He woke again. The boat shook. Rickman and Osmond paddled the boat with planks. The paddyboat shuddered as it rushed onward. He checked his bags, looking in each of them, checking them.
He shook it, looked again, but it was gone. Gone forever, his Book Of Stories. He shook the bag twice. But... Gone was his Book Of Stories. He'd kept it for a long time... For a long, long time... For years, through his entire life, through the days he'd lived... And now! Now!?
He lay against the boat now, feeling it rock back and forth, looking into the water.... How long would it take for them to sink? How long had it taken for the Book Of Stories to sink?..... Wet, faded, gone...
The others tried paddling with planks of wood, weathered and beaten by the water, and onwards they went. Little by little, but the current pulled them deeper into the serpent.
"Hurry!" Bernard had the crucible in his hand again. It glowed, smelling of smoke and ashes. "Again!"
"Paddling out then!", David gripped the boat, "Paddling along!"
"Again!", Bernard turned to him. He yelled over the waves, "David......Awake! We paddle. .... And then, I'll provide a final push! Alright then... Alright then.... What'll he... What does he... ", the boat shook, launching itself over a wave. "Hold on! Hold on!"
Bernard held the crucible tight to his chest.
Another wave, higher, curling, moving. The boat swam up, Rickman and Osmond paddled. Water covered them. The boat moved through the wave. Droplets sprang up into the air, then rained into the boat. They skimmed across the water.
Shards of wood dropped onto them. The tatters of a sail floated down. An unlucky boat.
"Hold on! Paddle with it! Paddle!", Bernard shouted, gripping the crucible tighter to him. The boat rumbled, shaking again, then shot up. After it skimmed another wave, it fell, dropping down.
Shaking as it reached water. Rickman pushed the paddle forward. The boat turned a little. He pushed it lighter. The boat tilted right, past a tight curve.
Another wave, forming smaller waves to run alongside it. It curled, lowering in height.
"Hold on!", Bernard shouted again, "Hold on!"
It rushed through them, the boat spun. Water filled the boat.
Light rushed onto the boat. Light, silhouetted by teeth, two long fangs. At the snake's mouth, now. At the snake's mouth!
Two waves came in, the boat tumbled through them, Rickman paddled again, one after another, one.... Two.... three.... Four.... The waves piled up behind him. Five.... Further... Another one....
Bernard launched himself forward. He pulled the crucible's contents out. It glowed red and blue, Gotund and Galtrand. Vibrating and emitting light.
The water moved backward, as it rushed out of the snake. The boat balanced above it all.
On the serpent's tongue now. Planks scraped flesh. David tried to move the boat with outstretched fingers, finding no hold and no grip. The serpent tilted its head back. He turned to look up. Light, the outside, the sun, the sky. The boat moved onto two smaller fangs. Caught. Caught between two. The boat shuddered, tilting left and right.
Bernard squeezed his palms, closing his eyes. Clenching his teeth; then he screamed in pain, wounds ran up his arms, lines of red. Bernard tightened his grip, and the boat moved, but not shooting, not launching, staying still.
For a second, red burst in wisps. David expected the boat to shoot forward, into the air, like a fiery chariot in the sky. But it stood, remaining. Bernard screamed and yelled the words out. They echoed through the chambers of the serpent
But it failed. The snake closed its mouth. The fangs interlocked. He heard the bow shatter. The boat fell back down. He tumbled into the back, reaching his hands out, but his head leaned too far back.
The boat slid back down into the water. Water sprayed in thick waves overhead. David closed his eyes, letting himself grip the boat tighter, traveling through the waves again. Falling! Falling! The boat shook while smashing through foam and sea mist.
"Bernard!", Darrell stumbled into the middle of the boat. "What'll we do now?! It didn't work Bernard! There's nothing now... What'll we do now?! What'll we do now!?"
Bernard didn't answer, looking at the red streaking along his hands.
"Bernard!", Darrell shouted again, "Bernard listen to me! What'll we do now!?
"Bernard", Osmond said, "What'll we do?"
Bernard sat down, resting his hands beside him. He didn't speak but looked down at the floor of the boat.
"Go forward", said Bernard, empty of expression. "Just go forward"
David turned and faced the sea.
He saw something great. It enveloped them in darkness, and let waves rise in the air. Foam rose to touch the ceiling, and it dived into the sea again. David caught glimpses of a fin larger than the boat.
Osmond looked closer and steadied himself as he stood up. The creature rose again, erupting, and waves gripped the side of the boat and tilted it into the water. A large wave rushed into the boat. Osmond shrunk back, and the boat steadied. David moved closer and saw eyes bigger than the moon. They watched him and passed by after the creature sank deeper.
The waves died down, and David lay back on the boat. Osmond tried to look deeper into the water, but the creature had gone too deep to see.
"Wailon, then... Too large, and not too small.", Osmond nodded and turned away.
"There's nothing now... Nothing to do...", Darrell faced away from them, hands clasping at his eyes.
"We'll get out...", Bernard nodded, "We'll get out..."
The boat grew dark. Bernard lay back with eyes closed. Osmond turned away and lay in the middle. David slept, and Darrell too. Soon, there was nothing else, but the stirring of the sea. David closed his eyes, going into dreams...
Red light rushed through his eyes. He saw creatures pass by him, but not enough for a full view. Above him, rocks ran in jagged lines like lightning flashing in the sky. David fell past everything, into a hole that opened wide into the Abyss. David turned, blurs went past, and he saw nothing else. David's body tumbled off every side, and he landed on the ground. When he tried to stand up, he was pinned down by something. He turned, but ended nowhere. Instead, he bent his neck upward, and strained himself to see Salugren...
Salugren... Snake eyes and thousands of snakes beside it. The thing hissed at him, holding an orb that glowed. David tried to crawl away, but he screamed as fangs crushed his hands into halves. Salugren pulled him out of what held him down, and everything emptied from him. He floated above, light and hollow, and followed Salugren as the creature stood above serpents and snakes. Their fangs acted as steps, and Salugren slithered forward up pillars and constricting serpents that covered the tower they climbed. Many of them lay with blind eyes and gashes in their scales. Much more twisted and writhed in a long pile that stretched like a bridge. He was pulled forward, and felt something snap...
David woke up and saw islands that lay in rows near him. Chests, shattered wood, and clothes floated past him. There was the scream of rasping wood. He tried to get the heat away with a wave of his hand. When he did, it continued with more and more, suffocating and covering his eyes with mist. David waved more of it away, and it blinded him with red.
David looked at the plank in the middle and picked it up. Osmond yawned awake.
"C'mon, let's paddle", Osmond grabbed a plank. David did too.
So, they paddled further up the ridged throat of the serpent. David coughed into his beard but paddled with all his might. Darrell took a paddle, but Bernard only sat looking onto the floor of the boat.
For hours, their boat bobbed with the waves, and darkness spread across them until they paddled in the dark. None of them talked. They gripped their bags against their chests while David paddled near Bernard.
He kept himself awake by covering his face with water. He ran from sleep and continued with the paddle pushing forward. Osmond fell asleep, then Darrell, then Bernard, until it was only him that moved the boat.
The morning came with glowing red, and David hadn't slept. Bernard woke up first, with his bag opened, and shuffling through to look at his vials of Galtrand, Gotund, and Quand.
Darrell and Osmond took up David's paddles as he lay back and looked at the red. It went on and on... On and on... On and on... On and- David shook his head, shuddering, and keeping himself awake... Then David closed his eyes and sighed, resting his hands upon the sides of the boat. Then.... Then...
Light filled his eyes, and he floated above snakes and snakes. They encircled him, wrapped around him, constricted him. David felt his lungs tighten as some wrapped around his throat and beard. He coughed out words, but none reached the world. More snakes fell from the sky. David tried to get out, crawling and climbing but found no handholds, no exits, more snakes. Fangs bit his hands and tore through him. He saw nothing else, but the red fury of pain. There was nothing else as the snakes snuffed the light away from his eyes. They grew dull and Salugren...
David woke up, shuddering, pale with fear, and surrounded by crashing waves. Bernard held a crucible and mixed it with a mortar and pestle. The boat groaned as it rode over a wave. Darrell steered and paddled, and Osmond did too.
"Remember! Remember!", Darrell shouted.
"It'll work fine," Bernard muttered. "Just wait..."
David's quivering hands grabbed a plank. Bernard held the crucible up to his face, and David heaved forward, paddling up the serpent's throat. More debris floated past them. Pieces of wood, vases, pots, and a chest. The boat spread them out with its shattered bow.
David saw the light again, and Darrell shouted words as the wind billowed and fangs stretched out. He saw the sun blazing overhead, and the serpent opened its mouth. Bernard looked up, and muttered some words without a stutter...
David hid from the light, and Bernard shrank back as red filled his arms. His veins throbbed, a light appeared from his eyes, and he yelled out a warning and something else. Bernard stumbled forward, and the boat sat on the serpent's tongue.
The boat quivered, the water streamed forth, the serpent bent down slowly. Then, a streak of red pushed them forward, and Bernard tried to steady the boat, but it dipped into the water and rebounded into the air.
The boat launched itself past the snake, moving into the lake, and it fell into the water. It bobbed up and down in the lake. Not on land yet...
Out of the mouth. Nighttime. They paddled the boat, the shore lay near. Glistening with sand; full of lush.
Bernard tried to point forward, again he tried, again and again. But, his arms gave way and he collapsed. David looked behind him.
The snake had risen, with sunken eyes. It snarled, hissed, fangs appeared, and then a row of incisors.
It glowed red. The red of flames, the red of blood, the red of the Abyss. A deep crimson, he could smell it, blood, like coppers, blood in the air. Blood, the same color as the serpent.
Its mouth bulged, tightened. It curled outward, growing taller. With waves running out of its sides, each growing taller as the serpent advanced toward them.
David pushed the plank into the water; down it went. Again and again, waves forming behind him, collapsing into the lake behind him. The shore seemed near, very near. Soft sand and sweet sleep. His arms sagged behind him. The boat continued, gliding onto the shore. Bumping into the sand.
His feet touched the land.
Onto the sand, they went. Bernard collapsed, and lay there. Osmond stood next to him. David sat in the boat. He grunted and pushed himself up.
David licked his lips. Sand stuck to his clothes. He rolled onto the soft sand. Cold to touch. He rolled in it, the perfect bed. Away from the serpent, away from it all.
They dragged Bernard onto shore, out of the boat, to treat his wounds. Then they set up a fire. He sat near it, thinking and tiring himself.
The Gates, the Nalrath, and the lake. When he reached the top, everything would change. He laughed. No death, all happiness, and no worry. He grinned. Nothing to worry about... Nothing at all... They'd survived the serpent! Why not a celebration?! And, why go back? Nothing good happened away from Pnoaphales. His hope lay in the Prophet.
He shivered. Now, he wanted to be inside a home. Near a fire, watching the logs collapse from the heat. He imagined this and shivered in the cold. Some of their bags remained. They'd been lucky to have survived the snake. But soon luck would evaporate and they would remain in the harsh desert of reality. Wasting away in the endless valley and they would then fall into pits of fear and rot away... But why care about that? Above an absurd, deathly world, he saw the mountain of life, and death lay in front of the path of life. On top, the Prophet stood! At least Bernard had hope.
His mind crawled deeper into the tunnels of his mind and curled up inside a small pit. He dozed off, forgetting the demons that plagued him today. Forgetting the Nalrath... Listening below. A hulking monstrosity that lumbered with its twitching ears. . David curled closer, watching the fire turn red. He wondered about the mountain and the future of the climb. Maybe he would never reach the top... No... Because the mountain still stood, beaten by weather and rain, standing tall above all.
If immortality existed, then he would feel happier. He wanted to see death gone from the world. He wanted life for all. He worried about each moment. Life existed as a great, happy, long thing. What use was death when life was greater? Only the gods knew, but not Protennessen, he'd abandoned those gods. Maybe the Prophet knew such things...
He'd visited the pillars of Avera in his youth, and on the ceiling lay paintings of battles. In the sky, the gods watched death unfold. They watched and never helped. Only watching...
David yawned, contenting himself, warming himself against the fire, growing groggy, and then he closed his eyes.
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