Snakebite.
Ch. 3
Pairing: Naga!Pitch/Tooth (Cavity)
Genre: Humor, romance.
Rating: T (for swearing and minor sexual content)
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X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X
Tooth stared down at the hole in the ground leading to a certain Nightmare King's lair, her hands tightening on the hilts of her twin rapiers.
Hesitation was obviously visible on her face, but also a very vague sense of uncertainty. Beside her, Baby-Tooth fidgeted with nervous chirps, her crest feathers twitching. The two avian fairies had been hovering near the reopened hole for the better part of ten minutes, all of which was spent trying to sort the uncertainty out of their minds. Their nerves were tingling, giving the sensation of bugs crawling under one's skin. It was not at all a comforting sensation, nor was it helping in Tooth's dilemma.
The iridescent fairy let out a calming breath, "Okay, I just need to get in, and get out. Who knows? He might not even be down there anymore…"
Baby-Tooth gave her a slightly scrutinizing look with a raised brow, almost giving the impression of deadpan teenager. Normally Tooth would reprimand such attitude, but even she knew her words were more a means of self-comfort, if not full denial.
Because as much as Tooth wouldn't admit it, Pitch frightened her. Sure, she had a few moments of courage where she was able to get up in his face – and knock a tooth out of his mouth. But moments like those only happened when her emotions were on high, or if he was threatening someone.
The fairy winced slightly at the memory of a certain right hook she swung at the Boogeyman. Despite the fact he deserved it, Tooth wasn't exactly one who took pleasure out of harming someone who was essentially powerless. Case in point, during Pitch's defeat and when she knocked that tooth out. She didn't exactly regret it, but she wasn't proud of her actions then…
Tooth sighed, smoothing her crest down. Now was not the time to be stalling; she had to get that tooth back! And she wasn't going to get it by floating around reminiscing! If anything, she had to hurry; she couldn't leave her fairies unattended for much longer. She had to act now.
"Baby-Tooth," she started, catching her helper's attention, "I want you to stay up here, alright? If I'm not back in ten minutes, fifteen tops, I want you to get the others, alright?"
Baby-Tooth frowned, chirping a protest to her queen. Tooth smiled and shook her head, cupping her hands under the Mini-Fairy.
"I know you want to help, but if we're both captured or worse, the others won't be able to help," she said, "I need you to be brave and wait for me."
A dainty finger stroked the mini fairy's yellow crest. Any protests Baby-Tooth was about to voice instantly died down at the gentle touch and encouraging smile. Despite how stubborn Baby-Tooth was, Tooth was just as, if not more, stubborn.
Giving a high pitched sigh, Baby-Tooth begrudgingly nodded, but chirped firmly at her queen with various hand gestures. Tooth laughed lightly.
"Alright, alright, I promise!" She laughed, petting her feisty helper's head, "Now just wait here for me okay? And when I come back, I'll treat you to some nectar juice."
More chirping.
"Yes, you can get extra sugar in it, but only a little!" Tooth said firmly.
Clapping her tiny hands in delight, Baby-Tooth fluttered over to a low-hanging branch. She gave a salute to her queen before settling at her 'post'. Tooth chuckled at her feisty helper before turning back to the hole leading down into the proverbial dragon's den. A shudder ran up her spine, causing her wings to twitch unsteadily.
She took in a deep breath, as if she was about to submerge into a body of water, and dove down into the dark tunnel.
The tunnel was narrow and black as ink. Not a single speck of light penetrated the black stained atmosphere. Tooth was starting to wonder if there even was a bottom to the tunnel, or if Pitch's lair was still even there. The thought made her inwardly cringe. If the lair was in fact gone, so was the tooth she desperately wanted to retrieve. Yet another part of her was also a bit…concerned?
Tooth blinked, but didn't stop in her trek. Why would she be concerned? And for who? Pitch?
The fairy had the unsightly urge to slap herself. What was this? Why was she suddenly concerned for the spirit who came so very close to wiping her, and her fellow Guardians, out of existence? The very same man who kidnapped her fairies and stole the teeth. It was baffling!
Just as the iridescent fairy was about to hightail it back to the surface to have her mental health checked, a faint, washed out glow caught her eye.
Fluttering hesitantly closer, Tooth was able to make out the wall that formed a right turn into what she hoped was Pitch's lair.
She pressed close to the wall and hovered over to the corner, one hand on the hilt of her rapier as she peeked around the corner.
She stared into what looked like a large foyer, various wrought iron cages hanging from the seemingly endless ceiling. The cavern itself was surprisingly warm and humid. Though after looking over a ledge into the abyss, Tooth could see why. Everything below the first level was completely submerged in crystalline black water in various pools and lakes, not unlike her own various water springs below her palace. Though her springs looked more appealing and – was that a tentacle she just saw!?
'Dear Moon, what am I doing?' she thought, her whole body shuddering.
Tooth shook her head, her feathers ruffling in frustration. Now was not the time to be getting cold feet. She was in the lair of The King of Fear for MiM's sake, she didn't need to have her presence announced because the creep of a resident would sniff out her fear like a bloodhound.
Once again taking in a deep, head-clearing breath, she relaxed. She made a mental note to thank Sandy for those meditation lessons. They didn't seem to work on her 'chattiness', but they seemed to work on quelling her nerves. Who knew?
"Okay…just take a quick look around, find the tooth, grab it, get out," she said, "Easy. Easy, easy, easy…"
Or so she kept telling herself.
Under most other circumstances, Tooth could easily find a lost tooth in no time flat. But only if the tooth was not already exchanged by either her or one of her fairies. As a collector of teeth, she had a natural ability to know when one was lost and under a child's pillow waiting to be picked up. Those teeth practically lit up like beacons to her. But once a tooth was exchanged under her watch, the beacon went out, and she would not be able to track it anymore. She could sense the memories stored in them and use that, but it was not as efficient as when the tooth itself was freshly lost and left under a pillow.
And as if that wasn't bad enough, she couldn't sense the tooth down there. It was like the aura she would follow was being…suppressed. Like the stone walls were alive and devouring her light and power. Was this what her fairies felt when Pitch trapped them down here? It was awful!
Tooth spent the next several minutes searching fruitlessly for the lost tooth. Any and all pity she once felt for Pitch had dropped off the face of the planet at the five minute mark.
And by the time she had likely scoured every nook and cranny, Tooth found herself digging through some rubble near the entrance of the lair. By this point, it seemed she was more likely to find a few diamonds than a calcium enamel.
Twelve minute mark, and Tooth wanted to rip her feathers out.
This was ridiculous! It should not be this hard to find a bloody damn tooth! She was the Moon damned Tooth Fairy for crying out loud! She specialized in lost teeth…!
"Whoever it was that I pissed off, I'm sorry! I really am! So can you please just lift this curse off of me and let me find that tooth? Pretty please?" she begged to no one in particular.
…she was talking to thin air. In Pitch's lair. Alone.
'No wonder he went mad…' she thought, 'This place does things to your head.'
Crick!
Body jolting and feathers fluffing, Tooth swung around with his rapiers out and ready to attack-
…a rat?
"Oh…" she sighed in disappointment, trying to calm her frantic heartbeat.
The rat twitched its gnarled, hairy nose at her as she settled on a rock, completely fed up with the whole situation. The rat cocked its matted furry head at her.
"You know, at any other time, I would maybe be off exploring this place, and maybe trying to see if Pitch was around…" she started, "Who knows? Maybe he's learnt his lesson this time! But I already know that's probably never going to happen. The guy has an ego the size of a Megaladon tooth, and don't even get me started on how stubborn he is…"
A bald grey-pink tail twitched as beady black eyes stared at her. Tooth sighed and put her chin in one hand.
"Maybe I need a break. Heaven knows the others are constantly on my tail about it, especially Sandy, the little hypocrite…" she laughed ruefully, looking at the rat, "But it's sweet at least, maybe I should just-"
A pause.
Amethyst eyes stared at the rat; or more specifically, at its buck teeth. Or what she had thought was its buck teeth.
But it couldn't have been its own teeth. It was too white, and it was too small. It wasn't even two narrow, overly grown teeth. Instead it was a single, smooth, baby tooth.
Tooth's once exhausted senses were now back on high alert. She could feel a faint, yet prominent aura emitting from the enamel. Which immediately confirmed her suspicions. That was the lost tooth she had come to retrieve.
"Um…" she started, putting on a nervously sweet smile as she knelt down to the rat, "Excuse me little guy, but could I possibly have that tooth in your mouth?"
A blink of beady eyes and a twitching of whiskers. The rat didn't seem to understand a word she was saying. But still, the fairy kept prattling on.
"See, that tooth was lost a long time ago – it's actually the reason I'm even down here to begin with," she said, "And I maybe, kind of, sort of, really need it back."
The rat seemed to cock a brow at her, as if to say 'oh really?' to her. Tooth scooted closer to it, and the rat backed up, its fur starting to bristle suspiciously. Laughing nervously, Tooth held up her hands.
"N-no, no! None of that! I'm the Tooth Fairy you see, and it's kind of a job requirement that I retrieve all lost teeth that have already been exchanged, understand? Oh! Maybe you've met some of my workers from the European division? I'm sure they've mentioned me at least once!"
The rat seemed to frown deeply, its nose twitching suspiciously at the iridescent woman.
"So yeah, I kind of need that tooth back so I can have it put back in its proper place to give its former owner a complete set of memories," the fairy concluded cheerfully, "So, what do you say?"
Silence. An awkward pause. Staring…
…
The rat bolted.
"Hey! Wait a minute you-!" and Tooth was off and flying like the lovechild of a bullet train and a sniper rifle.
The rat managed to avoid her grasping hands and eluded her through various crevasses, cracks, and rocks. It squeaked loudly in protest whenever her dainty fingers managed to graze its fur or tail, but were unable to seize it.
"Hey wait! I said get back here!" Tooth shouted as the dirty creature led her through tunnels and various corridors.
Up, down, left, right, it was like a chaotic rollercoaster spawned from the worst thriller junkie's mind. And still the rat persisted in keeping the tooth in its jaws and elude the increasingly frustrated fairy in a game of cat and mouse. Deeper and deeper into the lair the two ventured, and when it was becoming apparent she was about to lose all sources of light, Tooth snapped.
"Get your skinny tail back here or so help me, I will yank out those buck teeth of yours with a rusty-!"
She never saw the stalagmite coming.
At least, not until it connected with her forehead and sent her careening onto the ground. Painfully.
The fairy crashed in an indignant heap on the hard stone floor with a resounding 'thud'. The rat vanished down a hallway ahead of her, but not after throwing – Tooth to this day would swear it was a smug look – one last glance over its hairy shoulder and skittering away.
Tooth did not move from her face-down position on the harsh stone floor. In fact, she so far had no plans to move whatsoever.
'That's it. I give up. I fricken give up…' she thought, glaring holes into the floor.
No, she was just going to lie there until the end of the world, and rot. Her life was now over as far as she was concerned. This was the end of The Tooth Fairy. She lost one of the teeth and was not going to show up back to her palace for all her workers to see how much of a failure she was. The stupidity ends now. She was done!
Now if only that music would stop, she could close her eyes and fade away in peace…
…wait…
'Music…?' completely forgetting her self-implored angst, Tooth lifted her head up and looked around the cavern she now lay in.
It just now seemed to occur to her that the caverns she was in now were much less deteriorated than the area she came from. The walls were a smooth, almost black granite. Various wrought iron odds and ends were spread throughout the round cavern – a few old world Victorian lanterns here, a couple dark wood end tables there. There were even flowers in dark glass vases on the mentioned tables! And that music…
'Is that Arabian…?' she thought with a creased brow.
Minding the bruises and cuts – and the splitting headache in her forehead from her rather uncalled for collision – Tooth carefully pushed herself up onto her knees. She brushed off some of the broken and damaged feathers on her body before shakily getting to her feet. Around her were at least three hallways that stemmed out from the round room she found herself in. She came from the hallway behind her – the single stalagmite was a good indicator for this – and the music seemed to be coming from her left down the center corridor.
The same corridor that insufferable rat ran down. But why was there music to begin with? Pitch never struck her as one to really enjoy…well…anything; aside from terrorizing people.
She shook her head, 'Not the time, I need to get out of here! Or better yet, find that damn rat, take back that tooth, and yank its buck teeth out while I'm at it.'
A strange shifting sound suddenly caught her attention, causing her to jump slightly and her crest feathers to shift. Her grip of her rapiers tightened as she brought them out in both hands. The strange sound seemed to flow in time with the music after every few beats. It sounded like a burlap sack of potatoes was being dragged slowly against the granite floor…
Shaking her head, Tooth put her rapiers away and hovered off of the floor. She flitted over to the door she came from, fully intending to leave. But just as she was about to vanish down the hallway, she stopped.
'The tooth…I need to get that tooth back…' she thought.
Tooth roughly bit her lip as her conflicted thoughts and feelings clashed in her head. On one hand, she knew she had to get that tooth back. It was her job to keep the children's teeth safe. But on the other hand, she did not want to find out, nor did she want to deal with, whatever was down that hall. And she certainly didn't want to get into another game of chase with a damned rat.
She groaned to herself, her feet planted down onto the floor. Maybe the others' assumptions of her being 'too committed' to her job weren't as farfetched as she originally thought.
Sighing, she rubbed her temples and clasped her hands together, "Okay, Tooth, all you need to do is just go down the hall, find the rat – and therefore the tooth – take it back, and if you happen to see Pitch in there as well…just knock one of his teeth out and go home with a half clean conscience."
Yeah…yeah, that could work. And hey, who knows? Maybe he's finally started flossing. The Mini-Fairies wouldn't know the difference if she brought back a child's baby tooth or a Nightmare King's fang!
It was fine, everything was going to be just fine.
Throwing all other rebellious thoughts out the window, Tooth drew up her rapiers again and stared down the suddenly long corridor. She took in a deep breath, squashed any leftover resolve, and pushed herself down into the proverbial lion's den…
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