Screech! I rubbed open my amber eyes. "What-" I was cut off by another ear-splitting screech. I was up and out of bed in a second. I peered over the teetering edge and to my amazement I saw a giant green serpentine head rushing towards me.
"Serpent!" I yelled. "Rajic, get up!" It was the wrong move. My yelling had attracted the attention of the monster. It swerved its beady black eyes towards me. Each one was easily larger than my head. The giant sea-snake was towering 50 feet over us, and we were 200 feet in the air! I slowly backed away from its bared fangs, saying, "Nice snakey thing! I don't want to hurt you..."
By this time Rajic had finally rubbed the sleep from his eyes and was taking in the situation. Slowly, he began to roll up our supplies. My eyes never left the serpent's. He seemed to be sizing us up for a threat. Apparently, he didn't think much of us because he lunged forward.
"Run!" I seized the horse and dragged her out of the way just in time. Rajic had successfully dodged the enormous mouth as well. Right where we'd been sleeping was a gaping 20 foot hole in the cliffside.
Rajic put our stuff on the horse and tried to airbend a whip at the beast, but it merely glanced off his heavy scales. It hissed out a forked tongue. We would never ride fast enough to escape this thing, especially on a laden horse carrying two people. I knew it was up to me to somehow slow down this thing. And I had an idea. I stepped off the cliff.
I didn't have time to see Rajic's astonished face. I summoned up an enormous wave to catch my fall. The serpent saw me and snapped its huge jaws. Using the momentum of my falling, I transformed the tall wave into a thick rope of water. The water beneath my feet I froze into a type of surfboard. Then, I raced over to the snake's back.
I was too quick and agile for the thing to catch me, but it was very powerful. I could see the large muscles work beneath its scaly skin. Gripping the water-rope tightly in my hands, I lassoed it over the middle of the snake's body. Then I dragged it down.
Plunging into the icy water was hard. Pulling the snake was even harder. I used the currents around me to help pull him down, down, down. My lungs were bursting by this time. Finally, judging that we were far enough away from the isthmus to be safe, I froze the water-rope to an underwater ledge. I made it as strong as I could, but I knew it wouldn't hold for long. I rushed to the surface, gasping in the cool air.
Funny, I thought, how I can be a waterbender and still be so dependant on air to live.
Once I had regained my strength, I rode back on another wave to Rajic.
"You're- you're a waterbender?" He asked warily. "I never imagined- but it makes sense- always asumed it would be fire..."
"Can we leave now?" I asked. We didn't have much time if we were to outrun that thing.
"What? Yes- quickly." He had a funny look on his face, like being a waterbender had somehow changed me. And not exactly for the better.
Fire Princess Kya · Tue Sep 28, 2010 @ 07:48pm · 0 Comments |