Marcus's Pack

"I don't see why I'm carrying you. I should make your ass slither its way up." Marcus lamented, sweat dripping off his face.

It was about noon, the sun was at its highest point, beating down on him. The air was cool on the mountain, but with the sun's heat and the hundreds of pounds he was carrying, Marcus was sweating buckets. Sif was wrapped around him with her head on his shoulder and her wings folded tightly against her body. She had made most of the trip up the mountain herself, but grew tired. So she climbed Marcus like a tree and promptly went to sleep.

Marcus had just made it to the summit of the mountain. He hadn't ran into any beasts or problems. This side of the mountain was steep, but had plenty of footholds. So the journey to the top only took half the day. Marcus nudged Sif awake. He wanted to sit to take a break, but didn't want to sit on her tail that was dangling behind him. She lazily slid off of him and found a rock to spread out on, soaking up the sun.

The view from atop the mountain was stunning. There was nothing but green for as far as the eye could see. White clouds dotted the blue sky, a slight breeze tickled his skin, drying the sweat as it went by. He was high enough that the air was thinning, but it wasn't difficult for him to breath. He looked at the side that he and Sif would have to go down.

It was less steep than the side before, with trees and rocks sporadically placed all the way down. He could see a forest bear picking berries from a bush about halfway down the mountain. The bear seemed small, with a light green coat of fur, but he knew better. The bear was probably bigger than the one that he'd killed. He would make sure to avoid that area on his way down.

He didn't have any containers to put water in, so he was a little dehydrated at the moment. He just took a bite out of one of the apple like fruits, hoping to get enough liquid out of that. After finishing the apple, and tossing its core over the edge, he woke Sif up and continued down the mountain.

Sif had her chin sitting on the top of Marcus's head, her wings spread out wide. It looked like Marcus had grown giant wings of his own, if you didn't see the creature wrapped around him. They had just gotten off the slope of the mountain, but still had a long way to go. The ruins were only about an hour away from where they were at, but still had about two days of travel to Jakarta.

"Do you think we should try to kill that bastard snake and get my pack back?" Marcus tossed Sif that question.

Sif just made her cooing sound, tilting her head back and forth and flapping her wings slightly. She hadn't slithered an inch since the mountain's summit. She had been wrapped around Marcus tightly, like a vine on a tree the whole way. Marcus had grown used to it, he actually enjoyed the tight feeling. He thought it felt like a security blanket, providing comfort.

Making a decision, he made his way over to the ruins. He was much more prepared now, he had his weapon with him. Which was a much better start than before, he just had to keep Sif from getting hurt. He'd just have her wait at the top of the shaft leading down. His goal was just to grab his pack and leave, he could probably jump up and grab the rope. It was only about eight feet off the ground, he might even be able to just reach it standing.

Marcus was approaching the ruins that he was at several days ago. Nothing looked like it had changed since he was last here. The same green vines grew on the sunken structure, birds were chirping and insects scurrying about. He found the shaft leading down, his rope was still there as well. He didn't think that anyone would have come after him, but just in case he inspected his surroundings for any clues of disturbance.

Not finding anything, he looked down the shaft. He could see the hole clearly from when he cleared the vegetation away the first time he was here. So at least there weren't any surprises waiting for him in the shaft.

"Alright, you stay up here, ok? I don't want you getting hurt down there. That big bastard won't be happy to see me." Marcus said, patting Sif on the head and uncoiling her from himself. She cooed and made to go down the shaft with him. Marcus held his hand out, palm facing her.

"Stay, ok. I got some beef jerky I'll bring back up if you're a good girl and stay, ok?"

Sif stopped and fluttered her wings, seemingly annoyed. She wanted to go with him, but also didn't want to make him mad. So she furrowed the ridges above her eyes, and slithered over to a rock and watched him go down the shaft.

Marcus tried to be as quiet as possible, if he was lucky he would just get his pack without any problems. He landed on the stone floor with a clank, noise echoing down the hall. He winced and didn't move a muscle. He waited and waited, but still didn't hear anything. Letting out a breath of relief, he slowly moved down the dark hall.

He had left his pack right at the threshold of the dining room and the long hallway he was currently in. It should still be there, but wasn't. Marcus cursed under his breath, he was really hoping this would have been an easy task. He knew no one had been down here after him, so it wasn't stolen. He didn't have any idea of where it could have gone.

He looked into the dining room, the blue glowing flowers providing ample light along with his amulet. He noticed something else as well, all the bodies were missing, he didn't have a good feeling about the situation. He walked a little into the room, then he saw it.

Like a small hill, the forty-foot long mountain serpent was asleep, coiled up in the middle of the room. It had bulges all over its body, looking like it was filled with logs. Marcus knew now that the snake had eaten all the bodies of its brethren, along with his pack. He debated if it would even be worth it to cut it out of the snake, it might already be half digested and unusable.

Marcus couldn't find its head, if he could he might be able to end it in one hit. It must have its head underneath its body Marcus thought. He decided to just pick a spot and hit it, hoping to paralyze at least half its body. Then he'd back away and reassess the situation.

He gently stepped towards the sleeping reptile, taking aim with his warhammer. He had to make sure the pointed end was the end he hit with in order to maximize penetration. He swung down with all his might, making sure to hit the middle of its back. With a cracking noise that reverberated in Marcus's ears, the hammer struck the monstrous snake.

The snake's body involuntarily spasmed because of the sudden pain. It started to uncoil itself, at least half of it did. Living up to Marcus's expectations, he had successfully paralyzed half the snake's body. He managed to hit it just more than halfway to its head from the end. The top half was writhing around in pain with its mouth wide open, biting at empty air.

Marcus just stepped back, waiting for the moment for it to stop waving its head back and forth. When it finally calmed down enough to pay attention to its surroundings, it took notice of Marcus with its one good eye. See the intruder who had injured it before, and now, made the snake furious. It struck at Marcus, but it didn't take into consideration its useless half.

Its head jerked to a stop about ten feet from Marcus. This gave him a perfect opportunity to kill the beast. Marcus jumped forward, and in another downward strike, hit the snake on the top of the head. Whatever its head was made of was as hard as steel. With the strike connecting, Marcus's hands went numb. At least there was a satisfying crunch that came along with the numbness.

The snake's face slammed into the hard stone floor, knocking it unconscious. It was still alive, taking shaky ragged breaths. Its one good eye was rolled up in the socket, exposing just the whites. Marcus shook his hands out and struck the snake two more times on the top of its head before it stopped breathing. Then he hit it once more just for good measure, you always wanted to make sure that your opponent was dead.

The whole encounter only took about two minutes from start to finish. It went as good as Marcus could have hoped for, a lot better than the first time they fought. He walked over to the first bulge that he found. It was about the same size as his pack so it was a good place to start. He hit the snake's belly with the pointed end of his warhammer, ensuring it went in a good distance, and gave it a good yank.

A three foot gash appeared in its soft underbelly, spilling blood and other fluids. The smell was awful, rotting flesh and bile was mixed together in a bouquet that made him gag. He reached inside and felt around, he was in luck. He felt a strap from his pack, so he grabbed it and pulled it out.

The pack was covered in a layer in mucus and was barely hanging together. The chord used to sew the leather parts together were all but gone, it was a wonder that it hadn't fallen apart. The leather was soft and fell apart in his hands. He opened it up and inspected the contents.

His jerky he had was a loss, it was just mush at this point, no way was it edible. His hand axe was in good shape, flint and steel was all there. His pot was there as well, most things were still usable so he was ahead. He had left his bed roll, clothes and blanket at the top of the shaft before he came into the ruins. They weren't there when he and Sif showed up, so an animal probably has an extremely warm nest at the moment.

He stuffed all his recovered goods into his pockets and belt, ripped the fangs out of the snake's mouth, and headed back up the shaft. He also managed to get a couple handfuls of the glowing blue flowers to bring back to Clair. He would have gone back for the other golden medallions, but he really couldn't carry anymore.

Once back in the daylight, Marcus walked over to Sif. He reached his hand out to pat her head, she was still basking in the sun on a rock. She recoiled from his touch, giving Marcus a little growl.

"What's wrong Sif?" Marcus asked as he got closer to her.

Sif backed away even further, growling at him. Then she started to wipe the end of her snout on the grass growing around them. She would pause, stare at Marcus, then continue wiping her snout on the grass.

"Oh, sorry. Do you think I need a bath?" Marcus asked as he backed away laughing.

"I guess I'd gotten used to the smell. Let's go find a river or something, ok? We can get some fish while we're there, how does that sound?"

Sif stopped wiping her snout and started cooing at Marcus. After he pulled his rope up from the shaft, he started heading back towards Jakarta. There was a river that ran towards the city not too far from here. He'd have to take a dip in it to wash off the smell. Sif was following behind him, at a far distance, not wanting to be near him.