Warriors of Twilight: Adventure Restarts

Chapter 3 - Slithering Foe

Kyla led the pack in the direction of the Naga Courtyard with Midnight at her side, following the glowing spot on the Magic Map. The Twilight Forest was harder to navigate than she thought, as the fact that it was always basically nighttime made it harder to see where they were going.

"Gosh darn it!" Jordan huffed in annoyance after tripping over a bramble for the fifth time. Mabel grunted as her bow got caught on a branch and it tugged her backward, and Ari walked over to help her get it off.

"You okay man?" Asher barked to Jordan in reply. Patch and Fang, who were on Asher's back, looked over at him, and Jordan sighed before nodding.

"We're all tripping over brambles here too. The undergrowth is so dense." Kyla called over her shoulder. "At least we're almost there," Kyla added as she noticed the glowing point on the map, nearly reaching the mark that showed where the courtyard was.

"Welp, I just realized there's a flashlight in my backpack. I think its almost dead though." Ari piped up, taking it out and shaking it before turning it on.

"NOW you tell us." Copper mewed sarcastically before the entire pack let out a laugh. Ari pointed the flashlight beam in the direction they were going, which helped a lot with navigation. Soon enough, the pack neared the clearing where the courtyard was, clearing the ferns to access it. Kyla shuddered as she heard a loud and deep hiss from inside it, followed by a growl from Midnight. Ari turned the flashlight off and put it away.

"Rain, Rylee, Copper, you three stay over there, everyone else, get into positions," Kyla said to the group, pointing in a general direction of clearing where they could stay. The trio that were told to stay outside of the courtyard walked over to an oak tree, probably where they stayed at the first attempt of this battle. Asher walked over to drop off Patch and Fang with their mom and their brother, and everyone else scattered to get into their positions. Jordan and Ari each climbed a taller tree and steadied themselves on the branches. Mabel climbed a smaller tree, but it was just tall enough to stay over the courtyard and out of the Naga's reach.

Kyla climbed a canopy tree in the far back, shuddering as the snake-creature glared at her and hissed. She noticed that it was still injured from the last battle where she lost her memory, which made sense, after all, it takes wounds a while to heal. She steadied herself and loaded her bow with an arrow, just as Midnight and Asher climbed up on the walls. The Naga could sense them there and immediately slithered towards them, causing the wolves to break into a runaway.

"Everyone start shooting arrows, now!!!" came Kyla's shout the moment the Naga crashed into the wall. The group sniped all at once, only two of the arrows hitting their target, but the four kept at it. Only around half of their arrows were hitting the Naga.

Kyla quickly realized that there somehow seemed to be an endless supply of arrows even though she was only able to carry some in her bag, and same with everyone else. Now THAT was weird. Probably just as weird as the weird-looking face of the Naga. Maybe a bit more.

"This might be harder than we thought!" Kyla had to listen close to hear Mabel's call, but they all noticed a segment of the Naga's long tail break off when one of Ari's arrows hit it. Kyla cringed at the weird sight, and then let out a sigh of relief. This wouldn't be a bloody battle. The Naga must only get hurt when they hit the scales hard enough.

"We're getting somewhere!" Ari called back with a thumbs up as the Naga let out a hiss of pain. Midnight howled loudly before leaping to another part of the wall. The Naga slid past Kyla, and when it saw her it almost looked confused. Kyla chuckled a little bit inside seeing this, assuming that the Naga had thought she was dead. Welp, she looked pretty good for a dead girl, didn't she?

The Naga let out another hiss as another segment broke off, and it kept slithering around. Asher stood on his hind paws and did a little funny dance, teasing the Naga. Annoyed, the snake slithered towards the wall, and Asher leaped away before it crashed, but it broke through the wall. Mabel's tree was hit, and Kyla's heart sank when she heard the splitting of wood, and the tree start to creak.

"NOPE, NOPE, NOPE NOPE NOPE-" Mabel yelled in fear as the tree started to tip, before jumping down and running away as fast as she could, running over to Kyla's tree. "Mind if I join you?!" She exclaimed. She was out of breath, and a bit frazzled, but unharmed.

"Not at all! Come on up!" Kyla responded before reaching her hand down to help her climb up, giving her a quick hug when she was steady on the branch.

"Mabel, are you okay!?" Jordan shouted from his position on his tree, audible worry in his voice even from across the courtyard. Though Ari didn't speak up, she had frozen on the spot.

"Yep!" Mabel called back to him, holding a thumbs up high in the air.

"Okay good!" Jordan sounded relieved hearing that, and he seemed to relax a little.

Everyone got back into positions, Mabel this time on a branch above Kyla, and the four continued shooting arrows. It was definitely harder to hit the Naga now, as it was faster now that it had lost more segments. They only had to keep at it for a bit longer, and then Kyla could run in to deal the final blow. She was raising her bow to shoot when out of the corner of her eye she saw Rylee's white pelt crawling into the courtyard.

"Rylee, what are you doing!?" Jordan called over Midnight's howling at the Naga. Rylee didn't seem to hear him, she was focused on a little tan-furred rabbit on the edge of a broken hedge. She slunk over and picked it up by its scruff before making her way away, but the Naga noticed her and started slithering Rylee's way. Rylee ran as it came close.

"I'm gonna drop down and kick it in its face," Kyla muttered.

"What?!" Mabel's response came. Kyla braced herself and leaped out of the tree, onto the wall, and ran towards Rylee, the rabbit and the Naga. Then, when she was close enough, she jumped for it.