A Devious Exchange

Burn Me!

*mature

I could vaguely recall Nicholas' shouts to me in the background. Yells of my stupidity, and cries for me to get back. But that didn't matter to me. The ground vibrated loudly underneath my feet, rocks tumbling down to the floor in my peripherals. The cavern shook with a new intensity, and I knew then my sudden call to action attracted unwanted attention.

Sprinting faster to the blazing light, I scooped up the lantern and held it away from me swiftly by its handle. The movement jostled a few lost embers and broken glass onto my sleeves, threatening to burn through to my skin and hand. I blew at it quickly, watching the flames flicker and grow brighter back to life, creating a larger flame.

Yes! I just need to-

Hissss. The fowl noise made me jump still from my slow trot. Without a second to recover, a tail came flying at my face from the side. I quickly ducked down, letting out a scream. I was knocked backwards off my feet by my sudden stop, clutching the fire tightly to my chest at the last second, refusing to drop it. I felt the heat bury against my chest, licking a warning heat directly into my clothes.

Pain shot through my other hand taking the brunt of the fall, my bottom following second. My head whipped to the side as scales snapped against the floor where I was, the harsh slap eerily resembling a whip to cattle. My legs hurried to scoot my bottom back more, watching fearfully as the rattle curled upwards to hover right on top of me, ready to strike again.

I grunted, quickly pushing my torso up, gritting as my hand started to bleed from the cuts. I rolled onto my knees just in time for another slap to resonate behind me.

Oh my gods! One more second and I'd be a flattened corpse!

The beast's rattle thrummed behind me, its burning vengeance obvious. I scrambled to get onto my feet, not looking back for even another second. This thing wants me dead! I ducked my head and ran like a bat from hell, my legs barely managing to avoid tripping on the folds of my dress and the precarious cave terrain. My feet hit the floor with heavy thuds, Miook being my goal. I had to get to him now, there was no going back.

I couldn't stop to breathe, to fix my hair, nor to adjust my grip on the lantern. The fire rattled in its cage and I feared it would burn out before I arrived. My lungs squeezed from the adrenaline and fear, not paying attention to anything else but the snake and Miook.

He was just in reach, staring at me in horror. Knowing the snake had finally reached me from the sudden, loud hiss at the back of my neck, I yelled, "SHOOT NOW!"

I lifted the lantern up above my head like a flag, burying my feet into the ground as I turned sideways. My eyes dragged from the tip of Miook's pointed arrow, right into the black depths of the beast's mouth stilled right in front of the lantern.

Shoot idiot!

I screamed loudly as the snake moved its head to the right to lunge, trying to evade the light like the plague. Finally, a whistle brushed past my ears. Time seemed to slow down as fangs nearly tore into my arm, and a flying dart shot through the hot flame, the remaining glass shattering into thousands of pieces. I quickly turned my head to avoid the shards, feeling them pelt and cut my bare neck and shoulder.

The greatest screech wailed throughout the cavern, my free hand digging into my left ear to hold my rattling skull. I finally looked back up in horror, watching as the snake's head tipped back, and jaw went slack as it wailed. The arrow hit its slitted eye almost perfectly, blood gushing out as its body coiled around itself in defense.

Thank you Miook for your godly aim!

I grinned victoriously, shuffling backwards whilst lowering the lamp. My smile was wiped clean off when a hand dug into the back collar of my shirt, yanking me back like a fish on a reel. It quickly turned me around to face an angry, red-faced Miook.