Loving A Snake

Chapter 9: Into The Tunnels

Karasu coughed as she tried to get air back into her lungs, the fall having knocked the wind out. She managed to move her front legs, and discovered there was nothing, Lloyd wasn't there. Karasu painfully rolled onto her stomach, and turned human, pulling out her wand, and casting a light spell "Illuminabant." The end glew, and Karasu began to look around, noticing Pythor wasn't nearby either. "Pythor, Lloyd? Where are you?" There was a pained hiss from behind Karasu, and she whipped around, finding both Pythor and Lloyd, with Pythor in his Serpentine form. "Pythor, Lloyd!" Karasu rushed over, checking both for any injuries. "We're fine dear. I shielded him." Pythor stood shakily, and helped Lloyd up. "Oh thank goodness." She hugged both, before looking up at the gaping. "Just where are we?" "Not a clue." Karasu suddenly felt a little dizzy, but only for a split second. "We need to find a way out, there's something about this place I don't like." Pythor managed to turn back into a dragon, and was nice enough to let Lloyd on his back. Karasu reached into her bag, and pulled out a training halter. "Come here Py." Karasu put a gentle hand under Pythor's chin, before slowly starting to put the halter on, Pythor jerked back, clearly not liking it. "What are you doing? And what is that?" "A training halter. This is going to give me something to hold onto, so I feel better about being down here. Now let's try again." Karasu put her hand on his chin again, and slowly started to put on the halter, making sure she didn't move to fast, even while she did the buckles. Karasu pulled the lead rope out, and clipped it on, running her hand down the side of Pythor's neck. "It's on." Pythor opened and closed his mouth slowly, trying to get used to it. "It takes time. Now let's try and get out of here." Karasu went next to Pythor's shoulder, the lead lightly tied around her wrist, while the same hand rested on his shoulder. Pythor started walking forward, using the light from Karasu's wand to help him see. As they continued through the tunnel or whatever they were in, Karasu noticed Lloyd looked kinda scared, so Karasu decided to cheer him up the best way she knew how: Jokes. "Hey Lloyd? Do you wanna hear some jokes?" He seemed to perk up. "Yeah." "What do you call an alligator in a vest?" "What?" "An Investigator!" Lloyd burst into laughter, while Karasu began to giggle. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Pythor was listening closely, which gave her and idea, making her grin evilly. "What's a snake's favorite dance?" "What?" "The Mamba!" Pythor rolled his eyes. "What did the snake give to his wife? A goodnight hiss!" Both siblings where laughing loudly, while Pythor mumbled something about how bad the jokes were. "Did you hear about the snake love letter? He sealed it with a hiss!" "Oh my god no!" Pythor groaned making Karasu and Lloyd laugh more. "What the worst time to reason with a snake? When he's throwing a hissy fit!" Pythor stopped, and groaned. "Please stop!" "Since you asked so nicely. Oh Lloyd. Knock Knock." "Who's there?" "Ya." "Ya who?" "Sorry I prefer google." Both siblings laughed again, while Pythor didn't get it. "What's a google?" "It's a web browser. On the internet. Something which hadn't come out before the war. But it's out now. Oh I got one! What do you call a bear with no teeth?" "What?" "A gummy bear!" "Ok enough with the jokes. I'm getting a headache." "I need something to make my baby brother smile." Karasu said while using some magic to ruffle his hair. "I'm not a baby." "No. But to me you are. You'll always be my baby brother." Lloyd pouted making Pythor chuckle. "It's not that bad being the youngest. I'm the youngest in my family, and let me tell you something, take advantage of it while you can. Being the youngest means you get away with more. I always blamed my brother who was the middle child." "Pythor! I did not just hear that!" "What?" He laughed as Karasu playfully punched his shoulder. "Lloyd don't listen to him he....GAH!" Karasu shouted as she tripped over something, she turned abound to see what it was and screamed at the top of her lungs. It was a skeleton! Pythor whipped around hearing the scream, and from the light of Karasu's wand he could see the skeleton. "Easy love. It's not human, it's clearly the serpentine, see the maw on the skull, now judging from the size of the fangs, length of a surprising tail, and the fact that....." Pythor paused to tap a rib bone with his claw, hearing a hollow sound. "The bones are hollow, and I see a thin maw, something tell me we just found out what happend to the Luma tribe." "Luma? As in the tribe that worishiped the sun and moon with the Anacondrai and guided them? I though they were a myth." "Not anymore, poor thing must've..." "We can have a history lesson later, we've got company!" Karasu said whipping around in all different directions, Pythor looked, seeing skeletons from all around starting to stand up and grab weapons." "Cursed Grounds! We've gotta go!" Pythor shouted, prompting Karasu to turn into her dragon from, and start running with Pythor, trying to unhook the lead with her mouth while they ran, hearing the skeletons yell as they chased them. "Screw it I can but another!" She tore the halter off, and threw it aside, before galloping to catch up with her lover. "They're catching up! What do we do?!" "We keep running till we get out of the grounds!" Pythor shouted in response, before grabbing Lloyd by his hoodie and handing him off to Karasu, only to notice the fat approcaching drop off, before they could stop running, the ground crumbled again, sending them into the darkness below.