~ 57: The Night of Blessings and Curses - Part 2 ~

"We have to cross this thorned road?!" I asked with horror as I stared at the path swarming with nettles and small acacia plants being a few that lay their trap.

"Yes, and without your shoes that too," he answered, untieing his and then knotting them so that he could carry them around his shoulders. "I will do the honour of untieing and carrying them."

"Let's just carry our own shoes," I said as I let him remove mine reluctantly while sitting on a nearby rock and hung them on my shoulder. "This is going to be one painful path."

We started walking over the soft, smooth stones, avoiding the edge as much as possible as we held each other's hands. Whenever one of us would topple over, we would catch the other, scratching our legs in the process but never complaining. In time, we learnt to lean on the other while preventing our legs from getting scraped and bleeding.

We heaved and patiently bore the weight of the other without crushing either of ourselves. The only thing that convinced me was Lucas saying, "Only a little bit more to the next stone hedge." I kept him going by saying, "We have a reward awaiting us."

Well, that was what he had said to me and I didn't know how much of it was the truth when he said "surprise". But if that helped him to move one step forward, the work required was done.

The path narrowed suddenly and the tree branches hanging above dipped in dangerously, making the path more challenging. The hanging thorned branches and the spiked shrubs brought both of us to the decision that we would have to walk one behind the other. The problem lied with the both of us not willing to be the person who walked first.

"We're already half an hour into midnight and we haven't even finished half of the first task," Lucas groaned at my reluctance.

"Half an hour already? Were we that slow? And what more tasks do we have after this painful one?" I asked more to myself than him. "If we walk with one in the front and the other following, we would be lost. How are we going to protect each other?"

"We will walk together but the plan will be slightly different. I will keep your head safe by guiding you about the upper branches or removing them for you. I want you to keep a look out for the angry bushes. I can't keep a lookout for them with one eye."

"Then wouldn't it be better for you to remove the eyepatch now?"

"It would be better if I removed it once we reached the cliff. To calm your conscience, let's just say that my eye is sensitive. No magic allowed, remember?"

We searched high and low together, and kept an extra attention for the pain-inducing ones. Lucas would break off the branches he could with his gloved hands while I would slice off prickly bushes with his dagger. Whenever we got stung severely, we would pause our journey and look for the salve that the nettle plant kept in its posession.

The tough journey reached to an end when we stood on an open, clear ground again. By then, our pants were shredded up to our shins, making them look like a beautiful ragged design that hid our pitifully bleeding legs.

Lucas's thick leather gloves were scratched while my palms, which were wrapped with some large handkerchiefs, were safe except that the cloth had been ripped off in places. Both of our fingers bleed red profusely.

We were about to cross the boundaries when something licked our ankles. In the darkness, we couldn't make out what it was and could only think that it was a snake slithering up our legs. I trembled with fear, trying to control and stay still to get it off.

"Haven't you got your torch with you?" he asked as I felt his hands steady me. "The light will help us see what the creature is. Don't flash it on its face otherwise you'll get bitten."

I slowly took out the flashlight like a sloth. I wanted to be as still as a tree so that it didn't feel like clambering up my trunk and have a nice bite of any part it liked. The bite would probably be fine if the snake wasn't venomous.

I first faced the torch upwards so that the light reflected off the leaves of the surrounding trees and lit up the place dimly. Then I shifted it slowly towards the tree on my right and towards its roots, trying to catch the creature's length.

The tail seemed to extend from somewhere near the prickly bushes, as though it belonged to a plant. The green colour of it calmed me down a bit as I thought it was a harmless plant. But when it suddenly tightened it grip as I flashed the light close to my feet, I felt that it was perhaps a weird vine snake until I saw the soft hair-like spikes on it

"What in the world is that thing?" I asked quietly in terror. "How can a creeper move like that?"

"It's a Salvita1," Lucas whispered in a barely audible voice. "It's more like an animal than a plant that preys on human flesh. If it senses fear, it doesn't resist to take a piece of flesh with it, or spread a venom if it isn't able to bite."

The creeper opened its mouth just the time I made the light reflect its tip. I used the dagger to cut it off the part near my feet before it sound sink its jaws. I felt my skin prick and burn as the living creature still bit me hard until it could reach my bone.

I screamed as I felt my right leg burn. I couldn't hold onto Lucas and had to bend down to clutch my leg. I heard a swish and saw through the tears of my eyes the Salvita being cut off. He had got it off his left leg and had chopped it off with his sword before it could have a nip at him.

He tore off the now dead creeper from my leg, and picked up the salve of the nettle plant to try and soothe the pain. It only helped to reduce the burning feeling a little. I still couldn't stop screaming from time to time as the pain erupted and disappeared like the throb of the heart.

He drew circles around the swollen leg and said that he would carry me. I said I would wait it out a little until I could bleed the venom out through my legs. Making even small cuts on my shin felt painful as the allergy symptoms flared with full force.

As he wasn't able to do anything, he could only watch me writhe in pain and bleed as he tried to cut into my skin to take it out. Then, to my immense surprise, he bent his upper body and sucked onto my blood.