In this world, there are many things we can know- many things we can smell, see, taste, touch, measure, hear, perceive, and understand. There are many things anyone can know, and many that everyone does know.

But for all of the claims made by the scientists and philosophers, there’s more stuff we don’t know.

And besides that, there’s even more that we don’t know we don’t know- things beyond the limit of conception, conjecture, and hypothesis.

As infuriating as it may be, the truth is that we will never know everything, or even come close. Omniscience is simply impossible for humanity to achieve. The deep secrets hidden beneath us, above us, and all around us are often unknowable. Maybe someone used to know these things. Maybe someone will know these things far in the future. However, vast though the mind may be, it is minuscule compared to the reams of knowledge that lay just out of reach. And no matter how much one thinks he knows, there is always something to prove that he still has a lot to learn.

Hector was considering all of this while trying his best to proceed silently across the debris-strewn forest floor of California. He used to think he knew a lot about the world.

Boy, was I wrong.

First of all, there had been a blue fern. It had given him the grandmother of all headaches, and then he had become immortal. That’s not something that happens every day.

Then Hector had been enrolled in an involuntary crash course entitled “How to escape from the police and malicious drug-lords at the same time while surviving in the mountains.” Oddly specific, and certainly not what I had planned on doing with my life.

Next, he had adopted his first-ever pet (aside from that hamster in fifth grade, but I don’t want to think about what happened to him), it had saved his life, and then he lost it within the week. Also what had happened to the hamster… except it never saved my life.

And then Hector had met Yogwo, and that was when things really started to get weird. He had learned more in a single conversation with the Grand-Shaman and his superior, Goonda, than he had in a year of high school chemistry. Immortality was a fairy-tale concept, an idea only fit for children’s books and superhero movies. Until, one day, it wasn’t.

And now, he was fairly confident that the fern could do even more than he thought. Goonda was hiding something, it was clear.

The two young men and the one very, very old man had been going as fast as they could without being overly noisy towards some ambiguous spot in the woods. I think it’s about time that I get some more answers, Hector thought.

“Okay, Goonda,” he whispered rather loudly. “Where are we going?”

Goonda stopped in his tracks and turned his time-weathered face to Hector.

“There’s a reason Yogwo and I live out in the middle of nowhere.”

“And that is?”

Goonda smiled thinly.

“Resources… of a sort.”

“What do you mean?” Hector asked, then glanced in Yogwo’s direction. The Grand Shaman was, unsurprisingly, hovering one foot a few inches above the ground, his head cocked towards the conversation.

“Things grow around here, things live around here, and things were built around here that prove useful for one of my occupation.”

“Which is…”

“Arch-Shaman of the Divine Celestial Monarchy, duh,” muttered Goonda. “There’s a certain structure not far ahead- I’m not sure who built it, or when, but it’s old. Very old. And almost no one on earth knows it exists.”

“What is it?”

“A temple of some kind. The few people who know about it call it Serpentemple.”

“And… why do we need to go there?”

“Snakes, Hector. Extremely dangerous snakes. Snakes whose bites drop a man dead in seconds.”

Hector didn’t know what to make of this revelation, so he resumed his stealthy plod. “Well, since you and I are immortal, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Goonda stifled a cackle. “Hector… that is the problem. And the snakes are the solution. I had forgotten about what they could do, but the conversations I’ve had with you have reminded me.”

Hector couldn’t get the Arch-Shaman to say anything else, so he tried to figure out what the heck the old man was talking about. Maybe he’s mad. He tried to make conversation with Yogwo, but the second the first words had left his mouth, Yogwo raised a finger to his ghastly lips in token of silence. “Ssssssssshhh. We’re almost there.”

Not the most talkative bunch around, that’s for sure.

Suddenly, Hector saw it. Fifteen yards ahead there was a cliff-like formation about twenty feet tall. It, like the surrounding forest, was sprinkled liberally with tall pines and low, spreading oaks. Nestled comfortably in between the trees was what looked like a pile of very large stone bricks, seemingly thrown on top of each other with neither rhyme nor reason. The mossy, rough-hewn gray blocks each appeared to be almost as high as Hector, who was “pretty tall” by most peoples’ standards.

Serpentemple.

The pile was probably once pyramidal, by the look of it, but now it was just that- a pile. I wonder who made it. The… uh… Aztecs? That wasn’t right. The Aztecs lived in Mexico. He should’ve known that. The… Native Americans? Christopher Columbus? Um… he tried to think of famous explorers. Martin Luther?

Hector gave up. History had never been his strongest subject.

Suddenly, a timid sound- as of someone mistakenly stepping on an inconvenient stick- caught Hector’s ears, and he gestured for the others to stop. The source of the noise was somewhere ahead of them. Turning his head while trying to remain as still as possible, he glanced at Yogwo and Goonda. They had clearly heard it as well, Yogwo’s wide, fearful eyes posing a near-comic contrast with Goonda’s apparent uncaring manner of “I told you so.” Even so, the Arch-Shaman put a finger to his lips and nodded at the temple above.

The three peered up at the structure above. Hector hardly dared to breathe, releasing and inhaling air slowly through his nose. This is uncomfortable. It was difficult to control your breathing like that while also doing your best to stop your heart from pounding its way out of your chest.

Hector’s ear itched. He didn’t dare scratch it. Argh, I hate this! He needed more air. He was running out of air. This was not good. His inhalations came more fiercely now. He was suffocating, surely.

A gnat flew up his nostril and Hector’s head seemed to explode in a cruelly loud sneeze.

There was silence for a second as everyone present contemplated what had just happened. Even the birds seemed to quiet down.

“Run for it!” shouted Goonda. And they ran. Hector never could quite recall what happened next. He didn’t even know how he got to the temple- but in a few scrambling moments, he was bolting towards the pile of oversized building blocks that supposedly held some special snakes.

And someone else, too.

As if summoned by the thought, a man stepped out from around the corner of the temple. He wore a black tactical outfit of some kind. His eyes were invisible behind thick sunglasses, empty of everything except intimidation. Hector had seen him before, and knew enough to expect his identical twin to be somewhere nearby.

The man deftly raised a pistol and shot Hector point-blank in the chest.

Or, he would have, but a few things happened right then that, at the moment. seemed to Hector a very fortunate coincidence. First, a sudden gust of wind stirred a wave of fine, sand-like dirt into the man’s face with stinging force. Some of the dust had evidently gotten around the sunglasses, because the man cried out in pain and dropped his still-smoking gun, hands digging at his eyes. Still rubbing out the sand, he tried to pick up his gun, and tripped over a strange grayish-brown root protruding from the ground.

At almost the same moment, Hector heard a sharp whistle from behind him. And then the snake struck. What Hector had initially taken to be a root was not, in fact, a root. The snake was massive, at least five feet long, but incredibly fast. With a sound like a whip cracking, it snapped around the man’s leg and latched its teeth somewhere around his thigh.

Thirdly, Yogwo came up beside Hector with a heavy stone in hand, and pitched the rock at the assassin as he lay wrestling the reptilian that had ensnared him. Hector’s first thought was GO KYLE!

His second thought was that Yogwo, Grand Shaman though he be, should never disgrace himself by attempting any kind of sport, because he couldn’t hit a barn door if it was three feet away. The rock sailed harmlessly over the man and the snake. It had completely, entirely and totally missed its intended target.

The fourth and final great coincidence, however, was that the second of the twins had appeared out of nowhere and was standing where the first had been. Yogwo’s stone completely, entirely, and totally did not miss him. The man toppled over backwards, blood issuing from a wound just above his right eyebrow.

Hector stood dumbly, not making an effort to comprehend what had just happened. The entire course of events had taken place in about one and a half seconds.

Goonda calmly walked by, then whistled an uncanny shriek of some kind through his hardly-existent teeth. The snake let go of the leg it had been tasting and lifted its head upright to look at the Arch-Shaman. Goonda whistled again, and the snake slithered towards him.

Hector backed away. The snake was coming straight for its geriatric summoner, but he had a feeling that it was studying him from the corner of one reddish eye.

“Hector, let me introduce you to the North American stone-sleeper. Incredibly rare, generally believed to be a myth, and possessing venom deadlier than most top-grade synthetic neurotoxins. Easily the most powerful animal you’ll ever hope to not meet.”

Hector looked at the snake. The snake looked back. “And… you’re standing two feet away from her?” He really had no idea if the snake was female, but its appearance, the deep intelligence with which it regarded him, and a seeming lack of interest in what it was doing, pointed to him as somehow feminine.

“Well, the thing is, they’re not very aggressive, and they can be trained. Quite intelligent, actually. More so than some dogs.”

“…Oh. And… we need her for what?”

Yogwo, who had been silently inspecting Serpentemple, turned towards them, looking like a seven-year old tyke who’s just been asked what a Brachiosaurus is. “I know! Arch-Shaman Goonda says they can-”

“Shut up, lackey,” snapped Goonda. “I told you to stay quiet.” A pause. “I did, didn’t I?”

Yogwo didn’t answer.

“Anyways, I’m your higher-up. So let me talk.” Goonda turned to Hector. “The stone-sleeper is… special. Its venom isn’t simply the ultra-deadly saliva you can find in some other animals. I’m no chemist, but there’s something in it than reverses the effect of the infinity fern.”

Hector’s heart nearly stopped.

“WHAT?!”

Goonda’s smile was apologetic. “Sorry I didn’t tell you before. I guess you’ll just have to deal with it.”

Hector couldn’t get his thoughts in order. So I can die after all. Is that why I’m here? Is this some kind of trick? Is he lying? If he’s being truthful, why hasn’t he told me before? Is he going to try to murder me? Maybe those other half-deaths he talked about are dead! Maybe he killed them! For all I know, Goonda could be a vengeful, treacherous killer! No, no, don’t be ridiculous. That’s not Goonda. He’s grumpy, sure, but not a killer. Hector bit his lip. But then why the heck would he show me a death snake like this one?

This stream of thoughts jumbled itself into Hector’s mind in a single instant, much like greedy shoppers jumbling themselves into a store on Black Friday- all at once, and not necessarily in the order that they should be. It would have continued for some time- Hector was no more able to stop it than to stop a volcano from erupting- but Goonda sensed his distress, and intervened.

“Alright, alright, I’m sure you’re all up in arms about this, and frankly, you have a right to be.” The old man said the last bit of his sentence like it tasted bad, and the words definitely dropped off in volume towards the end, but it was as much sympathy as he had ever showed. “But I’m trying to help you here. If you would have known what the snakes could do earlier, you might not have gone. And then we’d be in a really big pickle.”

“Why?” Hector could barely get the word out between Goonda’s speech and the torrent of thoughts ripping through his mind.

Goonda sighed, as if he didn’t want to explain. “Look, Hector. From what you’ve told me, Flores probably has the fern by now. And if he has the fern, chances are he has the fern-drug, or he’s going to soon. And if Flores becomes immortal… well, there’s only two ways to stop him. Lock him up forever, or kill him. And locking him up forever is clearly not an option.”

Hector blinked. “Flores has… you’re going to… you want… the snakes… You’re saying we should get a snake to bite Flores, so that he dies?”

Goonda shifted his weight uneasily, glancing at Yogwo as if searching for help. “Well… yes… you could say that…”

Hector didn’t know what to think.

“When do we start?”