The Ethereal Saga - Volume Two - The Abyss of Abaddon

Chapter Nine - Ophidian

It occurred to Alex he had only ever navigated through the henges once before. He had hardly had time to appreciate it given the possessed form of Lucy had tried to murder him discretely during the journey. Nonetheless, he was sure the rainbow vortex did not get quite so dark and gruesome. He wondered whether the orb of darkness they carried in their possession had had some say over the nature of their travels. No one saw fit to mention it, each arriving at their own conclusions. The ground returned comfortably beneath him. They quickly reaffirmed their grips on each other, as they had no reason to stay where they landed. They needed to go deeper. Below Ethereal was Earth, Alex's first home. They were in and out of Stonehenge in a matter of seconds much to the confusion of some shocked tourists. It occurred to him that they probably caught their disappearance on their various mobile devices. He wasn't sure how often Ethereals had travelled back and forth between the two realms, but he guessed that it was much less of a concern before the invention of the camera phone. Again, A momentary flash of white light blinded him. His surroundings spinning around him turning in to the auras of pink, purple and white. The colours again grew darker. The deep blood-red. The white increasing further along the greyscale until it was a deep black, darker than anything he had ever seen. This time the blackness seemed to pervade in to all the colours, consuming them in its enveloping shadow of nothingness. As he felt something beneath his feet, he found it to be significantly less even than the grass at Stonehenge had been. As the colours dissipated, he became aware of a sinking feeling. Beneath them, a thick mud began to climb up their ankles. He attempted to move and felt the mud harden and watched as it turned in to a thick clay, and then to something else with the consistency of concrete.
"Well, shit," said Tom.
"You're not wrong," said Michael.
It was darker than Alex had expected. A thick wall of dripping clay surrounded them in a circle. He saw light coming from a hole above them.
"It's a Vikene mining well," said Zach.
"It's a what?" said Tom struggling and pulling comically on his knees to try and gain leverage.
"A cross between a mine and a well used by the Vikene to gather this horrible stuff," said Zach equally unsuccessfully struggling.
"Why can't we just travel out of here?" asked Alex, "If the henge is here I mean."
"I don't feel anything," said Tom.
"Me neither," agreed Zach."
"Shit," was all Michael said.
Zach looked at Michael with impatience, "What?"
"It's a transposition charm," Michael explained.
Zach rubbed the bridge of his knows between his eyes to alleviate some stress.
"For those of us who aren't walking dictionary's?" Tom asked.
"It means we aren't at the henge," surmised Alex, "We were redirected here. It's a trap."
"Aren't traps usually dangerous?" Tom asked nervously.
A hissing sound silenced the group.
The clay climbed unstoppably up Alex's figure. Panicking he looked around quickly. He caught Zach's eye, hoping for a plan. He held his gaze for a moment giving Alex a look that told him all he needed to know. It translated to something a long the lines of, I got nothing.
Soon the orange concrete reached his shoulders and stopped abruptly. He almost sighed in relief but that relief was instantly replaced with anxiety when the hissing sound returned and grew closer.
"We all hear that," said Alex, "Right?"
His father grunted something like a yes.
Something slithered along the stone walls. Its echo being bounced around the excellent acoustics, they all found it impossible to figure out which direction it was coming from. It was getting louder, that much was for certain.
He heard Tom wince and turned his head as far as he could to see him. He watched in his peripheral vision as a fat slimy serpent surrounded Tom. Her length was modest but did not diminish the threat.
Michael spoke quietly, "It's an Ophidian. A relatively small one. You have one advantage here, they are blind. They see with their ears. Sound."
Tom understood and attempted to lower his anxious panting to a less audible level.
The snake continued to move around Tom.
Michael whispered, "Don't. Move. A. Muscle."
Tom trembled as the snake continued tracing a circumference it had set, far too close to him. A single drop of sweat dripped down from his forehead on to the clay. The snake swiftly opened her jaws wide and darted its tongue forward. In stead of striking at him, her forked tongue, stopped just shy of his nose. Tom shook uncontrollably now and watched as the pointed edges moved downwards and gently licked the stone where the drop had landed. The monster recoiled her tongue and tightened the circle around Tom's neck barely centre metres from the skin. Revealing its sharp fangs in the light, its head reeled backwards as if to indicate winding up to deliver a blow. A killer blow, thought Alex.
He felt desperate to do something and felt fear in every nerve of his body. The serpent readied itself to strike with a loud hiss.
"STOP!" shouted Alex desperately.
Nothing happened.
Tom opened one eye he had closed in terror and looked up to see the serpent had turned to look at Alex. She tilted her head as she stared, expression blank at him.
Alex felt momentarily lost for words, not expecting his desperate cry for mercy to have any effect.
"You... You understood that?" he asked.
The serpent hissed and moved swiftly to Alex. It placed its head so that its face was inches in front of his. It darted swiftly side to side staring deeply into each green eye.
Alex gulped, "I uh.... I'd really appreciate if you didn't eat my buddy there. Or me. Or any of us really."
Alex sensed the serpent thinking as it discerned his meaning. Alex knew from his previous interactions with his quintessence power to not put too much faith in specific words and to focus on one strong feeling. Survival, he decided, was pretty damn strong.
Hungry said the snake as she began to slither around Alex now.
He understood that much already, but it was all she seemed able to communicate. It was possible no one had been captured in this trap for a long time, he realised. They were likely the best meal the thing had ever seen.
Alex began to whisper now, focussing on the meaning of his words as he spoke, "We can get you all the meals you want, soon as we get free of here."
Suddenly the snake stopped and tilted its head once more. The meaning was clear. She was intrigued by the concept of 'free'.
"That's what you want too, isn't it?" he asked and she hissed affirmatively.
"Spare us," Alex implored, "and we can get you out of here too."
This offer seemed to give them a stay of execution as she curled in to a ball and began to rest her head next to his.
"What did you say to her?" asked Zach.
"The truth," Alex replied.
That had bought them time but they were no closer to getting out of this place.
Mumbled voices travelled down from above, as a cranking sound.
"I hate cleaning duty," said one gruff tone, "It's always rat guts that thing eats."
"Just hurry up and get it done, I want my rations in full this week!" replied another.
The cranking continued and Alex watched as the light grew closer.
"We're moving up," Tom said in relief.
The snaked hissed softly at Alex. If he didn't know any better, he'd say it was almost friendly.
"I don't know what you said son," said Michael,
"But get ready to meet the locals. We're going to Midbar."