Book 5} Chapter 40
The Snakes of Alvapinera
アルバピネラのヘビ

One of the two special books of Mr. Minerva. The one with the Morse code for "promise".
It's called the adventures of Ugo.
The hero of the story is Ugo. And with his partner, Marvine the Lemur. They travel unexplored regions of the world.
It's an adventure novel.

"It's this. I read it in this book! That part about the snakes!" Emma said. I looked over, having been a huge fan of the dam books.

"The snakes of Alvapinera?" I suggested.
"Yeah. That!" Emma exclaimed.

"See? Look at the similarities! A cave. Jewels. Snakes. It was about this tree! This adventure novel is a manual for surviving in the outside world!" Emma said.
I then nodded with a smile. { Why didn't I think of that... }

"Come one, Emma, there may be similarities, but... No. You might be right. Let's test it out," Ray then said.
I smiled and nodded.

"Okay! If it's the same as the book, the roots come after us by..." I trailed off then looked around.
"Everyone, can you stay back a little?" I asked, Emma helped them move back.

Then, Ray's hand left mine.
He threw a mug at the roots.

Once it touched the roots, it attacked, breaking it to pieces.
"I knew it! By contact!" Emma, Ray, and I chuckled in unison.

It's not by heat, sound, or vibration of the ground.
When the prey touches the tip of the root, the tree learns its location and attacks.
And the way the roots move...

If I look carefully, I can tell... How those animals got caught by the roots.
And how we can escape from this situation.

Now that I've calmed down, I see that the way to handle the unknown is the same as what we've been doing. Observe, analyze, and read the enemy's strategy.
That's right.
Ugo was always watching his enemies.
If we don't know, we need to learn.

"Emma. Y/n. Like you both said... these are probably the snakes of Alvapinera," Ray then said.
"Right?" Emma said with a smile.
"Hey, what do we do? The roots keep growing and coming closer!" one of the little ones exclaimed.

"Ray. Y/n," Emma then said.
"Yeah," I muttered along with Ray.

We all walked forward, not touching the roots.
"Emma?! Ray?! Y/n?!"

"Look. It's okay," I said with a smile.
Their eyes were wide as they watched us.
"Avoid touching them and we're fine. The attacks only come from the roots on the walls. But look if you don't touch them, they don't attack. No matter how close we get, if we don't touch the tips of the roots, see? They don't move faster," Emma explained, demonstrating.

"It's not scary. Let's calm down," she said softly.
"Listen carefully. We're going to climb up the tree in the back to escape. Just like our original plan. Before the roots on the wall catch up to us," Ray started, then smiled, "You guys can do it. Climbing trees was part of your training, right?"

I smiled.
"Can we get out? As long as we go to the top... can we go through the ceiling... to above ground? With everyone?" Gilda asked.
"Yeah!" Emma smiled.

"Let's go then, everyone!" Gilda said, turning to the kids with a smile.

"And let's get out of here!" Emma added.

We started to climb up the roots.
I tried to remember back to the book.
{ The snakes appeared from the rocks on the ceiling... then multiplied. The snakes were pretending to be rocks. It's the same with the tree. The wall of roots is coming from the ceiling. As if transforming the limited rocks into snakes. If we escape to the top as the ground gets full of the roots... }
Emma and some of the kids started to pull down on the ceiling.

           In order to escape the snakes of Alvapinera, you need to make a hole in the ceiling of the cave.

          It doesn't matter how. It's not difficult.
          The freezing northern ocean is outside.
          The snake will fall asleep from the cold.

The cold rushed in and the roots went back in place.
I smiled softly as Emma and the kids cheered.

          Don't be afraid.
          If you can courageously reach for the sky, you will not be eaten by them.

{ Thank you, Mr. Minerva }

私たちは脱出したが、私はまだ閉じ込められていると感じた。

1/26/2020
Word Count: 683