Chapter Twelve

We stood still in front of the basement door quietly. Tyson and Mike were behind us like scared puppies, clearly waiting for us to open the basement door. What was in it anyway that made them hysteric?

“So what exactly are we looking at here?”, Leah asked, knife in hand.

“Um…”, Mike started.

“There’s something in the basement.”, Tyson continued.

Leah rolled her eyes. “I know there’s something in the basement, but what?”

“That’s…” Mike started again.

But once again, Tyson continued. “Something shocking.”

The woman with the knife groaned, clearly pissed at the two brothers who kept on finishing each other’s sentences. “So? Open it, big guy.” She emphasized the big guy, indicating that they should go in first in the basement and be a brave man.

Tyson and Mike looked at each other. And before we knew it, Tyson walked away. “Well, I'll go find the food while you guys do that.”

“Wait, w-what?”, Mike stuttered and pushed his way in front of his brother. They were practically avoiding opening the basement door, else they wouldn’t be acting this way. What was in there anyway?

I could hear the audible sigh of annoyance of the woman beside me. As the two brothers bickered with their backs onto us, Leah raised her knife to her shoulder, readied her stance like a panther to its prey, and she threw the knife in between the two brothers’ faces. The throw was so fast that the knife landed on the wall with a loud thud, impaling it deep. I gulp the lump on my throat. One thing is for sure, I do not want to be on the bad side of Leah.

The two brothers stopped bickering and realized what had happened. They cleared their throat and fixed themselves, looking anywhere but Leah’s piercing gaze. “Gents first, shall we?”, she graciously pointed towards the basement.

Tyson looked at her then to the basement door. Placing his hands on his hips loosely, he mustered up a breath and walked towards the door. Pausing and looking behind us, or rather to Mike for help. He sighed, he faced the door, hovered his hands on the handle – contemplating something.

“What is in the basement anyway that you don’t even want to open it?” I could hear the annoyance in Leah's voice.

“Something alright?”, Tyson replied back in annoyance. “Even you would back away and not want to open the door if you knew what it was.”

“Well, what kind of something is it?”, I asked now really curious about this something they keep on saying.

“It’s…” Mike started again for the third time. He took off his round-rimmed glasses and rubbed his face, combing his hair, letting it sit on top of his hair. “The fidi is in its deep slumber in the basement.”

I furrowed my brow. “Fidi? What is that?”

“Oh.”, Leah had a look of realization in her eyes and fear took over it the second. She turns to Tyson and held his wrist. “Don’t, wait. Don’t open it.”

Tyson breathed a sigh of relief. “Told you you’d be scared if you knew.”

“Well, for starters, you should’ve started with that instead of stuttering about it like a dumb moron.”, she shook her head.

He shrugged. “Touché.”

We all looked at the basement door like it was the most dangerous thing that we have ever encountered. “What exactly is a fidi?”, I asked. Everyone was quiet, no one answered my question. “Right.”, I looked at the door handle then to them who didn’t move a muscle at all, then back at the basement door handle. Maybe I should open it. I reached for the handle as it seems no one wanted to do it. But upon reaching it midway, they squealed and grabbed me away from the door.

“No, no!”, Mike exclaimed as he pulled my shoulder.

“Don’t open it!”, Leah whispered angrily at me whilst holding my body.

“Please don’t, this might not scare you, but this creature is one of the most feared.”, Tyson explain as he grabbed my wrist.

I shrugged them off of me. “Look, what if there’s food in there?”, I tried reasoning them out.

They shook their heads. “Would rather die from starvation than be eaten by them.”, Leah said.

“Yep, same.” Tyson agreed. Mike nodded in response.

I sighed. “Then can’t we just sneak in? I mean you told me that this creature or whatever is in its slumber, right?” I looked at Mike, remembering what he said about this creature in its deep slumber.

“The slightest noise within its range could wake it.”, Mike explained. They were still all looking at the door – cautious. Really and seriously cautious.

What is this fidi creature? Why are they so afraid of it? Is this some kind of man-eating creature with six arms or some kind of hairy tall beast that eats anyone alive? I was more curious than anything now to what kind of creature this fidi was. I had no choice but to join them and stare at the basement door quietly, and wait for them to think of something to do other than to stare at the basement door as they let go of me. I leaned a bit to Leah and asked in a whispering voice, “What is a fidi?”

She turned her head at me slightly, “It’s a greek word for the…”, she paused thinking. What was she thinking? She then started to wriggle like a snake and hear her sssssss as she slithered her body, and then she looked at me, blushing like a tomato.

I pursed my lips, holding back a laugh. Looking down, I close my eyes to focus on not laughing. “I…”, I started but cleared my throat instead to avoid laughing at what she did.

“S-so, that was it.”, she shyly turned away from me, crossing her arms, tensing up.

I giggled, replaying what she did in my head over and over again. A smile never leaving my face. “Is it that dangerous? I mean it could have been weakened as there’s nothing to eat here.”

“It could go on for years, still strong even when it doesn’t eat anything at all.”, Mike said behind Tyson’s broad back.

I looked towards the door and back to them who looked scared and cautious, then back again to the basement door. Wouldn’t the serpent or snake, or whatever come up if it was really alive? Maybe Tyson and Mike only saw the portion of the snakes’ tail. I glanced up at the two brothers. “What exactly did you see? Was it the tail? The head?”

Tyson shrugged, “It was the tail. Why?”

I leaned back, looking at him in disbelief. “There’s a probability that the snake might be dead.”

Leah looked my way. “I mean, that could’ve been a probability.” Her whole demeanor changed from cautious to calm. “Let’s check just in case.” She started walking towards the basement door and I followed, but Mike stopped us midway to reaching the door.

“But what if it’s still alive? What if we risk endangering ourselves and this town and her majesties' house?”, he flailed his arms around as he spoke.

I heard Leah sigh. She walked up to Mike and placed her hand on his shoulder. “Look, if it’s still alive, then we kill it. Besides, we can’t rest easy and sleep at night knowing there’s a monster under our noses, right?”

“She’s right.”, Tyson said behind Mike, now all mighty and looking brave. He nodded to Leah, “Let’s kill this monster.”

Both Leah and Tyson went up to the door and slowly opened the basement door, readying themselves as they descended down the stairs. I glanced back at Mike. “Aren’t you coming?”

He shook his head. “You and I know I’ll only be a nuisance if I did follow them.” He looked down sadly.

I pursed my lips, thinking. “You know,” I walked up to him. “You might not be good in combat like your brother, but you’re good at things that your brother can’t do.”

He smiled. “Thanks.” He fixed his suspenders and looked up brightly. “I’ll wait here, you go on ahead with them.”

I smiled warmly at him. “Relax, it’s probably dead.” I started to walk towards the basement, it was dark down and it smelled of rotten eggs to which I almost gagged. “Ugh…gross.”, I covered my nose with my hand and descended down, careful not to hit the creaking spots on the old wooden stairs. I couldn’t even see where I was stepping, I didn’t want to touch the wall for fear that it might be slimy, and who knows what I’ll touch. I  shivered at the thought.

Upon reaching the end of the stairs, I heard Leah and Tyson whispering behind a shelf full of boxes. Tyson saw me and motioned me to crouch down as I tiptoed to them. Leah was peeking out the gap between the boxes. The stench of rotten eggs was stronger here than it was in the stairs.

“So, bad news is it’s alive. Good news, it’s weak.”, I heard Leah whisper despite the triangular cloth she covered half of her face with to cover the stenching smell of rotten eggs. She was still looking between the boxes on the shelf, keeping a look out.

Tyson peeked from above the box as he was taller. He was covering half of his face with his shirt now that I noticed that he was bare up – his refined rock-hard six pack abs showing and his muscles on his arms flexing as he moved it. “Hot huh?”, he snarkily said to me. He was now looking down at me looking at his body.

I shifted my gaze at Leah’s single braided chestnut hair, her sweaty soft neck showing against the glow of the light that managed to come through the gaps between the boxes. I completely ignored Tyson’s comment and went beside Leah, peeking through the gap that she was looking through. I could feel her breath hitch up as I came closer to her face. Feeling her gaze, I tensed up, feeling her warmth.

“Completely ignoring me and decides to invisibly try to get closer to Leah.”, Tyson chuckled lowly.

I blushed, hoping that the darkness would cover the redness of my face. Leah cleared her throat, “Anyway, we can actually defeat her seeing as she’s weak. She probably sought refuge here after a fight.” She pointed out to the dried bloodied cloth on the corner and the betadine that lay idly and empty. “Plus we can take advantage of the wound she has on her side.”

I looked over to the medium-sized serpent that lay sleeping, unaware of the three presence that was staring at her. The serpent was curled up in the center of the room, her blue scales shining from the little lamp as she breathed. It was such a small lamp but it was enough to light up one small room such as the basement.

I could see the dragon-like snakehead of it, its eyes close, resting and waiting for its wound to heal. As the medium-sized serpent breathed, the blood on its wound kept dripping out of its side slowly. It was gross to look at – whoever did that deep damage, it definitely made it easier for us to defeat it. I look back at Tyson and Leah, “So, what’s the plan?”

Leah’s eyes were fixated at the serpent, so focused, her emerald eyes shining dimly in the dark and determined to kill the monster in my basement. “There’s a blind spot on its back, Tyson you go there and wait for my signal.” She looks at me, pausing. There was a hint of hesitation but thought of it. “Selina, I need you to be the bait.”

I stared at her emerald eyes blankly. “What?”

“Do you trust me on this?”, she asked, grabbing my arms reassuringly.

I pursed my lips and peeked at the serpent briefly then back to her. I exhaled, taking a huge gulp of air, and nodded. “Yeah, I trust you.”

Leah smiled, her emerald eyes landed on my lips – she patted my shoulder with her hand and nodded at Tyson to his position. She looked at me for a moment before she reached out to her back, crossed arms and fished out her knives. How in the world could she carry knives in her back and manage to look like she isn’t carrying weapons around?

As if she heard my mind,  “It comes handy in situations like these.” She shrugged and smiled sheepishly at me. “Go, don’t worry, we’ll attack it before it reaches you.”

I nodded. I creeped lowly behind the metal shelves and looked towards Tyson’s position. I need to be adjacent to where he is so he can attack the back. I glanced at Leah, ready to pounce at the serpent any moment. She looked like a tiger, hiding under the tall grass, stalking its prey. As I looked at her, something stirred inside me but I shook it off my head.

“What the heck am I thinking?”, I mumbled to myself. I focused my eyes on the napping medium-sized serpent – gulping a lump in my throat. “Here goes nothing.”, I whispered before I jumped out of my cover, making sure to let out a loud bang as I jumped out a few feet away from the serpent.

The serpent awoke with a jolt, noticing my presence, its head rose slowly, its yellow obsidian-shaped eyes stared right through me, striking me with fear, its tongue flicking out. I stood there helplessly as my body froze the moment the serpent moved – tensed. It seemed like it had already wrapped me in its body. I could feel the air in my body leave as I stared right into its eyes. Had I not noticed there was something in it, my fear would’ve taken over my emotions.

Suddenly, when I realized the serpent was telling me something with its eyes, calmnes came flowing down my veins. Was this its power? To manipulate a person’s emotions? Or was it by chance that it has something to do with the fact that I saw something in its eyes?

Is that…?