Dry leaves and twigs crunched under her boots as Raisha made her way through the Euran jungle. The sound eerily echoed. The trees cast lovely shadows across the forest floor. Her camo pants, as Hollow had called it, were perfect to camouflage her in the jungles.
Her four-foot-long spirit animal coiled around her left forearm. Gerathon was having a pleasant time, not having to tread the terrain.
The majestic serpent was a sight to behold. Her scaly skin glinted in the sunlight. The slender body rested, with its head on Raisha's shoulders, its tongue flicking ever so silently, tasting the scent in the air. The head was so close to her skin, that Raisha could actually feel the dampness of the tongue. It was almost as if Gerathon wanted to make her mad.
Raisha had learnt that its tongue could sense a lot more than merely smell and taste. It could sense fear. From the feral rats to the high-flying vultures and hawks, and the land dwelling apex-predators – she could sense their fear.
Gerathon's presence ignited fear.
The fear definitely allowed a freer passage, though, as no animal had dared cross their path yet. The forests were also quieter.
Raisha breathed in the fragrance of tulips, trying to calm herself. Her shirt sleeves were folded up to her elbow, and the calm Euran breeze made her palms less sweaty.
There was a rustle to her right, and her hands instinctively went to her waist belt, where she kept her trusty dagger. It was only a rabbit, scurrying home at the sight of the Great Beast. She sighed in relief.
"For some reason, walking in the woods was creeping her out, even though she'd done this multiple times before, without a living and breathing Great Beast. Maybe it was the Great Beast itself.
Gerathon's tail wound up to Raisha's other shoulder again, and as she swatted it off, she could not but think that her spirit animal was trying to bind her and swallow her whole.
Looking around calmed her down a bit. Everything was green, and green always helped her chill. It was her favourite colour after all.
Gerathon's tail was now ruining her hair. Raisha was getting annoyed. She swatted it again, and the snake hissed, as if snickering at her irritation. She ran her tail along Raisha's hair again, and Raisha was, for a moment, reminded of her mother.
Only for a moment.
Her family had never cared for her anyway, so that was a done topic for her. But the more she thought about it, the more her rage surfaced. Her hands itched for the dagger in her cloak. Her hands where very close. Maybe...
No.
She asked herself to snap out of it. She had heard stories like that Amayan one where rage consumed their insides. These thoughts were poison. She'd know, for the beast swishing on her shoulder wasn't any normal snake.
Her father always regarded her as a useless member. She never managed to get out of the shadow of her sister, who was quite pretty, and her brother, who was the best student in her uncle's school.
She was merely an average girl, and all her father saw in her was a chance to make an alliance with another rich merchant.
At the age of twelve, her marriage was fixed with the son of some merchant in the city. But Raisha was not interested in a quiet life as a housewife. Her mother was the only escape, but even she refused to talk to her after the day Raisha had shouted at her father for fixing her marriage without her permission, and the man had threatened her with the usual "my house, my rules" arguement.
All her mother always said was, "He sees the best for you."
Raisha was disgusted. After that, she didn't care to meet her mother. For weeks. The woman was dead for her.
"Then Zerif appeared and promised her a chance to beat the world.
Not my father's house anymore, not his rules anymore.
She jumped at it, only to realize that she'd been trapped.
She'd been failed by her family, her mother, and the man who promised her the world.
But the world probably blamed her for it. It made sense, too. Many faces swirled around in her head with the power of a huge vortex weighing her down: guilt. She had wronged many in their endeavour to rule the world. So many people she had betrayed, so many she had tricked.
Gerathon was again playing with her hair. Raisha was thankful, as the disturbance had pulled her out of her mind. She touched the back of Gerathon's head, and the snake reared up, as if confused. Her huge black eyes looked into hers, and Raisha saw herself for a moment. Just an average looking girl standing in the middle of a forest.
Now that her guilt had slunk into the back seat, Raisha looked around and inhaled deeply. So far, so good, if her sour shoulders and tired legs could walk her up to that category, Raisha thought.
If Raisha's supply bag wasn't heavy enough, Gerathon definitely made up for the lack of weight on her shoulder. She had asked the snake to go into dormant form, but Gerathon was as stubborn as herself. She stared back at Raisha, till Raisha lost the staring competition and held out her hand for her to coil around.
Raisha decided to set her bag down and taking a while to look around and also take some rest. Her shoulders deserved a bit of relaxation right now.
She had known that a trek through Eura would've been difficult, and so she had asked Tilt to pack water and food to almost get her through. She set her backpack next to a huge banyan tree. Gerathon, surprisingly, slithered down and climbed up the tree, as if trying to get a higher look at her surroundings.
Raisha took long sips out of the bottle, and took some on a banyan leaf and left it on the ground. Gerathon slowly came down and lapped up the water. Apparently snakes liked milk. Not that Gerathon was going to get any.
Raisha let out her long hair, and the black tresses flowed down. She loved her hair very much, and being tied up wasn't going to help its growth. She decided to leave it open for some time.
Gerathon had lapped up all the water. Raisha could not help but notice and be disturbed by the green leaf's veins turning yellow, then blue, and then black, and eventually the entire leaf turning black.
Black as death.
Gerathon's poison had probably dripped on it, and Raisha did not know if she should've been terrified by the prospect of having to travel with such a dangerous being, or be happy at the knowledge that she had such a powerful ally at her side.
Raisha looked at the snake, but the look she received was definitely not very ally-like. She remebered that Gerathon had three main superpowers: that malevolent look, the hiss, and violence.
Oh also another superpower, she remembered, looking at the leaf that had disintegrated: the venom.
Gerathon's head turned to the way they'd come, and Raisha's hand once again went to her waist belt.
Raisha relaxed. It was only two men walking towards her, and they hadn't even noticed her yet.
Woodcutters, probably, she said to herself, judging from the axe and the ropes they carried. They saw her, and coninued walking. The guy with the ropes turned to his friend and said something. The guy with the axe pointed at her, and the other guy asked something, which Raisha guessed was probably something about why a girl was standing in the middle of the wilderness.
Raisha held her hand out for Gerathon to climb, and the Great Beast quickly moved up her hand and got on to her favourite position, the left shoulder.
She was about to pick up her bag and start walking again, but Gerathon's hiss arrested her movements.
Raisha felt the black scales rub against her forearm. Then, as she felt the Sun's warmth receding, she noticed the woodcutters' eyes move up to something barely inches above her head as they froze.
Raisha realized that she was now standing under a shadow, and she realized that she'd forgotten another superpower Gerathon had: intimidation.
The shadow of Gerathon's hood fanned an area around them, and Raisha could hear animals fleeing in terror. Squirrels ran up tree trunks. Weasels and beavers bolted. Even birds flew away, and within a few moments, the jungle was silent.
Gerathon spread its hood and hissed.
Raisha's shoulders felt the body of the snake pulsing, as Gerathon displayed her fangs in their full glory. The girl's neck muscles tensed as the smell of noxious vapours made her feel uneasy.
The snake's yellow underbelly and the brilliant black scales must have made a petrifying picture. That, along with the natural fear and respect one felt towards a Great Beast and the fear emanating from Gerathon... Raisha knew she didn't want to be in the woodcutters' position.
They stood rooted to the ground, too stunned to move. Gerathon's fear sensors were not needed to feel their terror. Their pale faces, noticeable from the considerable distance and their still bodies and trembling legs were an able indication.
Gerathon was enjoying it. She hissed again, this time the sound echoing. The area was now completely silent, as if all noise was suspended. The silence seemed apprehensive. Raisha's ears felt edgy, though she wasn't sure if it was the snake's hissing or the tension in the air or if the snake's bad breath was damaging her ears as well.
The man who was holding the axe took a step back, only to see that his friend had retreated several. Then they both looked at each other, looked at the girl and her serpent, and ran. She was pretty sure that she couldn't have run at that speed with all those implements they carried. But fear, she realized, was an able motivator.
Raisha could almost hear Gerathon chuckling to herself. She tapped at the snake's tail – playfully – and the snake went back to its position, casually resting her head on Raisha's shoulder, her tongue flicking. The dampness of her tongue and the sickly warm breath feeling ticklish on Raisha's skin.
They didn't know that the sight of a serpent the colour of the darkest night and the girl carrying her would have spread like a wildfire through the southern parts of Eura before nightfall.
No one believed the woodcutters at first. Sighting a snake, that too, the size of a roof, which was black as night and could instil fear into anyone, was a thing of nightmares. The villagers were happy, jolly people. They did not want nightmares and didn't believe in it.
Most villagers blamed the woodcutters for daydreaming or comforted them by saying that it was simply an illusion made by their head as they were tired. They would not believe that it could be true.
Some others, who hardly needed a reason to speculate, concluded that the girl lead a secret underground society that worshipped Gerathon and that they'd woken the Great Serpent up.
The stories travelled with the wind, some adding their own flavour to the story, till the woodcutters either ended up being the heroes who'd stopped Gerathon from entering the Southern part of the continent or the villains who had opened the doors to her revival.
Irrespective of what the rumours were, they all lead to one point: Gerathon had awoken, and was travelling through the South Eastern jungles with a girl.
The news had reached the assassin before it was sundown.
Silverdew smiled to herself as she paid for the lodge and checked out. Time to send the good news.

PS: The books said that resummoned Gerathon was as thick as a tree. And then Raisha picked her up. So to avoid the confusion of whether the tree in question is a bonsai or if Raisha was a sumo wrestler, I've mad Gerathon a four feet long snake.

Lemme know what you thought about the chapter!