Quest of the Dark Lands

Chapter Twelve

Seleina stared at the crocodiles, her mouth was hanging open. Some of the crocodiles hissed at her stare. A few even retreated.

'look.' Evangeline pointed.

Seleina looked，and didn't know whether to laugh or whatever. Popping out of the crocodiles' back, were tinny wings. Some were puffy pink, others were yellowish-brown, and gave off a slight sent of peaches gone bad mixed with yogurt. Evangeline pinched her nose 'weird smell.'

'kill, kill, hungry!' a voice came from apparently nowhere

Seleina looked at Evangeline in amazement, Evangeline returned the look.

'eat, eat, bite!'the voice continued

'it's one of the crocodiles.' Evangeline whispered

'that one! Over there!' Seleina pointed it out, it was one with furry pink wings

'big, big, humongous!' the crocodile said again.

'can you hear me?'Seleina asked it

'yes, yes, no!' the crocodile said

'um,' Evangeline said 'crocodile speech is apparently much harder than we thought.'

'can you tell me something then?' Seleina pressed on.

'no, no, yes!' the crocodile said

'oh, crap.'

'would you let us pass then?' Seleina asked 'we're in a hurry.'

'no, no, no.' came the answer

'at least that's certain.' Evangeline said

'then, we'll have to fight them.' Seleina said in a matter-of-fact voice

'what chances do you think we have against an angry squad of magical crocodiles?' Evangeline asked

'oh, none, I suppose. But they're not real magical either, in fact, I think that one is quite dense.'

'but it's not about how intelligent the crocodiles are, what matters is that we get pass them safely.'

'I have a plan.' Seleina whispered 'you tempt some of them to go your way, I'll try to let the others come my way, then we'll disappear into the water, and swim till we reach the gap where there aren't any crocodiles, then we'll run up to the land before us.'

'got it.' Evangeline nodded

'action stage one. GO!' Seleina yelled

Evangeline buried herself in waist-deep water, 'here!' she yelled 'this way!'

The crocodiles merely snapped at her, they didn't budge.

Seleina clapped her hands together 'come, come, here!' she yelled. This caught the attention of the weird-talk crocodile, he turned his head slowly, and moved toward her. Some other crocodiles followed his lead, and before long, there was a troop of crocodiles were after Seleina.

'chew, chew, swallow!' Evangeline said hurriedly, the weird-talk crocodile turned its head again, and made a sound at Evangeline. It redirected its attention, and crawled back towards Evangeline, who was wading to the left. The other crocodiles followed suit, they crawled lazily, following their leader.

'listen Seleina.' Evangeline said 'you climb on shore! I'll deal with the crocodiles.'

'no. no way!'Seleina called back. 'we either die together.' She took a shaky breath 'or we live TOGETHER.'

'nice talking.' Evangeline said 'but look,' a dozen soldiers were aiming their arrows straight at Seleina's heart.

'oops.'