When Keith awoke, he felt warmth saturating his body. Something silky and soft pressed against his cheek.
He carefully tilted his head and saw Allura cradled in his arms. Her face was buried in the crook of his neck and her body was perfectly molded against his. Keith went rigid, his breath catching in his chest, but he soon relaxed as he inhaled the intoxicating scent of her hair.
He had never been so close to someone before, let alone a girl. Especially not a girl as smart and as strong as Princess Allura of Altea.
However, just as he decided he didn't mind physical contact, Allura's eyes fluttered and she shifted in Keith's arms.
"Hmm?" she murmured. She looked up, their eyes met, and then she was jerking away from him with a blush in her cheeks. "K-Keith!" she cried. "Oh, quiznak, I'm sorry!"
Keith only grunted and tried to hide his disappointment. He sat up and dusted the damp soil from his back, then looked up. The Sanctuary tree had opened once more, allowing wan shafts of daylight to enter the small space.
The sounds of the forest had resumed, deceptively peaceful compared to the terrifying revelry of the night. Keith felt a shudder run through his body as he remembered the voices, the inconsolable fear that had consumed him, and the sounds of the Beast close behind him.
He gripped his weapons as he crawled out of their shelter. There was no sign of the Beast, not even an overturned stone.
"Are we…safe?" Allura asked as she pulled herself after the Red Paladin.
"I think so." Keith said. He turned and examined the Maroalea tree. Its bark was only slightly paler than the other trees. He wondered how Allura managed to spot one in the dark. "We need to keep going."
"Shouldn't we find some food and water, first?" Allura asked. "We could be stuck here for a while." She followed Keith as he started walking.
"How do we know what's safe and what isn't?" Keith queried.
"Well, if the other animals are eating it, then it's most likely not poisonous." the princess replied.
Keith looked uneasy, but was grateful when Allura spent about half an hour retrieving something that looked like a large mango. She pulled open the rind with her fingers and found clusters of blue seeds like a pomegranate.
The monkey she had stolen it from squawked at her angrily. Allura glared at it, shouting things like "Shoo!" and "Away with you!" It scampered away, chittering to its friends.
"Here you are, Keith," she said triumphantly, passing the Red Paladin a large chunk of alien fruit.
Keith looked at it suspiciously, but Allura had already taken an enormous bite. "This is amazing! Try it!" she cried, blue juice running down her chin.
Hesitantly, Keith plucked a juicy kernel from within the rind, and then put it in his mouth.
"Huh. Not bad," he shrugged. He waited for a few minutes to make sure that he hadn't ingested something toxic, then finished off the rest of his meal. He wouldn't admit it, but he felt much better with some food in his belly.
They continued through the humid rainforest for several hours, until the jungle gave way to tightly woven mangroves. Several inches—and later several feet—of murky water covered the ground and algae drifted on the surface.
"Keith, I don't like this," Allura said, finally acknowledging the twisted knot in her stomach.
"After everything we've already been through, you're afraid of a few monkeys?" Keith quipped, taking hold of a tree root. He held out a hand to Allura and pulled her out of the mud her legs had become lodged in.
"You're starting to sound like Lance," she scolded. Keith frowned, his pale forehead creasing.
"I am not." he growled. At that moment, his voice seemed too loud. He looked around and realized that the birds and simians in the trees had vanished.
"You two are more similar than you think," Allura argued, heedless of the sudden silence. "You're both—"
"Shh!" Keith held up a hand.
"Well it's true!" Allura cried.
"Allura, be quiet! I need to hear!" he hissed.
"Hear what? It's already…quiet." she trailed off. Her hand slowly went to her hip where her blaster was.
Then, something lunged out of the water and wrapped itself around Keith's torso, dragging him down with the weight of it. Perfectly disguised beneath the murky surface, a snake as thick as a sewer pipe had been waiting. It had expecting to catch a bird or a small monkey at best, but when a much larger and more satisfying meal had blundered into its hunting grounds, it couldn't pass up the opportunity.
"Keith!" Allura yelled as the Red Paladin disappeared. She fell forward, searching the murky water with both hands. The water roiled and gurgled beneath her fingers, but she couldn't find a trace of scaly skin.
Then, Keith stood up about three feet away, giving a labored gasp through the water streaming down his face. With his only free arm he clawed at his assailant in a desperate attempt to free himself.
Allura threw herself towards him and caught him, prying at the thick, muscular coils.
"Allura, help!" Keith choked. His charcoal eyes were wide as he desperately gasped for air. Saliva dribbled down his chin.
"I'm trying!" Allura cried.
Suddenly, a flat, triangular head rose out of the water, baring rows of short, jagged teeth and long white fangs.
"M-my sword! Allura, get my…get my sword!" Keith yelled. Before the princess could move, the serpent lashed forward and clamped its teeth down on Allura's arm.
She cried out and jammed her finger into its eye. It hissed and recoiled, but did not release Keith from its grip. Allura lunged and caught hold of the snake's mighty jaws, prying them open and wedging her elbow in its maw. Then, she reached for her belt to grab her blaster, but the creature had lost interest in Keith and decided to wrap itself around her instead.
Allura let out a yelp as it constricted around her waist and began to crush her. The air in her lungs was squeezed out of her and pain lanced up her body, but she had managed to keep a hold on her blaster. She ripped it out of her belt and stuffed it down the snake's exposed throat before firing a volley into its gaping maw. It gave a shriek and thrashed in the water, dislodging Allura's arm from its mouth.
But, before she went under with the serpent, Allura caught hold of one of its long white teeth. A cracking sound reached her ears before the water closed over her head.
In her hand, she felt the snake's fang wrapped in her fingers.
Mustering the last of her strength, she stabbed down into the coils binding her, piercing flesh over and over.
The creature released her and moved back several feet. Allura stood in the water and watched it turn and hiss at her.
She snarled back, wielding its missing tooth like Keith would his knife. Her chest heaved and her lungs burned as they took in oxygen. Her entire body ached; a bloody gash marred her forearm. Then, she realized something;
Keith! Where is he?
Allura looked around for him, but couldn't see him. The serpent began to swim away, pursuing a meal that wouldn't fight back, but Allura didn't pay attention.
She plunged into the murky water, searching with both hands for the Red Paladin. Ignoring the pain in her body and the blood oozing into the water, she frantically sought any part of Keith that she could find.
Eventually, she had to come up for air.
Three times she returned to the surface, panic surging into her body with every breath.
What would she tell the paladins when she returned?
"Oh, Keith? Well, we were attacked by this snake, but I saved him from being eaten…while also letting him drown in a mud hole. Sorry about that, guys! I'll be more careful next time."
Just then, her fingers bumped something hard.
Lunging for the object, she found the hilt of Keith's sword still in his belt. She nearly swallowed water with sheer joy as she grabbed hold of his shirt and hoisted him up to the surface.
"Keith!" she gasped, clutching him close. His head fell limply against her shoulder, his lips parted and his eyes closed.
Allura adjusted her grip around his chest and hauled him up onto a small, muddy bank nearby. She laid him on his back and pressed her ear to his chest.
His heart wasn't beating.
A/N: =)