Five people sat under the dome with crossed legs and closed eyes, obviously meditating. Snakes filled the clearing and covered the building. Hundreds of them.
Pine put his mouth next to Ruwen’s ear and whispered. “Journeyman’s Glade.”
This is where they’d expected to find Pine’s grandson. But Ruwen had lost hope of that. Not only did the bamboo make traveling difficult and confusing, but the vipers were so numerous, he didn’t think a ten-year-old had a chance. The reality was, Pine’s grandson had probably lost all his minutes long ago and returned to his body on whatever planet they’d come from.
It had taken them two hours, half the night, to reach this place. Finding fruit in the dark while avoiding all the active vipers had proved impossible. Ruwen glanced at his left palm. He had one hundred twenty-two minutes left.
Pine whispered again. “Do you see him?”
Ruwen studied those under the dome. The white stone gave off a faint light, and it spilled into the surrounding glade, making seeing easier. He couldn’t make out any details, but all five figures looked far too large for a ten-year-old. Just to be sure, he scanned the entire meadow looking for the boy.
Pine stepped up next to Ruwen, and he shook his head at the old man.
Pine’s shoulders slumped.
Ruwen bent down and whispered in Pine’s ear. “Let’s go ask if any of them saw your grandson.”
Pine smiled and nodded.
Movement caught Ruwen’s eye, and he held an arm out, stopping Pine from stepping into the meadow. The farthest pillar seemed to waver, and it took a few seconds to realize why. Something tall and wider than the pillar stood behind it, hiding. But its body writhed, drawing Ruwen’s eye.
Approaching the building without first exposing that creature would be stupid. Ruwen really wished he could cast Distract and realized he’d have to do it manually. As he searched for a rock, he found a small bush with eight red sorrow fruit.
Ruwen tossed one into his mouth and put the other seven in his folded up left sleeve, since the right sleeve held the last green sorrow fruit. He could see why Sift liked the red ones so much. These weren’t as sweet as the green ones and had a slightly sour aftertaste. The combination tasted wonderful and it made his mouth water.
The red fruit also had a profound effect on Ruwen’s body. The distance of his vision tripled, and he could hear Pine’s heartbeat. The sound of snakes slithering filled the air with a constant dull noise. The faint breeze now pressed against his skin and the red sorrow fruit’s flavors intensified. No wonder Sift liked the taste so much, the fruit made itself taste better.
With the increase in Ruwen’s senses, it only took him a few seconds to find a hand sized rock. He moved back to Pine, handed him four of the red sorrow fruits, and looked for the best place to draw out the hidden beast. With all his strength, he threw the rock at the bamboo forest to the left of the creature.
The rock struck the hollow bamboo with a boom, like someone had struck a drum. Pine jumped, and Ruwen raised his eyebrows at the loud sound. More importantly, the creature behind the pillar shot outward, and Ruwen studied it.
At first Ruwen thought it was just a massive version of the vipers he’d already fought. The creature’s tubular body stood ten feet tall with at least that many feet behind it. With the boost to his senses, he noticed it didn’t slither like a snake, but moved smoothly in a straight line. Its head moved back and forth and twisted up and down like it was blind. It seemed to get larger as it moved across the glade.
The red sorrow fruit’s buff faded, and the large snake became harder to see, but not before Ruwen comprehended what he’d seen, and he hissed in horror. He picked up another rock from the ground, not bothering about the size. He threw it hard, and again a satisfying boom echoed into the night.
The creature whipped its head, which didn’t appear any different than the rest of its body, toward the sound. Arrows flew from the creature’s head at an amazing rate, maybe three or four a second. Ruwen’s skin prickled as he watched the arrows strike the bamboo. Instead of sticking into the bamboo, they moved.
Dread, disgust, and fear struck Ruwen as he understood what he’d just witnessed. The creature was a mass of vipers, and it could fire its snakes like arrows at a ridiculous pace.
Ruwen didn’t want to fight that thing. Skirting the glade and continuing up the mountain was the smartest idea. He was here to make it to the summit, not find a lost boy. A boy who most certainly had lost all his minutes shortly after arriving.
But if the boy had made it this far, one of those five might have seen him, and even seen which direction the boy had gone. Pine and Ruwen had little chance of finding the boy without help. Asking those five would require facing that large viper though, and it could fire enough snakes at him in under ten seconds to take his remaining minutes. A risk he really wanted to avoid.
Ruwen wanted to spend as little time here as possible. He needed to get back so he could see his parents when they finished their revival. But even with the pressure of that deadline, he wondered if meditation might be their best bet. In the daylight, this thing might be easier to fight or it might go away.
Ruwen whispered in Pine’s ear. “There’s a large tube-shaped mass of vipers that shoots snakes from its mouth, and its guarding the structure. Should we meditate until daylight? Maybe go around?”
Pine hissed. “That’s an Elder Viper and incredibly dangerous.” Pine thought for a
