29 — Agnes' Talents

The carriage stops as the four inside are launched forwards a bit.

"Huh?" Annelise says at the abrupt movement. "Are we already in Kivul?"

"Ugh, doesn't she know how to handle a carriage?" Agnes complains. "Anyway, we sure shouldn't be. It should take at least a few hours more."

"Is everything okay?" Joezand asks, tapping on the wood. Lorelai doesn't answer yet, but they feel the carriage slowly retreating as the horses step back.

"Take a look for yourself." Lorelai answers after a bit with concern in her voice. The four of them descend one by one, with Iaomai helping Agnes come down and stand up on her crutches in the uneven forest ground. The trees around this part are thicker and the green of the leaves darker, with the road being narrow. Far way from them, in the middle of the road...

Was a creature.

A beast he couldn't fathom.

It was large and facing them, although it didn't seem to notice the group just yet. It blocked their entire path, with the foliage on each side of the road being too dense to go around it with the carriage. The creature was as tall as the horses that led the carriage, but he couldn't see its horizontal size. It seemed to be... lying down? He could only see the serpentine face of the beast. The first thing he noticed was the white fur that enveloped it with some deformed black dots scattered around. The creature's mouth was closed, but he could see it was massive. Two small dots were the nostrils, and right above it laid two bright green eyes with an unusual pupil shape. It looks like an horizontal and vertical slit combined, forming a plus-shaped pupil.

The group retreats into the woods slightly, getting a better view of the beast's side.

And it's massive.

It's around twice as long as his carriage. Longer than the trees around him are tall. The creature has no limbs. It wiggles its body around to drag itself forwards, slowly approaching. It seems to be only going through the motions, and hasn't noticed them yet. It drags it's tail with it, which ends in a surprisingly cute little tuft of fur.

"What... is that?" Joezand asks. "Is that one of those mistals?"

"No? Are you stupid?" Agnes questions. "What part of mistals being human-beast hybrids you didn't get? That's just a snakow."

"Really?" Joezand rolls his eyes. "Snakow? Come on."

"You chowed down on snakow meat during the feast." Lorelai says. "It's a pain to hunt, though. So it's only for really special occasions."

"So..." Iaomai starts. "What do we do know? We could just sneak around it, but..."

"All our supplies are still on the carriage." Anneliese says. "And there's no way we can maneuver it through the forest."

"And we can't reach Kivul by foot from here, anyway. It's way too far." Agnes comments. "We have to kill it and get through."

"We could try to go back and find another path." Anneliese suggests.

"Too much backtracking." Lorelai said. "The last fork on the road was over a day ago. We don't have the supplies to go back and then take the other, longer road to Kivul."

"It's approaching the horses, slowly but surely." Iaomai says. "I'll go try to get our carriage away from the beast. Just if the fighting gets destructive."

Iaomai leaves while the snakow keeps slowly dragging itself around. Joezand's eyes looks behind the creature's frame, and he sees...

Purplish energy.

The same kind he saw when he was at Sunnaria's church.

Which is weird. Since the energy recharged the ring, he thought the reason he could see it in the graveyard was because that place was really close to Sunnaria. It seems to be emanating from a off-path bush next to the snakow.

The horses step backwards for a bit, until Iaomai turns them over and starts going to the other side, putting the carriage at a safe distance.

"Alright, me and you, Lorelai. Let's beat this thing." Joezand unsheaths his rapier. Dagger would be quite unnecessary here. He doubts he'll do much parrying.

"I'll handle the rear and you take the front." Lorelai gets her longsword. "Try not to get eaten."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

"P-Prince Joezand, be careful!" Anneliese says. "If you feel in danger, don't hesitate to run!"

"I hope you die." Agnes comments.

"If we do, you'd stay stuck here." Joezand replies.

"That's true." Agnes rolls her eyes. "Fine, come here." She limps towards Lorelai and Joezand, puting a hand on one of them first, and then the other. Joezand starts feeling a sudden... spring in his step. The effect is pretty similar to the ring's, but it intensifies now.

"You can do magic?!" Joezand asks.

"Of course I can. It's all studying, after all." She says, her nose upturned. "Don't overstay your welcome, though. This is divine magic. Get in and kill the beast quickly. If you feel the effects starting to wear out, come back here so I can give you another dose."

"I actually didn't expect you to be useful." Joezand raises his eyebrows. "Huh, who would've thought."

"Of course, not. You don't know anything." Agnes says. "Could be even more if I knew I was going to a whole trip." She continues. "I was able to figure out a way to bless some potions, but I didn't bring my stash. I thought I would just attend the feast and go back to Acquatia."

"You're the one who accepted to come, though..."

"Doesn't matter. Go kill that beast already, pronto!" Agnes orders.

Joezand rolls his eyes and runs towards the front of the snakow. It's even easier to run now. His body feels lighter.

He stares down the big green eyes of the creature. They move around and land on him as well.

And the beast attacks.

It propels itself forwards with considerable speed, and Joezand rolls off the path into one of the bushes. The snakow chomps at air, and he can take a look at the insides of its maw.

It has two big, pointy, deadly fangs, dripping some white liquid. They're rather far apart from each other. Great, besides being gigantic, it's also venomous.

It hisses and turns its head to look back. Apparently Lorelai hit it in the tail. He takes the opportunity to go back on the path and shove its rapier on the creatures... throat?

The skin is pretty though, much like a leather armor. Regardless, it did do some damage. It looks back at Joezand, trying to bite again, and he runs in the opposite direction—

He's pulled back. His gaze goes to the creature once more, and it has caught his cape in its jaw. He quickly unclasps his cape from his shoulder, falling foward as the beast munches on the fabric.

It hisses once again and drops his cape. He takes the opportunity to puncture the snakow again, dodging another bite.

He keeps repeating this pattern.

He waits for Lorelai to hit its tail and get its attention, then he goes back in to cut or thrust, then dodges the creature's maw. It's pretty easy with both the ring and Agnes' magic, so it's just a matter of time.

Wait, hit, dodge.

Wait, hit, dodge.

Wait, hit, dodge.

Wait, hit—

He suddenly feels a bit tired.

The beast tries to bite at him again, and he rolls to the side...

But it's a bit too late.

It captures the side of his body in its mouth, as Joezand holds the creatures upper jaw up.

"C-Crap—"

The weight is pressing down on him.

He's stuck between the fangs.

He was able to put himself between the creature's fangs, but it's still clamping down on him. It could easily swallow him whole.

The pressure makes him go down to one knee. His hands start to slip from the creature's saliva, dropping his rapier on the creature's long tongue. The snakow's throat muscles start contracting and swallow the weapon, and they seem ready to swallow him next—

"LET HIM GO!" He hears... Anneliese? 

A sudden impact makes the beast spit him out on the ground. He looks up, slightly dazed, and sees his maid.

Bashing the side of the creature's head with a wooden crutch.

Lorelai jumps from behind the creature, landing on its head. She stabs it in the eye, then the other one. It thrashes around wildly, but Lorelai holds on to the skin, starting to stab the head of the snakow. The creature soon enough stops moving. Joezand gets up, trying to wipe his clothing away of all the gross spit of the snakow. He goes to the ground and grabs his mushed-up cape. At least it seems fairly intact.

"Holy... I didn't expect you to have it in you, Anneliese." Lorelai says.

"I-I don't know what came over me. I saw Prince Joezand get eaten and I l-lost control."

"Y-Yeah." Joezand agrees. "Thanks for the help, Anneliese. You were really— Wait, is that one of Agnes' crutches?" He looks at the wooden object in the maid's hand, completely destroyed.

"HEY!" They hear a scream from the woods. "Y-You disgusting maid! Come help me! O-Or get Iaomai! Bring my crutch back!"

"O-Oops, haha." Anneliese scratches her neck awkwardly. "I-I'll go get Iaomai! Don't worry about it!" She starts running towards the carriage.

"Phew. It'd be a shame to waste this." Lorelai gestures towards the animal. "We could cut it up and take its meat to eat."

"I lost my rapier inside of it..." Joezand says, sadly.

"Don't worry. We have spares. I brought a bunch of weapons for different scenarios." Lorelai says.

"I'll wait for the carriage to come back, and I'll handle cutting it up. You should check on your sister."

"Before that, I gotta see something." Joezand says, looking for the purplish energy. Approaching the bush and cutting the leaves away with his dagger, and a... body is revealed.

A human body.

It seems pretty recent, too. No mold, rot, maggots... Anything like that. It seem to have died from a big slash on its stomach, nothing the snakow could've done.

But it's emanating the purple energy.

Just like last time, it all goes towards his ring.

And he hears a voice.

'Well, well, well...' A giggle echoes in his brain. 'Did you miss me, little lamb?'