Fangs
I heard footsteps creaking on every step of the stairs. I woke up with a startle, sweating, and thought to myself, where am I? It was dark so I couldn’t see much, but I assumed I was in some abandoned attic. I read a label on the bed that I was sleeping on, and it read “circa 1900”. I started to panic because apparently I woke up in a bed that had been abandoned for over a century, as the door creaked open. Out came a massive, 300-pound snake-like beast, slithering. I had no idea how it opened the door in the first place, but I didn’t really want to find out. Its dark beady eyes, with sharp and ferocious fangs glared at me. At first I didn’t know if I was imagining things, but I knew it was real once the snake pounced on me. I managed to jump out of the way just in time, but it startled me quite a bit. By instinct, I grabbed a lamp nearby that was apparently on some sort of old slightly decayed nightstand. The snake jumped off the bed, and I saw the headboard broken and steaming with dripping, green ooze. I didn’t want to believe it, but I was pretty sure the snake had just shot venom at the headboard, missing me by inches.
I used the lamp I had picked as a weapon to try to smack the snake, but the snake chomped it in half. Then, I picked up a wooden chair that happened to be right next to me, and used it to try to smack the snake again. I was swinging it left and right like my life depended on it; oh wait, my life actually did depend on it. I think I managed to knock a fang out of its mouth. But that just made it more angry. Then, the snake let out a red hot flame, and somehow I managed to block the strike with my chair, using it as a shield.
Okay, snake: you have sharp poisonous fangs that spit shots of poison, you blow hot fire out of your mouth, and have intimidating eyes that makes me not want to be alive and question my existence, along with a horrible hissing sound that makes my ears ring.
I figured what I’d do next would most likely kill me, but it was worth a shot. I grabbed the fang that I had knocked out of the snake’s mouth, and tried to stab it using all my might. Oh, one more thing. Snake you have scales like metal, and even the sharpest thing (which is literally your own fang) I had ever seen rebounds off of it. I lost my balance and fell a few feet backwards. The snake advanced at me, so I scooted back as fast as I could. But of course it was an old abandoned house, so it has to have broken windows, right? So as I was moving back, my hands suddenly felt that the floor was no longer there, and I was free falling from what looked like the fourth floor. Then everything went black.
I woke up sweating in my bed, in the Richmond District, in foggy San Francisco. That had been like no other dream I’d had: the old bed, the attic – waking up in a dream…?
I’d had many dreams, but none like this one; it was one hour later than when I usually woke up, and I felt like I’d played a long basketball game… yeah, I was pretty sure I didn’t sweat like this when normally snoozing. I tried to get out of my bed, but my muscles got weak, my vision turned to gray spots, and I fell back asleep.
I was outside -in a snowy place. A horse nudged me.
“Hello?” I was surprised that I could speak in its head.
“Hmm,” the horse seemed as surprised as I was. “Are you aware that you have been in battle with a basilisk? Are you a descendant of Poseidon?”
“Huh, what? Uh, no, I don’t think so.”
“Strange,” the horse replied in my head. I got up.
The horse had a stern look in its eyes, like it wanted to rip me apart. But it didn’t and then it seemed friendly enough. It was muscular, and had a sleek black coat, and its face looked fierce, like it had just been in a fight.
“Nevertheless, Hera sent me to tell you to kill a basilisk, the snake-like thing in your dream. She sent it to you.”
“Wait, you’re telling me Hera, a Greek goddess sent me a dream of – why would she do such a thing? If she really wants to kill it, why ask me? Can’t she just kill it with her bare hands?”
“Yeah… you do seem like a descendant of Posiedon. Well, anyways, I don’t know why. Basilisks give the gods bad memories, reminding them of the giants who threw basilisks out of their hair. Also, like Ares says: ‘I can’t fight my own kids’ battles.’ The gods are pretty lazy once it comes to mortals.”
The horse’s expression softened, as if it had had this conversation a thousand times. The horse’s eyes seemed less stern, like I wasn’t worth ripping apart. He didn’t move a muscle.
“But I’m not Hera’s kid, am I?” I asked.
“No. I don’t know why they would ask some young mortal like you, but I think you’d be pretty good at fighting.” I had been so deep into our mental conversation, trying to process everything, that I forgot I was in a dream.
When I woke up, I remembered it was Sunday, so I could afford to wake up late.
At school the next day during lunch, I went to the library to study up on some Greek mythology. I came across the story about Perseus, and how he went on a quest and got Medusa’s head and turned everyone in his kingdom to stone. Then I came across the giants, who were apparently a goddess named Gaea’s children. The book gave strengths and weaknesses of these mythical creatures, along with other information and images.
I looked at an image of a giant, and saw that the giant Alcyoneus, with snakes in his hair, could summon basilisks and one of them looked exactly like the one in my dream: this was at least three times the size of a big snake, with lime green rough scales, and a big head. It had sharp thorns or horns all over its body, and a big pronged tail. Its piercing stare, tongue hissing, and blowing fire out of its mouth freaked me out. The basilisk in the book looked like it was in some kind of dark place, with bones lying on the ground; there seemed to not be any sort of objects around it, and just darkness. It was breathing a bright red fire.
I kept reading. Yep, fire breathing, deadly stare, and poisonous. But then something caught my eye. Weakness: Celestial bronze. “What the heck is that?”
I raced out of the library, and the school bell rang for the next class, but I decided all of a sudden to sneak out of school, so I jumped over a low fence into a quiet neighborhood. Then I went beyond that onto a grassy hill to rest. Knowing that the snake in my dream had been a basilisk sent a cold chill down my back. What the horse had told me about needing to kill the basilisk… now I had an idea! I wanted to go and ask the horse, but it only appeared in my dreams. I had to… I yawned. And, as if right on cue, I fell asleep.
***
I was in a snowy biome, but not the same as in my previous dream. I saw a sign on a post that read, “Alaska.” It was a cloudy day, and I was near ice and water. There were a few buildings to my right, but I was mostly alone. I saw in the distance some steam rising on the water. The horse was running on water, and it looked as if it was on its daily walk. It was in a fast but long loping gait, until it saw me. The horse ran over to me.
“Ok,” the horse said, “wait, you had another blackout?”
“I can’t control it. What is celestial bronze?'”
“It’s a type of metal. It is the most powerful material and it can disintegrate any monster.”
“Great, where can I find it?”
“Well you can’t just find it!” The horse perked up. “It’s the rarest metal on earth!”
“Can I find it?”
“Yeah,” the horse said casually, “just come to Alaska. Also, beware. You will also find your fight there.”
I woke up, my head hurting. I had been using a rock as my pillow. I got up as quickly as I could. I ran out thinking, “How do I get to Alaska?” Unless the horse was here, it would take me days to get there. With my be-puzzlement, I rushed home immediately, and called for my mom.
I convinced my mom to let me go to Alaska on what I called a field trip. I was so stunned that my mom actually agreed. A few days later, I got up early and packed for Alaska. I was ready to go. I refused to carry anything heavy in my pack, and I told my mom I was going to be gone for three days.
“That’s a short time for a far trip,” my mom said. My mom dropped me off at the airport, and as I was walking, I happened to feel my muscles getting weaker and weaker, again. There were yellow spots dancing in my eyes, and it was getting colder. I dropped down, and everything went black, once again.
I was near water, and in a tiny old castle or fort. I was sitting up and it was dark and I had no idea where I was. I hadn’t had a blackout in the past few days leading up to departure. I wondered if my horse friend would appear. Instead, my heart jumped when I saw the basilisk. It wasn’t as big, but it still had that ferocious stare, and those long sharp fangs. Its scales looked rough and shiny in the dim light. The castle or whatever I was in looked crumbled and untouched. The snake/basilisk looked like it was going to cast a huge fire blast at me. I tried to avoid its stare. It slithered closer and closer to me. It slithered around me, and didn’t kill me. Okay snake: I know you want to, but it would be very sad to die in a dream. It was hard, but I followed the snake’s stare. It was looking down at a big shiny sword.
I gasped, but when I looked down at the sword, it glimmered and suddenly disappeared. The snake scowled, and leaped at my face with its bared fangs. Then I woke up.
I looked around and found that I’d been lucky to fall on a bench.
“Hey kid,” a man said. He looked like he worked at the airport or something. “You on a flight or somethin’?”
“Uh, yeah,” I replied. I looked up at the station clock, and it said, what!?! 7:50! My flight was at 8:00!
“Oh shoot, yeah. Can you tell them to keep the boarding station open or something?”
“Uh, sure. But kid, what were you doing, sleeping when you had a flight in ten minutes?”
I rushed down the aisles until I got onto the plane. I was out of breath running into the plane, and got in just in time, as the doors closed behind me. I plopped down in one of the seats, and prepared for the 4 ½ hour flight ahead of me. Then the plane took off.
The plane rumbled as it took off. I remembered when I was little, I would be scared right before the plane took off, so my mom had to keep reassuring me. I was trying not to fall asleep again, but I did, like most other people on the plane, except I fell asleep in the first 30 seconds.
BAM! I was looking from a diagonal bird’s eye view. There was a snake in the same location as my other dream. My heart jumped when I saw not one, but three snakes. God, I wanted to punch Hera in the face for giving me these dreams.
The three basilisks looked like they were having a chit-chat with each other. The basilisks were chit-chatting for a few minutes, when one scowled and all the snakes looked up at me. Those large fangs, with a hiss that I had thought I’d never hear again from another dream. One of them, assuming it was the one in charge, shot a blast of venom at me like it was saying, “Jeez, stop appearing out of nowhere.”
I woke up with a quick yelp, and with the captain saying, “Welcome to Alaska”.
As I de-boarded the plane, and got outside, I felt like I was walking into a freezer. I had forgotten to pack warmer clothes. Alaska looked a lot quieter and more peaceful. Now, the horse I had talked to in my dream had said I would find celestial bronze in Alaska. I decided not to tell anyone where I could find celestial bronze, because I didn’t think they would really need a monster-slaying weapon around here. There was a light breeze, but the temperature was cold. I was wandering around for a while until it was almost dark. I still hadn’t had food, and had nowhere to sleep. I had just enough money to spend a night at a hotel.
I plopped down in my bed and drifted to sleep right away. In my dream I saw many huge basilisks blowing streaks of blazing hot fire at Mount Olympus. There were marble statues, and thrones crumbling to the ground, and everything was on fire. The gods were nowhere to be found. The army of basilisks was overwhelming everything. Grand white columns fell down, leaving a chain reaction for everything else to collapse. There was lots of rumbling and crashing. These ferocious snakes were more powerful than I thought. If I didn’t find celestial bronze, Mount Olympus would fall.
I woke up the next day and went to the store. Since I’d given up looking for celestial bronze, I decided to use a different weapon against the snake. The best I could find was a bronze pickaxe. It was a dumb weapon to fight with, but at this point, I had limited options.
“Enough stalling,” I said to myself. With my heart racing, I walked confidently to the crumbled spot I’d seen in my dream. The horse had pointed out that I would find my fight here.
The sky was light gray, but as soon as I stepped ten feet within the spot in my dream, it turned dawn. The moon was bright, and all around me was currently dark. This place radiated a lot of power. Before, there was a light breeze, moist with the morning dew, but now the wind seemed heavier in my lungs. The fog thickened, and it even smelled more dangerous.
It was an open space, with fallen gray bricks to the side, connected with a broken wooden shed. Yeah, pretty haunting. I wondered where the basilisk was hiding. I knew what I was seeing, was just what my eyes could process. This place was really a lot more horrible. The walls of the castle either got higher and higher or I was just sinking into the ground, until it they were about 12 feet high. I was sinking deeper and deeper into the ground, like getting sucked into a black hole. I felt my arms and hands to realize that I wasn’t in a dream. It’s real life: one mistake, it’s over.
If the situation could get darker, it did. My breathing got heavier, and my legs felt like they were led. Time seemed too slow. My arms and legs felt like lead, and my head began to nod.
Suddenly, two snakes came out of the wooden, broken down shed. They slithered toward me, and hissed their terrible hiss. I held my pickaxe, and stood there too afraid to move.
One of the basilisks leaped at me, but I managed to dodge. I swiped at the snake with my pickaxe, but missed. The snake slithered back, and shot a blast of venom straight at my face. I managed to dodge just in time. I ran to get out of the corner, but I knew I could not defeat the basilisks. They were smaller, like snakes.
I remembered from my dream that there were 3 snakes. As I ran around, I realized that this place was a lot bigger. It was sort of like a labyrinth. All of this was an illusion. I had to act brave. I backed against the wall. In a panic, I threw my bronze pickaxe at the snake, and it knocked it over, and it disintegrated! There was still one left to go, and I had no weapon. My heart was beating. I knew the snake could smell my fear. It leaped at me, pinning me to the corner. It was ready to cast a big fire, when a large black horse trampled it. It was the horse from my dream! It had a large glimmering sword in its mouth. It sparkled in the moonlight, as the snake disintegrated into orange powdered sparkly dust.
The celestial bronze sword was shining. As I picked it up, the hilt was the perfect length, and the blade felt amazingly balanced in my hand. The piercing tip was sharp, and lit dim light in the darkness.
The bronze pickaxe I had was broken from hitting a wall, but now I had a weapon. The horse dropped the sword at my legs, gave me an encouraging look, and ran off.
Two down, one to go.
The next basilisk got in my vision. It was a lot bigger, with large sharp fangs and green slick scales. I had to make sure I didn’t look straight into its eyes, or see the reflection off of my sword. It had pitch black eyes, full of hatred. It slithered with its pointy poisonous tail trailing behind it. That was a real basilisk. I stood brave with my new sword, and charged.
The basilisk acted fast and shot blasts of venom at me. I dodged it, and stabbed the snake in its back. It hissed in pain, and charged again at me. I dodge once more, and slashed. Then, it charged at me, and I was forced to run. I knew this place was an illusion, but I didn’t know which places were safe. The basilisk was trailing right behind me, almost within striking distance. I was running toward the wooden shed, but when I busted into it, it was an illusion, so the shed was a lot bigger than it looked. Inside was a labyrinth, and the room I was in was dark, and was made out of smooth gray stone. At that time I had just felt the pain of the Basilisks slash (probably with its tail). Apparently the Basilisk slashed me in my back right before I had reached the clearing. A searing hot pain made me collapse, and my vision blurred. It burned like a thousand knives, as I heard the snake not far behind me.
I knew I had to get up before it killed me. I sat up, and felt nauseous. I tried to get up slowly. As the basilisk came into the small stone room, I leaped to my feet. I almost blacked out from the pain: the searing hot pain burned like fire cut deep in my gut as I felt the full power of venom. It wasn’t pretty. I limped out of the room. It shot out a blast of poison from its mouth. Some bits caught on my arm, biting through the flesh. I got out from the small dark room, back in the center of this place. The basilisk challenged me once more, as it pounced one way. I side stepped, and slashed back, knocking one of its back teeth out. As the fight went on, it fired large hot flames at me. I ran out of the way, now pinned in the corner, yet again. As it fired another round of hot flames at me, I decided to put my sword in front of my face to act like a shield. It worked.
The fire ran around the sword, not hitting me. I was quick and got out of the corner and stabbed it hard in the back again. The basilisk screeched in pain, and turned around with its mouth open, where I saw two 3-inch razor-sharp teeth. It was stretching weirdly and drooling green bubbly saliva as it snarled and roared. Right before the basilisk was about to make me fried liver, I used the rest of my strength to stab up its upper jaw, leaving the sword stuck in its mouth.
The monster disintegrated into the orange dust like the other basilisk, leaving the sword on the ground, dripping with blood. I felt like collapsing, and my vision was blurry, but as I watched the dust get blown into the wind, I could just make out the shape of a black horse coming toward me. It spoke in my head, “Eat this – it will make you feel better.” I took whatever the horse was offering me, and it tasted like warm chocolate chip cookies. My pain subsided.
The horse had a triumphant look on its face.
“You alright?”
“Yeah, I think.”
I hopped onto the horse’s back.
“How am I going to get back home?”
“Kid, you’re part of the mythical world now.”
Confused, I didn’t know exactly what the horse meant, or if that meant I wasn’t going home. I said, “Okay, you saved my life out there.”
“I did, but you did great. I couldn’t lie to you about the celestial bronze.”
The horse took off on the water, steam rising from his feet.
“Wow, you’re fast.” Seeing the horse run was different than actually being on the horse while he ran.
The horse smirked after cantering back.
“You should see how fast my cousin Arion is.”
As we rode further and further, I started to get tired. My eyes started to get heavy, but I wasn’t feeling any weaker. As I was on the horse’s back, I slipped into a dream.
In my dream, I didn’t see the snakes or anything, for I was sick of that place. I was on Mount Olympus, and I saw big white marble columns, and golden thrones. This was the mythical world I was now a member of. Seated on those thrones I saw all 12 of the gods, from Zeus to Hermes. All twelve gods were talking, like they were celebrating something. I saw the god Dionysus handing out wine, and Demeter planting nice flowers and plants. I forced myself to wake up, and saw that my head had been resting on the horse’s mane. As if reading my mind, the horse mentally said, “This mythical world is a lot different than the mortal world. If you want a horse that can really run, I’ll take you to my cousin Arion for a 768 mph ride!” With a fast galloping stride, we ran on the crystal clear water in the horizon, going wherever the horse was planning to go, as I felt the soft breeze blowing against my face, and our reflection rippling in the water.