Page 25 of Of Serpents and Ruins
The air had changed.
All was still.
The sensation wasn't as strong as the moment before the assassins or the mole tunnel. But it was there. Farther away though.
The silence deepened.
A predator of some sort. Dangerous even to the deinonychuses.
My ears strained as the wind picked up, combing through my hair as if shifted to the west.
The forest to my left and the tall grasses beyond the river…We needed to avoid those. And we still had to get to Auntie Runa’s.
Leaning forward, I stroked her crest. "Come on, Buttercup. We'll find another way. Let’s take it slow."
I nudged her farther to the right, avoiding the flatter portion near the river. The trees dipped closer there, branches heavy and low. The land leading down into the river sloped flat and muddy, as if something large came up and thrashed about. No triceratops, hippopotamus, or other large creature was apparent. The waters themselves ran dark and still.
"We're not going into the river here," I reassured her, rubbing her side. My own words fell flat, so soft it was as if they had not been spoken aloud at all.
The silver and teal moonlight took on a far more sinister cast, the lack of insect and birdsong now devastating. Not even the earthquake had silenced that much of the nighttime noise, and this…this silence was one of the most haunting things I had ever heard. Every lap of the river filled my ears. The entirety of this valley breathed malice and danger now.
Buttercup's sides heaved, rising and falling from our desperate race.
I looked back at the jagged line of rocks now a fair distance away. Something dark skulked along the top. The jagged stone wall leered at me like a broken mouth. Not friends. I knew that as clearly as I knew danger lay within the river.
Something was watching us. I could feel it.
Still no sign of Elias and Kine. Were they all right? Had they escaped?
Buttercup snorted.
"Yeah, let's go." I guided Buttercup away from the river but not toward that jagged rock line. There was a narrow path between the two. Somehow we’d find a safer way. Some of thisarea felt familiar, like a remnant of memories nothing specific. They fluttered at the edges of my mind.
Buttercup's steps were slow, deliberate. She huffed again.
"I don't suppose I could just tell you to go to Auntie Runa's," I murmured. She was smart enough that maybe she would understand.
Another snort followed along with a toss of her head.
The moonlight dimmed further still. The shadows stretched across the grasslands and the forest beyond them.
A low, guttural growl grated over me.
I froze.
It wasn't coming from the river but across from it.
Amber eyes glinted in the darkness.
Buttercup halted.
Those eyes…they were over fourteen feet off the ground.
Reptilian.
Another growl followed as the branches parted and a large green snout appeared. The leaves separated and shifted as the enormous creature emerged.
My mouth fell open.
