【 ᴄᴏɴǫᴜᴇʀɪɴɢ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀʟᴀɴᴅ || ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴍɪsᴇᴅ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀʟᴀɴᴅ ғғ】

ᴀ ᴘʟᴀʏ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴡᴏʀᴅs || ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛᴡᴇɴᴛʏ sᴇᴠᴇɴ

Ciel!

<Yes.>

Give me a summary of the details about the snakes of Alvar Pinera thing!

<Understood.>

Before Emma could even move to take the book, Adventures of Ugo from her bag, you hastily spoke up. "<<The Snakes of Alvar Pinera were found in a deep sea cave said to be filled with treasure. Described to have surrounded the walls, intertwined like tree roots. Ugo concluded the treasure was a trap!>>"

"The snakes are probably those roots! The treasure are probably these glowing flowers!" You yelled. "Also, why can't we just climb this thing behind us?! It's not like the thing can see us anyway?!"

I'm not making ya'll waste minutes to talk about this while in a LIFE AND DEATH SITUATION!

"The roots... this book..." Emma mumbled. "It's a guidebook meant for us!"

"How does it hunt its prey anyway?!"

Wasting too much time!  You thought as you hopped up to the tree and pulled one of its smaller and more fragile parts, and threw it at the distance. "They use touch!"

Quickly, you had the smaller children climb up first, hoisting the weaker ones up. "Let the younger kids climb up first. The older ones, you wait for your turn."

You climbed up, and at the same time, ready to catch anyone if they fall at any time.

"Emma, Don, Lannion, Thoma! Climb over there and break the ceiling wall! Didn't it say the snakes fell asleep from the chilly air?"

"Right!"

After the last of the other kids reached the surface, you took someone's hand and hoisted yourself up, sitting down on the flat ground to re-wrap your scarf around your neck. You buried your chin within the embrace of the cloth to warm it up.

"Those roots really can't do well with the cold, can't they?"

"All of them stopped moving."

"It's pretty cold up here... colder than where we fell from."

"Careful." You reprimanded, the ceiling wall was quite frail, you might fall again."

You stood up after hearing their sounds of agreement and looked around. It really did block the sky...

"Thank goodness it's winter right now! Or else we'd be in big trouble!" You heard Don comment.

"Well..." Nat mumbled and pointed at the book. "It says here that the ground doesn't cave in unless it's winter. The Alvar Pinera is a legendary cave one can only enter at winter.

"If only it weren't winter... huh."

Winter also makes it harder to survive. Especially with kids that know nothing of the outside...

If my understanding of certain things are correct... birds around here can be used for spying and information gathering. Quicksand is just like those exaggerated shows. Alvar Pinera aren't the only snakes. Vines are also ones. But from the looks of it, it just acts like a whip that's alive because it has different source of food. They were just annoyances.

More importantly...

The book mentioned that Ugo was affiliated with a great power. Hidden from all. The pillar of the surface. An underground organization... most likely.

Described to have great numbers and skilled members. It was called Nian Zhen? Is it a different language, Ciel?

<Nian Zhen are the Chinese characters,  念真. It means "a belief in truthfulness".>