Snakes

She fell for longer than she expected as if the earth had swallowed her. Air rushed past her as she panicked and twisted in the air.
With a shriek, she landed in a deep pool of liquid, but she knew it wasn’t just water. The energy of it was all wrong and it was almost too thick. She stroked to the surface quickly and almost gagged at the scent of blood and stale water. Something was rotting nearby.
“Sirona!” Arawn called as she got her bearings. The only light in the cavern was coming from the ball of light around Arawn’s hand. He floated down to her and halted as she focused on levitating herself out of the water.
“Are you alright?”
She nodded a little and shuddered as she realized that her dress had been stained red.
It was a pool of blood. How many people or creatures had they killed to create a pool this deep? She didn’t want to think about it.
“It’s not blood,” Arawn said, “Don’t panic.”
The tone of his voice felt reassuring, but she couldn’t seem to calm herself. She conjured her rapier to give herself something to focus on than the way the energies in the cave were rioting and rushing around her.
She heard death and people screaming in the still darkness of the cave, but she knew it was just in her mind. Arawn took her hand.
“Calm down and focus, we’re in the heart of the den. It won’t take long before—”
A loud hissing sound came from further away. The water began to churn and turn beneath them. Arawn grabbed her hand and flew up as a large serpentine body rose out of the depths.
Glinting red eyes peered up at them from within the dark pool surrounding a single pair of violet.
“How many are there?” Sirona asked.
“Too many to count,” he said, “I suppose this is more effective than blasting boulders.”
Sirona couldn’t believe him, but she lifted her blade, “Any pointers about this?”
“Monstrous snakes tend to also breed with hydras. Some of them will have multiple heads. Cut off the main head if you want to kill the beast.”
He floated further up, “I’ll be watching out for you.”
Sirona nodded. She could manage this. One of them shot out at her and she rushed forward, cutting through its head with a swift turn of her body. Two more shot out then three then four.
She turned and sliced. She flipped and hacked trying to avoid their fangs.
“Careful, some of them may be poisonous,” Arawn called.
He watched her twist in midair and dart aside so one of them crashed its face into the wall. She’d gotten calmer under pressure, but she wasn’t keeping track of which heads she’d severed. Several of them had already re-grown or doubled since she’d severed them.
Glinting yellow eyes drifted around the edges of the pool, watching Sirona with intent. It had been a while since he’d seen a true snake-hydra hybrid. He guessed it was about twenty years old making it a decent opponent for Sirona if she didn’t get tangled up with the bulk of the queen’s defensive forces.
“Enough!”
A beam of light shot out from Sirona’s hand, disintegrating five hissing heads at once and Arawn clapped for her.
“Good job!” Arawn said, “Keep going!”
With any luck, she’d exhaust her lighter power and that darker power would surface. He needed to know how deep it went and if she could be trained to use it well. She twisted, cutting and destroying heads with swipes of her sword and blasts of magic before she wavered in the air.
Arawn’s heart lurched, “Watch out!”
Sirona tried to evade the oncoming head but she felt tired and sluggish. She avoided getting bitten, but it quickly changed directions and slammed her into the wall. Pain exploded through her head as she hit the wall. Another smaller snake wrapped around and turned her over. She struggled as the thick, muscled coil tightened around her and flipped her upside down.
A pair of violet eyes rose and her gaze met with the monster’s.
She felt dizzy and sick. The scent of blood filled her nose and the darkness flickered around her.
Weak little thing, she heard a hissing voice at the back of her mind. Tasty.
Indignation rose up in Sirona. She wasn’t weak and she wasn’t a meal. She struggled again, pushing and trying to call a blade to her hand, but she couldn’t manage it. Her power felt depleted, but there was some other source of power that seemed just out of her reach.
Crush it.
Sirona cried out as the body tightened around her before a flash of light filled her eyes and she felt Arawn’s warmth around her. Something hissed as the wind rushed past her and Arawn carried her further up in the cave before setting her down on a ledge.
“Are you okay?” Arawn asked.
Sirona shook her head, “I… I heard something. I-It was talking.”
Arawn hummed and looked down at the queen as she sunk back into the depths to watch the battle unfold. It was interesting that Sirona had heard her. Arawn heard her because they shared a connection. How could Sirona have a connection to one of his creations? He was certain they hadn’t exchanged so much magic to make that happen yet.
“Can you go on?”
She shook herself and nodded, “I can. I just… I need a plan. What happens if I kill the queen?”
“One of the others becomes queen.”
She huffed, “So I have to kill all of her guards first?”
She leaned over the ledge and peered down. There seemed to be even more eyes watching them than before. If only she could figure out how to reach this power that seemed just out of reach or replenish the power she’d used up.
She worried her lip and an idea came to mind, “You said that it wasn’t blood.”
“No, it’s a blood pool. The water is that color due to the mingling of energies in it. Think of it as related to a star lagoon.”
“Could it be used for communion?”
“It could be.” But Arawn had never tried to commune with the sort of darkness that would be connected to a blood pool.
But now that she’d said it, he had a feeling that Sirona would have no problem doing so. There was a quality to her darker powers that was very similar to the mangled chaos of a blood pool. Sirona stepped to the edge and looked down.
“What is your plan?”
“I’m going to try and used the power in the blood pool.”
Arawn hummed, “Good luck.”
She looked back wanting to ask if he thought it was a good idea, but his eyes gave away nothing. She didn’t know if that was a good or a bad thing.
“Will it kill me?”
“No.”
That was going to have to be good enough for now. She leaped over the edge, falling towards the pool. A creature hissed and she dodged it just before she disappeared beneath the surface. She conjured another sword that glowed in the darkness of the pool before the queen approached her again.
So willing to die.
Sirona focused on the streams of energy she could recognize and pulled them towards her. Something cracked inside her and she felt her power gushing out of her. The sword grew larger and brighter. The queen hissed and backed away.
It burns! Kill it!
One of her minions swam close but vanished in the light of Sirona’s sword. Sirona closed her eyes feeling the power flowing into her as the light expanded through the pool until she heard nothing.

“Sirona?” Arawn called from far away. His voice was getting closer.
She looked up in surprise and confusion. Where had all the snakes gone? The blood pool? She stood alone in a deep basin, oddly dry and warm.
“Arawn?”
He landed beside her and grinned, “Very impressive. It seems you have been learning.”
He offered her his hand, “Shall we go tell the knights of your overwhelming victory?”
She nodded and took his hand. They ascended through the deep cavern towards where Sirona had fallen in. The knights seemed spooked but as they saw her, they went to their knees in awe.
“Thank you, Goddess Sirona, patron of war, companion of Arawn.”
She smiled, a little dizzy from the power before she turned and gestured through the air, willing the ground to close and the cavern to disappear.

Druid heard the sounds of war and saw the right star crossing the sky, pushing back Berth’s enemies. In the distance, the great volcano which had been dormant for centuries rumbled with a warning.
He broke out of the vision with a gasp of fear and worry. He offered a prayer to the Supreme One and knew that it was for nothing. It was not a vision of what could be, but of what was.