Hello this is my first Author note: I will respond to all reviews at this moment in time this story has my full attention since the direction I want for it to go is concrete in my head. Expect multiple updates a week until my inspiration runs dry.

When Lily woke again, she was greeted by the view of the stars and moon overhead. Gasping, she sat up. She felt so embarrassed, Lilith was right she was weak not even five minutes without Lilith and she fell apart. With a determination that defied her age, she forced herself to stop feeling miserable and stood up. The ache in her limbs was already fading. She didn't know where she was, but she would find a new home. Lilith did the hard part after all she got them out of the darkness. The least she could do was hold herself together and find a new home for them. Lilith was going to come back, and everything needed to be perfect.

First, she had to figure out where "here" was. She started to wander around, now that her eyes had adjusted to the gloom, she started her trek to where she hoped civilization would be. If Lily had known better, she might have known that making so much noise in a forest at night was a bad idea, but at five years old she had no idea. She walked and walked, stumbling over roots and rocks. Her foot caught on a tree root she missed in the dark, sending her tumbling face-first into the soil. Stunned she lay on the ground, overwhelmed trying to stop herself from crying. Despite her best efforts, Lily cried anyway.

She learned long ago that no one would come when she cried, except to laugh or scream at her, so her tears streamed silently, as her shoulders shook as she silently sobbed. Unfortunately for her, she was out in the forest with wild animals, and many predators roamed the land at night, predators with much better hearing than the average person.

She didn't notice a large shadow growing behind her watching her cry. She didn't notice until she was caught in the coils of a large serpent. She looked up eyes wide as the moonlight outlined the monster of a snake its huge mouth open, she could see it's fangs dripping with venom as it prepared to strike.

"No ssssstop pleasssse!" Lily screamed, unknown to her in the language of snakes. Her eyes squeezed shut waiting for the end. A warm breath caressed her face, and a wet forked tongue licked at her cheek. A harsh hiss resounded above her, and Lily couldn't stop shivering at the prospect of a giant snake above her. She was shaking but nothing was happening. She slowly opened her eyes to see the serpent staring quizzically at her. Head tilted like a confused puppy. She would have thought it cute if it wasn't about to eat her a minute ago.

"…Ssssspeaker" The snake whispered reverently; its slitted eyes filled with wonder. Lily lowered her arms realizing she was no longer in danger. The snake loosened its hold on her. Building up her courage Lily decided to question the large serpent.

"You're not going to eat me?"

" Of courssse not little sssspeaker, Lord Manda, will be pleased to hear a sssspeaker has appeared. This one will not be consuming you tonight." The large serpent staring at her made her nervous, but now that she knew it wouldn't eat her, she wasn't scared. She started to pet the scales under her hands admiring the green and black shimmer of scales as the moonlight bounced off the serpent.

"Could you please help me? I don't know where I am." Lily tugged at her shirt as she looked down her nerves preventing her from looking the serpent in the eye.

"hmmm….You are in the Land of Hot Water it is the neighboring country of the Land of Frost and the Land of Ssssound and issss located north-east of the Land of Fire."

"….Hot Water… Land of Frost…Land of Sound" Lily thought in disbelief. She had no idea what any of those places where.

"Where would the United Kingdom be?" Lily asked as her heart rate picked up. Fearing the answer, she would receive.

"I have never heard of a United Kingdom. We are in the Elemental nationssss. "

"….Oh" Lily sighed as she felt her eyes start to water again. No, she was done crying. She aggressively blinked her tears away. The realization that she was in a whole new world weighed heavy on her heart. What was she going to do? Lilith wasn't answering her call. She was all by herself and she already almost died because of her inability to survive on her own. She felt so defeated. Glancing at the snake she decided to try her luck to see if it would be willing to help her.

"Could you help me find a safe place for the night?"

"Of course, little speaker, I know of a cave close to the Ninja village of Yugakure. Follow me and I sssshall lead you there." With that sentence the snake finally released her. Once her feet were once again on solid ground, she felt confident this interaction couldn't have gone better. She watched as the snake slithered off and she chased after it. She chased the snake for so long her legs started to burn and she was far from elegant navigating in the dark. She panicked anytime the canopy blocked the moonlight and she couldn't see the shimmer of scales under moonlight.

Finally, after what felt like hours the snake started to slow down. She was delighted to see a cave in the distance and light not far from that. That must be the town. She approached the cave with her serpent friend. She watched as it went into the cave. She waited for it to reappear. Luckily it didn't take long for the serpent to come back out.

"The cave is safe. Goodbye, little speaker. We shall talk again soon." The snake hissed as it slithered and poofed away in a cloud of smoke. Unknown to Lily she just spent the last two hours with a snake summon. A snake summon that was far too excited to share her existence with Manda.

Now alone again Lily approached the cave. She hated the dark so much but after her last encounter with a predator she knew it would be after for her to stay the rest of the night in the cave. She braced herself as she walked into the darkness that chilled her bones. It was far too similar to the abyss she had just escaped. Gritting her teeth, she walked into the darkness. She dragged her left hand along the rough, rocky wall to help her navigate in the dark. She took small steps toeing the ground in front of her in an attempt to avoid repeating her fall earlier in the night. Her face hurt too bad to repeat that endeavor if she could help it.

I wish I could see in the dark. This would be so much easier if I could. She thought as she stumbled on a rock. She hissed as her left eye began to hurt. It was starting to burn the pain too much. It felt like someone had stabbed her eye with a pen. She shut her left eye as she started to aggressively rub her palm over it in an attempt to make the pain stop. It hurts. Why is it suddenly so itchy? The pain faded to an uncomfortable itch which if you asked her was way better than the pain. Finally, the discomfort stopped. She carefully opened her eye blinking in disbelief she could see in the dark. She looked at her new surrounding seeing nothing out of the ordinary for a cave. There were rocks everywhere. She walked further into the cave seeing the remnant of where a camp once was. Long abandoned but the dirty bedroll on the ground was calling her name. She was so tired today was too much to absorb. She needed sleep. So, she did. Hopefully, tomorrow would be better than today was her last thought as she drifted off. Lily dreamed of giant snakes that could poof away and ninjas of all things.