The nestlings were in their organised rows, with the five captains standing before Typhon.

Galahad was sad and on the verge of tears as his gift was rejected and Ophelia stared at their leader who left their midst, with a worried face.

[I told you, it was a stupid idea.] Ophelia mercilessly bashed Galahad. [And she clearly didn't like your 'Gift'.]

[He had good intentions.] Morgana added in his defence.

[I'm going after her.] Ophelia declared with a huff.

[No you're not!] Typhon glared at her and turned to the others. [No one is going anywhere until we're finished.]

He was growing increasingly impatient with his fellow captains. As if their silly behaviour wasn't enough, now they wanted to pester her, when 'she' was clearly tired.

Creating the cave must have taken a lot of her strength, and even then she travelled all the way to retrieve his team and that of Artemis. For them to act like this after everything they'd witnessed was simply irresponsible.

So now, he was determined to follow her instructions and properly finish the task, which was to obtain detailed reports from each captain.

There was no way he was letting them go until he'd retrieved every minute detail of their trip.

However, Typhon was met with sparkly eyes of admiration from his fellow captains. He soon found himself surrounded by the eager snakes who were unperturbed by his glare and proceeded to ask him a barrage of questions.

[Aren't you going to address the obvious question.] Artemis pondered in thought.

[Yeah! How are you so big now?] Galahad sniffled accusingly, still not recovered from his gift disaster.

Morgana was positively giddy. [Do you think you could spare a little time for this lowly one? I'd love to grill you about your amazing new look.]

Ophelia, on the other hand, was furious. [What did you kill? Tell me or I won't speak to you again.]

[Not bad.] Was Cygnus's curt response.

Their words came all at the same time and the clamour hurt his head.

These idiots.

Typhon was fed up with their easy going manner. Why were each of them so eager to know how he had changed, when 'she' had already revealed the secret to them long ago.

He ignored their questions.

If they couldn't remember something so simple then they didn't deserve to know.

['She wants to know everything you encountered while outside. Spare no details in your retelling because I will know if you do.]

However, Ophelia wasn't too happy with his attitude.

[Hey, you big bully! You may have grown a little bit, but don't think I can't beat you in a one on one!]

As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them immediately.

The look in Typhon's eyes and the aura he radiated was too frightening. His dark eyes had changed to an emerald green colour, radiating a darkness that made her certain she was about to die.

It was like she was staring into the eyes of a feral creature and her instincts screamed at her to retreat but her body was frozen in fear.

Was her brother always this terrifying?

It was only when he took his eyes off her that she regained some feeling, but her body felt weak like her stamina had been drained, and she nearly collapsed on the ground, but was able to stop herself.

Morgana, who was next to her, also felt the full effect. She gave Ophelia a quizzical look when she saw her trembling, but said nothing as she turned away.

Typhon, who had no idea what he had done, continued to glare at each of the captains, not noticing how they had suddenly gone quiet.

He was trying his best to not get angry, but they were really testing his patience. He didn't know if leading their own teams had gotten to their heads or if having too much time away had started to give them ideas.

While 'she' didn't really care, he was determined to squash every rebellious notion they had, to keep the groups working.

[Now, listen to me very carefully. I'm this close to disqualifying you all as captains, so don't test me. If you can't follow simple instructions, you don't deserve to keep those titles. There's plenty others who would be more grateful for it.]

The captains all looked remorseful and Typhon was happy to finally strike a chord they all agreed with.

Before they began, Typhon instructed them all to dispense with their teams, because he knew it would take a while before they were finished. The only nestlings allowed to remain behind were those their captains found wanting for whatever reason.

His words struck Artemis the most because he had personally witnessed his own authority being questioned, and so he decided to speak up first.

Although he had nothing against the spaded snake, he felt that by not reporting her actions would only encourage her behaviour and so he chose her from his team to stay behind.

For Ophelia, she held back Apollo, and Cygnus chose the female snake whose capabilities he'd newly discovered.

As for Typhon, the only snakes of concern in his team were the two mischievous ones, but he knew they were no longer a problem. They had proven their worth during their journey and so he did not feel the need to report their malicious conversation with the spaded snake, as they had since changed their minds.

After interacting with 'her' when she came over to visit his team, they had stopped seeing the spaded snake's speculations in a favourable light. And also, after returning and seeing the appearance of the cave, they were even more impressed.

He'd noticed they were rather curious about new things and with their leader presenting so many new trinkets, it wasn't surprising they approved of her.

Typhon was relieved, but also disheartened by their duplicity. But to be sure, he made sure to question them once more, to which they both said they would not provoke the spaded snake anymore.

Right now, they were practically itching to leave their orderly row to begin exploring the cave, and so he dispersed with them without hesitation.

Once free, they eagerly disappear into one of the rooms laden with sparkling jewels, to not be seen again for many hours afterwards.

Turning his attention back to the captains, Typhon was unsurprised to find the spaded snake among the nestlings left behind. He'd hoped she would behave herself, but this only proved she was just as reckless as before.

Morgana and Galahad were the only captains without any problematic nestlings and so they remained behind on their own and soon after, all six captains began retelling their adventures, starting with Artemis.

--------------

After hearing all the accounts of their hunts, Typhon was deeply troubled. He had numerous questions, with nowhere to start.

Cygnus had revealed their cave was bordered by groups of monsters who could challenge them from all sides, and if nothing was done, their lives would soon be threatened.

As for the new area he had discovered and the journey he had undertaken, Typhon was all too pleased to hear of them and he knew 'she' would too.

Cygnus also requested that his team member be presented to their leader for her remarkable skills, and that he be allowed to make regular scouting trips in the future.

Typhon thought his requests were reasonable and he promised to obtain permission, with the condition that he scout all enemies in the cave's vicinity on a regular basis, to which Cygnus agreed.

This report was perhaps one of the simplest, and Typhon was glad he had started with him, because all those that came after were full of problems.

The most troubling of all was the incredibly dangerous and terrifying forest encountered by Artemis' team.

Typhon was surprised they had all made it out alive and in one piece. And although he was impressed by the efforts of the spaded snake, he was equally disappointed by her reckless actions.

She deserved to be rewarded, but also punished for challenging her captain and not heeding his warnings.

When he looked at her, there was no trace of remorse in her eyes and this only told him she would continue to do so again, if she was let go. This made him all the more intent to see her punished, however, he wanted to consider the opinions of the other captain's too.

So he called for a vote amongst the captains. However, the vote was split evenly, with Morgana, Galahad and Artemis pushing for leniency, while himself, Cygnus and Ophelia wanted her to be punished.

Since the vote was split, he decided to leave the final decision to 'her,' but Typhon wasn't satisfied. Why would Morgana push for leniency – it was completely unusual of her.

He could understand Galahad and Artemis feeling sympathetic after her heroic effort, but not Morgana. Her decision was definitely the odd one out of all of them.

However, when it came to her own retelling of events, her motives soon became clear to him.

If the spaded snake was the hero, she was the villain by comparison. After all the atrocities she had committed, did she really think asking for leniency from one of them would absolve her of her crimes?