8.Flight

The sharp rocks on the side of the underwater tunnel began to fly past her, but in the wrong direction. She kicked her legs fiercely with the little room she had to move, but the tentacle had latched firmly onto her boot. Her fingernails were soon ragged and shredded from trying to claw at the walls. She reached down and quickly loosened the laces on her boots. In one movement, her boot shot off and she shot forward, wanting to put as much distance between the creature that was probably right now devouring her favorite boot and herself.

Her movements became sluggish and forced as she pulled herself wearily towards the entrance. She had gone most of the way there, been dragged halfway back, and was now having the swim the entire length of the tunnel again on one breath. The edges of her vision were now tinted green and black. Suddenly she was out of the tunnel and could see the surface of the water, so very far above her. Before she could wonder whether she'd make it she was out and gulping in the wonderfully delicious damp air of the cave again. She scrambled over a rock at the end of the pool and kicked off her other boot, which pulled her sock off with it. She could see, even with the strange surreal light of the Nightglass, that the sides of her foot were now also a bright green. The infection had obviously spread. She accidentally stepped on a sharp rock in her flight towards the end of the cave and the skin around the infection broke, spewing green and yellow pus in a circle around her foot.

"Gross!" she shouted. It was nothing compared to the sharp pain that now traveled from the sole of her foot to past her knee. Now was not a good time to have her leg fall off. She knew she shouldn't, but she risked looking back at the pool anyway and quickly wished that she hadn't. Yikes! There were now eight tentacles out of the pool, the longest one only ten yards away and gaining. She didn't see how a creature so large would fit through a tunnel as small as the one she had swam through. Suddenly, the wall behind the pool came crashing down into the water and the creature swarmed out, its green chest puffed up to full height. Problem solved.

The creature was a sickly dark brownish-green and looked more like a giant slug than any kind of octopus. The eight tentacles that had followed Ann through the tunnel were merely the dressing on the cake. Its entire skin was full of tiny foot long tentacles, some with what looked like hooks on the end which Ann was certain were sharp enough to tear through rock - and skin. Ann had come across all kinds of deadly creatures before, but she had at least known what they were. She felt exposed, not knowing what its weak spots were or how it could be killed. It had to be able to be killed - everything had a weakness. Now that its liquid brown eyes could see her, the creature brought it tentacles over her head and blocked her exit. Another tentacle closed around her waist - she brought her arms up just in time so they wouldn't be pinned down. Before she knew it, she was hanging upside down in front of its beady eyes. She could see thousands of pointy teeth gleaming inside its slightly open cavernous mouth.

'Strange creature!' a voice like a thousand whispers hissed in her head. She could feel magic in it's thoughts that made her eyes sting and her head spin. 'Are you the one who stole my book?'

She had no answer for it. She always viewed herself as a kind of adventurer, a seeker of knowledge, but knew deep down that this rose- colored image of herself did little to disguise what she really was: a thief.

'I sense no magic in you little one. Who sent you? How did a pathetic frail thing like you enter into my home?'

Being called frail and pathetic in one breath made Ann loose her determination not to talk. "Nobody sent me! I got in here on my own?"

'Liar. What happened to your magic if you are alone?'

"I have no magic. What's more - I don't need any! I'm stronger than you without an ounce of magic - look how far I've gotten already!"

'Most impressive little one. I don't know how you have achieved so much with so little. I consider myself honored to have met someone as noble, or as pathetically stupid, as yourself. And now, I eat you.'

"No!" Ann screamed.

It paused midway between twitching it's tentacle to throw her into it's mouth. 'No? Would you like to talk more, to stall the inevitable? What makes you think you're any different than any of the countless thousands of others who had died in this cave.'

"I - I brought a gift for you!" Ann shouted, starting to dig around in her pack.

'A gift!' It chortled with amusement. 'There is nothing in your human belongings that could have interest to me!'

"Well, you have nothing better to do than to wait around and see, do you?" Ann reprimanded, hoping she sounded braver than she felt. It this didn't work it would eat her. It would probably eat her anyway but she would dearly love to take the monster with her. After wiggling free the thimble off its sharp end, Ann swiftly lifted the Basilisk's tooth out of her pack and jabbed it with all her might into the leathery skin of the tentacle holding her. It was like trying to carve through solid rock with a butterknife, but she continued to press down with her shaking arms, hoping against hope that it would make the smallest of scratches.

A tremor passed through the slug's entire body and suddenly it threw her away from it and onto the hard stone floor. She felt nauseous and hung her head between her knees as she watched the show. The creature let out a shriek that threatened to burst Ann's eardrums and began to wave it's tentacles around as if drunk. Without further ado, it slumped to the floor with a loud thud. She shakily climbed to her feet, unsure of whether it was merely a trick. It had happened much quicker than she had anticipated. She almost felt sorry for it - it hadn't done anything wrong really. It was just some being that had been imprisoned here for several centuries in order to eat intruders. Sure it was bad that it tried to eat her, but it wasn't really evil. If she had magic maybe she could have simply knocked it out, not killed it. 'But then it will kill the next fool who wanders in here,' she thought. She swayed slightly and had to steady herself by putting a hand on the wall next to her. 'Definitely tired,' she noted. She always became philosophical when she was tired.

She climbed over a few tentacles as if they were giant tree roots and stumbled towards the huge entrance hole, which was now the exit. The creature had reduced the real exit to rubble. She tripped over something to find the dead llorsk she had taken with her. Shrugging, she went ahead and flung it over her shoulders, noting that it had become a lot heavier. "Got my pack," she checked. Her pack was sturdy but had obviously seen better days. The front pockets had been torn open and the contents missing in action, but that was okay: there was nothing important there, save some food. "Got both my legs," she continued her mental checklist, looking down at her feet, one which was dirty with sludge water the other bright green around the edges and throbbing. "Well, almost," she amended. "Got my dead llorsk," she noted, giggled slightly at how funny she sounded.

She walked back into the five doored large cavern as if she owned it. As soon as she stepped into the room the five caves were blocked off completely by a wall of solid rock. There was now only one exit from the room, and that was across the way and up those dratted stairs. "Stupids!" she called outloud. "Aren't you supposed to start bringing down the rock of wall while I'm still inside the cave, and I can run for it and slide under right before it closes off, just like in a movie?" She thought on this a second. "Rock of wall. . ." she mumbled. Something sounded wrong about that until it clicked, "Wall of rock!"

The only thing preventing her from strolling across the room and leisurely walking back up the long stairs was the bright thing in the middle of the room. She watched fascinated as a ball of white fire slowly spiraled in the middle of the room, forming a body inside that looked like half cooked egg yolk. A head pulled itself away from the shimmering light, extending outwards gracefully, the same as the forming limbs which followed. When the transformation was completely, Ann had a full-grown Thranx standing in front of her.

A Thranx was supposed to be a mythological creation (but then, so was the book she was carrying) that was constructed by the Dark Mages which was a combination of a summoned demon and a llorsk, their supposed creatures of choice, via some advanced flesh-forming. It was alike the llorsk in several respects, most notably its sharp teeth, its grey scaly hide, its ability and desire to eat anything, and its fierce determination. The Thranx was different in that it was slightly larger than human sized and more than ten times as strong. When it was first born (although it was never really born, just transformed as it had in the middle of the cave, summoned by powerful magic that made Ann's hair stand on end) the Thranx would be automatically attracted to whatever was closest, or smelliest, and would pursue it's quarry until either of their deaths. 'It's a good thing I'm covered in blood, what a better way to attract a Thranx,' she thought ironically. She briefly wondered whether to slit her own throat or not and avoid a painful death of being eaten but the beast lunged at her, giving her no time to question the best end to what she perceived as a meaningful life.

She had no idea what had happened, but suddenly found herself floating through the air as if by magic. 'How?. . .' she started to think, but before she could finish the thought she realized she was falling rapidly, probably about to break her neck on the sharp rocks below. It took her brain a fraction of a second to catch up with her body, which had been thrown across the room. When she landed it felt more a soft thud than any bone-breaking landing. 'It must have bitten me,' she decided. She had a brief image of the second before the Thranx had hit her, its jaw opened wide to sink its teeth into her neck. A bite from a Thranx would explain why she felt only a slight thud upon hitting the ground, and also why her vision was slightly blurred: the venom causes drowsiness. Unfortunately, once it bites you, it will hunger for no other flesh. Deadly, single-mindedly stupid, and carnivorous does not make a good combination, she decided. She saw a shadow flicker over her and closed her eyes. She didn't want the last thing she saw in life to be the Thranx ripping through her numb abdomen and flinging bits of intestines to drip down the rocks around her.

Instead, she called Severus's face to mind, his long dark hair, ironic smile, his fathomless eyes, his little wizardly way of looking like he always knew twenty times more than she did. She pictured him and Jack together on the beach, wading through the water, Severus refusing to take off his dark jacket or even roll up his sleeves even though it was the middle of summer. It wasn't a horrible way to die, she decided. Perhaps another woman would have wished, in these last seconds, that the relationship had gone farther, or even that Ann had revealed her feelings to him, but Ann was glad she hadn't. She didn't want to be remembered as someone silly and mushy. If Severus had been the type to romantically sweep Ann off her feet and bring her a dozen roses every day she would have moved to another island. She didn't go for emotional relationships, and neither did he. It was enough for it to end like this.

After a while, she became bored thinking about Severus ('no offense meant to you, hon,' she thought). Wondering if the Thranx was going to get around to eating her anytime soon, she opened her eyes to discover her folly. It hadn't bitten into Ann's neck, but into the llorsk hanging on her shoulder - or so Ann assumed, as the beast was currently sitting next to her, digging heartily into the pile of dead llorsks Ann had landed on, which also explained the soft landing. Of course! It was designed to smell out its prey, but the llorsk would have smelled more strongly than Ann did, not to mention that it had gotten a taste of its flesh already. Ann started laughing out loud. It looked up at her and stopped in mid-bite, holding a llorsk with its head dangling on a thread in its huge claws, to sniff Ann. She held her breath, but it continued eating almost as quickly as it had stopped, obviously uninterested in her flesh. Obviously human flesh was an acquired taste. She had to smother her giggles as she climbed over the rock she had hidden the llorsk pile behind. She collapsed on the floor, and laid like a beached whale for several moments, regaining her breath and what little she had left of her consciousness.

When she did finally sit up and begin to stagger towards the stairs, she wondered if the lyrinx did manage to scratch her after all. The walls were spinning dangerously and she still felt nauseously as though some furry creature was rolling around in her stomach. It reminder her of the food she had lost and she briefly wondered how long it had been since she'd eaten. She looked down at her watch, but either the light of the Nightglass was ill-suited for consulting watches or else her eyes were refusing to adjust. Nonplussed, she continued up the stairs, holding a hand against the damp wall to steady herself.

Despite going uphill, the way back up was surprisingly and pleasantly shorter than the way down had been. Even once she climbed out into the room full of tomblike trunks the scenery flew by her, as if she were taking a car ride back from a vacation and having to look at everything backwards and with tons less anticipation. The wall of jagged glass flew by her as quickly as the dead Basilisk, which although it had been dead only a few hours looked as if it had been rotting for months (and smelled that way too!). "Back to the cream of the sign," she chuckled to herself. She shook her head - something was odd about what she had said. She puzzled over it all the way back, so absorbed in her thought that she almost forgot to dive through the whirling blades by the entrance. It wasn't until she was right underneath the huge cliff that it clicked. "Of course: the scene of the crime!" she exclaimed triumphantly. "Oh shit!"

Her last comment was directed at the cliff above her, which although previously had been full of nooks and crannies ideal for climbing was now as smooth as a solid vertical pane of glass. She shook her head and grabbed hold of the rope she had left dangling down. She slipped several more times against the smooth surface than she would have liked. She was breathing heavily by the time she was a fourth up. By the time she was halfway up she was sure her arms were dying; she pictured her muscles slowly unraveling. Her entire body was shaking with fatigue, which she couldn't understand - she had been training for this for months. A little rock climbing shouldn't be so hard, but it was.

There was no where to pause and regain her strength so she continued to climb at an agonizingly slow pace as she considered her options. She could drop back down and take a break and try again with considerably less strength, she could continue up until she collapsed and fell unconscious to the floor below, she could slide down and take a nap (she felt like she had never wanted anything so badly in her entire life as she needed a nap), or she could continue up to the top. Obviously the last option was the only suitable one. If she went back down she had a feeling she would never make it back up again. If she curled up into a ball and slept like she so badly wanted to, she doubted she would wake up any time soon. She had had enough meetings with self-imploding caves to want to find out what magic this one could spew out when its defenses had been shattered. It was really too bad most of the holding places for her books were destroyed in the process - they would make nice museums, she mused.

She was so relieved when she made it to the top that she squealed in delight and promptly dropped back down several feet, rubbing her calloused palms raw. She cursed. It had been a long time since she had done something that stupid. "Almost five minutes, in fact." It was a poor joke even in the best of times.

She clambered over the edge and laid there for several minutes, listening to her deep breathing. Finally she climbed once more to her feet and walked out of the cave. By the time she stepped out into the sunlight she had her sunglasses ready. She was surprised to find that it was nearing twilight already. Hadn't it been early morning just hours ago? Stupid question.

She looked down at the mountain before her. Was it worth it or should she just go to sleep? Maybe she could roll down the mountain; if she tripped up here maybe the momentum would carry her all the way down. Resigned, she found a different trail than the one she had come up. This one wasn't as steep and went directly back to a town where there was a nice little inn waiting for her patronage.

Severus had found her at last. It was only a matter of hours before he caught up with her. He had managed to track her all the way to this godforsaken mountain range in the middle of nowhere and now all he had to do was find the cave. He didn't even attempt to follow her tracks, knowing she had covered them too well, but choose his own rambling path. He had walked through the entire night, coming close to breaking his own leg several times, but he had finally done it. He could see the tree line from here.

Once he was up, the folly of his misadventure struck him. He didn't know where he was going. True, he could always apparate away if he ran out of food, but it wouldn't bring him any closer to Ann. He stopped to readjust his Muggle hiking boots, which (although more bulky than the expensive wizarding shoes he normal wore) were surprisingly comfortable. Perhaps it was luck, perhaps it was fate - but at the moment he knelt he saw it there in the dirt beside his own boot: a footprint. The more he examined it, the more worried he became. It was made by a bare foot, a small one at that - most likely a young man or a woman. He followed the prints for a while at a slow, curious pace before breaking into a run. There were splatters of blood beside the prints. She had been bleeding. What worried him more was the oozing pus that was coming from her left foot.

The trail he followed had its own story. It led to a path Severus never would have found on his own, the entrance being completely covered by brush. Not very far down the footprints became muddled. It looked like someone had lain down in the middle of the path and then gotten back up. But as the prints continued they became more and more blurred, as if the person in question was dragging their feet. The limping from her bad leg became even more pronounced. But then he found something else that made his blood run cold: a boot print, large like a man's. Several others joined of roughly similar size - thugs, from what Severus could guess. He quickly found where they went back into the trees on the side of the trail. From what he could tell, they had been following Ann alongside the path for a while, back since wherever the cave was, he guessed. He didn't like the looks of it - whoever these people were who were following Ann appeared to be chosen merely for size rather than any other endearing qualities. He tried to shake the impending sense of foreboding: Ann was capable of taking care of herself. She could fight like a maniac, or so she had purposely led him to believe. But then again, she was injured.

When he came into a clearing farther down it was a different story. There were prints going in every direction and many places where the dirt and small rocks were kicked up. He could only find the booted prints leading away from the clearing farther down the trail. His heart skipped a beat. She had to be here somewhere - she had to be! He searched the area again for anything he might have missed. Had they taken her with them? Who the fuck where these people?

Anger began to boil so furiously in him that he almost missed the one footprint he saw midway between two larger rocks. Of course Ann's prints would be harder to find! He had almost forgotten her habit of hiking by jumping from rock to rock instead of walking like any sane person. He inspected the rocks closely at the edge of the clearing and found one more print leading out into the forest. The prints went through the forest at what appeared to be a run, leaving many broken branches in their wake. Why would anybody bother attacking Ann and then not even try to follow her when she ran off the trail? Then again, why did they attack in the first place?

You dope! He berated himself. She's only carrying a book worth more galleons than my entire family has ever owned and more powerful than half of the Dark Lord's Death Eaters, why else would a group of strange men follow and attack Ann? He hurdled over a log and stopped. The prints were gone. He turned to retrace them but didn't need to. Ann was huddled against the large log, her arm bent unnaturally, her clothes torn and ruffled, her head one bruised mass of blood. He dropped to his knees besides her.

"Severus?" a voice whispered, dry as the sand on the beach he had left less than a week ago. He ignored her but began tending her injuries. There were several broken ribs, obviously a concussion, but mostly bad bruises and cuts. He couldn't find any life-threatening injury, yet the red glow to her face and hot feet of her forehead gave evidence to a deeper sickness. Her eyes were so glazed that she couldn't focus on his face even when he was leaning so closely that her breath tickled his eyebrows. She continued to mutter under her breath, but Severus could only decipher a few of the words, "Get. . .Yakov. . .what. . .attacked me. . .book. . .help."

He continued to examine her. Now was not to time to cuddle and coo and make vague assurances that she would be all right. Only fools in stories did such things. Her legs were in fine working condition besides being scraped but the bottoms of her feet were a bloody mess. One of them was infected. He looked at it more carefully. He frowned slightly. This was definitely not good - Severus had seen this type of infection before, but how would Ann manage to poison the bottom of her foot?

He shook his head again. Ann had just been traipsing around a cave full of deadly poisons and dangerous creatures, how else would she have become injured. Not to mention the entire mountain was warded. But then, only a wizard as skilled as Severus would be able to sense the poison that crept over the mountain. Without magic, it was lucky that the bottom of her foot was all she had manage to seriously injure. But it had been over twenty- four hours, Severus was sure, since this injury was made.

He had to make sure. He slid his knife out his sleeve and pressed the point into the wound and peered deeper into it. Yes, just as he suspected, there was purple fuzz growing like a fungus deep within the wound. The poison was at work, and Ann didn't have much longer. She groaned in response. "Severus," she tried to talk again, her voice catching in her throat and coming out raspy. "Leave me, get the book. They don't have. . . .much magic. You can stop them."

Severus ignored her. He started to gather her in his arms. She twitched furiously, trying to wiggle out of his grasp, but she was so weak that she barely resisted. "Get the book, you fool!. . .Don't have time for this. . ." She coughed, spitting blood down her front.

"I don't care about the book. It's not worth it," he said calmly.

"It's worth more. . .than five of my lives. . ." she argued.

"Tens of thousands of all your bloody books would never equal your life, you fool woman!" he raged. "What did you think you were doing, coming here without me? Did you think I would stay at home like a good boy? Is that all I am to you? Bloody books. . ."

Without another thought to the missing book, he apparated away, Ann curled up grudgingly in his arms.

(A/N: A Thranx is a creature from the void in Ian Irvine's The View from the Mirror series, but they are highly intelligent, winged humanoid creatures who do actually eat humans. I love Irvine's void creatures. Can you tell?)

Honk if you love Severus!