I STILL NEED A BETA, PLEASE HELP!

Hope you enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: *Receives mail* re: Can I get the ownership of Sonic the Hedgehog? Reply: ABSOLUTELY REJECTED!

Sigh, oh well, there goes the email plan.

Chapter 8 – White Scales, Red Eyes

"Aaaaahhhhhhhh!"

Maia yelled as she whipped her head around, trying to find something to grab a hold of. She and Bunnie had been tree-hopping in an attempt to get to their destination faster. However, it was a stupid plan on Maia's part; the trees were full of those moving vines and the wolf mobian had lost count on how many times they had to flee from the vegetation hell-bent on capturing them. They had been doing well for a while, but their luck soon ran out.

"Quick, grab a vine!" Bunnie shouted at Maia, fumbling with the remote that controlled her legs' extension setting. It was their plan whenever they ended up falling down from a height that was too high – Maia would grab a vine and swing them closer to the ground. Bunnie would then use her legs to gain a firm hold on the ground and shorten them while Maia let go of the vine and hung onto Bunnie so that they would arrive down safely.

Maia looked around for the nearest vine to grab. Her eyes spotted one and she reached out, only to shriek and withdraw her hand quicker than lightning when the vine suddenly moved. That cost her precious time and she was too late to grab another as they hit the leafy ground.

To their surprise, instead of feeling broken bones or other horrendous injuries, the ground beneath them gave way and they fell, slightly slower as the leaves had broken their fall. Bunnie used that chance to use the remote and her legs extended, touching the ground.

Shudders ran through her at the impact, but being half-cyborg had prevented her from feeling her legs, so she only felt the shudders rather than the pain. Bunnie braced herself while Maia clung onto her robotic arm, and the rabbit mobian shortened her legs, slowly bringing them to the safe ground.

Maia and Bunnie both sighed in relief, thankful that they survived. "That was close, too close," Bunnie sighed. "Maia, why didn't you grab the vine?"

"Sorry Bunnie..." Maia replied, her head bowed in slight regret. "The vine just moved on its own and well...let's just say I've seen enough vines to get a reaction out whenever they move on their own..." Her golden fur puffed up at the reminder, goose-bumps crawling all over her skin. "Sorry."

Bunnie shook her head. "Sorry is not going to get us out of this mess, sugar," she told Maia firmly. "Now, we have to find a way to get back up."

"Speaking of that..." Maia finally took a look at her surroundings. "Where are we anyway?" she asked Bunnie.

Bunnie followed Maia's actions. Her jungle green eyes took in the sight of the large underground cavern, filled with stalactites and stalagmites, some dripping with water. There were a few vines wrapped around the stalagmites as well, not the ones that could move though. The only source of light was coming from the hole they fell through, so the cavern appeared rather dim.

"I don't know sugar. I haven't been here during the last time I came to the Great Jungle with my friends," Bunnie replied as she dug into her pack and pulled out a torch. "We'll have to be careful; this place might not be safe."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Maia agreed as she followed Bunnie, the beam of light dancing across the rather damp floor.

As they explored the cavern, the eerie feeling of hearing only the drip-drop of water falling from above was eating away at Maia's composure. Chills racked her form, making her shiver from time to time. She tried to occupy her mind with something, anything, but it just seemed to make things worse.

"Bunnie…" Maia whimpered, reaching out to hold the rabbit mobian's hand like a little child clinging onto her mother. The touch startled Bunnie, but looking back at the shivering wolf with her tail in between her legs, Bunnie could feel a touch of pity for Maia.

When they first met, Maia seemed like a clueless girl; ditzy but good-natured and helpful. She was also very sensitive, always worrying whether she was bothering Bunnie or not. Then, when they first got into a dangerous situation, Maia was startled, but she knew to act quickly. For a while, she was fine.

But then, after more and more encounters, each more dangerous than the previous where they barely escaped by the skin of their teeth, her confidence dwindled until she reverted back to a rather child-like state. Maia looked nearly the same age as Sally, which in mobian terms, was that of a teen nearing adulthood, but now, Bunnie wondered if Maia was more of a child than she thought.

Bunnie did not say anything, but she returned the grip and held on as she led the way.

The cavern around them seemed to darken the further they went, as if the moist walls were eating away all the light. The flashlight seemed dimmer than before as well, and the thought of it going out in the middle of this place nearly made Maia let out a whine.

'I hope we get out of here soon… Oh, darn, it's my fault. I wish I could be brave and just grab the vine before…' Maia thought, regretting her actions. 'I hope I'm not bothering Bunnie… I don't wanna bother anyone…'

Bunnie frowned at her flashlight, the slightly darker surroundings not escaping her notice. 'We have to get out of here quick,' she thought as she lengthened her stride. Maia's soft surprised gasp passed by fleetingly as Bunnie felt the wolf mobian hurry to catch up, her hand still not loosening its grip.

The beam of light darted to and fro, jungle green eyes following its movement so as to catch sight of anything that might help them out. The light skimmed the faint outline of an object and Bunnie did a double take. 'What was that?' She moved her flashlight over to the area once more and took a closer look.

To her surprise, she found a doorway, along with stairs leading up.

"Maia, look!" Bunnie alerted the wolf mobian. "I think we found the way out of here."

Maia's ears perked up from their flattened state and her tail wagged in joy.

"Let's go." Bunnie and Maia hurried over to the staircase and climbed up. The stairway was dark and seemingly endless whenever they tried to look up. However, their surroundings slowly brightened, along with their hopes.

Soon, the light glowed to a near blinding state, their eyes not used to the significantly brighter surroundings. Eyes closed and hearts beating faster than they could remember, they stepped out of the stairway and stood on the cool stone-paved floor.

Blue eyes were the first to blink open. They widened in shock and awe upon the sight bestowed. "Bunnie…you might wanna see this."

Bunnie opened her eyes and they dilated as well, for what she and Maia saw was treasure. And it was not a wooden chest that was open with gold piled up to the brim in it. No, what they saw were multiple chests in different sizes, all filled with everything from gold to precious gems. And those chests were sitting on HUGE piles of more gold, jewels and other precious artifacts.

Forget a treasure chest, this was a treasure mine!

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Maia asked, still in disbelief. "Tell me I'm not dreaming."

"You aren't sugar, unless we're having the same dream," Bunnie replied, slowly coming out of her incredulity. "Still, what's all this doing here?"

Maia shrugged; she had no clue either.

Bunnie slowly stepped forward and walked around, exploring the room. It was like a large circular dome, shafts of light falling from the holes above. There were not many and the light itself was dim, but due to all the treasure, it was as if the whole place was lit up as brightly as the outside.

There were some vines and tree roots breaking through the gaps in the brick walls and growing here and there too. The air was filled with the smell of something metallic and the distant sounds of bird calls and other wildlife coming from outside. In a way, it was a whole lot better than the cavern from before.

Bunnie soon came to another large pile of gold, one even bigger than the others. Seriously, it was like the size of a small hill, reaching nearly all the way up to the ceiling. However, this pile looked quite strange. There were gold coins and beautiful rubies, but in several places, there were spots of white, shimmering like reptilian scales. And…did the pile just move?

Nah, it was just some coins dropping down due to gravity.

"Bunnie, check this out!"

Maia's shout caught Bunnie's attention and the rabbit mobian hurried over to where Maia was. The wolf mobian was pointing at something and Bunnie's mouth went agape when she recognized the object.

It was a snakeskin, the one that got discarded whenever the snake grew too big for its own skin. However, it was very, very big and long. The width was almost that of a small tree and the length was like a long winding stream. The ghostly remnant was pale too, even paler than the moon, and they shimmered in an almost familiar manner…

Bunnie's eyes widened in realization and she turned towards the gold pile, only to see a pair of rubies blink at her. The gold coins started to shift and move, and a thought entered Bunnie's mind as she watched a tower of pale scales rising, up, up, up to the ceiling.

'Those are not rubies…they are eyes!'

And indeed, those two rubies were eyes, set against the pale serpentine face of the non-mobian albino cobra, one that was much, much larger than normal cobras. A long forked tongue slipped past scaly lips and tasted the air. Large eyes as red as the gems they were mistaken for locked onto the two mobians, and a warning hiss rented the air, followed by the cobra's spreading hood.

"Intruders…" the cobra hissed, dragging out the syllables that produced an 'S' sound. "Why have you come here…? To steal the treasure?!"

"N-n-no," Bunnie stuttered, struggling to regain her composure. The serpent's masculine voice was harsh and unyielding, ready to turn into sharpened daggers if she gave any indication of being a threat to the treasure. "We just want to get out of here…"

The serpent scrutinized them as he slithered forward, radiating an aura of danger. "I scent no lies from you…" he hissed. "Very well; I will let you leave. However…you are to never return to this place. Leave, and take no treasure with you. Nor would any information about this hidden temple be given away, lest I will hunt you down and devour you whole!"

Maia rapidly nodded her head. "Yes, yes, we will never say anything about this place, let alone come back here!" she agreed quickly, her ears flat on her head and tail quivering in between her legs.

The cobra hissed and his tongue flicked once, twice and thrice. The dangerous air around the great serpent lightened slightly and he turned towards a large pile of gold. With a sweep of his tail, he pushed it away, revealing a large wall covered with carvings.

"Wait...are these...the carvings of the Serpens' Temple?" Maia asked, coming closer to inspect them. "I thought this temple was only a legend..."

"...It is no legend," the serpent hissed, lowering his head to look at the carvings closer. "Back in ancient times, when the echidna tribes still roamed the land, great serpents, my kin, lived in the Great Jungle, known as the Serpent's Den in olden times. We were a simple civilization, living in caves and dens we could find and feeding once every month. There were only a few of us as many more would disturb the ecosystem..."

"We are quite fond of treasure, as you can see," the cobra continued, gesturing towards the piles of gold in the room. "By resting among large amounts of treasure, we were able to go on without eating or drinking for years, as I have been doing to survive... However, one day, new species of plants began to grow. They have the power to reduce anything to ash, be it gold and metal or living beings."

'Those plants...' Bunnie's mind flashed back to the moment when Rotor placed his screwdriver on one of its leaves, only to have it disintegrated into mere ash moments later.

"Those plants were the downfall of my kin. We were so large that we could not avoid those patches even if we tried, and they grew faster than bamboo." The cobra's head shook in melancholy at the memory. "We all went into hiding, some even leaving the Great Jungle. I was the only one left here..." The serpent hissed, as if to add something else before deciding against it.

Another limb decorated with the pale scales moved, reaching towards the wall. The cobra used his tail to push against a symbol engraved in the center of the carvings. As soon as he did so, concentric circles appeared, symbols engraved in each of them. With surprising dexterity, the cobra turned the circles in a rather hypnotic fashion. With each correct turn, the circles lit up.

When all were fully lighted, he pressed the center-most circle. There was a brief flash of light before glowing lines appeared from the circle, stretching out in the form of a door made up of two blocks locking together in the center like two puzzle pieces with the circular pattern as the lock. The two sides slid away from each other, revealing an exit.

"This will lead you outside," he explained. "Remember to keep your word, for I assure you, I will remember it," he added as a last warning before slithering back into the piles of gold, his white scales hidden among the brilliant shine. But his ruby eyes still looked onward, locked onto the two mobians.

Bunnie and Maia both let out sighs of relief as they turned towards the doorway. While the treasure was pretty and all, it was essentially useless to them. What could they do with all of this? Treasure was not going to help them win the war with Robotnik, and gold was not usually a weapon material, so in conclusion, zero usefulness.

However, just as they were about to head out, a loud hiss cut through the air like a sharp knife and a shower of gold fell from above as the large cobra reared up, hissing furiously. There was a blurry outline of someone running away, a gorgeous yellow round-cut gem cradled in its hands. And the figure was headed towards Bunnie and Maia.

"What the?!" Bunnie gasped as she was pushed aside, along with Maia. In a chilling moment, Bunnie recognized the feel of the figure's hands; skin, human skin. The figure did not look back as he ran into the tunnel, leaving behind chaos in the form of an enraged serpent.

"Was he one of yours?!" the serpent hissed, too angry to wait for their answer. He thrashed about, his tail lashing here and there. The action caused the room to rumble and bricks fell from above, unstable and not strong enough to hold against the force of the large and very, very angry cobra. "No, he smells of human... Humans! That greedy fool will know the pain of death as soon as I get my fangs sinking into his neck!" With that exclamation, he reared up and shot off towards the tunnel.

Bunnie gasped when she saw the door starting to close behind the snake. She reached out, trying to stop it in some way, but she was too late. The blocks slid close with a resounding thud in finality. "We have to get it open again," she told Maia as she looked around for the carving. It took a while, but Bunnie soon found it and pressed it quickly. The concentric circles appeared once more, but it was at that moment that Bunnie was stuck.

"Maia, do you remember how this thing works?" Bunnie frantically asked the gold-furred wolf.

Maia shook her head in reply, an apologetic look on her face. "Sorry Bunnie. It was so strange; the circles kept moving round and round and messed up with my head or something." But a determined expression flushed the sorry look away. "Still, it wouldn't hurt to try." With that, she and Bunnie got to work on turning the circles.

It was a tedious and mind-numbingly slow process, not just from frustration at the lack of success but also due to trying to recall up the memory of how the serpent did it. It was hard though; they could only remember dregs of the memory due to its hypnotic spell, and trying to recreate it sometimes ended up with themselves being hypnotized all over again.

"This is not working," Maia finally admitted after what seemed like the umpteenth time they tried. "We can't open this thing at all."

"We'll have to find another way," Bunnie concluded as she looked around the room. For the most part, despite its aged look, it was quite sturdy. Her gaze drifted up to the roof where light fell in small beams. It would probably not be much of a problem to reach those holes, but they were too small for either her or Maia to fit through.

Before she could find another way, the door in front of them suddenly slammed open and a still-furious cobra slithered in, frustration lining every single curve of his sinuous form. "The human escaped… And to my worst luck, he stole a rather important gemstone!" he hissed, shaking his head in anger. "He escaped into the sunlight before I could capture him…"

"Why didn't you chase after him?" Maia asked, confused. The cobra would easily catch up if he left the temple. Then again, if he did, they might be trapped for a longer time…

"Those plants; they have grown so much that only a narrow path now exists. And…I am albino," the cobra admitted. "I will not last long if I stay out in the sun. I can only come out at night, and that is if there are no more plants blocking my path." The serpent coiled around the piles of gold and laid his head on top of his body. "I cannot retrieve the gem this way…but…" His ruby eyes lit up with an idea and locked onto the two mobians. "But you two can."

Bunnie had a foreboding feeling, but before she could refuse, the cobra hissed, ruby eyes narrowed maliciously, "Retrieve the gem for me. If you refuse…you will know firsthand what happens to intruders that never escaped me…"

Maia squeaked and Bunnie remained silent. They were unable to refuse if given an ultimatum as such… Even if they tried, they could not escape; the door had closed. And the other opening from which they got in was on the other side of the room and it led to a dead end either way. They would not be able to hide in the dark cavern; the serpent could track them down with its senses.

They had no choice.

"Alright, we'll help you," Bunnie agreed.

The agreement would have made the serpent settle down, but he could still smell the reluctance in their emotions, and that would not do. Reluctant people would back out as soon as they saw the chance. So…

Bunnie blinked in confusion when the cobra suddenly turned to his body and scrapped off two scales with his fangs. Dropping them among the gold, he bore his fangs over them and two drops of venom slid out. They hung precariously before falling down on top of the scales and seeping into the gold.

There was a soft hissing sound as the venom soaked the gold and the scales. Bunnie thought it was from the probably acidic properties of the venom that was making the hissing sound, but with horror, she soon realized that those hissing sounds were coming from the emerging mixture.

The venom had caused the scales and gold to meld into a white goo of sorts, and in a rather creepy fashion, the goo rose up and formed two serpentine shapes, hissing loudly.

"These will protect you from the dangers of the Great Jungle. The scent of my venom, my scales and the gold will ward off the plants and wild animals. They are mostly indestructible as well, but they will not do anything for the disintegrating plants. That should be enough to get you through," the serpent explained as the two tiny snakes each shot up the mobians' legs to wrap themselves around their wrists.

With a click that seemed to signal a finality of sorts, the snakes bit their tails and settled snuggly.

The serpent watched as the two mobians hurried off down the tunnel, feeling satisfaction at his idea. He had not lied; those two snakes would keep them safe. However…they also doubled as…insurance.

"They will be in for a nasty surprise if they tried to disobey me…" he hissed, a smirk in his eyes.

Outside, the eyes of the snakes twinkled, seeming to share their creator's own smugness.

17/4/2017

To whoever reads A/Ns, please hear me out.

From now on, this story will not be seeing regular updates because writing is not exactly my job; it's a hobby, and until I gain enough inspiration to continue, you won't be seeing much updates here. But that does NOT MEAN that I'm giving up on this fanfiction.

Until next time.