I slowly turned my head around, but somehow was not surprised to see the giant three-hooded serpent looming in front of me.

Frightened, yes, but not surprised.

I wanted to scream, to leave that place but Kia had frozen all over—she did not make any sound, did not make any movement—she only stared at the giant reptile in front of us. I knew I needed to be calm, that any show of fear on our part could trigger the serpent, but that huge mass of yellow and grey scales was affecting my serenity.

Bringing all three of its heads in front of me, the serpent hissed.

I closed my eyes while Kia staggered backward. It was too close, all three of its forked tongues too near—it hissed again. Gripping Kia tightly, I opened one eye—its tongue moved and rested a few centimetres away from my opened eye—I held my breath and shut my eye close again as if closing my eyes would make the serpent disappear; as if holding my breath would make the foul stench emanating from the creature go away.

I still had the two bones I picked clutched in my hand, but lifting my hand to stab in its eye—it was impossible when the serpent was so close to me—it could bite me anytime, and not to mention it had three pairs of eyes. Hundreds of thoughts were going on in my mind when I realized that the creature had not bitten me yet, but why would it delay?

The hissing sound could not be heard too—did it go away?

I opened my eyes once again, but the serpent was there. However, its heads were turned sideways, not towards me— towards something else.

That was the time. I nudged Kia to swim upwards and move back, as far away from the reptile as possible—if we were up enough, we had a chance to escape the situation without any hassle.

But what was the serpent looking at? I did not know if any other harm was lurking in the shadows of the water, and I did not even want to know—I needed to get out from the doomed place as fast as possible.

Kia started to swim upwards, thus attracting the attention of the serpent again. I should have known. Groaning internally and without delaying any further, I jabbed a bone through one of the heads of the serpent, wincing as I did so.

A second later, I was knocked out from Kia's back, tumbling into the endless water; and Kia was tossed onto the seafloor by a whip of the reptile's long, hard tail.

Floundering in the water, trying to regain my balance, I looked for Kia. Luckily, she had been thrown far away from the dangers around us and now it was just me, the serpent and some other creature hiding in the shadows.

Coughing out mouthfuls of salt-water I had ingested and at the same time trying to calm my raging and drumming heart, I started swimming, making my way behind the serpent while avoiding the flailing tail of the venomous creature.

I did not want to kill the creature. If I could, then I would have escaped without harming it—but the enormous size of its tail (that was now squirming like a maniac) had blocked every other way of my escape—if I went upwards, it went upwards; if I went sideways, it went sideways, following me everywhere as if it was my very own shadow.

I stabbed the body of the serpent with the other bone I had, but little did I know that it would turn into a crazier version of itself and the serpent would start chasing me towards my doom.

Gathering two more bones from the sea-floor, I swam as fast as I could while being chased by the yellow mass of scales. I knew I was going in the wrong direction, towards more cold, dark water—that I needed to go in the opposite direction if I wanted to get back to the Starwater Canal—but something was there that had previously garnered the attention of the serpent—

A thrash of scales against my leg made me stumble into the open water. Cursing, I turned back and hastily threw a bone towards the serpent, not caring where it landed.

I needed to focus. I needed to go behind the serpent.

The bone had slowed down the serpent, maybe by a second, but it was enough for me to turn around and start swimming in a direction that would land me behind the serpent. At that point, I could not even decipher if I was swimming or simply running like a lunatic through the depths of the water—only the three long bones protruding from the serpent's body and head prevented it from catching up with me and engulfing me wholly.

I swam and ran through the water. Swam and ran. Swam and ran, as fast as I could. The reptile's hissing sound— a monstrous, drawn-out 'sssss'— cut through my ears.  At that time, I knew only the dark waters and the serpent that was chasing me. I was losing my composure, and in a moment of panic, I lowered myself onto the sea-floor and grabbed a handful of moss.

The serpent was awfully close to me. What was I to do? I looked at the moss in my palm, then looked at the serpent, and then started swimming towards nowhere—all track of direction was lost—I did not know where I was going, I did not know—

The scales crashed on my leg again, sending a sharp jolt of pain across my limb. But it did not make me stop swimming—just like the sound of a whip makes a horse realize that they need to run, the snapping of those scales against my leg made me realize that I needed to survive— I swam even faster. But in a haste, I threw the only bone I had with me at the serpent, along with the useless moss.

Not stopping, I caught a glance of the serpent—the fourth and the most recent bone jutted out from its second head. The way it was jutting out, it could have stunned the serpent if not for the drag force of the water surrounding us—that force was slowing down everything I threw—the floating moss around me was an example.

I needed to attack the reptile by going closer to it.

The only advantage for me now was that the attack on its head from the bone, however feeble it might be, had slowed it down a bit—I swam even faster. If I could not escape the serpent, I had to escape the lonely waters, go to a place where I would not be alone, where there would be others—faeries or mers. But I did not know where I was going. I was completely lost. Lost.  Only the hope of escaping these waters and the will to survive kept me moving.

A wall of giant kelps surfaced in front of me. I was so engrossed in focusing on the serpent behind me that I had failed to notice the kelp forest ahead of me, until I was too close to it.

I glanced behind, at the serpent, coming after me. I could not stop. I could not go backward. The kelp forest was so wide that I could not go sideways—I needed to go forward—inside the forest.

Already inside the forest, swimming through the shadows of kelp blades, my brain decided to work. If I continued charging to the depths of the forest, I would never be able to get out and who knew what other dreadful creature resided within these giant kelps—I stopped swimming.

Going sideways, I hid behind the stipes of kelps; the darkness, the dense mass of kelp around me sheltering me from the serpent. I watched the serpent go forward—it did not notice when I slipped away from its path. I could now easily go back and escape but keeping the reptile alive could be a risk—if somehow it got aware of me...it could again start chasing me.

I searched for something to use as a weapon—a bone or anything sharp—but, there was nothing on the sea-floor except small stones, moss and the holdfast of kelps. Sighing, I swam silently towards the serpent, intending to grab the bone that protruded from the rear end of the reptile's tail— only it could act as my weapon.

After reaching behind the serpent, it was a careful but quick and easy task to immobilize it.

Stealthily, I pulled out the bone from the serpent's body and swam up to its hood, surfacing behind it. Then, I plunged the bone inside the third head of the serpent. Like before, it thrashed and swung its tail but I was careful to swim high enough, and the reptile's strength was fading—the crazy thrashing of its tail failed to affect me this time. However, I knew the serpent was not dead, it was just not being able to act. But that was enough opportunity for me to get out of the kelp forest and out to a safer place in the Kingdom of Water.

I turned around and started to swim, but the rush in me had subsided and I felt fatigued—my limbs burned from exhaustion and the pain in my legs from the serpent's attack increased ten folds—but somehow, I managed to throw my legs behind me and part the water with my hands. I had not gone further when I smelled something burning.

Burning?

Yes, burning.

The only thought I had at that time was that I deserved a break—I was tired! Still, going down to the sea-floor, I turned towards the direction of the smell and realized it was coming from the serpent, realized that the serpent was burning. But how?

Sweeping my gaze across the forest, I noticed a tall, dark figure far away, behind the stipes of kelps, covered in shadows. The area around me had been illuminated from the flames coming out of the now half-burned serpent, but the faerie was still covered in darkness. I was too stunned to say anything, though I had a lot to say, a lot to ask, a lot to know.

<<•••>>

Meaning of certain terms used in this chapter:

1. Stipe: The long stem-like thing in kelps.

2. Blade: The leaf-like things of kelp.

3. Holdfast: A root-like structure anchoring the kelp to the sea-floor.

So...how was this chapter? Hope you enjoyed it.✨

Who do you think that fae is? 👀

Do vote, comment, share if you liked the chapter. I do not want to chase you all with bones xD (Just Kidding, I won't. *whispers* But I surely can.)