Slithering through dreams (Snake Isekai ?)

“..weird brother...” I looked startled at my brother, who, as it seems to be usual for us snakes “hunt”, dreamed of going on the hunt (“thiss grass field ssemss familiar..” “I know thisss path”). There was a slight twitch  of his physical body, a reflection of him feeling surprised to see (“feel” “sssmell”) me. But for him this was but a dream “me. bigger.”, and he slithered past, to continue his quest . I moved away, meditation straining under the storm in my head. The last thing I … experienced, was him… using drunken snout on the rabbit-creature he wanted to catch?

I got back to my base. This requires careful strategic analysis. Meditation off. AAaaand the core-snake backlash is here. Wiggle wiggle. That’s it? Well he was asleep, and I was close to him only for a moment.. I must say my brother is one happy noodle! If his mind was a dish, it would be a hamburger of the month from your favorite burger joint- comfy, happy, but a bit adventurous. (“Now we are happy too! We ssshould peek there more often”) 

Let’s look at what has just happened. Firstly, I’m sure he saw me (“he knew us”). I could feel his thoughts after all. The very fact that my presence affected him at all, unlike treating it as just another figment of his imagination, also shows that I must have felt out of place. Was it simply him smelling my body, and him mind making me appear in his dream? But then, he looked at “me”... But then, snakes do sleep with open eyes (as they have no eyelids… it gave me quite a fright when I saw it for the first time)...

Yeah, all in all haven’t I overreacted a bit? Is this your fault, Fear resistance -5? Damn, what if it gets worse because of my slithering away, like a coward?

I need more information. And there is only one way to get it.

Once again, I found myself next to my siblings. Finally, the wind direction changed- time for the plan to commence. Calmer than ever, better prepared, the snake is diving in. I was trying to be as quiet as possible, but I can’t do much about the sound of my scales scraping against the ground. On the edge of my vision I saw one of my sisters face twitching in annoyance, hopefully due to something in her dreams, and not my sneaking.

The thought-waves got exponentially stronger with every inch- the reason why it was so hard to navigate close to others safely. A slight movement of my head, could lead to doubling of the strength of the interference. Slowly, I could see into the depths of his dream again. As planned, I approached from behind, to also remove the possibility of him seeing me. 

“Hungry” “More birds” “More lizards”

I don’t believe he had any senses that should have allowed him to recognise me (“the way we sslitherr?”) and yet… the dream Brother, bigger and shinier, looked at me. 

“Me. More strong”. 

The logic of space twisted in the dream, to me, the “meditation” me was within my body, but to him I was laying in front of him.

Another foe appearing in his dreamworld, this time a kind of crab covered in ash. “Skill”  “Better than brother” “Me stronger!” “SsssssSS!”

His eagerness to jump and show off so strong that I barely managed my body from following his movement. And I knew this movement very well- after all, that was the first technique of Drunken Snout, undefeated under the heavens.

Reisinling

One more chapter today, as well as the promised multiple cover versions, and self-congratulations-poll-results.

I need a better name for this skill instead of “Blind”, It’s supposed to help lack of any senses, while blind implies only sight.

Today marks a week since the start of my writing journey (welp, let’s hope it's an actual journey and not an interrupted stroll, midway through which I go missing).