Alex's POV

We popped into another world. The first thing that registered were crowds cheering. Once our vision returned, we saw that we were in the center of a fighting ring. The sandy floor kicked up dust, stands filled with people dressed in Medieval clothes surrounded the fighting arena. The king's box had red and gold curtains to shade them.

"Let the games commence! My children, would you like to start them?" the king asked his children. Now I noticed them. One, a young boy who looked around the age of seven with black hair and slightly tanned skin, and another, a girl who looked around the age of five with slightly lighter hair than the boy, and slightly paler skin than the boy, nodded. The king smiled and lifted them to stand on the edge of the box.

"Begin the games!" they yelled, in their cute childish voices. The king lifted them down from the edge and set them on the ground. We were close enough to the box to see their grins. They peered over the edge, a woman, I assumed her to be their mother, ruffled the boy's hair and stroked her hand down the back of the girl's head. She looked at the king and smiled, he smiled back at her. We heard a growl and our attention was directed toward bars that were being raised. A beast bolted out of a cave-like area. It had two heads. Why did it have to have two heads?! There were two long necks and on the top of them were snakeheads. Its body was covered in fur that was a sickening color of- you know what? I won't describe that...

"A nashanitha?!" Jasper exclaimed. "How?"

So that's what it was. For once, his obsession with mythological beasts and mythology had come in handy.

A nashanitha, huh. I thought, Well then. You would think that they would make these things easier to pronounce...

That was the moment that it registered. We were in the center of a fighting arena. The king had told someone to fight. I glanced around the arena. No other people stood in it besides us. We were the ones he had told to fight.

All of that had registered in a split second. Why do we have the worst luck? We always seem to end up in sticky situations... I thought.

The nashanitha stalked toward us. In the stands the crowd cheered. In the royal box the king and queen smiled, their children grinned down at us.

I turned my attention to the nashanitha, drawing my sword. Jasper had drawn his as well and Natalie had her bow raised. One of the snakeheads tongue flicked in and out of its mouth. It hissed at me and raised up to its full height.

WHY ME. I mentally screamed, backing up as it lunged at us.

The other snake hissed and turned to face us, its tongue flickered in and out of its mouth rapidly. It started to circle us and we stood back to back, watching as the nashanitha made a ring around us.

"What do we do?" Jasper asked.

"Working on it." I mumbled in reply. Honestly, I had no idea what to do. We were stuck, for now, until we made a plan. Then, out of nowhere, the nashanitha lunged toward us.

"Scatter!" Natalie yelled, and we did just that, very easily, in fact. You wouldn't have had to tell us twice. Now Natalie was in the middle, Jasper on her right and I on her left. The nashanitha snarled at us, one snake hissed, then struck out at me. I barely had time to jump backwards before it's venomous mouth snapped at empty air, air where I had just been moments ago. It hissed, then went back to be beside its twin.

The fight went on like that for a while, parry, dodge jump, and do it again. I rolled out of the way as one head snapped toward me, missing by just inches. The heads lunging out at us and then quickly retreating didn't allow us to get a single hit in. I stood up and brushed dust off my jeans. The crowds were screaming, and it almost sounded like they were cheering for the nashanitha. In the king's box, the two children stared with wide eyes at the fight, the king and queen watched with interested expressions. I turned my attention back to the nashanitha.

"Alright." I muttered. I needed to think of a better plan, a better strategy than what we were already doing. We would get nowhere if we kept this up. There was no way we could just walk straight up to it and kill it, that wouldn't get it killed, that would just end up with us getting killed. We needed to distract it, draw it's attention away from at least one of us. That way, at least one of us had a chance. It would be risky, with the three heads and all, but it was the only option at the moment. Now, I had to work out the details. Jasper was quicker than both Natalie and I combined, so it looked like Nat and I would draw it away. But how would we distract both of the heads? I guessed that we would have to wing it and hope for the best. Unfortunately, that seemed to be our plan most of the time. I gestured to Natalie and explained the plan to her as fast as I could. I then dodged another attack to reach Jasper. I told him the plan as well and he nodded in acknowledgement, then moved off to the nashanithas left. Natalie and I ran to the nashanithas right, yelling at it and taunting it, daring it to come at us. It seemed to be distracted, but then one snakes head lurched backwards, and I heard Jasper's scream of pain. I caught sight of him. He had fallen to his knees, and his shoulder was gushing bright, red blood. A snake bite. I caught my breath as he locked eyes with me, his eyes full of pain from the venom entering his veins, then slumped to the ground, unconscious.  

~~~

I feel so evil now, like, you wouldn't even imagine...

Jasper : Um... okay then...

Natalie : NOOOOOOOOOOO MY SHIP CANNOT SINK BECAUSE OF SOME STUPID SNAKE!!!!!!!!

Alex : It isn't even a real ship Nat! We ARE NOT getting together*blushes*

Natalie : Awwwww! How cute!

Me : Okay, well, comment and vote! Thanks for all the reads!!!!!!!!!!!