DRAUMRS - Dreamweavers Among Us

3 - Ekans

Anasko had her hands full in a deadly struggle. She had a death grip on the thick scaly tail of the two-meter long ekans mik that was desperately trying to get away by pulling itself into the tangled underbrush. From its size and flashy markings, she knew that it was the leader of the nasty clutch of vipers that ruled the northern territory. It had brazenly come across the southern border once again, apparently believing that there was no threat to worry about. Anasko intended to kill it.

She had very nearly gotten in position to lope its head off in open ground, but even though surprised, the spitting and striking ekans had eluded her sabre swings; then it had made a break for the low underbrush at the border. In a split second, Anasko had to decide to either miss her opportunity entirely or to drop the sabre and leap onto the back of the disappearing ekans. She managed to grab on to the tail at the edge of the brush and to brace her legs against the first stout branches. Her decision now left her in a deadly tug of war with the poisonous beast and without her sabre. Every instinct said to let it go, but she could see no break in the thick brush before the wires that signified the border that she could not cross. If the ekans got back across the line, she would have forfeited her best chance so far to kill the world's most dangerous pest.

The stupid part of the argument in her head was that she could just walk away and leave the damn ekans to its own business with no further threat to her. The last thing the beast was going to do was to turn and come back at her on its own. It knew that she was too fast to be struck. It also knew that only the lucky proximity to the brush had saved it from being sliced up in the first encounter. The ekans preferred helpless prey, or at least prey that didn't carry sabres. Across the border, the mik ekans was considered a god among the timid species that lived in paralyzing fear of its crushing bite. It could live happily enough over there as long as the border stood as a barrier to its only real enemies in the south, who saw the creature as the nuisance that it was. But, ekans loved the warm sun of the south and this one would surely continue to test the strength of the border defenses again.

Anasko could feel her muscles cramping-up and weakening. The ekans was all muscle and it had leverage inside the woody bushes. There was no way to pull it back. Her sabre lay out of reach and for some stupid reason, she wasn't carrying a knife. Normally, she travelled with one on her belt and one in her boot. Even a small knife would have been useful as she could either have gutted the ekans or at least given it a reason to come back to fight. She considered whether sinking her teeth into it might achieve the same response. But the reptile wasn't that dumb. It had little concern for human teeth that probably couldn't penetrate its tough scales anyway.

Anasko also remembered that the back end of the ekans featured its asshole. For some reason the beast hadn't unloaded on her yet, but this was just a matter of time. Pretty soon she would lose her grip anyway, while being covered in a stream of stinking poo.

Now the old man in blue robes came over to her. He had periodically walked into the scene in past dreams and here he was again. It was the last goddamn thing that she needed to deal with right now. He was useless in the fight as he apparently had some sympathy for the ekans and apologetically begged off as only a neutral observer. She knew that he would never kick her sabre over to her.

Neutrality didn't stop him from making entirely useless suggestions however. Anasko doubted that she had the patience to engage him in his riddles and truisms, but she couldn't just walk away either. She was stuck as much as the ekans was until one of them gave up the fight.

The old man opened his hands to her as he observed the situation and spoke. "Would it be so bad if your foe lived another day? You will surely get another chance."

He might mean the ekans gripped in her arms or he might mean the leader of an army in some parable of war. Anasko had to guess the context of the question first, or face mild rebuke for not seeing the problem correctly. Fuck it, I only have one enemy right now.