~Chapter 8~
Jirro and Aero could see the Ekanz canyons in the distance as the sun rose.
"I didn't know that’s how your mom died, through Focus sickness." Aero said.
"Yeah, after that Hearstone ritual on Platt Mountain my dad told me. It was why he didn't want us using Focus." Jirro explained.
Aero nodded, "It's kind of nice to know isn't it? To know exactly what happened to her."
Jirro peered at Aero, "What makes you say that?"
"I mean, Corri and I have no idea what happened to our mom. No idea if she's a live or dead. We don't even know her name. I feel like it'd be nice to know a little bit." Aero explained softly.
Jirro looked to Aero, it wasn't often that he spoke sentimentally like that.
They entered the canyon, and there were cliff faces on each side of them. There were many round holes beneath their feet, tunnels. No doubt for snakes to slither in and out. Aero winced when he saw a hole big enough for him to fit into to.
A snake slithered out one of the holes, it was about 3 meters in length. It saw the two boys and snarled, showing off its fangs as it did. It lunged at Aero, but the boy simply grabbed it out of the air. The yellow dotted snake tried to wriggle away but Aero's tucked the creature underneath his arm and pinned out there.
"Okay Jirro, open its mouth and pull the fang out." Aero said as wrangled the snake into submission.
Jirro shook his head, "We're looking for a Cobra Aero, that's not it. I think that’s an Anaconda, not nearly as big as a Cobra."
Aero dejectedly gripped the Anaconda and threw it away. It hissed at them before slithering into one of the many holes dotting the area.
The two continued on until they came upon a much more open area with mounds of dirt dotted with holes for snakes to travel through. Carcasses were spread around the area. The boys remained on their guard.
Jirro spotted a giant yellow translucent mass that extended through the terrain. With a closer look he recognized it as shed skin from an enormous snake. 30 or 40 meters long, and 3 meters wide.
"Yeah, there's a Cobra here." Jirro said.
Aero winced, "This is from a Cobra? You came here knowing we'd have to deal with something this big?!"
"We need to save Nout! Whatever it takes." Jirro said with stone faced determination.
At the center of the open area they found it, the cobra's full body spread out across the area. It lied motionless, its sinister eye visible. They quickly circled behind a mound of dirt, fearing that it had seen them.
Yet the Cobra remained motionless.
"What's it doing?" Aero asked in a whisper, peering over at the beast.
Jirro watched as the creature lightly breathed in a rhythmic fashion. He whispered, "I think it's asleep."
"But it's eyes are open." Aero whispered back.
"Snakes don't have eyelids Aero."
Aero looked to Jirro and back to the open eyed snake, "...That's weird."
Jirro saw this as fortunate. Maybe while the Cobra was asleep they could somehow get the fang out. It'd certainly be safer than trying to take it while it was awake. He looked around the area and saw a boulder relatively close to the beast.
"Can you pick up that boulder?" Jirro asked his cousin.
"Of course I can." Aero responded quickly.
"Okay..." Jirro turned to Aero, "I want you to go pick up the boulder and be ready with it. I'm going to run over to the cobra, try and open its mouth while its asleep, and tear the fang out. If it wakes up, shout, and throw the boulder at its head, and we'll run away."
Aero looked at Jirro incredulously, "That's terrible idea."
"Well that's all I can think of right now! Unless you have any brighter ideas I think we should do that. I don't want it to wake up and for us to miss our opening."
Aero hesitantly shrugged. He rushed over to the boulder and lifted it up over his head, ready to chuck it at a moment's notice. Jirro went to the creature with as light of steps as he could. It was eerie looking at its eye as he approached.
Jirro circled to the front of the beast. It could easily eat him whole if he wasn't careful.
Jirro hesitantly gripped the snake's mouth and lifted up until he could see the snake's fang. While it's mouth was closed the fang withdrew itself into the bottom half of the snake's mouth.
Jirro paid close attention to the snake's breathing, looking for any sort of change that might signal that it had woken. The inside of it's mouth smelled horrible. Jirro pushed up until he could see the entirety of the fangs. Sharp with a terrifying curve.
Aero could see a twitch ripple through the Snake's entire body. Aero nearly threw the boulder, but it wasn't clear if the Cobra was awake yet. The eye began to look around and sharpened at the sight of him.
"It's awake!" Aero shouted.
Jirro felt pressure from the beast's mouth, and jumped back, barely avoiding the Cobra's bite. The Cobra's body straightened up into the air, looked at the two of them and hissed. Aero chucked the boulder directly into the Cobra's mouth.
The boys ran. The Cobra struggled with the boulder for a moment before crushing it with the sheer force of its bite, and then went after the kids.
It was fast, far faster than the boys, but it didn't go straight for them. Instead it circled around, surrounding its massive serpentine body around them until they were surrounded.
The Cobra looked down at the boys before preparing to choke the life out of them. Jirro recognized what it was about to do, "Jump!"
Just as Cobra went to wrap around the boys the two jumped over 10 meters into the air. Their training with Chief Theo paying off. They landed onto the Cobra's body.
The Cobra lunged at them and two jumped away just in time, and the creature carelessly bit into its own body. If it wasn't immune to its own venom, then that could've been the end of it.
The boys sprinted as fast as they could through the canyon, back into the more tightly confined area they entered through. Aero only thought to escape at this point... but Jirro. Jirro still wanted that fang. He slowed his steps.
"We still need that fang!" Jirro declared.
"We can't beat that thing Jirro! Not on our own!" Aero tried to reason.
"I'm not going anywhere!"
The cobra slithered into view towards the boys, fangs revealed, ready to kill. Jirro stood his ground as the Cobra came at him. Aero wanted to run, but he wasn't going to abandon his cousin.
Jirro's fist emanated a radiant blue light that continued to grow brighter. The cobra lunged. Jirro punched at the air between him and the snake. A massive burst of blue light rocketed from his fist, flying directly into the Cobra's mouth. It hit the back of the Cobra's throat and kept going, bursting through it. The Cobra's eyes became a lifeless gray color and it collided with the canyon's walls before slumping to the ground.
Jirro felt dizzy, and his vision began to falter. He did his best to keep standing, but before he knew it he fell to the ground unconscious.
"Jirro!" Jirro heard his cousins shouting repeatedly. He awoke to Aero standing over him, shaking his body.
"You're okay!" He shouted when he saw Jirro's eyes fluttered open. Aero gave him a strong hug.
Jirro was still half asleep, "What happened?"
"You killed the Cobra!" Aero gestured to their side. The Cobra's lifeless corpse laid there, its eye devoid of life and its fangs missing. Aero had already torn them out.
Jirro took a moment before standing up, he still felt a little off balance and dizzy. Aero helped him stand upright. "Can you walk?"
Jirro tried to walk a few steps before starting to feel comfortable again. "I think I'll manage."
Aero grabbed the two large fangs of the cobra and carried them along, careful not to touch the poisonous end of them. The headed back to Titus Forest with them in tow. Jirro walked slowly, using that massive of a Focus attack truly drained him.
As they went they saw a group approach them, a group of Phantine warriors. Chief Theo was among them. As soon as Theo realized the boys had left during the night, he gathered up a search party to save them.
Theo's party met with the boys in the plains between Titus Forest and Ekanz Canyon, "Are you boys okay?" Theo asked.
"I'm a little tired. We got the fangs though." A wearied Jirro responded.
Theo looked at the terrifying long fangs Aero carried with disbelief, "How- How did you get those?"
Aero smiled big, "Jirro killed the cobra."
The Phantine Warriors looked at the half awake Jirro with amazement. They were sure that the boys would be killed if they went alone. The more time they spent with these kids, the less they could understand them.
Theo carried Jirro back to Titus Forest. When they returned, Nout had already awoken. He was incredibly drained and exhausted, but conscious.
Koka was amazed when she saw that the boys had brought her two full Cobra fangs. Even she had no idea the sheer quantity of potions she would be able to create using them. She began brewing up a series of potions, promising to let the kids have as much as they wanted.
Jirro and Nout spent their time in recovery until Koka brought them two of her potions, "Drink up boys."
Jirro sipped the green liquid, his strength suddenly return he gulped down the rest of the bottle, as did Nout. Soon they felt good as if nothing had happened to them at all.
"Thanks for doing that for me Jirro." Nout said, somewhat shamefully once the two were alone.
"You'd do the same for me." Jirro responded in kind.
"I should’ve listened to you. You told me to be careful, but I kept going." Nout said, "It was just the first time in my life that I felt that strong. I guess I got a little carried away."
"You're plenty strong already. Trust me." Jirro praised him, "Just promise to be careful from now on."
Nout nodded with a smile. 399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJRTsKQNr3H
