“Snakes! There are huge snakes around some of the tents, and one of them is inside my and Elodi's tent.”

“Is she inside?”

“I don’t know” Pari responded. “Elodi was still sleeping when I left the tent. She had the first guard shift last night. Said she was really tired and needed to sleep longer.”

“Has anyone seen Elodi?” They shouted across the campsite and got negative responses from everyone within earshot.

They looked at each other. “I hope she wasn’t still in there!” “We’ve got to get her out!”

“How big is the snake?”

Pira made a circle with her fingertips touching. “Bigger than this!”

Tomal and Verle, two of the fighters, grabbed their weapons and followed Pari at a run. The tent was in the air, despite having been previously staked to the ground, and it swung wildly back and forth on the snake’s head.

“Elodi! Elodi! Are you in there?” Pari shouted.

There was a cry from inside. "Something's got me! Help!"

Tomau swung his weapon and cut a gash in the snake’s skin. It opened, the inside a yellowish contrast to the blackish-green of the outside. Verle leaped onto the animal and began to slice into it. It was nearly twice the size Pira had indicated and was nearly two meters thick.The snake reacted by whipping its tail back and forth. It lowered its head and the tent slid off at a crazy angle.

Now the fighters could see that Elodi was fighting for her life. She pressed her hand against the roof of the snake’s mouth, trying to prevent it from closing and swallowing her further. “Help! Help!” she hollered.

“Erken zwak!” Magician Kir shouted. A wide yellow band appeared about two meters down the snake’s body. “Right here! Target right here!” She approached the snake hesitantly, then made a solid stab at it.

The snake whipped its head sideways and Elodi slid further inside. Her three comrades swung their swords, wondering if they would be able to kill it before Mila was squeezed to death.

“Bliksem!” A lightening bolt shot from Kir’s wand and went into one of the cuts that had been made.

“Bliksem! Bliksem!” Pari took out her wand and the two made several shots into the cut.

As the opening widened, the fighters pulled out their swords and joined Kir’s efforts to shoot through to the center of the animal. The layer of yellow opened further to reveal its green internal organs.

Magician Lallo joined their efforts and released a series of lightning bolts. Finally, the beast stopped moving. “We’ve got to get her out of there! Before the acid in the lining of the stomach kills her!”

Tomau leapt onto the animal and slammed his sword into the huge animal. He felt the sword go through a layer of skin and muscle and kneeling, and crawled backward, peeling a layer off. “Verle, come up and cut the next layer!” he called out. Verle jumped onto the huge animal and kneeling, used his sword to cut through the inside layer, as if the sword were a knife. Bit by bit, they widened the opening, as Lallo and Kir watched.

“I see her feet!” Lallo screamed. Ladi and Andi heard the scream as they returned to the main camp for breakfast.

As Tomal and Elodi continued to slice through the layers of skin and muscle, Lallo and Kir discussed what they could do to help.

“If we make a vertical cut,” Lallo said to Kir, “we can peel the snake open.”

Ladi and Andi raced over. “How can we help?”

Lallo and Kir pulled out their knives and began to cut at ninety-degree angle to the cut that Tomal and Elodi were making. “Pull here,” Lallo said to Andi.

“Ladi, pull here,” Kir said to Lallo.

Andi took a running leap over the snake. As Lallo and Kir deepened the cuts, Ladi and Andi pulled the skin and muscle apart

“What exactly are we doing?” Ladi asked.

“Mila’s inside this snake! We’ve got to get her out!”

The opening slowly widened as the fighters continued to cut.

“Can we pull her out now?” Magician Kir jumped on top of the snake and grasped Elodi’s ankles. She pulled Elodi as hard as she could, but her comrade was wedged tight.

Tomal and Elodi continued to cut while Ladi and Andi pried the beast apart. Magician Lallo joined Kir in the muck of the snake's entrails and pulled on Elodi’s feet. When she didn't budge. Kir and Lallo jumped down and joined Ladi and Andi’s efforts to pull the opening wider.

As the seconds ticked by, the fighters grew more and more panicky. “We need to go faster! Tomau said to Verle. “Let’s trade places,” he suggested. Verle hopped off, ran a small circle, then took a running jump back onto the snake behind Tomal.

They went at the beast with renewed energy. “Pull, pull!” Verle said to Ladi and Andi. Slowly the opening grew.

Kir and Lallo stepped into the snakes guts again. Each of them grabbed a leg and pulled.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Come on, Elodi!” Kir yelled. “Let go! We’ve got you!” Kir and Lallo looked at one another. “One, two, three, GO!” They pulled and Elodi slid free from the snake’s gut.

Elodi was covered with the digestive juices of the beast and lay unmoving. “We need to get that stuff off her,” the two wizards said as they pulled her into a grassy area. Kir wiped Mila’s face with his cape and scooped slime out of her mouth. “Come on Elodi, wake up.”

Kir bent over Elodi's face. “She’s not breathing,” he said to Lallo.

They rolled her onto her side, opened her mouth and smacked her back. Fluid slowly ran out.

Lallo rolled Elodi onto her back and Kir pressed on Elodi's chest as Lallo directed him. Lallo blew air into Elodi's mouth after several pushes. “Time to wake up, Elodi,” Lallo said as Kir listened for a heartbeat.

“Come on, Elodi. We’ve got you.”

“I hear a heartbeat, but its very faint,” Kir told Lallo.

"We need to transport her to an Emergency Center," he responded.

"She won't survive the transport," Lallo said quietly.

Lallo and Kir worked on Elodi's body, trying to get her to breathe. After some time, they switched places. They would turn her head occasionally, and a small bit of fluid would come out, but she wasn’t breathing on her own. After nearly an hour of their efforts, she was not responsive.

Kir listened again for Elodi's heart. “There’s no heartbeat,” she said sadly. “I’m sorry, Elodi. We all really worked hard to save you.”

As the group gathered for breakfast, Pari told everyone what had happened to Elodi. “There were other snakes around the tents, but they moved away while we were fighting,” Tomal remarked. “What will we do with Elodi’s body?” he said to Dr. Gyasi.

“I’ll have the Protectorate transport it out of here.”

“We need to clean it up,” Pari said. “She’s coated in slime. I wouldn’t want my family to deal with that.”

After they finished breakfast, broke camp, and watched Elodi’s body and backpack be transported home, the group began the day’s walk. “There’s twenty-two of us left,” Sage Elvan said to Jal. “How are you feeling about that?”

“Sad. At the same time, we all knew this was going to be hard in places and exciting in others. How are you doing?” Jal asked.

“I’m alright. Each time something happens, I wonder how many of us will make it all the way.”

***

Pira Pibull, the group’s entomologist, was enjoying herself immensely. It seemed like everywhere she looked, there were bugs. The further south the group went, the more beetles there were. Now she stood on the path, admiring a pair of shiny, light green ones. “Come on, Pira,” Tomau and Zamani urged her. “Everyone’s gone ahead.”

“Just one more picture,” she said as she held her tablet over the pair. “Thanks for your patience.”

The two began to mutter to themselves about the frequency of her wanting to stop to look at the bugs.

“Pira! Pira! You should see this!” Pari Navid and Cirus Young called to her from the middle of the group.

She ran to catch up. “What is it?”

“Look!” They pointed into the dense canopy.

Immense orange beetles hung in a line from a tree that lay at an angle against several others. Their backs were mottled with brown and yellow markings. She slipped her tablet out, noted the location, date, and time, and took some pictures.

After a week of hiking, the expedition stopped for a day of rest. A small group went out to hunt, but came back empty-handed. That night they had a meal made from dehydrated foods. “This is clearly not my favorite,” Mink said to Badas, “but it’s food.”

“We might want to stop a little earlier tomorrow,” Luk suggested to Jal. “We can watch during the day for prey, and if we see something we could kill it and carry it.”

“How would we do that? Our packs are full, and we wouldn’t want meat juices in there.”

“We could make a sled to drag things on,” he suggested. He explained how heavy sticks could be tied together and dragged behind. “Or we could tie an animals back feet together, and the front feet together and a long stick between the legs to lift it up.”

Over the next several days, they didn’t spot animals they were comfortable eating, although several people suggested that ants and bugs could be cooked and eaten. The food rations were running low, and members were becoming irritable and frustrated because they weren’t certain what plants might make them ill. One day, they came to a fairly fast running river.

“Fish! Let’s go fishing!” Zamani exclaimed.

As the group gathered at the river’s edge, they looked for trees they could use for rafts. “Let’s get across the water first,” Dr. Gyasi proposed. “Then we can take a few days to clean ourselves up, sort through our supplies and gather some food.”

It took two days to get everyone across, since each time a raft crossed, the current would smash it against the rocks that were some distance downstream. Once they were all together again, several teams went out to scout the area for possible meat sources. They located a herd of pigs and several flocks of birds.

Jal wanted fresh fish, but only caught two. That night, the kettles and pans were all in use, so Jal went searching along the river for a flat rock. It took the rock to the edge of the water and scrubbed all the loose dirt off with its hands. Then Jal carried the rock to a firepit where several kettles were beginning to get hot.

Jal built the fire up on one side of the pit and lay the rock in the center of it to heat. It went off to clean the fish and prepare it. When Jal came back, it poured some oil directly onto the rock and placed the fish on it. Luk and Sage Elvan watched as Jal cooked and ate a piece of fish.

“Can I try some?” Luk asked.

“Sure!” Jal slid a piece onto Luk’s plate. Sage Elvan asked for a small portion, and Jal gave him one.

“I’d like to try it, if you have enough,” Morti brought her plate over.

“This is the last piece,” Jal said as it dished Morti a piece.

“No, it isn’t,” she laughed. “You’re so greedy! You want it all to yourself. There’s one left for you.”

“I just gave you the last piece.” He turned to look at her.

“Jal, there’s still a piece there,” she chuckled as she went off to eat.

“I’d like another piece, Jal,” Sage Elvan said. “I’ll take the last one.” It scooped a piece onto its plate. “Thanks.” Sage Elvan looked at the stone again. “What’s that? I just took the last piece.”

“I thought I gave Morti the last piece. Now you took the last piece?” Jal was perplexed. He lifted the piece that was on the rock and held it above the rock. A fillet of fish appeared. “Did you see that?” Jal said to those around it. He slid the one on the fork onto its plate.

“See what?”

“Watch this! Who wants another piece of fish?”

“I’ll take another,” Morti came forward.

“Watch this! Keep your eyes on the rock.” Jal lifted the filet and another filet appeared. Morti and Jal looked at one another. “It must be some sort of magic,” she said slowly.

That night Jal ate five pieces of fish for the meal. Morti had four. Sage Elvan had one, and Luk had two. Word travelled around the campfire that Jal had found a magic rock to cook fish on. Nearly everyone came to get a piece of fish and watch as another one appeared on the cooking surface.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Magicians Kir and Lallo stood talking. “Almost everyone had fish tonight. No one has a reason to be hungry.”

When everyone was finished and the cookware was washed and put away, Jal took the last piece of fish off the rock. Another appeared. “Well, how do I stop it?” Jal said to itself. “I guess I’ll just leave the last piece there.” It ate the one on the serving fork with its fingers and went on to its evening routine. Before bed, Jal checked the cooking stone. It was still warm. When Jal picked it up with its fingers, the fish fell apart into soft, tender flakes. Jal went off to bed full of fish.

As Jal lay in its sleeping bag, it wondered what the rock was made of. “Are there more like it?” Jal wondered.