Kassie frowned, grabbed me by the collar, and leaped.
It should have been daunting, being flung into the dark over and over with no idea where she meant to land, my stomach lurching every time the ground fell away beneath us. But I think she could make out the rough shape of the ground with her Enhanced Senses. Her mastery had to run far deeper than mine, after all.
The instant we lunged clear, the snakes poured down onto the spot where we'd been standing. They didn't pursue us. Instead they swarmed the carcass of the colossal snake we'd killed and set to eating, jaws working with maddening hunger, coil folding over coil until the whole heap writhed. The wet, tearing sound of it followed us even as we pulled away.
It was actually quite revolting to watch.
On one hand, Kassie and I finally had the snakes off our backs. On the other, we were right back where we'd started, an endless darkness with nowhere to go and no idea where in it we stood.
