He gave a short, almost sheepish breath. "The pouch looked clean. Cleaner than it had ever been."
Kaya’s eyes softened as she looked down at the foam clinging to her fingers. She understood.
"I thought... if it works on that, maybe it’ll work on too," he finished.
Even though Cutie had turned around and was staring at the trees, doing his best not to peek, Kaya wasn’t completely alone by the river.
Sothing moved.
From her blazer, which she had placed on the rock earlier, a small snake slowly slipped out of the inner pocket. It had been curled up inside all this ti, likely enjoying the warmth and peace.
Now, awake, it slithered out quietly and rested near the edge of the blazer, its tongue flicking in and out.
It wasn’t interested in the water or the trees. Its eyes were on Kaya.
She was standing in the river, waist-deep, rubbing the foamy berry paste on her arms. Her shirt was off, her pants still on, and her focus was completely on cleaning herself. She didn’t notice anything else.
The snake watched her closely.
Then its eyes landed on sothing.
Just above the back of her neck, barely visible under her damp hair, was a small mark. A symbol. It looked like a rose—but not just that. Around the rose, a thin serpent was curled, like it was guarding it.
The snake stared at it.
It felt... familiar.
Like it had seen it before. Sowhere. Soti. But it couldn’t rember when or where.
It didn’t move. It didn’t blink. Just kept looking at the mark quietly.
After a while, Kaya moved, and her hair fell back over it, hiding the symbol again.
The snake slowly slipped back toward her blazer, curling into it once more.
After finishing her bath, Kaya stepped out of the water. The breeze brushed against her damp skin as she walked to the side and quietly changed into the animal hide clothes she had received from the Rabbit Tribe. The fit was rougher than what she was used to, but it was better than staying wet and exposed.
Once dressed, she bent down to gather her old clothes, now soaked and dirtied from the last few days. As she picked them up, Cutie stepped closer, hesitating slightly before raising his hand.
"Let wash them," he offered, his voice gentle.
But Kaya shook her head, politely refusing. She appreciated the gesture, but she was too used to doing these things herself. Not to ntion—her clothes were made from delicate fabric, the kind that wouldn’t survive rough handling. If Cutie got too eager with scrubbing, there was a high chance he’d tear them.
She turned away and walked toward her jacket—the thick outer one she had been wearing the entire journey. As she lifted it, she paused. A strange heaviness pulled at her wrist.
Huh?
Now that she thought about it, the jacket had felt oddly heavy for a while—but she’d brushed it off, blaming the dampness, the dirt, or just exhaustion. But this weight was familiar. Subtle, but not random.
Her instincts kicked in. Habits ford from years of fieldwork. Without thinking, she turned the jacket upside down and gave it a firm shake.
Thump.
Sothing tumbled out of a hidden pocket, rolling to a stop near her foot.
A wig.
Kaya blinked.
And then... her gaze locked on sothing else that had slipped out right after it—sothing small, dark, and all too familiar. Her mind snapped back.
Ah. That thing.
She stared at it. The object she had forgotten. It had been out of sight and out of mind only because she’d been too busy with the sparrow—always tending to it, holding it close.
But now this... this little thing had slipped through the cracks of her mory.
Kaya bent down, picked it up, and held it in her hand with narrowed eyes.
"Huh," she muttered, voice low. "So where were you running off to?"
This ti, Kaya noticed sothing strange about the snake.
Her brows furrowed as she lifted it up and looked closer—specifically at its mouth.
Wait... were those fangs?
Her eyes widened.
"Damn it!" she hissed under her breath. "I broke those!"
She rembered it clearly—snapping its fangs clean off before stuffing it in her pocket. And now? They were right there. Sharp. Shiny. Intact. Like nothing had ever happened.
With a startled gasp, Kaya imdiately flung the snake to the ground.
"Are you kidding ?!"
She wasn’t so fearless warrior from a fantasy book—she was Kaya. And while she was planning to cook this slithery thing for dinner, she didn’t exactly have multiple lives to gamble with. She was cautious, not suicidal.
The snake writhed a bit on the ground, looking even bigger than before.
"No, no, no. Don’t you start growing now!" she pointed at it like scolding a misbehaving child.
First the sparrow—her tiny little palm-sized bird—had suddenly turned into sothing chicken-sized overnight. And now this snake? The one that should’ve been barely thicker than a worm when she found it? It had beco a full-blown, sleek, dangerous-looking serpent. And with fangs.
She stared down at the two of them, half in disbelief, half in exhausted horror.
"What’s next?" she muttered. "They grow legs, stand up, and turn into ridiculously handso n?"
She squinted at the snake, half-daring it to wink at her.
Kaya pressed her fingers to her forehead, breathing out sharply. The snake was just... sitting there. Right on the ground like it owned the whole place. Like it paid rent.
She was beyond frustrated now.
"What the hell is going on with my life?" she muttered under her breath, staring at the snake like it might suddenly explain itself.
Before she could spiral any further, Cutie ca walking up behind her.
"Oh! Are you okay?" he asked, his voice full of concern. But then his eyes landed on the snake.
Without a second thought, he walked right past her and bent down to grab the snake by its head.
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