Adder

Chapter Two: You're My Best Friend

The sun rode along the horizon, its light peeking through the trees as the birds began to sing their morning song. As the warmth of the sun grazed passed Adder's eyelids, she began to stir and rolled over; her head crunched against the leaves. The noise made her shoot up, looking around confused before catching her breath.

I'm in the woods with Ryu. I'm okay, she thought to herself.

Suddenly, she froze. She'd fallen asleep on Ryu's lap last night, but where was he?

"Ryu?" She called out, slowly looking around, assuming he went to go use a tree or something. When she received no answer, she began to get worried. Did someone find them? Why would they take Ryu and not her? She stood, walking around the pit that was now only filled with ashes. Adder looked into the woods as far as her vision would let her, hoping to see something, anything, move.
There was a small noise, as if someone brushed their foot over a pile of leaves and sent a few sliding down the side. The sound caused Adder to spin on her heel, her eyes tracing the area at her eye level before looking down at the ground.

The culprit of the noise? A snake, about six feet long with white completely covering its head and trailing down its entire body. The only signs of any color besides that were a few splotches of brown sprinkled amongst the white and the honey colored eyes that looked up at her like a puppy.

"What the fuck, Ryu?!" Adder yelled, staring at the snake in anger before reaching down to grab the duffel bag, tossing it towards the reptile. "You scared me half to death!" As if ignoring her, the snake slithered behind a nearby tree. There was a small rustle of the leaves and the sound of a grunt. Ryu peeked out from behind the tree, torso reflecting the soft rays of light that slipped through the branches as the scales that remained transformed back into skin. He reached and grabbed the bag before retreating back behind the tree to dress himself.
Adder turned, back facing where Ryu was, and looked down at her feet as she kicked leaves aside. There were so many, the trees were beginning to look bare. She soon heard the crunching of footsteps behind her and a soft thud on the ground.

"Your turn to carry the bag," Ryu stated simply, kicking some of the debris that dropped from the trees into the fire pit in an attempt to conceal it. Adder sighed, turning to pick up the bag and flinging it over her shoulder before looking up at Ryu, meeting his eyes with an aggravated stare.

"You gonna tell me where you went, snakey boy?" She asked, impatience lacing the words as they slipped from her lips. She shoved him gently before speaking again. "You had me worried."

Ryu let out a soft laugh, easily catching his balance after she'd shoved him. He pulled her close into a hug, Adder hugging back. "I thought I heard something, so I went out to look. Thought I'd be less obvious as a snake," He smiled down at her before pulling back. " Where are we going? There's one motel about a six hour-ish walk from here we can try and spend the night at."

"Please. I could use a continental breakfast," Adder sighed, just thinking about food made her stomach grumble. Another laugh escaped from Ryu at her comment, beginning to walk as Adder followed him like a shadow.

The two had always been close since the first time they met. Around ten years old, Adder had been given the freedom to go out and play in the backyard and the woods as long as no one could see her and as long as she was "good." She always enjoyed the fresh air and the sunlight, especially when she'd been stuck in that attic for weeks on end. On this particular day, little Adder played happily in the forest, looking at all the different rocks and picking up the pretty ones. Her treasures, she'd call them. As she rummaged through the dirt by a nearby stream looking for stones, she heard a small hiss.

And there he was. Ryu was out playing in the woods when he saw her; a girl his age, all alone. Just like him. So what would any little boy do when he saw an unsuspecting girl?