’s really not.” Jielan flicked dark eyes back at the giant rattler. “It’s not impossible, however.”

“I see.” I really don’t.

Yixan flinched. “This must be a Magical Beast, then. I hope she isn’t too mad at us tossing her around.”

Olivia arched a brow and jabbed a thumb over her shoulder. “Didn’t she attack that guy? Sounds like grounds to retaliate.”

“They don’t,” Jielan explained. “Magical Beasts rarely go on the offensive and would rather talk out issues than attack.”

“…Then, what attacked the guard?”

More hissing came from the giant snake.

“Hóng Shān says that it was another, um, okay, another of her kind who was attacking,” Min translated. “She was hunting him and finally killed him before you showed up.”

“So that’s what that was.” At Olivia’s confused look, Jielan added, “When we arrived, there was a large eruption of yin energy. We thought it was the Yao preparing an attack, but it must have been the yin energy being released upon its death.”

“Wouldn’t you have seen another giant snake?”

Quirong shook his head. “Yao return to their true form upon death.”

And with all this thick undergrowth, a snake’s body could easily be hidden.

“Um,” Min pipped up. “Hóng Shān wants to know if you can help her get back to being small.”

Olivia blinked. “Wait, what?”

“Um,” Min fidgeted. “Hóng Shān says that she only became big to hunt the other snake, but she can’t figure out how to get small.”

“Can, er, Hóng Shān really do that?”

“You’d be amazed at the stories about what Magical Beasts can do,” Xiawen called from the wagon. “Though most are about Magical Beasts seeking help to resolve what mess they found themselves.”

“Nice to know that gaining intelligence doesn’t make them wiser,” Olivia muttered.

Jielan hmmed. “I don’t know how we can help her, though. None of us are skilled in handling Magical Beasts.”

Hóng Shān hissed again.

“Actually, she wants Li-ayi’s help.”

“What?” Olivia exclaimed. “Why me? I’m not a cultivator.”

“She’s not sure herself,” Min gripped the bottom of the window. “But Hóng Shān has a feeling that you can help her, Li-ayi.”

“A feeling, right,” Olivia fixed the giant snake with a glare. “This isn’t a trick to get me within strike range, is it?”

If Olivia needed any more proof that the snake was no longer a mere snake, the giant head shaking in a definitive no had to be enough.

Grumbling under her breath and against her better judgment, Olivia dismounted and handed Chester’s reins to a clearly worried Jielan. “Can I count on you to get me out of there if it gets dangerous?”

Jielan nodded. “Of course.”

Sighing, Olivia marched toward the giant snake. Every bit of her was screaming to turn around and run away, with actual screaming an option. Still, Olivia forced herself forward until she was right in front of the large head.

“I’m way over my head.” Eyeing the snake, Olivia added, “Don’t suppose you have an idea of what I’m supposed to do?”

Snakes didn’t have shoulders, but that bunching of muscles had to be the best way to convey shrugging.

“Right,” Olivia sighed, slowly raising and hand to rest on the scaly snout. “Well, I’ll see what I can –”

Fwoom!

“Yeek!” Bolting backward, Olivia stared as golden flames erupted across the scaly body. Strangely the fire didn’t seem to be hurting the snake, instead burning away something as dark-violet-nasties wafted in the smoke as the snake began to glow and shrink.

On some strange level, it was beautiful.

“Ow!” Yanking her glove off, Olivia cringed at the newly formed blisters erupting on her palm. Guess I’m not immune to damage via magic.

On one hand, Olivia had just used magic. On the other, she had just used magic when she wasn’t supposed to!

Why is this my life?