Chapter 6: Run with Your All
A giant reptilian eye looks through the window, it was three-time as big as a basketball and glowing yellow in the dark. It stares at sol with intensity.
Sol's hairs stand on end, their eyes lock on each other. Sol's entire being screams that he needs to run but he can't even move a finger. It isn't like he doesn't want to run but his body feels like it turned into stone, even his eye can't look away.
"fuck, what is that giant eye??" his mind run as fast as it can to think of a solution. "from its eye, that thing is definitely a reptile's eye, most probably a snake"
"is it medusa??? No, medusa suppose to look like a woman with a snake for hair, not this giant thing with giant eye and it isn't like I really turned into a stone statue, it just my body can't move at all"
"is it basilisk? No, legend says that basilisk can kill with only a look and I'm definitely still alive."
"maybe it some kind of lesser basilisk? It can stop anyone it looks at or something like that?"
"well it doesn't matter what it is, I need to get away"
Sol can feel his back sweating when it suddenly breaks through the wall. Dust is flying everywhere and the electricity fails. The room turned dark but not dark enough that he can't see.
Sol can feel that death is not that far away, right in front of him is a giant snakehead as big as a MINI Cooper.
His eyes are hurt because of all the dust but he can't close his eye. Sure enough, the giant snake feels it too, it's two-layered eyelid close by reflex.
Suddenly Sol can close his eye. Realizing what happened, Sol cover his body and face with his makeshift blanket, pick up his knife and rifle he runs to the opposite window.
He jumps through the window and breaks it in the process.
Sol about to run down the mountain when a giant tail covered in scales swing toward his face.
Scared, Sol ducks down and roll on the ground twice before stopping. He barely dodges with his life intact but his left arm that was starting to heal hits the ground hard.
Holding his screams, Sol runs down the mountain without looking back.
For the first time after he goes up the mountain he stops thinking about Anya, the only thing in his mind is "RUN"
He runs through the trees as fast as he can. That day he runs faster than he ever did before, part of it thanks to the shard and a part of it due to his intense fear and adrenaline.
Behind him, he can hear trees falling like it is raining trees. Without looking back he knows that the snake is coming after him.
Sol can feel his lung burning and his legs hurting but he doesn't stop. He can't stop or he will end up as a snake mid-night snack.
The snow cold environment doesn't help his suffering. What he doesn't know is the cold is his only saving grace. Snakes are coldblooded creatures, they move slower in a cold environment.
Sol keeps running and running. He met a lot of creatures along the way but he has no time to stop and hide.
The first time he met a creature was some kind of werewolf with gray fur, it looked at him and about to run at him. Sol's hand grips his knife tight but the upcoming clash never happens.
Sounds of tree falling attract its attention and when it looks behind him, it stops moving. Like a statue, it stands there without moving while Sol passes by it.
Sol with his head covered in the red curtain as a hood pass by an unmoving werewolf makes a comical image of red riding hood and the wolf.
Every encounter after that ends up with a similar ending. Sol lost count of how many creatures he met and how long he has been running.
He can hear a gulping sound every time he passes by an unmoving creature. Clearly, the snake ate them all.
"how many creatures it has eaten? Why isn't it full yet?" Sol feels depressed.
If Sol looks back he will not see the familiar snake with a head as big as a car but an even bigger one with a head as big as a truck.
While he runs the temperature has been dropping and it keeps falling while sol runs for his life. The snow gets deeper and deeper, that it becomes hard to keep running.
The sky is getting brighter but no sun is rising and no warmth can be felt. Sol is so tired that he falls on the snow, rolling down until he hit a big tree.
His cover leaves his head, stuck in a branch. "shit" he thought, but what he sees behind him come as a surprise.
The snake has stop kilometers behind him, its eyes closed. "thank goodness it stops, looks like it is nocturnal."
Looking the way he was going, Sol can see a clearing. He is almost out of the mountain.
He wanted to get away from that snake as far as possible, so he willed his body to move. Will it all his might to no avail, he can't move a finger.
"damn it!!!" Soll screams in his mind.
This time it's not because of the magical snake's eyes, but because he used his body past its limit that he runs out of strength.
Sol had his back on a tree while his eye looks at the sleeping snake in horror.
"MOVE!!!" he wills but his body stubbornly stays unmoving.