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When Raguel had encountered Cernunnos, shortly after starting his journey, he had recently contracted mild food poisoning. After riding Cernunnos in his deer shape, Raguel had fleas. Of course, he had also been poisoned by the Hydra, Delf. He would probably have survived the stupor this poison brought on, and would probably even have recovered, given a few days. Raguel was young and strong.

That was not necessary, though. Deep in the throat of the serpent, Ghum, Raguel, wrapped in peristalsic muscle, dreamed of a world he had never killed in. As well as thick epithelial fluid, his body soaked in something crimson, which Ghum's own body did not produce, but which he had been drinking a great deal of since swallowing Raguel.

The fleas were killed. Raguel's skin, somehow, was renewed and strengthened - cuts and pokes from the foliage he ran through while drunk healed over into a myriad of tiny scars. Inside Raguel, the poison's effect was buffered, diluted, and it started to lose its hold on the man's mind.

The latent eggs of the Hellminth died in Raguel's intestine. They burst before their bodies had even formed, which would have happened the following day.

"How is he breathing?" Spencer asked, outside of the snake. He was just waking up, and had kept his knees on either side of the mild swelling Raguel made in Ghum's body, in case Raguel woke and fought the healing process.

They had gone to their home - the small hall of a tower that had been covered in lava, and excavated by the serpent-folk - to rest. Ghum sat in a pile of himself, courteously not laying any of his massive body over the throat portion that contained their knight friend, and Spencer sat on Ghum. In the middle was a clear spring, placed there by the Hierophant.

"The same way you used to," Ghum replied, quietly. He had woken up some hours before, but had spent them quietly contemplating Raguel's dream. "I remember when you used to come in here for fun."

"You never explained how I was breathing then, either," Spencer said, rubbing his knuckles along the edges of a shield-shaped scale atop Ghum's head. "You know all my secrets, too, Ghum."

"It's magic," Ghum explained.

"Thank you, Ghum," Spencer sighed, as he was falling asleep again. That was also due to magic, but Spencer knew that.

-

Raguel was well awake, eventually, and had some idea of what had happened, and what was happening. He pushed gently at the walls around him - he was no longer being squeezed quite so tightly (a shame) but he needed to leave, to continue. He felt more invigorated than he ever had.

When Ghum, maw wide, let him slide out and into the cold water of the spring, Raguel laughed like he hadn't when he was a child and playing. The slime of Ghum's throat came off his skin after some rigorous movement, but he needed Spencer's help with his hair.

Raguel looked only slightly different after leaving Ghum. Most people did. He was as strong as before, and his skin the same oak-brown, his hair the same black, but all of him moved with more life, more vigour, and the sunlight through the trees and window made him seem more feral than he was.

"I am very thankful, Ghum," Raguel said, "but I wouldn't have volunteered for that before getting to know you better."

"And now we are very familiar," Ghum said, "so that's all past now. Do you feel in control of yourself, little one?"

Raguel flushed. He was tall, for man, and had not been addressed as smaller than someone in some time.

"I do."

"Then I am satisfied."

Raguel thanked Spencer, as well, and realised that what he had thought of as a dark-skinned boy was a short, pale and extremely hairy young man. He dressed in strips of cloth and leather, coiled around his arms and legs and body and stitched along where they met, so that they were almost leggings, almost sleeves, almost a tunic.

"How did you two meet?" Raguel dressed himself and sat down on Ghum. He now felt he could trust the pair.

"Spencer was abandoned near me by a merchant caravan," Ghum said. "They had come to buy some wine, but Spencer had been mouthy to his uncle, who - in his own words - owned him. I took the boy in."

Spencer lightly kicked the snake.

"I was old enough to marry," he said. "It's not like you raised me."

"It was a lot like that, actually." Ghum's tail crawled up over Spencer's face and coiled one loop around his head, resting like a crown. "You were so meek and beaten-down, I had to eat you, so you'd stand up for yourself." Spencer grabbed the tail in his fist and held on for a moment. Raguel said nothing.

-

"I have a mission from my Order," Raguel said, eventually, after they breakfasted.

The sun was not yet directly above them on the outside of the room, but the shade meant it was no longer early morning. Raguel needed as much information from his new friends as possible, since he had offended someone who could have killed him.

"The Elders think the secret of solving our worm-plague is with the Hierophants, if they didn't send it. I am to talk with them, and barter for cures, if necessary."

They passed through a lush vineyard, which - now that Raguel was inside it - was clearly woven through and through with slender grey-and-brown snakes. Every now and then a weasel chased a vole, only to be beaten to her meal by one of the many snakes. Raguel walked along one alley with Spencer, while Ghum slithered along the next path, his head looking up over the trellis at the men.

"There was a potential worm infection in you," Ghum said, "but I'm not eating your continent, nor am I going to eat your army. Our Hierophant, as you call him, will probably have something useful to tell you."

"What do you call him...? May I ask about the serpent-folk in general?" There were a lot of birds around - silent, flitting things, almost never landing, for obvious reasons.

"His name is Paean. What about us?"

"Well -- how do I know one of you to see you? Are you born human, and made so? Did the hierophant - er - lay eggs, somewhere?"

"Paean can make a human into a sort of serpent, and he refers to them as his sons, afterward... but anyone who lives here as one of us is one of the serpent-folk," said Spencer. "I'm one. Many of us are serpent-like, and are serpent-folk by being here, so they came here when he promised safety and community."

They came to the edge of a red-painted tower Raguel had not seen before. The valley must have been hillier than he thought when looking over it. It was covered in a chaotic honeycomb of thick, woody vines, and Raguel smiled.

"The balcony - that's Paean's, isn't it?"

"There are stairs," Ghum said. "Through the door."

"Are you really going to carry your weapons and armour when you do this?" Spencer said. "Ghum and I have to get back. I'm not carrying that pack for you."

"Mm," Raguel said, still sizing the tower up.