Save him!” Tuni yelled. “How am I gonna break it to the Raja if the prince croaks?”
Neel’s plan was based on the fact that pythons aren’t poisonous; they squeeze their prey to death. And he’d figured, as a half demon, he should be able to withstand a little squeezing until I nabbed the jewel. Problem was, neither of us calculated the silt floor.
I struggled to move, but every step was such an effort. Neel was still wrestling with the enormous serpent. Muscles of steel or not, how much longer could he stand this monstrous snake? There was no way I was going to reach the jewel in time.
Okay, that was a really dumb plan. Time for a new one.
In the struggle, the python’s tail flailed around the room. It landed with a thump right next to the spot where I was struggling with the cloying ground. I made a split-second decision. It was now or never.
I jumped with both feet on the python’s tail. Feeling my weight, the snake lifted up the back of its body, trying to dislodge me. But I just lay down, and slid down the snake’s body as if it was a huge Slip’N Slide. It was rough, slimy, and scaly on my skin but much easier than running through the muddy quicksand of the cavern floor. I landed with a thump about midway up the giant serpent’s body, and, trying to imagine I was doing nothing scarier than riding Snowy, I hung on for dear life with my thigh muscles. I reached back to my quiver and chose one of the “special” arrows Neel had made me prepare before we left his kingdom. He’d shown me how to attach a long, thin rope made out of a super-strong Thirteen Rivers material to some of my arrows. At the time, I couldn’t figure what I’d need them for. But now I was glad for his forethought.
My fingers were slippery with sweat and I fumbled with the bow a little. The snake was bucking and writhing underneath me, and it wasn’t that easy to concentrate.
“Take your time, there, Prin-cess,” Neel gasped from somewhere within the python’s coils. He was turning an unbecoming shade of purple.
“Hold on to your pants, cowboy!”
I finally managed to nock the arrow onto my bow. My stomach churned as I rode the thrashing snake, and I could only pray there wouldn’t be a repeat of the famous corn-dog incident. Neel’s life was dependending on my archery skills. No pressure or anything.
My hand shaking, I shot the arrow straight up above the snake’s head, into the cavern ceiling. Would the arrowhead be strong enough to pierce the hard stone? Bingo! It went in, leaving the rope dangling behind it like a comet’s tail. I didn’t even have time to test it to see if it would hold my weight. I just used it like mountain climbing gear to clamber up the rest of the snake’s slippery body to the top of its head.
“Show-off!” Neel choked out. Even with me climbing all over its body, the snake hadn’t stopped squeezing.
“Go Princess, go Princess, go-go-go Princess,” Tuntuni chanted.
“Remind me to thank you for the arrows after I save you!” I shouted to Neel.
I was straddling the snake’s head now, trying to stab it. But just as its skin had been too tough for Neel’s sword, my arrows couldn’t make a dent. I grabbed the dangling rope from the arrow still stuck in the ceiling and made a quick noose, which I slipped over the snake’s neck. It held! The snake hissed and thrashed around. In the process, it actually dropped Neel. He fell with a thump on the soft earth.
“Go!” I shouted at Neel.
I didn’t even bother to see if he was all right. How long would one magical rope hold this massive, super-strong snake? I shot an arrow into another part of the ceiling, making another noose out of the dangling rope and looping it over the snake’s head. I kept going like that: shooting an arrow into the ceiling, grabbing the rope, threading it under the snake’s chin, and then starting all over again. In this way, I tied the snake with a halo of ropes each attached by a different arrow to the stone ceiling.
One huge bonus of all the ropes was that the snake couldn’t move its head as much. Which was a relief, because I was still sitting astride its neck and could feel my breakfast in my throat.
Of course, the respite wasn’t for too long. The snake’s muscular body bunched and swayed as it tried to free itself, or at least ditch me onto the floor.
“Snaky’s in a terrible mess!” Tuntuni sang. “Sewn up by a royal seamstress!”
It was like being on a bucking bronco ride at a cheesy Western-themed restaurant. The snake bumped up and down, left to right, trying to shake off the ropes that pinned it to the cavern ceiling. As it fought, the ropes actually started to give way.
Oh no.
Pop.
The snake managed to yank one of my arrows from the ceiling. The weapon dangled, harmless, from the rope still around the serpent’s neck.
“Hurry, Neel!” I yelled. “I don’t know how long these things are gonna hold it!”
Pop. Another arrow gone.
Neel struggled through the mud over to the python jewel. Being Mr. Demonic Dude, it was a lot easier for him than it had been for me. But even still, would he make it in time? The python had just yanked out two of my special arrows from the ceiling. I felt back to my quiver. I only had one roped arrow left. Did I want to use it? Would it make a difference? I threaded it into my bow, aiming at the ceiling.
Pop. Pop. Pop. The snake was almost entirely free of the confining ropes now.
In the meantime, Neel reached the jewel. Rather than just picking it up and running, as had been our original plan, he kicked mud from the cavern floor over the jewel’s shining surface. As he kept doing that, the room darkened. My heart started to speed up. I’d found the courage from who knows where to ride an enchanted snake like it was some kind of horse, but there was no way I could face doing that in the dark. If I’d had the energy, I would have yelled at Neel to stop, but it was all I could do at this point just to hang on to the thrashing serpent.
In the graying light, I saw Neel bury the hilt of his sword deep into the mud in front of the jewel, its point facing up.
He shouted, “On my count, do a Tarzan!”
A Tarzan?
“One … two …”
Right, a Tarzan. Underneath me, the python tore the last remaining rope out of the ceiling. The ropes and arrows hung from its neck like some kind of weird necklace, but they certainly weren’t doing anything more to slow it down.
I shot my last special arrow into the ceiling and hoisted myself up the rope and off the snake. It took all my remaining strength. I hung there, thirty feet off the ground, my muscles trembling.
“Three …” And with that, Neel kicked a clump of mud over the remaining part of the jewel, dousing its emanating light.
The cavern was an inky black. The darkness was filled with the rancid smell of snake—or it might have been the smell of my own fear. I started to panic, squeezing my eyes shut so hard I saw stars. But at least it was a familiar darkness, as opposed to the blackness outside them. Holy serpent poop. My hands were so sweaty, I was slipping down the rope. For the zillionth time in the last few days, I was going to plummet to my death. It seemed like a recurring theme at this point.
Then I heard Neel’s familiar voice cut through the darkness like a lifeline. “Hey, slimeball, where’s your precious python jewel?”
The serpent hissed and slithered away from me. I heard it move down to the other end of the underwater cave.
My grip was slipping, but I desperately hung on. I didn’t want to die. I wanted to see my parents again. I wanted to hang out with Zuzu again. I even wanted to argue with Neel again.
Then the cavern was filled with a wailing as the snake, searching for its jewel, found instead the point of Neel’s sword. The cries were horrible—high-pitched and almost human. There was a thrashing sound like a giant drum being beaten on the ground. But in a few minutes, all was silent.
As quickly as there had been darkness, there was light. Neel cleaned some of the dirt from the jewel’s surface, allowing it to shine once more like an unnatural, underground sun. I’d never been so happy to see.
The python’s giant body lay still, oozing dark blood on the cavern floor. Trying to reach its jewel, it had instead split itself in two on Neel’s sword. Neither of us had been strong enough to harm it, but it was strong enough to kill itself.
I breathed a very long sigh of relief, and slid down my rope. Unfortunately, it stopped what felt like a bazillion miles too short of the ground.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake.”
Neel, now holding the muddy python jewel, was standing under where I hung.
“Let go,” he said.
I shook my head, unable to move.
“Come on,” Neel coaxed. “You’ve got to trust me. Like it or not, we’re in this together.”
Did I trust Neel? It was hard to say. One moment I felt like strangling him, the next, one of us was saving the other’s life. At the very least, until we rescued our families, we were partners. And I guess that deserved some trust.
“I suppose we half monsters have got to stick together.”
We had a lot in common, Neel and I, even if I didn’t like to admit it.
I let go. It wasn’t like one of those scenes in a movie, where the princess floats lightly into the waiting hero’s arms. I was more like an anvil that comes plummeting down on a cartoon character’s head. I fell, like a graceful barbell, right on top of Neel.
Squelch. We both sank even farther into the mud.
“You did ask for it.” I swiped some silt from my face.
“Yeah.” Neel grinned through the dirt. “I guess I did.”
Unfortunately, the muddy moment was shattered by the sound of a terrible hissing that sent shivers up my spine far worse than any darkness.
“Welcome home,” seven voices hissed, “Sssissster.”