by Sam Ferguson
“Ah, you don’t understand,” the archer continued. “This bow is a magical bow. Its spring and strength cannot be dulled by weather.”
“If there is such a bow, then why don’t you go for it?” Jonathan quipped.
“The bow exists,” the third scout said. “It is called Kigabané. Several men have tried to find it before, but none of them ever have. Most of them died looking. Those that didn’t die, tell stories of—”
The swordsman smacked the third scout again. “That’s enough, you’re scaring the boy!”
“Stories of what?” Jonathan pressed. “Are there trolls there?”
“Ha!” the archer laughed. “There are things in this world worse than trolls, my dear boy.”
“So what protects the bow?” Jonathan asked.
“The Kigyo,” the archer replied simply as he let his hand slide off of Jonathan’s shoulder. “So, what will it be? You go and fetch the Kigabané, or we take you back and set you in the stockades?”
Jonathan could see no alternative. Whatever the three scouts were planning, it couldn’t be as bad as being locked in the stocks. He reached out and took the short sword. “I’ll go,” he said flatly.
“Good,” the archer said. Just then he turned enough that the silvery moonlight illuminated his wicked smile as he pointed to the east. “Due east from here. We’ll wait here at the base of the trees. Don’t try to sneak around us, or we will not be so nice next time.”
Jonathan nodded. He hooked the short sword onto his belt and started walking.
Chapter 8
The sun broke its bright, warm, golden rays on Jonathan’s face early in the morning. The boy squinted against the light, surveying the jagged shadows before him as he pushed up to a sitting position. He had walked for several miles during the night before curling up next to a large boulder to sleep.
As his eyes adjusted, he noticed that the grass had changed in color. Instead of the vibrant green of the hills he had traveled the previous several days, he was now surrounded by a sea of yellow and brown grasses that rustled and bent with the slightest wind. The dirt was a deep, rich brown with many rocks dotting the surface. Jagged spires of brown and black rock shot up from the ground like a set of forgotten fangs from some long-lost monster. A few red poppy flowers dotted the landscape around him, but otherwise it looked as though he was walking through a valley that had been dead for a very long time.
There were no trees in these parts, aside from a few long-dead oaks that now appeared as gray, heavily cracked shells of once mighty trees. A few fallen logs littered the area between the jagged rocks.
A chirping bird caught his attention then. It squawked and flapped its wings, hopping and turning its head to look at Jonathan. Jonathan figured there must be a nest nearby, for the closer he came to the bird, the more enraged the blue-breasted creature became.
From a part of the rock unseen by Jonathan, a large yellow snake shot out and seized the bird in its mouth. A pair of feathers exploded from the bird’s body and floated gently to the rock’s surface as the snake worked its jaw, unhinging it and choking the twitching creature down.
Jonathan pulled the short sword out of reflex and pointed it at the snake. The creature wasn’t nearly so large as to pose a threat to him, and he knew it, but there was something about it that unnerved him. It wasn’t just the sudden appearance either. He had certainly been in the forest enough times to long ago acquaint himself with the order of prey and predators. He had once seen a mountain lion pounce on a young fawn, tearing the poor creature down in an instant before ravaging it. But there was something different about this snake. Unlike the mountain lion, who couldn’t have cared less about Jonathan’s existence, let alone the fact that he had seen the kill, this snake watched Jonathan with his evil, vertically slit eyes. It was almost as if each flex of the snakes jaw was a threat, or perhaps as if the snake wished it was eating Jonathan.
The boy shook his head and pushed the obscene notion out of his head. The snake was hardly more than two feet long. There was no possible way it could think Jonathan was prey. He turned to sheathe his short sword. His left hand went down to the scabbard, trying to hold it as he lined up the tip of the sword. He was not nearly as experienced with bladed weapons as he was with a bow.
Something moved in his peripheral vision. He halted, holding the short sword just above the scabbard as he snapped his head up and looked to the grass. He saw only a brown and grey log. He shrugged it off and then looked down toward his scabbard. That was when he saw the faint, fleeting flicker of a pink forked tongue in the grass a few feet to his left.
Jonathan instinctively took a step back as he looked up to trace the tongue’s movement with his eyes. An angular, scaly head shot out from the tall grass. The brown and gray beast opened its hideous, fang-filed mouth and Jonathan realized that he had not seen a log at all. Somehow he flipped the blade upright as he jumped away. The pink mouth was so large that Jonathan’s entire right hand up to the elbow fit inside, sword and all.
Jonathan jerked the blade up, triggering the snake to close its jaws. Blood shot out around Jonathan’s arm and he felt the moist, hot flesh on the bottom of his arm. The snake knocked into him, sending him flying backward toward the boulder where the bird had been killed. Jonathan’s back ached in pain as he slammed against the hard surface. His head snapped backward over the top of the rock, but luckily didn’t hit the rock itself. The yellow snake caught Jonathan’s eye for half a second before the weight of the massive snake dragged Jonathan down.
Jonathan looked down to his hand, afraid to see what was left. To his relief, the sword had saved him. The hilt firmly held the bottom jaw open, keeping the row of smaller fangs at bay while the blade dug a few inches up into the snake’s head, preventing the top row of jagged fangs from striking the boy. Jonathan let go and snapped his hand out from the beast’s mouth. The snake jerked away, tearing four thin lines of red across the bottom of Jonathan’s forearm as the sharp teeth managed to dig in slightly.
The monstrous snake’s body slithered out from the grass as it writhed and spun on the ground. The thing was well over thirty feet long, and that was just what Jonathan could see. Jonathan did the only thing he could think of, he ran.
He turned to flee the area, but before he could escape, he caught sight of another monstrously large snake in the grass before him.
“Gah!” Jonathan screamed as he dove behind a large rock sticking up. The snake launched at him, but slammed into the boulder, buying Jonathan enough time to run away. Another snake rose from the grass in the distance to the west. The long, thick body swayed as it stretched up over the foliage and flicked its tongue at Jonathan.
Jonathan turned and ran, nearly tripping over the still writhing snake at his feet. Blood squirted out onto the ground as the snake whipped around toward Jonathan. The sharp blade poked through the top of the snake’s head and then the creature twitched before going still. Jonathan didn’t stop to watch. He darted in and around boulders.
He could hear the other two large snakes sliding through the grass, their rough scales scraping the dry plants as they rushed toward him. He leapt up onto a large boulder and then jumped over a small depression in the ground to land on another rock. This one was flat and wide, and was situated close to another rock that rose above it. He grabbed hold of the rock and climbed, seeing another large, square boulder within jumping distance. He precariously perched on the point of the black spire just as the two large snakes circled around him below. He knew that if he missed, he would be dead.
A third snake, just as long and thick as the others, slithered out from a hole under the spire Jonathan was perched upon. It tasted the air with its tongue and then turned its evil head up to see Jonathan. If the boy didn’t know better, he would have sworn that the snake smiled at him. Jonathan looked to the large boulder ahead of him. It was at least six feet away from where he was perched, but if he could reach it, he was certain that the snakes would be unable to climb it as it w
as a flat, smooth cube.
He gathered his courage and then jumped across the void. One of the snakes snapped upward, but fell far short of Jonathan as the boy sailed across. He landed hard, the solid corner of the cube digging into his bottom ribs. He curled his legs up and scrambled over the rock as another snake snapped at him. He rolled over the surface and then stood up to make sure his plan was working. Carefully he inched close to the edge and then leaned over to peer at the monsters below. One snake raised its body about four feet into the air, a little less than half the cube’s height. It slithered to the rock, but could not gain purchase to wind its way up.
Jonathan sighed in relief, but then realized the other two snakes were disappearing around the side. One went around to the right while the other was disappearing around the left side. Jonathan turned to rush to the far side of the cube and see whether every rock face was just as smooth as the first, but he stopped short when he noticed a pair of skeletons on the rock. They were human. Next to them was an old spear and sword. Jonathan rushed to the spear, but discarded it when he saw the shaft was destroyed and cracked by exposure. The sword was in better shape, albeit a bit rusted from the time in the weather. From the look of the bleached bones, and the fact that only scraps of clothing remained, Jonathan knew the men had died a long time ago.
He wondered if they had met a similar fate, chased to this very rock by hideous snakes, and then starved to death as the snakes circled below. He reached down for the sword and took it in hand. There wasn’t much left of the wooden handle, and the few bits that still clung to the steel tang all but crumbled when Jonathan picked it up. Still, the metal was solid and would likely be his only defense if the snakes found a way up the rock. He moved to the far side, holding the sword at the ready. A green and black snake hissed at him from below, but it could no more climb the rock than the first.
Jonathan moved to the middle of the giant boulder and sat down. He could only hope that perhaps the snakes would eventually get bored enough that he could escape when they left. He knew he couldn’t possibly outrun all of them. They had been so quick to catch up to him that he doubted he would get more than a yard or two before being struck down. He also knew he couldn’t fight them off. It was only luck that had saved him from the first snake.
Now there were three more, and all he had was a pile of bones and an old sword.
He waited for a long time before he dared to check the ground again. He kept hoping that the snakes would slither away, but they never did. When he finally checked over the side, he saw the snakes busily circling the boulder. There was nothing he could do.
Near the middle of the day, Jonathan caught sight of the green and black snake. It had worked its way up the other boulder adjacent to the black spire of rock that Jonathan had used to reach the cube boulder. It took several minutes, but eventually the snake wound around the spire and began reaching out to cross the void between the two rocks.
Jonathan rose to his feet and held the sword up high.
“Don’t do it,” Jonathan said. “Come after me, and I will be forced to kill you.”
The snake stopped and turned its head to the side. It opened its mouth and hissed fiercely at the boy, and then it stretched out farther. Jonathan dropped the sword and went for the cracked spear. He knew it wasn’t strong, but maybe it would be enough to fend off the snake from stretching across. He grabbed the coarse shaft near the bottom and raised it over his right shoulder like a club. The snake hissed and stretched out, nearly reaching half way to the boulder. Jonathan couldn’t let the snake figure out a way to him, so he swung with all of his might.
On the ground, the snake would likely have shied away quickly, but with three feet of body precariously stretched over the air, it was slow to recoil. The spear tip slammed into the side of the snake’s head, slicing a deep gash into the snake’s head just below the left eye. Blood oozed out as the spear snapped in several places under the weight of the blow. Jonathan turned and grabbed the sword. Now that he knew the snake wouldn’t be able to dodge a swing, he was ready.
Come on then, stretch your neck out again.
Jonathan stood firm, locking eyes with the bloodied snake.
The beast retreated and slithered down the spire, then the adjoining boulder until it was once again upon the ground. Jonathan counted his blessings that each of these three were only ten or twelve feet in length. Any more than that, and they could probably reach up to the top of the rock he was hiding on.
The young boy backed away from the edge of the boulder, making sure to keep an eye on the spire a short distance away. If any of the snakes tried to cross again, he would use the sword. He sat for another couple of hours before he heard a strange rustling in the grass a ways off. He watched as a large, ruby red snake slithered up onto a gray boulder maybe twenty yards away from the boulder he sat upon. The red snake turned its head and licked the air twice as it looked directly at him. Then the boy saw the other three snakes slithering toward the red one. All three of them stopped below the base of the boulder and the red snake lowered its head down to each of them.
The red snake pulled back onto the gray boulder as the three below coiled into tight springs and turned their heads to face Jonathan. The red snake lifted up several feet into the air and unfolded a grand hood which expanded behind its head. Jonathan’s eyes shot wide and his mouth fell open. He had never heard of such a creature before. He glanced to the west and his feet and legs nearly twitched they wanted to run so badly.
That was when the red snake spoke.
“Run, little human, and you will not make it far, I assssssure you.”
Jonathan’s breath caught in his throat and it was all he could do to shake his head, for no words would come out of his mouth.
“My servants have told me that you killed one of my kin. Why would you do thisss?”
Jonathan shook his head again and dropped the sword he held. “It attacked me,” Jonathan said. “I didn’t want to kill it.”
“You ssssay ‘it’ as though we are not worthy of your ressspect,” the red snake hissed. “My guardssss are here to keep intrudersss out. Why are you here?”
“I didn’t mean any harm,” Jonathan said truthfully. “I saw the little snake eat a bird, and then the big one tried to eat me.”
“Liesss! We do not eat humansss, it isss bad for our ssssstomachs.”
Jonathan shook his head. “Honest, he attacked me first.”
The red snake hissed loudly and flicked its tongue out into the air. “Why have you come? A young boy cannot think to kill the Kigyo alone.”
“Kill the what?” Jonathan stammered. “I thought the Kigyo was a place.”
“No,” the red snake corrected. “We are a race of intelligent creaturesssss.”
Jonathan felt his heart sink. Now he knew why the other scouts had sent him here. “I was told that there is a special bow here,” Jonathan explained. “I came looking for the bow, but I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”
The red snake rose higher into the air, swaying and dancing as it rose high enough to show Jonathan that it could easily reach the top of the boulder he was on if it wanted. “Why come for Kigabané?”
Jonathan’s shoulders slumped and he sighed as his hands slapped his thighs and he shook his head. “Some men broke my bow. I need a bow so I can find my brother. So, the men told me to come here and find the bow. They said it was magical, that the weather wouldn’t damage it. If that was true, then it would help me a lot, because my brother went deep into the Murkle Quags to fight the trolls.”
“TROLLSSSSS! We hate trollssss!” the red snake hissed. “Trollssss are vile creaturesssss.”
Jonathan nodded. “At least we agree on that,” he whispered.
“Come with usss,” the red snake said. “I will take you to our king. He will desssside what to do with you.”
Jonathan drew his brows in, glancing to each of the three snakes coiled up below the red snake. “How do I know you aren’t trying to trick me?”
The red snake folded its hood and rested back own on the gray boulder. “If I wanted to kill you, I could easily reach you.” The red snake turned its head and spat a long stream of silvery liquid onto the ground a few feet away from the boulder Jonathan was on. The grasses hissed in protest as the acid ate them away and the dirt turned black as bits of smoke rose up from the mark. “I don’t have to bite you to kill you,” the snake said.
Jonathan looked to the sword and then set it next to the skeleton. His mind was terribly conflicted, with half of his thoughts being images of snakes tearing him apart and the other half reassuring words inspired by the show of spitting acid. Jonathan knew the red snake wasn’t bluffing, but that didn’t stop his fears from playing on his mind. He slowly moved to the edge of the boulder and took in a deep breath. He looked down to the ground and noticed the shards from the broken spear, and then he glanced back to the green and black snake. The blood oozed around the left eye still, and the snake looked none too happy to Jonathan.
The red snake must have noticed Jonathan’s apprehension, for it stretched back to the green and black snake. The red hood opened, covering whatever was happening from Jonathan’s sight. When the red snake recoiled back to its spot, the blood was gone and the gash was healed.
A thought came to Jonathan’s mind then. “If you can heal them, then I can take you to the first snake. I don’t even need my sword back. Just let me go and—”
“No,” the red snake hissed. “I cannot raissse the dead.”
Jonathan sighed and then decided there was no point in stalling anymore. If you are going to kill me, then please make it fast. He bent down to the edge and clambered down. When his legs dangled above the ground and his arms were at full length, he let go and dropped the last couple of feet to the dirt. His eyes reflexively closed when he heard slithering sounds, fully expecting to be attacked and killed.
Nothing happened. The sounds moved away from him.
