As the two of us walked down the stairs, Yinshen hummed contently. I smirked at the sound and did my best to ignore it until we came across the barracks. Of course, my room still technically counted as her own room so I decided to take a moment to get lunch. There was a bit of tension between the team over the last few days. Most of said tension revolving around me after the number of events that had occured. Introducing Yinshen, being shot with an arrow and the strongest blow yet, showing my human self. Matter of fact I still needed to talk to Po about it but that could wait.
Training would begin soon and I wanted to be at the top of my game. We still had the captured airship at the side of town so there was always the chance of using it to get into the Galadriel gates unnoticed to get closer to taking Fennu down. But we needed a moment of peace before we could do so. It was way too soon to try anything, even with a victory.
I waited until Yinshen was ready with whatever it was she needed to do before we both wandered over to the training hall like two best friends at school going to their next class, after returning the shiftstone of course. I had the feeling that today's session was going to be a little awkward if not entirely. But that's the way the cookie crumbles I suppose.
I slithered into the training hall and found that everybody was training as they normally would. On the plus side, none of them exchanged looks so I felt a small wave of relief wash over me. Yinshen trained with Tigress and Monkey and I headed over to Viper in the middle of the room. She was standing in front of several objects which came in different shapes and sizes. One would be the size of a golf ball while the biggest was about the size of a large oxygen tank. What was strange was that none of said items looked like they had any purpose for being used as training equipment. Even so, I slithered next to Viper and greeted her.
"Hi Viper. What's with the random objects"? I asked wanting to get straight to the point.
"I thought today we could try teaching you some skills that would be more along the lines of... security rather than fighting. That and I thought you would be interested in knowing more about the abilities of a snake".
"Oh. Okay". I hissed, not exactly following her sentence. I let her continue further into her explanation.
"Sometimes when a situation is based on protecting an item of great importance, you need to know the best ways to hide it to keep it from falling into enemy hands".
"Right, okay then". I nodded, understanding what she meant. "So it's like having hide it either somewhere where only you know where to find it"?
"Exactly, or on your person".
I looked at her for a second, unsure how she meant to pull that off. I mean, it's not like she was... you know... wearing anything. Please tell me I'm not blushing.
"Fair enough". I complied. "So which first"?
"Either one of your choice".
I gave a look at the objects. I was kind of curious to see how she attempted to hide it on her. Maybe she was going to put on a long cloak and hide it in a compartment of pockets or something? A ridiculous thought I know but I really couldn't find a better way for a snake to do so. I chose the second choice.
"Okay then, so how would you hide it on your person"?
"Simple. It depends on how heavy the object is. Most kinds of the snake species can only carry up to 1.25 of their own weight inside of themselves so"-
"Wait wait wait. Inside of themselves? What does that even mean"? I interrupted, going from understanding to completely lost again.
"I'll show you".
I was about to argue until Viper grabbed the second largest object, similar to a large bowling ball a couple of sizes too big, and brought it in front of her. Her jaw opened and I was about to ask what the heck she was doing, but soon I forced myself to look away in disgust.
Viper had just gone and swallowed the damn thing! Dear God, I could still hear the thing making it's way through her stomach! I couldn't even get myself to look until the sound had stopped. Once it had, I looked back to see a rather large bump in her stomach. It didn't take a genius to work out what had happened. I tore my gaze off of it to look back at Viper and ask.
"Exactly how would something like THAT come in useful in ANY circumstance"? I asked, a little afraid that I might have possbly been next on the menu for the swallow happy snake.
In fairness, she actually already informed me that snakes could do this sort of thing a long time ago. But wasn't that only for eating purposes only? How does this fit into kung fu in any way?!
"Hey, I have had to do this a couple of times". She defended herself.
"Name one". I challenged, not daring to look at the object still in her stomach.
"There was this one time where Shifu's dragon chalice was stolen by some dancing umbrella ladies. Po Crane and myself had to track them to get it back. One event led to another and I had to find a way to hide it so I had to swallow the thing".
"And it worked"?
"Well... not exactly. They were onto me almost at once. But if they hadn't known that I was there to steal it back then there would have been less of a chance of being found out".
"Well, I believe you but... I don't exactly feel too keen on trying something... like that"... I cringed.
Viper just rolled her eyes and spat the thing back out. I made myself look away again. The sounds made were just as horrific as the last ones. When I looked back, the object was right there. Covered in either spit or... some kind of stomach goo, I really didn't want to know or think about it! She looked at me and then eyed one of the third largest object (equivalent to a rugby ball). I did not feel very enthusiastic.
"Do I really have to"...? I half asked and received a nod. If only I had the choice to back out, I would have done so by now. Hesitantly I dragged the oval wooden rugby ball and stared at it as though it was going to come alive at any second. My thoughts were quickly drowned out by Viper interrupting.
"Today would be nice". She grinned, finding it in some way amusing, the way I was acting.
"Alright alright". I batted back and picked the wooden ball up with my tail and tried to stick maybe a quarter of it into my mouth. Any more and I was certain my jaw would break in six places. A moment passed and I pulled it back out.
"This is ridiculous". I argued as I turned to my instructor. "How on earth do you expect me to do this"?
"There isn't a tactic to it. Just open your mouth as wide as you can and let it slide down your throat". Again, I felt ill from the thought.
"Okay". I thought in my head as I grabbed the wooden ball again. "Don't think about it. Just swallow it... NOW"!
I continued to stare at the ball.
"Okay, on three. One... Two...Th"-
"While we're young". Viper taunted.
"Hey, you wanted me to do this so we're going to do it in my time okay"? I snapped back. Viper just giggled and watched again.
"Let's try again... one. Two. THREE"!
I did what I thought would work and just basically tried to just force the thing into my mouth. Unfortunatley I underestimated the force pushing back as my jaw seemed to dislocate itself and the ball just slid down, nearly making me swallow my own tail. I nearly gagged pulling it out and felt sick to my stomach feeling the cold item force itself into my stomach. God how I hated it...
"Hey, you did it! I thought we'd be here until nightfall until you'd have finished". Viper smiled.
I just mocked back her words childishly and looked back to see the ball pushing against my skin making it expand slightly. It was horrible for myself to experience. The only good thing about it was that it was just above the arrow wound so I wasn't in any pain. Well not physically anyway. Emotionally, I was just mortified.
The next step, getting it back out, I managed to work out on my own due to my willpower of expelling the object back up through my maw. I just tried throwing up. The thing made it's way up to my chest, then my throat. Then I just spat it out onto the ground, shuddering slightly as I could still taste wood. Oh the nightmares that would follow...
"You okay"? Viper asked, putting her tail around my back.
"Can we please just move onto the next stage please"? I asked in a near begging tone. Surely the hiding bit would be much simpler.
"Sure".
Thankfully I didn't have to swallow anymore items but the training had quickly turned from disgusting vore scenes to hide and seek which was much better in my opinion. Seriously, how do snakes manage to do that? Eating antelopes and full grown animals? Good thing that didn't happen in this world otherwise I would have quickly become a vegetarian.
The second part of my training was to identify the best hiding places which may seem ideal to hide critical objects and information. Given ten minutes to find as many scattered objects as I could find, I began.
In the end, I managed to find four out of the seven objects hidden. Two of the ones I did not find were hidden in ridiculous places. One was hidden under the ground (unfair in my opinion) and the other was hidden, God dang it, sneakily hidden under Cranes wing. Honestly how was anyone, let alone I, expected to find that one?
At least now was the end of the training lesson and I could relax for a few moments.
"Hey Mike".
Wow. Weren't those two seconds relaxing?
I looked up to see Vipes herself right next to me.
"Hey". I greeted back.
"Listen, about the training session"-
"Don't worry. I'm not holding a grudge against it or anything. All I will say is that I could have done without that skill". I interuptted at once, not feeling up to another apology.
"Yeah, and there lies the problem within".
There lies what now?
"What do you mean"? I asked, raising my head as she now had my full attention.
"There was more than one reason towards the unique method of training".
"Go on". I raised an eyebrow. Viper shifted uncomfortably.
"I had a little talk with Shifu after you had disappeared from the training hall after your confession. He and I both agreed that you would need to be more in touch with your new essence. Your chi to be exact".
That would sound like something Shifu would say. Words of simple wisdom but annoying to try and understand.
"I don't follow". I said in a questioning manner.
"What I mean to say is that if you're to be a snake then you should know how to act like one. Learn it's abilities, skills methods and so forth".
"...Ah".
I truly did not know how to feel about this. I mean I guess that was sort of cool, the only downside was that it would possibly, and probably, be just as unpleasant as the last "ability".
"But I get the moment to take a break now though, right"?
"If you wish".
Thank goodness. I needed to wash out my mouth to get rid of that new wood smell I now have.
...
Seems that looking like a snake isn't the same as actually being one. Mike's begun to learn that the hard way. Okay, anyway the story isn't actually too far off from ending. Maybe in another ten or so chapters it'll be finished, at least it will most likely. After I'm done with this story, I'm not too sure to be honest. I'll probably still be writing but like I said a chapter or two ago, I have no idea about what just yet. Maybe on small epilogues or even a part 2 but for now, who knows? Cheerio!