Serpent And The Staff

They found him up in the highest tree platform on the morning of his three-hundred and seventeenth birthday. It was one of the most enchanting locations in the realm, and recently he had spent his late evenings sitting up there, watching the celestial movements. 

He must have passed into darkness deep in the night. Thus ended Grandfather Willow, Elder Elf King of the Tree of Narn. His passing set events into motion that would profoundly affect the Glen. 

The elves held their own somber ceremony for their great king. It was a quiet affair, and none of the other races were invited. He was buried at the base of the Tree of Narn, as was the elf way.

Half a world away, a young lady with curly blond hair leaned tight against the wall, couching motionless. The serpent was close, she could sense it. While she contemplated her next move, she could hear some coins fall to the floor in the chamber ahead. 

The chamber wasn’t very wide, maybe three times her body length, but it was deep, at least a field long. The floor, tables, and chests that stretched as far as her eyes could see were covered in treasure. 

Gold, silver, and copper coins, as well as gemstones of all types. Many of the rubies, sapphires and diamonds would have been far too big for a ring. There were also many vases, pots, cups, and statues made of gold and silver scattered about. But the young woman wasn’t here for any of that. Wizards had little use for such items.

The staff she wanted was at the far end of the room, sticking straight into the air, extending up from a pile of gold coins nearly half her height. The top of the staff curved off into two directions and formed a circle that could cradle a gemstone, although it was empty. The entire contraption appeared to be made of a silver-colored material. 

At least that is what she had seen when she studied it in her Crystal Ball earlier. Initially, she had discovered the magical staff in a spell book, and for the first time, had learned she could use her magical orb to locate objects.

It was called the Staff of Permanency. Although the spell book revealed very little about what it actually did, she wanted the magical staff and the Crystal Ball had located it for her. She hadn’t even known there was such a thing as magical staves, but now that she did, she was certain it was something she should have. 

The young lady couldn’t see the Staff of Permanency from her crouching position, so she hoped it was still in the same spot. The Light Spell she cast on a wall torch only reached halfway into the chamber. The same Light Spell had also alerted the serpent. 

There was a thirty-foot boa constrictor guarding the treasure horde. Who had put the snake here, or the treasure for that matter, was unknown to the twenty-five-year-old yellow wizard. She just knew that she wanted the Staff of Permanency. 

The blond woman had made several attempts to teleport directly to the staff, but the actual chamber itself seemed to be protected from such magic. The closest she could get was the entryway where she now hid. It was decision time. 

She hadn’t heard anything for several moments, so the wizard decided to make her move. She slipped on a ring with a tiger emblem on it that looked way too big for her finger. Once it tightened around her finger, shrinking to a perfect fit, the young blond woman’s body began to change. 

Yellow, black, white, and orange hair sprouted all over her body. Her arms became clawed paws, along with her feet. Then her head grew twice its normal size and grew sharp white fangs. She had transformed into a tiger. 

The coins had fallen somewhere to the left side of the room, so the tiger leapt forward to the right. She planned to rush to the staff, grab it in her mouth, and come back across the left side of the room. Once she got back to the entryway she could teleport out, hopefully before the snake even knew what was happening. 

 Things went well, at first. The tiger made several good leaps scattering treasure about as she sprung forward. When she reached the halfway point, she was moving too quickly to see the coins slide away from the serpent’s eyes. 

The snake was buried under the coins, with its body stretched completely across the width of the room. There was no route she could have taken without having to cross over the boa. 

Once the tiger stepped on the snake, the serpent sprang into action, striking with an incredible speed. Thick sinewy coils wrapped around one of the tiger’s front claws, and then around a hind leg. 

She lashed out with her free front paw, raking into the snake, drawing four red lines along the serpent with her claws. A second later, that paw was also wrapped in a shiny metallic green-colored coil, as well as the previously free back one. Now the snake had her. 

It began to wrap its thick body around the tiger and squeeze. The yellow wizard could feel her chest constricting tighter and tighter with each breath and knew that she was in trouble. Big trouble!

The tiger became completely immobile as she felt herself suffocating. The yellow wizard made the only move she had left. She transformed back into human form, making herself about a third the size of the tiger. 

The snake had not expected that, and the woman used the creature’s confusion to scramble free and rush across the coins, slipping and sliding as she mumbled some magic words. Now she was flying!

The yellow wizard flew through one large coil of the big snake and then went straight up, painfully smashing her head into the ceiling rather quickly, nearly knocking herself out. She could feel a line of blood running down her forehead to her cheek. 

The wizard could see the snake moving in and out of the shadows below, looking for her. She wanted a better view, so she cast another Light Spell on a wall torch just a little deeper into the room. The snake rapidly moved away from the light, and ended up directly under her. 

The yellow wizard stared at the serpent, contemplating her next move, when a drop of blood rolled off her cheek. The blood drop fell, almost as if in slow motion, and landed square in the middle of the snake’s head. The serpent cocked its head to the side, looking up at the woman crouched on the ceiling. 

It struck with surprising speed, launching its fanged head at the girl. Oddly, the bite landed three feet away onto the ceiling left of the young woman. The yellow wizard realized that the snake was blind. Living in the darkness for so long had destroyed the creature’s tolerance for light. 

It was helpful information, but it was time to go, because she was feeling magically drained and she still needed to teleport out. The yellow wizard quickly mumbled some more words, sending an invisible fist into a large stack of silver coins on the other side of the room. 

When the coins went scattering, the blind snake quickly slithered towards the sound. The young woman used the distraction to half fly, half crawl, across the ceiling as rapidly as she could toward the entry chamber. 

She was aware she was making a lot of noise, but kept moving since she was getting close to her goal. The woman didn’t look back. She knew the snake was coming, because she could hear it crashing through the treasure down below. 

The female wizard let go of the wall and flew in a straight line towards the entry, looming just a short distance away, while saying the words to her Teleportation Spell. The snake had closed the distance quickly and made one last strike at the intruder, but with a flash she was gone. She may have escaped, but she had only made it halfway into the room. The serpent had won the first round.