Title: Into the Viper's Den

Author: Pompey

Universe: Basil of Baker Street

Rating: PG

Warnings: shameless cliffhanger

Word count: 482

Summary: In a previous challenge, I stated that there were no venomous snakes in England. I was wrong. This is my attempt at redemption.

Prompt: July 17 – "creepy" creature

A mouse's life is filled with dangers. We must learn quickly or else we perish. In London we learn how to hide from cats and terriers, how to avoid the humans' traps and poisons, how to cross hard stone streets without being trampled.

A country mouse's life is no less dangerous, but the dangers are different. Finding food is harder when one must live off the land rather than human refuse. Winters are colder when there are fewer hearths to huddle around. And the predators are more diverse. There are more birds of prey, more weasels and ferrets.

And more snakes.

It was bad luck that Basil's latest case had brought us to the grassy fields of England in late March. Had it not been a case of some urgency, we might have demurred. However, the case was what it was and Basil had accepted.

Thus Basil and I found ourselves creeping through the tall grass when the unpleasant, unmistakable scent of common adder sent our whiskers twitching. "There," Basil faintly whispered, pointing his nose to the forward right of our position. I could just make out the ominous black zigzag against burnished brown when more adder scent wafted towards us from another direction.

I touched Basil's sleeve. When he turned to me, I indicated with my eyes another adder, black on grey, coming up on my left. Basil's eyes widened further as he looked over my shoulder and he squeezed my paw.

I hazarded a glance behind me and felt myself growing faint. More snakes were surrounding us, browns of the females and silvers of the males, all sporting the terrible black markings of the venomous adder. We crouched down, huddled into two lumps of fear, as the deadly predators slithered around us. Yet they seemed to pay us no mind.

"Why don't they strike?" I breathed as quietly as I could.

"Mating season," Basil's nearly silent voice replied.

I recalled then that the common adder usually mated in spring, and that with a single-minded passion that would result in an absolute tangle of lust-frenzied bodies. So long as that age-old drive held them in its sway, we were safe. As safe as two mice could be that close to a Gordion knot of snakes, at any rate.

But if we found ourselves in the midst of said knot of snakes, what then? How could we escape without detection? And even if we were not detected, we were still in danger. Just one snake was large enough to cause injury should it fall or roll on top of us.

And what would happen after the frenzy was over? Would they fall asleep, nearly comatose? Would they slither away, paying us no more mind than they had during the congregation? Or would they indulge in post-coital snack?

Such were my thoughts as yet more adders streamed around us in undulating, scaly waves.