"Hiss."
"Hiss~"
Tanzi opened her eyes when she heard a few hissing sounds around her. But she couldn't see anything around.
"Huh? Is anyone there?" she asked out loud so that if anyone was really here.
The reply she got was a calm breeze in front of her.
She blinked her eyes a couple of times and shrugged casually.
Once again she closed her eyes and started 'gaining some weight'.
"Hiss."
"Hiss~"
This time she got angered for being disturbed while gaining her weight as she opened her eyes wide.
If anyone were really present in front of her, they may cower in fear at the anger that she just projected from her eyes.
But luckily or sadly, once again Tanzi found no one in front of her.
She gritted her teeth and announced loudly, "If there is really someone around, just come in front of me immediately. If I find you by myself, I will make you beg for your death in my hands."
When she found no one coming in front of her, she once again spoke, "I will count till ten and there would be no more time for you."
"One."
She roamed her eyes around trying to see if there was someone that came out to show themselves in front of her.
But nope. Still no one.
"Two."
She continued searching but still no one again.
'Looks like they really want to die in my hands.' She thought in her mind with anger.
She gritted her teeth and continued counting but still there is no one in her sight.
"Nine."
When there was still no one that came out to show themselves, she once again spoke out loud, "Don't think that I am not going to do anything even if I find you. As I said, I will really make you want me to kill you. I won't give you any more time either."
"..." Silence.
"I am going to end the count now."
".." Silence again.
"Okay. Okay, I am really going to end the count now." She said while nodding her head repeatedly.
"..." More silence.
She pursed her lips, then released them before gritting her teeth while saying, "Ten."
She then looked around and squinted her eyes.
She increased all of her senses to see who was there around while not coming out for so long.
With her increased hearing ability, she once again heard hissing sounds.
"Hiss."
"Hiss~"
"Hiss!"
What surprised her was that all these sounds did not come from a single direction but they came from all the directions.
It was like she was surrounded by a bunch of people who hissed while looking at her but she couldn't see them.
As her senses increased, of course the scent of Pandanus also increased.
Unlike the last time when she felt nauseated when she smelled a lot of sweet scent that belonged to lotuses, this time she was intoxicated by the heightened fragrance of the Pandanuses.
It felt like the flowers were calling her towards her. She felt like a piece of iron that was being attracted to all the magnetic pieces around her.
She couldn't stand her ground as her feet took a step forwards subconsciously towards the fragrance.
"HISSSSS…."
A huge 'hiss' sounded from below her leg.
Tanzi instantly came out of her reverie and lowered her head to look at the ground - which was still covered in snow - where she just stepped.
Her eyes widened at the sight of a huge snake on which she just stepped her foot. In an instant, she raised her leg and the snake twirled around before crawling away from her.
Since the snow was soft and slippery and it was almost the same texture as a snake, she did not notice that she had stepped on a snake. If she did not hear the sound that it just made under the 'spell' she was in due to the sweet scent of the flowers around, she doesn't know what would have happened to that poor snake.
Now that she finally came back to her senses, she realized that all the hissing sounds that she had heard from the time she came here belonged to a bunch of snakes that were hiding in this area.
How could she forget about this fact so easily?
The exotic scent of either Pandanus or the Queen of night were said to be famous for luring snakes near them.
Wherever one could find either of these plants, one could very easily find a snake or a two.
But this area has not only one of them but it has both the plants in huge bulk.
The more the plants, the more the effect.
It is only obvious that there would be even more snakes around here.
Tanzi felt silly that she had forgotten about such a basic fact.