Blaze (The High-Born Epic) (6 page)

             
“‘Fraid that we ain’t got time,” Phil replied as he came around a tree.  He had a fishing pole in his hand, and a sloshing tin pail.  “We’ve got to get home and clean these things.  Then put ‘em in some grease.”

             
“How many did you catch?” Harold asked.

             
“I’ve got four bream and two bass,” he said.  “So, fish for breakfast too.”

             
“Aunt Nean will be finished patching Ollie’s old dress this afternoon,” Harold said.  “I’ll bring it by when we leave the river today.”

             
“That’ll be fine,” Phil said as he waved bye.  “See you then, Harold.  Come on, Maggie.”

             
“See you then,” Harold waved to Phil.

             
“We gots to go,” Maggie said to Ollie and ran off down the trail.             

             
As they walked away, Maggie stopped running, “Daddy, dat man came to oww house yes’a’day.”

             
“He sure did,” he said.

             
“I ‘ike him,” she said.  “Him’s nice.  Him gwow’s weal big.”

             
“Yes,” Phil said slightly puzzled.  “He’s ‘growed’ up.”

             
Harold eyed Sarah and he said, “Let’s walk upstream apiece.  I’ve got something I want to show you.”

             
“Okay,” Sarah said.

             
They walked hand-in-hand up the bank of the river in the direction that Phil and Maggie went, but they didn’t talk.  Three different times Harold caught her looking at him, but when he looked back, she would quickly turn her head.  Harold could almost see her heart beating through her chest, and he noticed that his was doing the same.  They rounded the bend of the river, and were out of the others’ sight. 

             
Harold gulped, and tried to keep his voice steady, “This is what I wanted to show you.”

             
He pointed at a patch of white and purple flowers. She looked at him and smiled, and they walked over to it.  As they both began picking the flowers, their eyes nervously flitted back and forth as they laughed and smiled at one another.  He was arranging his flowers into a bouquet, trying to make the center purple and the outside white.  She was twisting hers together into something that resembled a crown.  He wasn’t finished when she walked over to him, and grabbed his hat.

             
“I’ve been meaning to ask you,” she said as she looked at the damaged parts.  “What happened to this thing?”

             
“Sunshine was Partly Cloudy today,” he smiled.

             
Sarah just looked at him.

             
“The mule bit it.”

             
“Oh,” Sarah laughed as she put the hat on a log. 

             
Then she put the garland on his head, and turned to go pick some more flowers.  He finished his bouquet about the time she finished a second garland.  Then she put the second arrangement on her own head.  He was slightly disappointed with his bouquet, but he presented it to her anyway.

             
The flowers didn’t change her looks that much, but Harold had to admit to himself that she was beautiful.  The white and purple flowers contrasted fittingly with her tanned skin, hazel eyes, and straight, dark hair.

             
“Here you go,” he said as he presented her with his bouquet.

             
“You’re so sweet, Harold Knight,” she grinned, tucking her chin down slightly as she smelled the flowers.  She opened her eyes and half-hid her face behind the flowers.  Her head turned slightly, but her eyes stayed locked to his.

             
He gently pulled her close to him, and she looked up at him.  He clasped his hands around her waist as she slid her arms around his neck.  They made eye contact and stood for moment, then began moving their lips toward the other’s lips.  That’s when they heard it.

             
A blood-curdling scream was coming from just around the bend.

             
“
Help me,
Harold
! 
Help
!!!” he could hear the voice calling as it seemed to move farther downstream.

             
“That’s Ollie,” he said as they both sprinted toward the bend.

             
Harold could not believe what he was seeing when Ollie came into sight.  It all ran through his head so quickly.  Now, he knew why Colonel Foxx had been walking around the fence this morning. 

             
His snake had gotten out. 

             
It had always been so far away when Harold saw it that he had never fully understood how big it really was.  It was easily six or seven times as long as him, and almost as thick.  He noticed that it had a flat tail like an eel and it registered with Harold that the tail was why it could swim so fast.

             
The snake had wrapped once around Ollie, holding her in the center of its body.  Now, it was swimming downstream with her.  And to Harold’s dread, it was moving fast, much faster than he would’ve thought possible.  He recalled the stories about disobedient villagers’ children being fed to the snake, and he realized they were true.  It had laid in wait, watching them, picking its prey, and coming after the smallest one of them when she was by herself.

             
The look in Ollie’s eyes filled Harold with resolve.  He had absolutely no idea what he was going to do if he caught the snake, but he would worry about that when he caught it.  Harold sprinted towards her, water splashing all around him.

             
The snake was moving swiftly downstream, and it passed Cooper who was nearly frozen with terror.  As it was gliding past, the little boy caught his courage when his screaming sister was pulled by him.  He hit it once with his stick, but couldn’t hit it again, so he began running after it. 

             
Scott was downstream a little farther than Cooper and he roared as he hit it with his stick in the face.  Harold noticed that it actually flinched.  Scott whacked its body two more times before it was out of his reach.  Then he too gave chase.

             
The pytheel didn’t slither like other water-traveling snakes because its flat tail allowed it to swim more like a fish.  As its tail moved from side to side, it held its head high out of the water, and almost all of Ollie was raised out of the river also.  Only the part of the creature behind Ollie was in motion, and it was moving rapidly, pushing the monster with frightening speed.  The pytheel was easily moving faster than a man could run, and Harold felt sick to his stomach.  It was pulling away from both Scott and Cooper as fast as he was catching up to them. 

             
He looked at Ollie’s face and her outstretched arms.  She was supremely helpless.  Pity and rage welled up in Harold as his eyes began filling with tears, and he jumped out of the water, and turned up the bank so that he could run faster, resolving himself to die or kill the snake.

             
As he hit the trail, his speed increased, and he began gaining slightly.  He felt extremely hot, and he heard a loud boom.  He noticed Cooper and Scott wince at the noise, and he was farther down the trail than he realized.  Cooper turned and looked at him, and stopped.  As he passed his little cousin, he saw Cooper’s mouth open, and his eyes were wide.  As Harold ran by him, he saw Cooper’s stick slide out of his hand.  Strangely, he was only watching Harold run, and was paying no attention to the snake.

             
Harold felt tremendously hot, but redoubled his run.  In just a few steps, he passed Scott.  Harold thought it very strange, but Scott had also stopped running, and was holding his stick high in the air while jumping up and down.  Unlike Cooper, he wasn’t blankly staring at Harold; he was cheering him on like a boy watching two other boys fight.

             
Farther down the trail, he could see Scape running and barking with his ears pinned back against his head.  As Ollie screamed, Scape barked and yowled at the same time.

             
Harold didn’t know how, but he was actually gaining on the snake.  He caught a whiff of smoke as he watched Ollie futilely struggling to break its grip.  He heard another loud boom, and suddenly he was only a few steps behind Scape who was kicking up dirt and mud as he darted down the trail.  Then the snake began moving faster, and Harold wasn’t gaining ground anymore.  In fact, it seemed like it was getting farther away from him.  As he sprinted, he thought about the belief in Ollie’s eyes when she had told Sarah ‘I bet they weren’t strong as Harold.’  Tears flooded into his eyes, and he shouted with effort as he willed himself to run faster.

             
Time slowed...

             
Ollie looked up at him.  She was beyond hysteria.  Her seven year-old eyes were filled with horror and tears.  Her terrified and pitiful scream echoed through the forest and struck something deep inside of Harold.  It was a feeling beyond description, but an image of rolling storm clouds flashed through his mind.

             
...But she was so far away, and the snake was swimming faster than he could run...

             
...Ollie’s teary eyes looked toward him...

             
...his eyes met hers...

             
...both of her little arms reached out for him...

             
...Harold grimaced in effort...

             
...her fingers extended for him...

             
...Harold stretched out his arm...

             
Thunder crashed all around him, and he saw a flash of fire.  Water splashed, and he didn’t know how, but the snake was right in front of him.  He gritted his teeth and seized its head.  A primal fury enveloped him as he thrashed violently with the creature.  He was almost unable to get his arms all the way around its body, but somehow he did.  Then he squeezed as hard as he could, he almost couldn’t believe it.  He actually felt the snake’s bones cracking under the power that had come over him.  Suddenly, he felt the snake wrapping itself around him, and he saw Ollie fly through the air, and land quite a distance upstream. 

             
As it coiled around him, he noticed that it seemed to be in pain, and he felt incredibly hot.  Its head rose up above him, hissing and shrieking as it opened its mouth.  It didn’t have fangs, but rows of sharp little teeth, and Harold caught a glimpse of putrid meat between some of them.  The shrilly hiss coming from it sounded both angry and painful and its head and body seemed to slither in the air as its muscles began tensing.  It struck at him, but Harold caught the upper jaw with his right hand and its lower jaw with his left.  That’s when he saw it.

             
Roaring fire covered his hands and arms.

             
The snake took him under water and Harold couldn’t believe how much pressure he felt as it tried to crush him.  Then, he felt so hot that he thought he was going to melt, and there was a tremendously bright light all around him.  He wrenched the snake’s jaw back and forth, and he actually felt something snap.  Even under water, he heard the snake shriek, and the pressure on him lessened somewhat.  As Harold and the creature twisted and twirled underwater, he continued thrashing while trying to rip off the snake’s head.  He didn’t think it possible, but he felt even hotter than a moment ago.  His lungs were burning, and suddenly, he couldn’t feel any more pressure. 

             
He rose above the surface and gasped for air.  There was fire on top of the water tracing the body of the snake, or rather what was left of its body.  Almost nothing remained of the snake.  A strange fire was consuming it, and the water seemed to do nothing to stop the living flames that were racing over it.  The fire was burrowing into the water, angrily gnawing at the part of the snake that was beneath the surface.  All of the snake’s skin was gone and there was very little muscle now, and the bones were burning rapidly.  The fire almost seemed to have a life of its own, and it appeared that it was not going to stop until it had eliminated every last vestige of this child-eating snake. 

             
The fire was acting just like he felt, and in mere moments the snake was no more.

             
The river was rushing around him like he was in rapids, but the water was nearly up to his chest.  It wasn’t deep enough or rocky enough to have rapids, and this part of the river was not even fast moving.  It should not have been like this.

             
He looked upstream to see that Scott was swimming and pushing a small log out to Ollie.  Cooper and Sarah were on the bank just a few yards behind Scott and Ollie.  They stood there, gasping for air, in slack-jawed amazement just looking at Harold as Scape barked and ran in circles.  He could see patches of fire here and there, up and down the trail he had just run, and he looked at the last patch of land where he remembered being.