Deva, Temple of Treachery

Chapter 17

Amara grimaced, as sun hit her face. Blinking away the tears, she waited paitently for her eyes to adjust to the new lighting while she covered them, trying to peer at her surroundings. They were outside, and must have gone right through the golden city. The otherside was filled with jungle, a deep river flowing in front of them and a mountain wall with what seemed to be a cave at the other side of the river.

Walking closer, they both saw a bridge but unfortunately it was raised and the level was on the other side. Turning around, noticing several doors besides the one they had exited, apparently the labyrinth had several solutions to it, but no other bridge or way to cross the river.

Turning around, Amara's breath caught in her throat as she was greeted by a bare chest as Silas was currently undressing.

"What are you doing?" she finally stammered out, trying to turn her eyes away. She waited for Vihaan to cover her eyes before she remembered that he couldn't, and finally turning her gaze away.

Silas, who seemed to noticing her morose mood, changed the subject, "I will need to swim across."

"Doesn't it look a little suspicious. The river is the only thing that protects the artifact, I doubt there wouldn't be any other measures to protect such an invaluable object," Amara said, watching the water. It wasn't flowing too quickly for people to swim across. She saw nothing lurking underneath the clear surface and there was no sharp stones in the mud.

It simply looked too easy for her liking. Silas had stopped what he was doing, his eyes peering at the water. "Gharials or crocodiles?"

"Perhaps, but..." Amara looked around, seeing no signs of any of the giant lizards by the banks of the river. "I see no signs of them."

"There might still be goonches, sharks or stingrays," Silas muttered and walked over to a close by tree. He pulled of a giant branch and walked back to the river. Amara walked closer as he started to prod the mud, stirring it up so that they could not see the ground.

Nothing happen, Silas lifted up the branch only to have it suddenly ripped out of his hand as something grabbed onto it, snapping it in half.

They both stared at the branch, flowing down the river.

"Did you see what did that?" asked Amara, both intrigued and scared at the prospect of a monster lurking underneath the surface of the beautiful river.

"I saw what looked like a white snake."

"A river snake?"

"It looked like it but-" Silas eyes narrowed,"it was, from what I can tell, around 8 to ten feet long."

Amara stared at him in pure horror. "There is no snake that large!"

"Not what I know of, I'm not sure it is a snake. It didn't have scales," Silas got a fruit this time, throwing the peach into the calm water.

Amara let out a gasp in surprise as what look like a ten feet, white work with with a large gape adorned with two fangs, one on the upper jaw and one on the lower, threw itself out of the water to catch the fruit. It pulled it down into the water, only to release the fruit a second later.

"What is that?" Amara asked, her voice faint.

"I don't know but it is carnivorous," Silas grumbled.

"What?"

"It spat the fruit out, that means that those fangs aren't just to look terrifying. It most likely head meat," Silas explained, glaring at the water like he was trying to make it part.

"Please, tell me you aren't considering going over," Amara said, feeling dread dripp into her heart.

"I will have to if we are to cross."