This is the transcription of posts from ten different contestants in an offsite forum. One by one, they'll be eliminated until only the winner remains. Your vote counts! Please join us by clicking "homepage" from our user page.
Chapter 6. Snake in the Grass
by Silisk
Jothro the shrew sat on top of a wooden crate in what had once been a tavern, short sword propped against the wall and a tankard of ale in paw. This second item drew a sigh of annoyance from Thistletail as the squirrel walked into the room on his patrol of the building.
"Seasons, Jothro, are you trying to get caned? You know the rules about not drinking while guarding the prisoners. Sergeant Yuledt will have a fit if he comes in here and sees your carrying on like this." The squirrel looked annoyed, but not particularly surprised.
Jothro made an exaggerated gesture of looking around. "I don't see Sergeant Yuledt. Iffen he cares about it that much he can come up 'ere and tell me 'isself." The shrew finished with a drunken giggle.
Thistletail rolled his eyes. "Are you at least keeping an eye on the captives in here?" The squirrel walked up to the modified door of what had once been a tavern room.
The Feldoh's Heirs included some skilled carpenters and craftsbeasts, who had modified some of the many tavern rooms in the district controlled by the Heirs into cells for captured vermin. They had sawed out small windows in the wooden doors,and filled them with wicker screens that let air and light in but were sufficiently well-made so as to prevent vermin from just sticking their arms through. The rooms each held four or five vermin, with alternating groups of males and females. Before the rooms had been used, they had been closely examined for hidden or makeshift weapons, and squirrels had barred the shutters of the windows from the outside.
"Thistletail!" Jothro suddenly clapped a paw on the squirrel's shoulder. "Watch this! Lookit what I got in a trade with one o' the scouts!" The shrew walked up to a crate in a corner. Someone had punched holes in the side, but before Thistletail could ask why, Jothro gave the box a sharp kick.
"Wakey wakey, liddle snakey!" The shrew taunted. Thistletail sighed in annoyance.
"Oh, what are you, a dibbun? I—Gah!" The squirrel jumped practically out of his fur as an irritated voice rang out from the box
"Craven cur, let me loose at once or suffer the wrath of the Dread Wyrm of Evnara!"
Jothro burst into a fit of laughter "Oho, you shoulda seen your face there, mate! One o' the scouts found this snake out in the wilderness. Dunno why he keeps calling himself a worm, but he's a real bucket of laughs."
Thistletail took this opportunity to grab away Jothro's liquor and toss it down the hall. The shrew started to protest but the squirrel held up a paw. "Look, that's quite enough from you. We're not being paid to act like idiots, we're to keep tabs on these vermin. I'm going to go back to my patrol. Can you be trusted to not make a fool of yourself?"
Jothro grumbled a bit more about the lost liquor, but finally acceded. Once the squirrel was out of sight, however, he set about looking for some other form of amusement, complaining to himself about his companion. "Huh. Ole high'n'mighty Thistletail thinks he's better than me 'cause he's from Redwall like Marcion. Iffen Thistletail's so damn smart, why isn't he a captain? Needs to get that stick out from under his ta—" The shrew's complaint trailed off as his eyes fell on the box containing the worm-that-was-actually-a-snake. Congratulating himself for his own cleverness, Jothro walked over to the box and picked it up. "Wanna go for a trip, liddle snakey?"
"When I escape, your spine shall decorate my lair, earthwalker!"
Still carrying the box, Jothro walked over to the door where the females vermin were kept. "Oy, I gots somethin' for you, ladies! It's a present from us Feldoh's Hairs."
Quickly opening the door, he threw the box inside the room, narrowly missing a juvenile vixen, who ducked under it, losing her glasses in the process. The box struck a wall, and rebounded, the lid coming off. Jothro quickly stepped out and re-barred the door, pressing his snout to the wicker window to watch what developed. Who said guard duty had to be boring?
--
Silisk was rather out of sorts.
The serpent, who had previously suffered the indignity of being carted about in a wooden box for 'Gates knows how long, was presently tangled up in her royal cloak. Silisk thrashed about for a moment to free herself, hissing curses all the while until she was in a much more dignified position. It was then that she noticed the door to her cage had been jarred open from when that brute had tossed her. Making a mental note to ensure the painful punishment of the furred barbarian, the snake peeked out of the box and immediately noticed several beasts across from her; vermin and quite formidable and all staring directly at her. Wonderful.
A quick scan of the room revealed that at least none of the beasts were armed. Although that by itself proved little comfort; two foxes, a pine marten and… well… whatever that strange creature was would have little to no problem crushing her.
For what seemed like a very long moment, snake and earthwalkers stared at each other.
And then the large creature stood up.
"Please!"
The sudden cry of the serpent caused Rea to stop in her tracks, and she went back to staring at the scaly creature, a mixture of revulsion and fascination on her canine features.
Her heart racing, the added tried desperately to think of what was to be said next to avoid her royal personage being crushed into the ground. "I mean you no harm…" What had the guard said? These ugly beasts are female? "… fair maidens. Please, set your fears aside, for I would not think of turning poisoned fang on any one of you."
Silisk flicked her tongue out, beginning to wonder if any of these beasts were capable of doing anything other than staring. It was horribly rude of them.
Finally, one of the females, the pine marten, spoke up. "Why should we trust you?" She asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow. "What's to stop you from striking when our backs are turned, eh?"
Biting back a sarcastic retort, Silisk merely dipped her head in what she hoped to be a polite gesture. "I have no quarrel with you, only with the foul knave who has sought to forcefully wrest me from my home." She cocked her head. "I can only assume the same misfortune has befallen you as well. Why then, have we reason to bandy threats against each other?"
"He's right, you know." Silisk was about as surprised as any of the other beasts at the taller fox's calm statement. The vixen shrugged. "We should really start thinking of a way to get out, and having a snake as a friend is better than having one as a foe."
He? He?! How dare that scale-less— Silisk clamped down on her venomous thoughts and instead offered as charming a smile as a snake could manage. "Precisely. I knew such intelligent beasts would see sense," she hissed.
The other beasts, however, seemed less than enthused. "Fine," the marten snorted, "but don't come crying to me when it sinks its fangs into you."
That seemed to settle things. Silisk gazed from the marten's incredulous stare to the larger creature's terrified one and flickered her tongue. A little.
Not that Silisk gave a flip about what some gangly earthwalkers thought of her, of course. Now that her life was not in any immediate danger, the adder wanted as little to do with the rude vermin as possible. She pulled her upper body back inside her crate, rested her head atop her loose coils and sulked. What a day!
--
"Your Majester?"
Silisk stirred from her position draped lightly over her favorite basking rock. "Yes?" Despite her ever-present glare, the serpent had actually drifted off to sleep watching the birds singing to each other in the trees. She clicked her fangs together reflectively; she did ever so despise them.
The adder pulled her head around in an arc, and the frilled messenger lizard etched a hasty salute with his spear. "Beasts is coming, Mistress! Come from Vermin City. What we do?"
A pleasured hiss rasped at the back of Silisk's throat. "What sort of beasts?"
The previous months had been a curse and a nightmare. Seemingly endless torrents of water poured down unrelentingly, and Silisk had spent many nights curled up miserably in her lair, managing to keep herself warm with a fevered and seething determination.
However, the storm had proved itself to be a hidden blessing. After she and her lizards had just started to recover, the hated vermin began to act strangely indeed. Maddened, beasts of all kinds hurled themselves into the swamps surrounding Evnara and slashed themselves bloody outside the city gates. To the other vermin, they were a danger.
To Silisk, they were an exotic banquet. And a steady source of wealth, to boot.
"Well…" the lizard shuffled his footclaws. "These beasts strange. No lookalike normal verminbeasts. Theyno sick; carry weapon like us."
Silisk took a moment to process this new information. New beasts? She wondered vaguely if they were anywhere near as tasty. "Take the other guards and circle around these new beasts. Follow them and see what they do. I'll be waiting here."
Saluting once more, the lizard scurried off, leaving Silisk alone. The snake laid herself flat atop the smooth slab, her blue-grey scales almost disappearing against the stone.
Silisk watched impassibly as several strange looking creatures, two of which slightly resembled rats, ambled out of the surrounding foliage. Whoever these beasts were, Silisk quickly deduced that they were not used to the wilderness.
"Garn!" A shrew swatted at his arm in irritation. "That's two of those nasty liddle bugs I've caught at me blood today! Vicious little…"
The other beast of the same species, this one taller, rolled its eyes and fixed the first with a scathing gaze. "Oh knock off the whingeing, would you? Should be glad we ain't run into any o' them lizard savages like the first exploration team."
A third beast, a creature with a luxuriously furred and arched tail, scurried up behind the other two. "Caught one, didn't they? Heard the scaly brute gave 'em trouble."
"I suppose we'll know when we gets back," one of the rat-like beasts said with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Huh," the other snorted. "That's only iffen we don't get eaten alive first."
"What did I just say?" The complaining rat-creature received an elbow in the ribs for his trouble. "One more whinge outta you and I'm reporting you to the Captain." He used the long-bladed sword in his paw to swat aside some branches. "Now let's get searching. The sooner we find something edible in this beast-forsaken rock, the sooner we can all leave."
Silisk watched the strange creatures with amusement as they bungled about, whippy branches snapping in their faces. None of them seemed to be particularly interested in the hanging vines disguising the entrance to the snake's lair, which suited the royal serpent just fine.
Suddenly, a glint of reflected light caught the snake's eye; it seemed to be coming from a strange something that had been set down on a nearby rock. Silisk wriggled forward ever so slightly, eyes gleaming covetously as she tried to get a better look at the small objects gleaming surface. She knew right away that it was not a gem or jewel, and when she leaned forward to gaze into its surface, she was surprised to see her own fearsome stare gazing back at her.
Silisk was enthralled; never had she seen something like this! It reflected a perfect image of herself in it's crystal clear surface.
"I'm bushed! Can't we go back now? There isn't anything worth spit out here!" As the rat-creature complained, he leaned against Silisk's throne-rock, slapping his paw down for support… right on the adder!
"Cripes 'n bloody 'ellgates!" The rat-like beast nearly leapt a foot in the air as a furious hiss tore itself from Silisk's throat and the snake reared back into a striking position.
Before she could sink her fangs into the clumsy rodent, however, she was grabbed from behind in a forceful grip, her jaw pinched tightly. "Oy! Get a load o' this, Wegraf! Raz almost got hisself bitten by a snake!"
Silisk writhed and wriggled like whipcord, glaring daggers at her captors. Wegraf loped up, leaning down to get a closer look at the reptile. "Corr, you was lucky it didn't get you, Raz! Little beasty's poisonous as anything. Take a good look at his markings! Adder, sure 'nough."
"Ain't you smart?" The tall rat creature slammed Silisk down onto the rock hard enough to wind her. "Well, I don't know about you, but I've had enough of this awful place. This should be more 'n enough to report." He turned back over his shoulder. "Oy, Raz! When yer done cringin', get rid o' this thing and meet us back at the city gates."
Silisk gasped for air in ragged bursts, barely coiled around consciousness. Raz, who looked as if he were about to faint himself, rose to his footpaws. Anger began clouding his features as he reached for his sword. "I'll teach you to scare me like that, little beastie… time to go Hellgates!"
For just a moment, Silisk saw herself reflected in the surface of the blade. She couldn't—wouldn't—let it take her life! A true dragon would never let herself be felled by such means.
"Stop!" She yelled as forcefully as she could… which wasn't very much, all things considered.
It did a wonderful job of halting Raz in his tracks, though.
"Villain!" She wheezed. "Is it not enough that you intrude upon my home, but also that you take my life? You, ser, are nothing but a—"
"Blimey!" The rat-beast's eyes were wide. "It talks!"
The serpent hissed in frustration. "Of course I talk, you insipid—" She was interrupted once more, but this time it was by the pommel of the sword which struck her in the head, dazing her.
Grinning oafishly, Raz grabbed the snake and bundled her up in the cloak that was half-draped over the rock's surface. He couldn't wait to show off his find to the other teams!
--
Silisk's brooding was interrupted by a timid poke to her side. "Er… 'scuse me…"
"Kssa!"
Startled, the serpent's head drew back sharply, and she stared at the scrawny vixen who had stuck her head into the crate. The fox drew her ears back, looking mighty embarrassed.
"Very sorry, mam, and I didn't mean t' bother you, but I was just wonderin' if you've seen me glasses?"
Down went Silisk's jaw. This little vermin earthwalker was actually being… polite? She was almost too stunned to respond.
"Er..w.. glasses, you say?" she asked, regaining her stately composure as quickly as possible.
The vixen nodded. "Oh aye. Lost 'em when your box got throwed in here." She sighed. "Can't see a bloomin' thing without 'em."
"Oh, I know what you mean." Silisk really didn't know what the fox had meant at all, but an idea had already started working itself over in her mind. "It must be terribly hard not to be able to see," she purred, her voice as smooth as glass. The vixen nodded wordlessly.
"I've an idea!" Weaving an intricate pattern in the air, the serpent's head swayed sinuously. "Let me rest on your shoulders, and I will be your eyes, my friend."
The vixen squinched her muzzle up, looking Silisk over. "Well..."
"I promise to keep watch for you glasses," Silisk wheedled, weaving around the fox's paw and gazing at her pleadingly.
The maid laughed in response. "Well, all right, then!" Even before she had finished speaking and straightened up, the snake had already slithered up the vixen's arm and curled comfortably about her shoulders. "My name's Zula, by the way. Zula Higgins."
"And I'm Silisk. A pleasure to make your acquaintance, madam."
Silisk mentally repeated the mantra she had read many times over: From the tiny egg, the great wyrm grows. Evnara was in ruins, and if the road to escape and eventual power came from befriending a gangly little vixen with glasses, then Silisk would just have to take it.
Zula laughed again. "you're a cute little critter, you are!"
Cute? Little? Silisk let out a sigh. It was going to be a long day…