Eternal Foe
Chapter 16 - The Snake Pit
As was usual for her, Teela could be found in the training yard.
"Don't you ever tire of playing at warriors all the time?" He-Man asked with a mischievous grin adorning his face.
Teela gritted her teeth, he sounded so much like Adam at that moment she wanted to throttle him.
"I'm sure Eternia's greatest hero did not get to look like a stocking full of gravel by sitting on his back side every moment of the day." She rebuked.
"No, really, I was born this way." Teela rolled her eyes. "I think the gods looked down on me in my crib and decreed 'Now there's a fine looking boy, surely we should grant him the physique and skill to match such handsomeness'."
Teela glared at him. "Did you come out here to tell me something or to just babble like an idiot?"
He-Man looked hurt. "That's not fair, I don't think I babble." He did not think the deepening red in her face could be construed as blushing. "Uh, what I came out here to say is, uh, that we received a message from Ilandra. You're father successfully sent the Worm People our way and we can expect them within a few days."
"Of course he did," Teela snorted as though Duncan would have done any less, which was a fair assessment, "so what are we going to do?"
"Pack provisions to last us a few days. I think it's time we entered the inner sanctum of this fortress, if that is where we are to face Hiss and his cronies then I'd like to know the battlefield better."
Several hours later and He-Man and Teela were circumnavigating the South Tower. He-Man studied the ground ahead intently, apparently looking for some kind of landmark that would indicate the entrance to the Snake Men's lair.
"Aren't you afraid that the Snake Men will attack the people inside the fortress?" Teela asked, looking for an excuse to break the silence.
"There's always that possibility, I'm hoping that the Snake Men will be so eager to be home they'll bypass anything else."
Teela sniffed. "That's a big gamble."
"Well it's not like I didn't try to get everyone to flee, the steward my fa.king, sent isn't to eager to lose sight of the Peak so soon after getting it back from Skeletor." He-Man answered.
Teela shook her head, what good did these people think they could do their king by putting themselves needlessly in harm's way?
"What exactly are you looking for anyway?" she asked, getting a little annoyed.
"A mark, anything that might hint at where He-Ro sealed the entrance to the Snake Pit." He-Man replied.
"You mean like a small snake carved into a brick?"
"Yeah, almost anything unusual like that."
"Like that brick over there." Teela said pointing to the base of the tower.
He-Man examined the small carving. He turned to Teela. Looked at her for a moment, grinned and patted her on the head. "Well done, you senses are sharpening. I of course spotted it about fifteen minutes ago but I was secretly training you to."
"Oh get over yourself!" Teela interrupted.
He just winked at her in response and cleared his throat. "Well, we better get going then." He-Man looked at the patch of ground in front of the decorated block.
Teela frowned. "How are you going to open it?"
"Just watch and see." He-Mans said smoothly.
He raised his sword above his head with the blade pointed downwards and with a stabbing motion plunged the sword into the earth. The ground rumbled and collapsed beneath He-Man as he went tumbling into a deep cavern.
Teela peered over the rim of the newly formed hole. "Are you alright?"
There was silence. "Just fine." A weak response soon followed. He-Man emerged soon after coughing and wheezing from dust and dirt. "They could've hired a maid!"
"Serves you right for being so muscle-headed." Teela said unsympathetically.
He-Man then did something un-characteristic, he poked his tongue at Teela.
"Oh yeah, very mature." Teela nodded past He-Man. "Are we going down or are maybe we are going to just stay here and relive your infancy?"
He-Man looked towards the hole, looked at Teela again. "I have decided we are going." He said all too smugly and then simply spun around and began to descend.
Teela rolled her eyes, she hoped the Snake Men would not be too long.
Steps led from the opening and descended into darkness, it was literally walking into the unknown. Teela noticed both she and He-Man became more sombre the deeper they travelled. She did not know whether to attribute that to the claustrophobic, dark surrounds of the Snake Men's lair, or the fact that soon they would again face an enemy that even He-Man had to retreat from once before.
The stairs carried them through a long, winding passage carved through rough-hewn bedrock. The short minutes felt as though they were stretched to hours before they reached the end of their descent.
They entered a small antechamber, small and unadorned but for two stone snakes embellishing the main doorway.
"Stay close." He-Man warned. Teela nodded, suddenly too nervous to argue.
They walked through the arched doorway and into what Teela guessed to be the main plaza. She was surprised to see a low ceiling overhead, barely twice He-Man's height.
"This is their home, primarily they use their serpentine forms here." Teela jumped at He-Man's apparent telepathic abilities before she realised she had whispered 'so low'. They only constructed the chambers as high as they have to accommodate human visitors."
"Meals, you mean?"
"That too," He-Man smiled, "but there was a time when the Snake Men weren't so reviled."
"What happened?" Teela asked.
"Mekasha, and his ascendancy. He believed the Snake Men to be the superior race in Eternia through their greater natural strength and agility. You know the kind, 'survival of the strongest' and all that."
"Why does it always have to be about superiority?" Teela wondered aloud.
He-Man quietly cleared his throat. "I asked a knowledgeable person that very same question once. They answered that the race for superiority is the most blatant expression of insecurity."
"How so?" Teela asked.
"Well, think about the ultimate goal of the would-be despot."
Teela shrugged. "Power?"
"Exactly! Power; to be the primary force in one's given environment. The misconception exists that this shields one from life's harshest realities. After all, if all else lives but to serve those in power then what problem cannot be solved by sending in others to deal with said hurdles?"
"But to rule is not like that at all." Teela added.
"Aye, the foolish blame those who fail in their tasks without realising the burden truly rests on their own shoulders, again of the belief their position shelters from such needs."
"The thing I'm not to sure of," Teela said, "is how does this apply to Mekasha?"
"King Hiss believes that the Snake Men will never truly be accepted so long as they have to share rule with other races. That and the fact he is driven by the Crimson Singer's bloodlust."
"A sentient weapon that guides people's emotions, thoughts and actions. How terrible!" Teela shook her head at the thought of such a thing.
"Yes, it is." He-Man said solemnly, his skin suddenly chilled from the thought of the sword strapped to his back.
Teela looked directly at He-Man. "So a wise person told you all this?" The muscle-bound warrior nodded slightly. "I would like to meet such a person."
He squeezed his eyes shut as though they would betray all that he knew; he remembered what he saw in Grayskull's library all too well. "I think that may happen, I'm almost certain of it."
"You're going to start acting cryptic again aren't you?" Teela's expression changed to a coy look. "What is it you can't tell Teela?"
That smile that he must know infuriated her so much appeared across his face. "Forget it lady, I ain't talking."
Teela just crossed her arms and scowled in response.
The two walked further across the lair when broke into a sprint. He criss- crossed the floor, ducking and weaving behind columns apparently taking no set path. Teela tried to follow him with her eyes but he moved too quickly.
He finally stopped, panting heavily as he halted before her. "Happy now that you've had your daily exercise?" she asked.
"Dust." he said breathlessly, "we are leaving footprints that will lead Hiss directly to wherever we go."
"Well of course that's what you were doing." Teela said without a hint of irony.
They continued on through the den, unsure of where they would end up. They took the widest paths and the largest openings, hoping that it would lead them somewhere important.
"This is it!" He-Man exclaimed. They stood beneath a large, square entrance to an adjoining chamber. Against the far wall a carving of a massive serpent stood ceiling high. Before it sat a font mounted upon a dais.
Teela looked upon the massive snake in awe; every scale had been meticulously carved, every curve of its sinuous body was perfectly rounded. Malice was etched into its sinister visage, narrow eye slits slanted downward, a forked tongue lapped the air from the open maw and its points sharpened so as to be lethal.
"Yes," Teela found herself saying, "I also think this is it."
But it was not the giant serpent that held He-Man's interest, but the font set at its base. Teela looked over his shoulder. "What is it?"
"A cold-forge," he answered, "the vessel through which the God and Goddesses of Eternia delivered their Graces to their most faithful servants. It was from here the Crimson Singer was born, it is within the Singer will be destroyed!"
Teela looked doubtfully at the font, it sat atop a narrow base and had a shallow bowl she couldn't see how a three-foot sword would fit comfortably inside. She decided not to bother He-Man with this tiny detail, he seemed pretty intent.
He-Man looked around the chamber. "There appears to be some side-rooms, we should hide in there until Hiss and his men arrive." He looked at Teela, "We should hide in separate rooms and when I engage them you then appear and hit them from behind."
"That's a very crude plan."
"Aye," He-Man responded, "but then I'm a crude kind of guy." Teela just rolled her eyes and walked off into a room set into the north wall.
As Teela paced around her 'hiding spot', something strange occurred to her, every part of the Snake Men's den had been well lit. It was a muted light, but everything was still visible nonetheless. The thought of anything mystical being wrought sent chills down her spine, she didn't like anything that could not be confronted with a sword.
Something crunched beneath her boot and it was only her warrior's instinct that stayed her scream upon realising it was skeletal leg. She looked up to see that the leg had indeed been attached to a body. "Sorry" she whispered.
Something about the corpse caught her eye. The cadaver's garb had been reduced to tatters, as it should have been, but for a leather head-dress that still sat lazily upon the bony shoulders. She lifted the front flap of the hood with delicate fingers; she couldn't even see grazes, cuts or nicks in the surface. Teela unsheathed a dagger and sawed at the edge of the headdress, she was only mildly surprised that it would not yield before the keen edge.
She prised the item completely from the skeleton and studied it in the unnatural light. It was snakeskin she was sure, its surface was too smooth for rawhide. It was such an unusual piece, the cowl resembled a yawning cobra, its hood flaring out to either side of the face. She put it on.
Her first impression was that it was slightly too big. Then without warning the outfit shrunk to fit, clinging snugly against her skin, nothing creased nor flapped, it was as if it had become her second skin. She barely had time to panic when she became light-headed and stumbled to the floor.
The sensation dulled after a few moments but still hung at the back of her mind as she regained her footing. She took a few steps walk off the after effects, as she did so though the dizziness returned. It felt to Teela like motion sickness, like when she first flew in a Wind Raider. She took another step and the room blurred. She halted as another wave of nausea took hold.
She put her hand against the nearest wall when it occurred to her that there should be no wall in this spot. She looked behind to see that in the space of one step she had traversed the span of the room.
Now she knew what was happening and it didn't seem so bad. She smiled as the prospect of facing the Snake Men no longer seemed a daunting prospect.
Chapter 16 - The Snake Pit
As was usual for her, Teela could be found in the training yard.
"Don't you ever tire of playing at warriors all the time?" He-Man asked with a mischievous grin adorning his face.
Teela gritted her teeth, he sounded so much like Adam at that moment she wanted to throttle him.
"I'm sure Eternia's greatest hero did not get to look like a stocking full of gravel by sitting on his back side every moment of the day." She rebuked.
"No, really, I was born this way." Teela rolled her eyes. "I think the gods looked down on me in my crib and decreed 'Now there's a fine looking boy, surely we should grant him the physique and skill to match such handsomeness'."
Teela glared at him. "Did you come out here to tell me something or to just babble like an idiot?"
He-Man looked hurt. "That's not fair, I don't think I babble." He did not think the deepening red in her face could be construed as blushing. "Uh, what I came out here to say is, uh, that we received a message from Ilandra. You're father successfully sent the Worm People our way and we can expect them within a few days."
"Of course he did," Teela snorted as though Duncan would have done any less, which was a fair assessment, "so what are we going to do?"
"Pack provisions to last us a few days. I think it's time we entered the inner sanctum of this fortress, if that is where we are to face Hiss and his cronies then I'd like to know the battlefield better."
Several hours later and He-Man and Teela were circumnavigating the South Tower. He-Man studied the ground ahead intently, apparently looking for some kind of landmark that would indicate the entrance to the Snake Men's lair.
"Aren't you afraid that the Snake Men will attack the people inside the fortress?" Teela asked, looking for an excuse to break the silence.
"There's always that possibility, I'm hoping that the Snake Men will be so eager to be home they'll bypass anything else."
Teela sniffed. "That's a big gamble."
"Well it's not like I didn't try to get everyone to flee, the steward my fa.king, sent isn't to eager to lose sight of the Peak so soon after getting it back from Skeletor." He-Man answered.
Teela shook her head, what good did these people think they could do their king by putting themselves needlessly in harm's way?
"What exactly are you looking for anyway?" she asked, getting a little annoyed.
"A mark, anything that might hint at where He-Ro sealed the entrance to the Snake Pit." He-Man replied.
"You mean like a small snake carved into a brick?"
"Yeah, almost anything unusual like that."
"Like that brick over there." Teela said pointing to the base of the tower.
He-Man examined the small carving. He turned to Teela. Looked at her for a moment, grinned and patted her on the head. "Well done, you senses are sharpening. I of course spotted it about fifteen minutes ago but I was secretly training you to."
"Oh get over yourself!" Teela interrupted.
He just winked at her in response and cleared his throat. "Well, we better get going then." He-Man looked at the patch of ground in front of the decorated block.
Teela frowned. "How are you going to open it?"
"Just watch and see." He-Mans said smoothly.
He raised his sword above his head with the blade pointed downwards and with a stabbing motion plunged the sword into the earth. The ground rumbled and collapsed beneath He-Man as he went tumbling into a deep cavern.
Teela peered over the rim of the newly formed hole. "Are you alright?"
There was silence. "Just fine." A weak response soon followed. He-Man emerged soon after coughing and wheezing from dust and dirt. "They could've hired a maid!"
"Serves you right for being so muscle-headed." Teela said unsympathetically.
He-Man then did something un-characteristic, he poked his tongue at Teela.
"Oh yeah, very mature." Teela nodded past He-Man. "Are we going down or are maybe we are going to just stay here and relive your infancy?"
He-Man looked towards the hole, looked at Teela again. "I have decided we are going." He said all too smugly and then simply spun around and began to descend.
Teela rolled her eyes, she hoped the Snake Men would not be too long.
Steps led from the opening and descended into darkness, it was literally walking into the unknown. Teela noticed both she and He-Man became more sombre the deeper they travelled. She did not know whether to attribute that to the claustrophobic, dark surrounds of the Snake Men's lair, or the fact that soon they would again face an enemy that even He-Man had to retreat from once before.
The stairs carried them through a long, winding passage carved through rough-hewn bedrock. The short minutes felt as though they were stretched to hours before they reached the end of their descent.
They entered a small antechamber, small and unadorned but for two stone snakes embellishing the main doorway.
"Stay close." He-Man warned. Teela nodded, suddenly too nervous to argue.
They walked through the arched doorway and into what Teela guessed to be the main plaza. She was surprised to see a low ceiling overhead, barely twice He-Man's height.
"This is their home, primarily they use their serpentine forms here." Teela jumped at He-Man's apparent telepathic abilities before she realised she had whispered 'so low'. They only constructed the chambers as high as they have to accommodate human visitors."
"Meals, you mean?"
"That too," He-Man smiled, "but there was a time when the Snake Men weren't so reviled."
"What happened?" Teela asked.
"Mekasha, and his ascendancy. He believed the Snake Men to be the superior race in Eternia through their greater natural strength and agility. You know the kind, 'survival of the strongest' and all that."
"Why does it always have to be about superiority?" Teela wondered aloud.
He-Man quietly cleared his throat. "I asked a knowledgeable person that very same question once. They answered that the race for superiority is the most blatant expression of insecurity."
"How so?" Teela asked.
"Well, think about the ultimate goal of the would-be despot."
Teela shrugged. "Power?"
"Exactly! Power; to be the primary force in one's given environment. The misconception exists that this shields one from life's harshest realities. After all, if all else lives but to serve those in power then what problem cannot be solved by sending in others to deal with said hurdles?"
"But to rule is not like that at all." Teela added.
"Aye, the foolish blame those who fail in their tasks without realising the burden truly rests on their own shoulders, again of the belief their position shelters from such needs."
"The thing I'm not to sure of," Teela said, "is how does this apply to Mekasha?"
"King Hiss believes that the Snake Men will never truly be accepted so long as they have to share rule with other races. That and the fact he is driven by the Crimson Singer's bloodlust."
"A sentient weapon that guides people's emotions, thoughts and actions. How terrible!" Teela shook her head at the thought of such a thing.
"Yes, it is." He-Man said solemnly, his skin suddenly chilled from the thought of the sword strapped to his back.
Teela looked directly at He-Man. "So a wise person told you all this?" The muscle-bound warrior nodded slightly. "I would like to meet such a person."
He squeezed his eyes shut as though they would betray all that he knew; he remembered what he saw in Grayskull's library all too well. "I think that may happen, I'm almost certain of it."
"You're going to start acting cryptic again aren't you?" Teela's expression changed to a coy look. "What is it you can't tell Teela?"
That smile that he must know infuriated her so much appeared across his face. "Forget it lady, I ain't talking."
Teela just crossed her arms and scowled in response.
The two walked further across the lair when broke into a sprint. He criss- crossed the floor, ducking and weaving behind columns apparently taking no set path. Teela tried to follow him with her eyes but he moved too quickly.
He finally stopped, panting heavily as he halted before her. "Happy now that you've had your daily exercise?" she asked.
"Dust." he said breathlessly, "we are leaving footprints that will lead Hiss directly to wherever we go."
"Well of course that's what you were doing." Teela said without a hint of irony.
They continued on through the den, unsure of where they would end up. They took the widest paths and the largest openings, hoping that it would lead them somewhere important.
"This is it!" He-Man exclaimed. They stood beneath a large, square entrance to an adjoining chamber. Against the far wall a carving of a massive serpent stood ceiling high. Before it sat a font mounted upon a dais.
Teela looked upon the massive snake in awe; every scale had been meticulously carved, every curve of its sinuous body was perfectly rounded. Malice was etched into its sinister visage, narrow eye slits slanted downward, a forked tongue lapped the air from the open maw and its points sharpened so as to be lethal.
"Yes," Teela found herself saying, "I also think this is it."
But it was not the giant serpent that held He-Man's interest, but the font set at its base. Teela looked over his shoulder. "What is it?"
"A cold-forge," he answered, "the vessel through which the God and Goddesses of Eternia delivered their Graces to their most faithful servants. It was from here the Crimson Singer was born, it is within the Singer will be destroyed!"
Teela looked doubtfully at the font, it sat atop a narrow base and had a shallow bowl she couldn't see how a three-foot sword would fit comfortably inside. She decided not to bother He-Man with this tiny detail, he seemed pretty intent.
He-Man looked around the chamber. "There appears to be some side-rooms, we should hide in there until Hiss and his men arrive." He looked at Teela, "We should hide in separate rooms and when I engage them you then appear and hit them from behind."
"That's a very crude plan."
"Aye," He-Man responded, "but then I'm a crude kind of guy." Teela just rolled her eyes and walked off into a room set into the north wall.
As Teela paced around her 'hiding spot', something strange occurred to her, every part of the Snake Men's den had been well lit. It was a muted light, but everything was still visible nonetheless. The thought of anything mystical being wrought sent chills down her spine, she didn't like anything that could not be confronted with a sword.
Something crunched beneath her boot and it was only her warrior's instinct that stayed her scream upon realising it was skeletal leg. She looked up to see that the leg had indeed been attached to a body. "Sorry" she whispered.
Something about the corpse caught her eye. The cadaver's garb had been reduced to tatters, as it should have been, but for a leather head-dress that still sat lazily upon the bony shoulders. She lifted the front flap of the hood with delicate fingers; she couldn't even see grazes, cuts or nicks in the surface. Teela unsheathed a dagger and sawed at the edge of the headdress, she was only mildly surprised that it would not yield before the keen edge.
She prised the item completely from the skeleton and studied it in the unnatural light. It was snakeskin she was sure, its surface was too smooth for rawhide. It was such an unusual piece, the cowl resembled a yawning cobra, its hood flaring out to either side of the face. She put it on.
Her first impression was that it was slightly too big. Then without warning the outfit shrunk to fit, clinging snugly against her skin, nothing creased nor flapped, it was as if it had become her second skin. She barely had time to panic when she became light-headed and stumbled to the floor.
The sensation dulled after a few moments but still hung at the back of her mind as she regained her footing. She took a few steps walk off the after effects, as she did so though the dizziness returned. It felt to Teela like motion sickness, like when she first flew in a Wind Raider. She took another step and the room blurred. She halted as another wave of nausea took hold.
She put her hand against the nearest wall when it occurred to her that there should be no wall in this spot. She looked behind to see that in the space of one step she had traversed the span of the room.
Now she knew what was happening and it didn't seem so bad. She smiled as the prospect of facing the Snake Men no longer seemed a daunting prospect.