Serpiente de poder y torura
Cuento corto en ingles publicado.
Snake of power and torture I´ve been trapped in this jail for seven months. Tortured for lies I never told, and helpless with the only company of my friend. Trasgs, they are humanoid serpents, reptiles, (whatever they are called), but vicious. Very vicious. They live in caves, that makes the place nastier. But they don´t care. Now, we are here, trapped for “ages”. My friend is called James. We are here for some reason I don´t know, he said it’s a mission, though, I don´t believe him anyway. I followed him to see his plans, it finished in the caves where there was this rock. It looked like a fire egg, or lava. But what was most impressive, was that when we got near, the heat was soft as fur, and the sensation was of happiness. And there came the trasgs. Black snakes with legs and tail of scales, and two strong arms for each of them. With a staff that finished with a fine metal sword, that shined as if it was made of pure diamond at the light of the “egg”. I can only say we finished in this jail.
Now comes the jail break plan.
-I´ve got a plan! - said James.
Told you!!! He´s so predictable… Now “we´re going out…”
- we’re going out tonight! -
Always the same…
-We are going to get help from Grog. -
I must admit, I never would have expected that. Grog is the giant in jail that the trasgs captured long ago, the giant likes it here, (somehow) they give him (or it) food, so he is never hungry. The trasgs don´t care, but they never get him loose. He is pretty strong; he can bend the metal bars of his cage with one hand and smash it with his big foot. He did kill a pair of trasgs once trying to walk through the tunnels. It´s no use, he´s too strong. But how can he help?
-Food for freedom- Said a voice. Grogs voice to be exact.
I understood in a second.
-No…-I said
-Yes he is, he’s going to brake us out. And it happened like that. At lunch time, James passed his food to the cell next to ours. Then a big hand grabbed the tiny bowl and with a “gulp” followed by a crash, we were out of our cells leaving behind a hole between the poles.
We rushed down the tunnels knowing that one wrong move and we were dead. Then I heard a sound.
-Wait! - I whispered, but James was too far in the tunnels to hear me. I saw a shadow behind me, so I ran further in the tunnels. I saw a stack of trasgs on the floor. I grabbed a sword; in case anything was going badly. James is strong enough to take some trasgs down with his strength, but I have it impossible, I’m not strong at all. I got to a big type of room, and I got there fast enough to see how dozens of black snakes came around me with short swords ready for attacking me.
I jumped back dodging a spear that got dangerously close. I got rid of the three trasgs with apparent ease, and headed directly to where James was surrounded of trasgs, I saw him fierce fully killing them one by one. I run to that direction jumping over corps. I killed some trasgs with fast moves and dodged some more swords and spares. I got next to James and did the same as what he did. But in less than a second, an arrow that was going directly to us, went to finish in my left arm, cutting through my skin while I dropped my sword and got the arrow out of my arm. I saw how James looked at me worried while a strong arm hit him plainly in the head throwing him back towards the wall unconscious. Without a word, I got my sword and threw a lunge to my enemy. Seconds later, everything looked as if it was going slow motion. My left arm started failing me once more, and a trasg, that was the last one there that James didn’t kill, did a professional movement letting me unarmed. I moaned holding my right arm that felt like if I broke a bone, and almost without thinking, I kicked it in the face, but in the last moment it grabbed my foot and turned it till I screamed. I slung my sword cutting the trasgs tail with its file. I felt something slapping me in the stomach, while I saw the tail twitching by my side. Trasgs tails are venomous, and I soon started feeling the consequences. Then, a giant shadow appeared, and a big foot crushed the trasg making a horrible cracking sound. I looked up from the floor where I had fallen when the trasg caught my leg, and saw above me the face of Grog, lifting me and letting me next to James that still was with his eyes closed.
-Go, I hold trasgs for you-
Giants are not very smart, but I did what he said without a word. I saw how Grog went to the caves entrance crashing trasgs with arms and feet, while hearing screams of the youngest ones. I walked as fast as I could carrying James over my shoulder. Moaning and grumbling words, I went slowly, but efficiently till the entrance, our way out.
-Grog! You coming? – I shouted so he could hear me over the screams.
-Grog stay here, this be my home. –
I looked at James and asked myself, when would he wake up. I grabbed him and tossed over my shoulder. Our refuge wasn´t far. But then I remembered something, it was a dangerous way for me if I was like this. I heard a hiss that made me decide and hurried into the woods. I hurried day and night, without wanting to stop except for hunting or drinking from a stream. I was scared, but I got there two days later. I was exhausted. So, I stopped for a second and rung the bell. I heard steps, I closed my eyes and waited. The door opened and I opened my eyes, I was pale, and James must have gotten badly hit, because he didn’t wake up in the whole way. A face peered out the door and grabbed James from my shoulders. It shouted something to someone inside and then after some seconds, I saw him again with his hands free.
-Henry? Are you all right? - And without answering, I looked at him and fainted.
I looked around the room and saw it was big. I saw a face disturbing my eyesight and looked at it without any noise. I felt something touching my sore leg, I moaned, and the face looked at me. I saw it and tried to talk, but no words came out of my mouth. I looked at the face and now saw it was the worried face of Sue. She is Peter’s sister. I looked more carefully around and found out I was in the refuge. I saw my arms were bandaged. I tried to get up, but Sue’s arms stopped me. I let her put me back to where I was supposed to be and tried to talk again with a fine result.
-What happened? – She looked calmer when she heard my voice, but she told me to think. I remembered everything and looked at her paled. I lifted my T-shirt revealing a bandage where I knew very well what I would find. I looked at her and asked:
-I’m going to die, right? –
Her smile faded.
-We are doing all we can to get rid of it…-
-Okay. - Was my whole answer.
Then I saw how the door opened and James went in not looking at his best way, he looked at me and smiled at me a bit embarrassed.
-They are coming tomorrow- He said.
-James? – Nothing made sense to me in that moment.
-I will tell you what’s happening. –
Sue went out of the room slowly. James told me about the rest of our group were out looking for us, so Peter sent a message to tell we were here.
-They are getting here tomorrow. –
He explained in little words what happened these days and that I would have to try walking soon. Then we talked all day long laughing about one thing and another. -Open the door! -
I could already walk with a stick, basically, I could walk. The venom of the trasgs was extending slowly. They managed to slow it down, but not to stop it. They whispered that I might not survive, but I didn’t expect they wouldn’t tell me, it’s obvious, I won’t live long. They came too late for the distance they were away from the house, so we were worried, but they are here now, so what’s the problem now? One word: Me. They were all happy to see us, of course, they thought us dead. We told them what we did, and what we learned about trasgs. We talked about Grog. I told half of the story, because James had been unconscious. They asked me how I ever took him in my state, my only answer was I had no other chances.
We were talking, when we heard a strange sound followed by an earthquake like movement. We tumbled down with a thud. We stood up and ran to the window. We saw nothing but a wall surrounding the house. A wall! How can a wall get there? The wall started moving in one direction as a snake. Then the wall stopped moving and a head appeared in front of us. It was a snake. Some of us ran to the door opening it as fast as lightning and jumping to the air and starting to float upwards.
They have a better brain than ours, they learned to control their brains power while they enter a trance and opening their mind releasing energy that they can use to levitate. In other words, they learned to use their full brain. I’m learning to do that.
They floated six meters or so above the ground.
They looked at each other, human and snake, cold and warm, fierce and smart, I tried to think, and I remembered something, the snake was no threat. I shouted and said that the snake was good, but they ignored me. I grabbed my stick and went out walking as fast as I could. A hand grabbed me leaving me restless. I looked back and saw James telling me not to go. Imitating my friends, I flew out the nearest window. I landed on the ground and looked back. The house was there, and James was running towards me. I used my brain once more and pushed him back. He fell looking at me surprised. I suppose he didn’t know about me learning to do that. I ran at the snake trying in vain to make a signal. An arm grabbed me and pulled me in the house. I tried to run out, but James wouldn’t let me go. I saw how one by one, all my friends, teachers, sisters and brothers fell to the floor, still not dead. I closed my eyes and thought I had no time, and without thinking, I fell asleep. I woke up and saw everyone was outside still attacking the snake. The snake looked desperate, though, my friend’s telepathic attacks didn´t hurt it much more than a headache, and the swords and arrows barely scratched its scales. I looked at the snake carefully, it was purple colored and had three big eyes in its head, the eyes where light blue all pupil, that shone as diamonds. The snake looked annoyed as if little insects were bugging it. Ill try to show you how it was…There, the snake kind of looked like this:
No one was holding me, so I ran with my stick out of the cottage. I slidered through the shadows and peeked out the door. No one was looking, so I jumped out of my hiding place and ran, slowly but nonstop. I saw, that the nearer you got to the snake, there were these little yellow floating balls in the air, that were shining as tiny little stars. I reached my arm out to catch one, I barely touched it and jumped back. It was burning hot! That was bad. I looked at my burn suspiciously and looked at the rest of my friends. They all had burns all over their bodies. I asked myself how much it would hurt to get burnt constantly with those balls. I walked moving cautiously around places where I couldn’t be seen or burnt to death. A gust of wind came my way, refreshing me. I smiled, but the happiness ended as soon as I saw a hundred little balls coming my way. I used mi stick to push them away, even though it was burnt, but as soon as three balls bounced it, it broke to bits. I fell feeling a sudden tiredness. I looked at the balls getting nearer. I sticked to the wall and awaited. Most of them surrounded me, but some came my way. I wanted to scream, but that would only denounce my hiding place, so I closed my eyes and swallowed my tears. I opened my eyes later and looked at the snake. I asked myself if I really wanted to go on, but I thought I didn’t come all this way for nothing. The next seconds passed very slowly. Shouts, pain, tears, people falling with their last breath unconscious. I stopped and felt the trasgs venom within me. I had no time. I would not survive. I jumped up and ran. Pain did not matter now. I had to stop this war. I jumped over a rock, dodging all kind of threats. I stood before the snake and used all my strength in an energy shield. I shouted feeling the energy passing through me, making all the fibers of my being shriek in pain. I finally fell to the floor exhausted. The snake looked at me interested. It nodded and looked at the shield. Its eyes shined for a second, and the shield became so strong it pushed them all back. They looked at the snake in disbelieve, wondering if it could just smash them with its tail. For a second, I wondered if the snake just wanted to tell us something. The snake’s eyes shone so bright, that the light made the others close their eyes. The snake was attacking them. I looked how my friends, one by one bared to look back, and get a telepathic attack. They screamed in agony, trying to get the pain off their heads. The snake stopped. It looked back, and I swear it shook in fear. My friends looked at the snake, wondering what ever could make it get scared at all. Then in a second no more, it stopped in front of us and looked at the enemy making a threatening hiss. We looked at the place where the enemy was supposed to be and wished we never did. A shadow was floating in front of us. A dark soul.
It’s one of the third dimensions souls. It looked threatening, but it didn’t move an inch. It floated above us, still, waiting for a signal. A lighting fell nearby, next to a mountain, making the deep blue sky look like an ocean of darkness. The soul thought no more. It zoomed towards us, while the snake awaited. At last, the snake and the soul crashed together in a terrible wail. The snake tried to trap the soul in its jaws, but we knew that was impossible. We hid behind the snake, and waited for it to finish, and just then, we heard the snakes shriek of pain, while it fell to the floor. Dead. We shivered as we saw the now two souls fight for one another. Trying to rip each’s consciousness and existence. We saw a wonderful soul, that probably was the snake’s. They fought fearfully, collapsing one another. Twisting and turning. The snake’s soul tried to enter his body again, but the other soul didn’t let it go. Energy, pain, live and death. All mixed up in one scene. The last scene. We were dead soon, and my life was going drop by drop. Death, that’s all there is; death. The snake went back in its body, free from pain. It shrieked in happiness, seeing how the soul went back from where it came.
I sighted and fell unconscious.
I woke up and moved my arm to get up. I realized my arm didn’t hurt. I got up and saw that the cut in my left arm was barely a scar. I felt no more pain, I was alive! I looked back and saw the snake next to me, looking at me calculating all my movements. I went nearer and hugged the snake.
-Thanks. I know it was you. –
I looked at the snake in the eyes and talked telepathically.
“ So it’s true, you can heal wounds of any kind with your saliva. Thank you.”
The snake nodded and curled around me. It did a half smile and closed its eyes exhausted. I looked back to the cottage worried.
“Don’t worry. I can stay. They all forgave me, just how I forgave them.” was its answer.
I smiled and sat next to it and closed my eyes happily.
The fire egg was the snake’s egg, and I knew that, but it should stay a secret. Forever. For everyone’s good. The end
Made by Eileen Trebilcock