August was cold. So cold he could barely move, barely think. And it was dark as well. Nothing but a black void as far as he could see. “Momma?” he called out, his voice bouncing back to him in an echo. No one responded. He felt around with his hands until he finally found a rock wall. Then he forced himself to slither along it, looking for an exit but after an hour he didn’t seem any closer to an escape… The walls narrowed until he was in a little round pocket of a dead end.
Tired and frustrated, August curled up, cold scales against clammy skin.
*
The detractor didn’t return…
The dark things argued and talked over each other but one voice was missing, the one with the biggest contrarian attitude, the biggest advocate for eating August.
“Where is it?”
The dark things all fell silent.
“It did something to August… what did it do?” Fighting her will, the dark things remained quiet. She gripped hard onto the doorframe, exerting her will with more strength than ever before. “Where is it?”
Finally, a small voice spoke up,”… he sold out the snake to the mountain hag.”
*
Eriya the mountain hag sat at the mouth of her cave, leaning against a dead tree, staring down at a puddle of melted snow and through it the young naga that was trapped deeper in her cave. Her skin was slate gray and cracked like stone in places. Her eyes were as white as the snow that capped her mountain. Her teeth were sharp and jagged, her thin lips unable to cover them without splitting and cracking. Her hair fell in stiff uneven clumps, looking like sticks.
A black shadow zipped up the side of her mountain, forming into the shape of a crow and perching upon the dead tree she was leaning against. She raised a too long arm and swiped at the shadow with claw-like fingers.
The shadow dodged and then fluttered down to land beside her. “We have a deal, Eriya!” the shadow snapped with the squawking tone of a bird.
Eriya cackled, which quickly devolved into wet wheezing until finally she choked out some words, “just testing your reflexes. A little thing like you all alone without a flesh shield needs to be quick.” She cackled again.
If the shadow had eyes it would likely roll them, “Ivory knows her pet is missing. It is only a matter of time before she comes.”
Eriya stood, her long legs bending the wrong way as she did so, “well then, perhaps I should collect what I can from the precious specimen before she gets here.”
EJ Williams Books 