Two unblinking, yellow eyes stared at him with an unwavering gaze. A massive purple serpent towered over them, swaying with a flicking red tongue. It's scales glittered like amethysts as it glared down at them.

"T-this isn't good..." he said nervously, watching the serpent. His heartbeat throbbed loudly in his head and the simple sword shook in his trembling hand.

She stared at him. "What's with you?"

"I don't," he breathed in shakily, "I don't like snakes."

There was a moment of confused silence before the snake's loud hissing jolted them back.

 "C-can't we just...stab it and leave?" He asked, the hissing sending shivers down his spine.

"My daggers do nothing against its scales," she said. "The best we can do is run."

"Are you blind?" He snapped, fear pounding through his veins. "There's nowhere to run!"

"Running won't be necessssary." 

"Oh, it's very necessary." 

The serpent hissed, irritated. It quickly slithered forward, circling around them in attempt to trap them in within its coils. Adreana leaped out immediately and he tried to follow her but was trapped in before he could jump. 

"Draco!" Adreana yelled, her voice muffled through the serpent's body. 

"I-I'm okay!" It's going to tighten and suffocate me! "Just worry about the serpent for now!" He shouted back. The serpent coiled itself in a tight perfect circle with its head rested on top of the shape, sealing its trap.

Okay, okay. What should I do? He scanned the inside of the snake and stared at the white scales on the underside of its jaw where it used its head to seal off the top. 

If I climb up and try to stab it in the jaw, maybe it might work, he thought. He scaled the serpent, using the scales as foot and hand holds, trying to ignore the feeling of its cold scales against his skin. He finally reached the top, hanging onto one of its larger scales while he heard Adreana's blades screeching against the hardened scales from the outside.

He unsheathed his sword and thrust it up the whitish scales of the serpent's jaw. The blade only clanged off of it, but he tried again and again. It was getting harder and harder to breathe trapped in the coils of this serpent. The purple and white scales became a blur as he started stabbing desperately, growing panicked without a sign of sunlight or air.

The serpent stayed tightly coiled with its head keeping his small prison shut like a lid on a jar. Shavings of the snake's white scales drifted down like little snowflakes. 

He kept stabbing in his suffocating desperation until he saw a bit of pink flesh showing. He took a slow breath to prepare him for the gruesome scene to come and gripped the hilt of his sword with both hands, driving it through the serpent's jaw.

It hissed in pain, instinctively moving its head up. He clung to the sword stuck through its bottom jaw and continued to push it up. The sight of sunlight filled his lungs with relief and he felt more confident in its warmth. Energized, he dug the sword deeper so it kept the serpent's jaw wide open and it couldn't close its mouth to bite.

"Adreana, now!" He said frantically, hanging for dear life to the sword. "Stab it now!"

Without a word, she nimbly climbed up the serpent's back and quickly hung with her feet and hands from its bottom jaw. With a short battle cry, she jumped up with her daggers and stabbed the serpent right up its head.

It let out a guttural hiss, sounding like a human scream and an anguished screech colliding together. The serpent writhed helplessly, but it couldn't break free of the blades. The life drained from its eyes and it wavered to the ground, falling in a heap. 

Adreana dropped from the serpent's head and landed softly on the ground. "We made it through that one. Nice planning--watch out for the venom!"

He retracted his arm from the serpent's mouth quickly as a sizzling droplet of venom dropped and spread over a bottom fang. The mention of venom brought something to his mind.

"Lift your shirt up."

"Excuse me?!" Adreana took a hurried step back, her oddly colored eyes wide and two hands tightened around her daggers.

He paused, realizing his mistake, and rephrased. "Let me have a look where the serpent cut you. I could try and heal it."

She looked at him warily but lifted the cloth that revealed a long, puckered wound. He could see the dark purple venom start to creep into the veins around the cut. 

"Now hold still," he said quietly and pressed his fingers against the infected wound.

She bit her lip but said nothing and kept still. Slowly the purple venom began to disappear and the cut became less visible, fading to a thin red line. She exhaled once he removed his hand. He hadn't noticed she was holding her breath the entire time.

"We should rest for a few minutes," he suggested. "I nullified the poison so it's gone but it might take some time before you're ready to go."

"You should rest, too," she said. "You must be drained from using so much energy..."

"I'm fine," he lied but lay down next to her anyway. They stared up at the pink, darkening sky in silence, the wind making it almost peaceful before he remembered that a dead serpent was disintegrating a few feet away from them.

"Nyx is already sending out her pawns, huh?" He said to break the silence, regretting it once he saw the distaste on her face at the mention of her mother's name.

"This was just the start." Her fiery hatred started to show on the surface as she narrowed her eyes. "I'm sure she has a lot more tricks up her sleeve."

Just the start. They nearly died on the first "pawn" and one of them was already wounded. Could they even take all of the demons and obstacles Nyx put in their path? 

"Never suspected old Malia to be one of her players..." Adreana said softly, looking at the gradually disintegrating serpent. "I truly thought she would help us."

"Don't blame yourself," he reassured her, sitting up. "You wouldn't have known. We'll just be more on guard for the next person we meet."

She nodded halfway, but still looked upset and unsure. "Where are we going next, anyway?" He asked.

"There's no way we can go back to Arenam; Nyx will use Eric and all of his resources so she can have both of our heads.  I was planning to visit Maiore, but the driver might be spreading news of a demon lurking near and we'll both be in trouble. We might have to go there...both of us need better weapons," she replied, getting to her feet. "We'll travel mostly by foot, ship or wagon would be too risky."

He nodded, taking a mental note of her plans. They both walked away from the rocks and the remnants of the serpent. They walked past the towering trees they raced by and made their way towards the main path. They followed the main path but stayed in the concealment of the vegetation so they weren't noticed. 

They could see the intricately carved stone wall surrounding Maiore a few minutes into their walk. It was strangely decorated with colorful banners and paper lanterns that hung in random places. Now here was the trick: they had to somehow sneak past the guards that stood on top of the stone wall and stood at the large wooden gate. 

"How are we going to get through?" He whispered. 

"I don't know," she admitted. "Maybe we could...dig a tunnel?"

He stared at her. "I don't know if you're joking or not. A tunnel? Seriously?"

She threw up her hands in frustration. "Why don't you give us an idea of how to get through?"

"Hm," he said, studying the entrance, wall, and gate. "You could...charm them?"

"Now I don't know if you're joking." She said in a cold tone. "I'm sorry I asked."

"Okay, okay, it was just a suggestion..." He looked up at the nearly black sky and an idea formed in his head.

"Maybe we could sneak in during the night? There seems to be some festival going on...we could sneak with the rest of the crowd and the guards wouldn't notice." He said, squinting to see a faraway silhouette of people and the distant sound of music.

"It's not a bad plan," she muttered. "Fine. We'll try it."

It wasn't long before the raucous crowd and loud music approached the gates. Adreana pulled him into the crowd, ducking behind a large wagon filled with hundreds of festival decorations and items. They stood out from the elegantly dressed mass in their plain clothes but they were hard to see with a number of people surrounding them. 

They wagon rolled forward and they followed close behind it, averting their eyes as they hurriedly passed the guards. Yes! He thought, feeling triumphant. We made it through and...where's the blacksmith...?

"Hey--" he tapped Adreana on the shoulder. "Do you know where the blacksmith is?"

"What?" She shouted over the music and chatter.

Apparently she's deaf, too. He took a deep breath. "DO YOU KNOW WHERE--" he paused to cough a little. "--THE BLACKSMITH IS?"

She nodded and took his hand, pushing past the crowd and each stall that offered various items to them. The festival was lively and colorful, lanterns hung everywhere and people wore differently patterned clothing as they talked cheerfully to each other. However, the farther they walked from the gates, the more the festival began to disappear.

The main road led all the way to the ocean and the docks and they walked down this road. He started to notice how dark the night was as the number of lanterns diminished and fewer people were around to keep the festive mood. The night was slowly closing in, like the claws of a beast. The houses and businesses on each side of the road were mainly quiet with their lights out.

They headed toward a simple, wooden building that smelled of smoke. The loud noises died down as they approached the blacksmith and the night became eerily silent.

Adreana reached up and knocked on the door loudly without hesitation. The door opened and the large figure of a man appeared as welcoming light spilled out of the doorway. Adreana smiled at the blacksmith and pulled him inside.

*******

Such an odd group.

An exiled demon.

A fallen angel.

And...

Two stormy gray eyes watching. 

Always

watching.