Queen of Asgard (NaNoWriMo2018, Completed!)

32: Third Dates (Part Two)

The creature was poison green with yellow rings every few feet down it's long, slippery neck. Its snout was long and fanged, clear even when its massive jaws were shut. Its head shifted around and around, its large nostrils moving as it sniffed the air and I let my hand creep towards the holster on my hip.

Mentally, I ran through everything I knew about animal attacks. With bear attacks, you were supposed to play dead. A bear was a land animal so I didn't think the play dead method would work with whatever this thing was. A long distance relative of the Loch Ness Monster was my guess. But I knew how to fight off one other animal, a shark. To fight off a shark you had to aim for the gills, eyes or nose. While this creature was clearly not a shark, it was a water-dwelling beast and I was sure a bullet to the eye wouldn't feel good. And hopefully it would be painful enough to stop it from thinking Thor and I would be a good meal. My fingers brushed against the cool, smooth handle of my Glock. If I was fast enough, I'd have it drawn and firing before it got too close.

"Suzume," Thor said, but whatever else he had wanted to say was drowned out as the creature roared and its large eyes zeroed in on us.

It let out another screech and began moving towards us, winding about the water like a snake in the grass. It was all the motive I needed. I grabbed my gun, shouted at Thor to run and pulled the trigger.

Thor ran, but not away as I'd expected him to, but towards me. His long arm swung out, knocking into mine and sending me crashing against the ground, but worse still, my shot, which had been aimed perfectly was thrown off, hitting the water instead of the serpent.

"Are you crazy?" I demanded, scrambling up, not even bothering to search for my gun as the creature reached the shoreline, it's long neck stretching out towards us, eyes fixed on Thor, as though it already knew he was the bigger threat.

The serpent screeched again and opened its massive jaw. I knew he wasn't like me, that Asgardians were built out of tougher stuff, but I was sure even they were vulnerable to things like death if a giant sea monster tried to snap them up for dinner. I tried to scream, to tell Thor to run, but I couldn't. My throat was too dry, I couldn't make a sound.

So I went for the next best thing-action. If I couldn't speak, I could at least move and so that was what I decided to do. I didn't know much about Asgardian sea monsters, but I didn't think the odds of both of us walking away alive were good. And so I made my choice on who the lone survivor would be.

I crashed into Thor's shoulder, feeling the impact run through my entire body the force of my running and the lose sand beneath us took effect. Thor jolted sideways, falling to the ground and out of the monsters reach. For the moment he was safe. But I wasn't, my actions had put me in the exact same space Thor had occupied a second before. The monster was reaching for me now. I had no chance to escape.

I closed my eyes, sure that my death would be quick when the serpent's jaws snapped my body in half.  I only heard sniffing and then a groan from Thor. Curious and terrified, I opened one eye. The monster was less than an inch from me, but it wasn't attacking at all. Its big nose was roaming all about me, sniffing curiously as though it wasn't sure about this change of meal choice.

"Ow," Thor groaned again, stumbling up to his feet. "Easy Suzume," he said as brushed some sand off his shirt. "He won't hurt us."

"What?" I asked dumbly, my eyes glued to the great beast in front of me who was still sniffing me intently.

"Jörmungandr is harmless," Thor told me as he walked towards the serpent, smiling. "The worst thing he'll do is lick you to death, isn't that right buddy?"

The serpent's head flicked away from me at the sound of his name and I heard water being sloshed and slammed about as he moves again, swimming left towards Thor who waded deeper into the water to pat the creature's head.