Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 784 - 49: The Peculiar Firefly

Chapter 784: Chapter 49: The Peculiar Firefly

"Where, where? Let me see quickly."

"Isn’t that it over there?" Catherine pointed to the glowing hydra in the distance and said in a strained voice, "Even though I’ve never seen a hydra before, with nine necks and nine heads, nobody would believe it’s not a hydra. But weren’t hydras supposed to be in the Southern Marshes? Why would one suddenly appear here? Galantis, are you sure your people are all right?"

"Big sister, big sister." Lina stood beside Catherine and had noticed something unusual before Catherine did; however, since Pannis hadn’t shown any sign of warning, it should be safe, so she just spoke softly, "I think, you’ve overlooked a problem."

Catherine also realized what was happening at this time. The voice asking where it was, was one she had never heard before. The voice wasn’t very loud, but it sounded strange, as if there was a weird resonance in the deep tone that made people feel as if their hearts would change their beating rhythm to match the odd voice. This voice had appeared abruptly behind her, quite close, as if whispered right in her ear, yet the experienced knight girl hadn’t sensed it at all. The person who made the sound seemed to be able to reach her back as silently as Pannis. Realizing this, Catherine felt the hair on her neck stand up, chills running down her spine. She didn’t dare to turn around directly but could only slightly tilt her head and look at Pannis with questioning eyes. Pannis just shrugged his shoulders and nudged his mouth, signaling for her to look back herself. Pannis’s reaction reassured the knight girl; at least the other party didn’t bear any malice, or else she believed Pannis would never let them get so close to her. The girl slowly turned her head and then saw a huge head.

The colossal head that had appeared behind her was as big as half her body. The skin was green and looked quite like a lizard’s head, yet it also had some features of the Drakes, with a mouth that occupied half of its face. If it opened its mouth, it could easily swallow Catherine whole. Below the giant head was a long neck, roughly as thick as Catherine’s armored body, and the length she could see was already far beyond five meters. As for what was below the neck, there was nothing because the neck was extending straight from the ground. The spot where it emerged was at least three or four meters away from Catherine, but the neck inclined forward after coming out of the ground, already near her back.

The massive head was eagerly looking in the direction Catherine had pointed to without any awareness of frightening others, and after searching for a while, it said with disappointment, "What, that’s not a hydra at all. I thought it was the real thing."

Catherine didn’t know what expression to make anymore, not just her, all the girls, even Galantis who was eager to return home, had weird expressions and discreetly retreated a few steps, distancing themselves from the giant head. Lina almost dropped her book in shock, but luckily she recovered in time to hold on to it tightly and stuttered, "Hy, hy, hydra?"

"I already said that’s not a hydra, why don’t you believe me." The giant head turned towards Lina, its vertical pupil staring at her in an unsatisfied manner, "That’s a disguise, just a bunch of little things."

"Ha, ha." Lina laughed dryly and took a few more steps back, swallowing her saliva, and said with a dry voice, "Believe, believe, that over there isn’t a hydra, we all believe that, and I wasn’t referring to it at all."

"She’s talking about you," Pannis said, seemingly quite familiar with the giant head, casually patting its neck. "You, stay a bit farther away, appearing so suddenly like that, you scared my friends. Don’t you know you’re quite scary?"

"What’s so scary about me," the giant beast suddenly stuck out its tongue. Its tongue wasn’t forked like a snake’s but was flat, like that of humans and some wild beasts. The giant beast’s tongue was also very long, licking Catherine from bottom to top after stretching out, drenching half of the knight girl’s body with just that lick. After finishing, it even seemed dissatisfied, grumbling, "How am I scary? All hydras look like this. I don’t have more heads than they do. What’s there to be afraid of?"

"Anyone who suddenly finds a hydra behind them would be scared," Pannis said, covering his forehead and speaking irritably, "Do you even have any awareness of being the king of the Northern Swamp? I can’t stand you."

"Pannis," Catherine’s voice softened, and she asked in a low voice, "Aren’t you going to introduce this one?"

"I’ve mentioned him before, Jack, the leader of the hydras, the most powerful creature in the Northern Swamp," Pannis patted the hydra’s neck: "Last time we accompanied Alcmene to the Northern Swamp, we had several pleasant exchanges with him, and he gets along quite well with Alcmene."

"If he’s a hydra..." Catherine shifted her gaze from Jack’s head to the glowing giant beast in the distance, and asked curiously, "that one over there looks quite similar to him, at least the head and neck seem very alike. Are you sure it’s not another one?"

"Indeed it’s not," Pannis nodded: "Those are just a swarm of fireflies."

"Fireflies?" Aside from Galantis, the girls almost thought there was a problem with their hearing, even setting aside their questions about Jack, Lina asked in surprise, "I don’t remember any sort of firefly that would look like that, or be that huge."

"No, I think I understand now," Vivian said thoughtfully, "This is a case of collective mimicry, isn’t it, Pannis? I seem to have come across similar peculiar species in some documents, capable of gathering together to mimic the appearance of certain other creatures. However, this kind of collective mimicry is really rare, so rare that many zoological books don’t even record it, only appearing in special literature. But their imitation is really convincing; from a distance, there’s hardly any difference."

"That’s what it’s called, collective mimicry," Pannis confirmed: "Do you remember the name of this place? Firefly Plain. Here, when night falls, the sky is filled with fireflies, dense like stars. These fireflies usually just fly around randomly in search of food, but should they feel a threat severe enough to impact the whole species’ development, they will spontaneously gather, overlapping and squeezing together to form an entity, then shape this entity into some particularly fearsome magical beast. Moreover, after their disguise is complete, they continue adjusting their positions, mimicking the various movements of that magical beast, making the observers feel as if they’re seeing the real thing. Of course, the movements they mimic are quite slow and can’t compare with the original, but just with the shape and slow movements alone, they can scare off most threats."

(To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it on Qidian (qidian.com), with your support being my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please go to m.qidian.com to read.)